The Breville Ikon Panini Press has just replaced my old, cheapo no-name Walmart one and I couldn’t be happier. What I like most is that it can be adjusted so that the upper grid just touches the top of the sandwich; fillings aren’t squeezed out and the bread isn’t squished. Dinner tonight was some ciabatta bread filled with slices of Comte cheese and salami.
My dislike of single-purpose gadgets seems to be waning. The Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper is one of those few gadgets that really does deserve space in my kitchen drawer. A family member is having dental work done and is unable to gnaw the kernels off the cob. This gadget is perfect!
Other kernel removal devices, such as the OXO Good Grips Corn Stripper solve the problem of bits flying all over the kitchen. But the OXO doesn’t seem to be very sharp (by design) so lots of the kernels get broken (which you may want for creamed corn) and you can’t easily control the depth of the cut.
The Corn Zipper does a beautiful job on both raw and cooked corn. No corn juice or kernels all over the kitchen. You get mostly whole kernels as close to the cob as you want.
Mangoes account for 50% of all tropical fruit produced worldwide. Mangoes account for 50% of my diet this time of year (you can look it up in Wikipedia). Easily enjoying this luscious seed can present a dilemma – getting as much juicy pulp into your mouth without getting millions of those thready fibers stuck in your teeth.
One option is the Oxo Good Grips Mango Splitter
Although it it a member of the “single-purpose gadget” category, the mango fork reigns supreme for eating a whole mango:
Here is a little movie I made about the use of the mango fork: