I lost my paring knife long ago, and thought maybe its time to replace it. Thus came a god send, the Shun Classic 6″ Utility Knife. First off, this knife is light as a feather, It uses 16 layers of special patented Stainless “Super Steel”  which has enough flex,  strong durability, and low weight metals that provides superb balance. With the balance and weight,  I often forget im even holding a knife, a comparable item of similar weight would probably a decently sized stainless steel table fork. The knife is handcrafted by master-craftsman in Japan, which means quality to the highest standard and each one is unique as no two knives are alike

The D Shaped handle provides steady and comfortable grip for both left and right handed users, as the D Shaped protrusion of the handle conforms around areas on your hand such as your palm or the puffy part above your palm. As stated above, both the steel and handle work in unison to provide you superb stability and maneuverability which makes this a strong selling point which other knives fail to achieve. The handle is also made of real wood which has been treated with a resin (Pakkawood) and polished to a fine shine to produce a look of plastic which can withstand some abuse and dishwasher safe.

The role of this knife lies in-between a Paring knife and a Chefs knife, such as cutting vegetables, slicing and dicing, peeling fruit, etc. Small yet tedious chores can be quickly done with this knife without ever changing to other smaller or larger knives since this knife is so versatile. The blade on this knife is fairly thin, which makes this knife prone to chips and dents, even breakage if not properly taken care of. Ive used this for a couple of days so far, and my it has been an honour to work with such craftsmanship for such a great price.

One disappointment is the lack of some sort of sheath/scabbard for the knife when you purchase it, forcing you to look for other alternatives to protect your knife, but i hold with great hopes that KAI/Kershaw will listen to its customers and provide us with one.

Price – 4.5

Balance – 5

Weight – 5

Performance – 5

Craftsmanship – 5

Summary – If I had to say anything more about this knife, Its a must buy even for housewives and novice chefs, its a indispensable tool that you will be trying to find time and time again, and here it is offered at a great price and availability.

Here are some links for more detail and the Store where I purchase from.

http://www.kershawknives.com/productdetails.php?id=247&brand=shun

http://www.warriorsandwonders.com/Shun_Kitchen/Shun_KAI_6_Utility_Knife

Thanks for Reading.

Here’s my latest creation, Apple Charlotte which was built from 100% scratch. First I had to create a Brioche dough and bake it. Then prepare a Apple Compote for the filling and base of the dish. The whole ordeal took roughly 6hrs to prepare from scratch, assuming you have everything on “Mise en Place” (French, Prepared on stand by).

You may substitute Brioche if you find it too tedious to create with regular bread.

Recipe for Brioche (This should make enough for 2 Charlottes, Please stale the bread for atleast 1-2 days prior to makeing a Charlotte for Stability.)

250 Bread Flour

35 Milk

7 Fresh Yeast /or 3.5 Dry Yeast

7 Salt

25 Sugar

2.5 Eggs

150 Butter, Room Temp

Preheat oven to 350′F, First incorporate all the ingredients without the butter, once you have a dough start to smash in your butter chunks at a time, but keep kneading constantly. The buttering process takes a good rough 10mins so please be patient, The dough will start to feel very soft and stick to surfaces, dont worry, keep kneading it til it starts to separate from the table by itself. A handy tool would be to carry a scraper to occasionally scrape the dough off the table to work it out evenly. Once your dough becomes firmer and retains its shape, shape it into a dome and let it rest for a good hour with plastic wrap on top. After, proof for atleast 1.5hrs or until double in size. Cut up the dough into 100g pieces and one layer them into a breadpan, should resemble flat rolling hills. spray some water ontop and let it sit ontop of the preheated oven with a wet towel ontop. May need to re-hydrate the dough and the towel frequently. Once its all poofy, you may put it into the oven for around 15mins, or until golden brown. If you see your bread producing colour and still soft, wrap with aluminum foil and keep baking until desired firmess. Let it stale for 1-2 Days.

Apple Compote (Can be made in advance or prior to creating the Charlotte):

200 Water

100 Icing Sugar

15 Vanilla sugar (If you have some, if not just take regular sugar and some vanilla extract)

5 Corn Starch

2 Cinnamon*

1 Nutmeg*

2-3 Apples

* To taste.

Slice and dice apples without skin into small pieces, should be around the same size as your pinky nail. Boil water and sugars and place in apples. cook till soft but not broken up. Cool in fridge till ready.

When both Brioche and Apples are ready, you may start the Charlotte itself. You will need:

2 3in Diameter, 2in high steel rings. Easily obtainable from your local cooking store for like 2$ ea.

Plates

If you decied to use regular bread, please butter them on both sides, Brioche does not need to be buttered, unless you want to…and trim them down to 2x 3in circle Base pieces and 1-2 long strips to create a Hockey Puck shell inside the steel rings. Slice the bread pieces thinly as we dont want too much bread, more filling to go around…^^  To make the bread stick to one another, you may use some jam, adds some flavor aswell. once you have your bread pieces, assemble your ring without the top and fill with Apple Compote then close up and bake at 350″F for around 5mins or more, but dont burn it. only give it a nice golden colour.

Your creation is done, you may serve it hot or cold. ^^   Feel free to dress up the plate to your desire.

Hello again! Another gorgeous day in Vancouver, and another fantastic day in the kitchen. Today we have some nice Mixed Berry Pie, Creme Caramel, NY Style Cheesecake, and some puffy thing with cream and fruit on it…haha

Here’s the recipe to a nice Creme Caramel:

Caramel:

200g Sugar + 100ml water

Caramelize in pot til brown. Shock caramel with drops of cold water to prevent overcooking it. Pour into ramekins and chill on countertop. A good idea might be to measure out your Shock water to around 10ml, we want a nice consistency with the caramel so it will solidify but not stick to the ramekin after serving.

Custard:

375ml Whole Milk

375 Half and Half cream

3 Eggs

1 1/2 of an Egg Yolk

125ml Sugar

1/2 Vanilla Bean

pin of salt

Orange/Lemon zest to taste

Orange/Lemon zest and vanilla bean should be infused with the cream mixture on the pot to boil. Prior to boiling your liquids, take a small amount and combine it with the sugar and eggs and whisk. When cream is boiled, temper your egg mixture, whisking vigoriusly until combined and pour back into the pot and strain. Carefully pour your custard mix into the caramelized ramekins til the lower lip or desired amount.

In a large buffet pan or smiliar metal pan, fill it with HOT water. Place ramekins inside the hot water bath, make sure the water only reaches half way up the ramekin’s side.

Bake in a 300′F/150′C oven for around 15-20mins, when its around 15min open the oven and jiggle the pan and look for settling of your custard. Once satisfied with your product, take out the ramekins and place them inside your fridge over night and serve the next day. Custards last for around 3 days.

So Yummy…  These have been filled with various fruits and creams.

Heres the recipie for the Choux Paste:

250ml Water

80g Unsalted Butter

120g Bread Flour

Pinch of Salt

10g Sugar

3 3/4 Med Eggs

Boil water, salt, sugar, and butter. Add flour after liquids have boiled. Keep on cooking the paste until the bottom of the pot starts to brown. Cool and pipe onto a cooking sheet and eggwash. Bake at 375′F until golden brown, refrain from opening the oven door until coloured. Once golden colour, turn the baking sheet if you need too for even colouring then lower the heat to 350″F for atleast 8-10mins. Let it cool, and then start being creative ^^

Recommended Types of Fillings:

Vanilla custard/Pastry Cream

Creme Chantilly

Overall, I must admit, I have never had such a fun experience eating fish’n chips locally. If you ever have a craving for Fish’n Chips and dont want to go too far (ie. Horseshoe bay) then drop by and treat yourself to some fresh local fishes.

Value – 4.5

Food – 5

Atmosphere – 4

Service – 4.5

Overall – 4.5

Tony’s Fish and Chips:

1511 Anderson Street
Granville Island
Vancouver BC V6H 3R5
Tel: 604.683.7127

http://www.tonysfish-granvilleisland.com/default.html

What we ate:

2x 1pc Halibut’n Chips

1x Salmon Burger

1x Half-Dozen Raw Oysters

2x Cokes

Total = $55, Tip included.

The catagories for the review will be based on a 5 star average system of:

Value – Higher, the cheaper ^^

Food

Atmosphere

Service

Of course, I’ll add additional detail, such as Address and what my guests and I ate personally and their thoughts. Some restaurants  may be described more vividly than others depending on the amount of time of the stay, but overall, I will try my best to be as concise and on-topic as I can.

Recipes that catch my eye will occasionally be posted on the site for you wonderful readers, I’ll personally try my best to make a sample and give thoughts on it.

Each Food topic will be posted as “Food: Name Review/Recipe, Date” for archiving and accessibility.

Thats all for the Food section, further category introductions will come soon!

I’ll be writing to inform you about Food, Technology, Japanese Culture, and Lifestyles. I’m very passionate about all these topics and hope to give you a clearer view on the things I’ll talk about, especially food.  As a local of Vancouver, BC, ill be happy to share with you my thoughts and everyday encounters.

Each section will have the following subtopics:

Food – Restaurant reviews, and Recipes

Technology – News, Games , Hardware, and Software

Japanese Culture – Anime, Figures, and Local oddities

Lifestyles – Clothes, Shoes, Everyday items, etc.

I hope you find this a great site to visit and will visit again.