How to use Different Kitchen Utensils

How to use Different Kitchen Utensils Jehangir Metah: So we’re going to the equipment side of it. Kathleen Squires: One thing I brought with me is -- my husband is from Puerto Rico and one thing that they use very commonly in the kitchen is this which is a tostone press. What we do is put the plantain in the middle. Jehangir Metah: Slap it. Kathleen Squires: Yes, put a shot and smooch it right before frying the plantain so that has the appropriate shape. I’ve used this in my kitchen too sometimes for pastry or even for small bits of meat that I want to -- Jehangir Metah: To press down. Kathleen Squires: Yes, exactly to press down to make it thinner. So I’ve found other uses with. This is an antique from my husband’s growing up. It’s called empilhador which means pusher and what my husband says when he was a child, he would use this to push the last remaining bits of rice because they never wasted onto his fork before eating it. Jehangir Metah: Very cool. Kathleen Squires: Yeah. Jehangir Metah: And it looks like something a child can play with on the sand. Kathleen Squires: And they can use it as a rake. Jehangir Metah: Yes. That’s very cute. Kathleen Squires: This is something I picked up in Chile and I don’t know the proper name for it in Spanish but basically in a small town of Temuco where I was, everybody used this in their homes and in the restaurants and you would put your rice inside of here, put the plate on top and then you’d have this perfectly molded mound of rice with a little hole in the middle so that if you put sauce or beans or fish balls, it would stay in the middle and create this nice combination for the rice. Jehangir Metah: So like I mean in olden age like that they want the neatness with rice, which is so strange that on that time they were thinking of a plate dish presentation. Kathleen Squires: Yeah, exactly. This is a yellow plastic corn cob holder where the point here is that you would put the corn on a cob here and then you put this on the ends as holders and when you butter your cob, the butter drips to the bottom so you can kind of spin it around and make sure that the butter is distributed evenly throughout your cob. I do think it’s a little silly but then again it really does remind me of my childhood. One other thing that we used to have when I was growing up that I have not seen since was something called a butter spreader. If you use a knife, the path of butter would tend to slip and slide off. But this was a small fork like contraption where you put the butter inside and it would kind of hold it in place as you buttered your corn. And I haven’t seen them in many years and if anyone knows where to get one, please let me know. Jehangir Metah: Well, over here a couple of other things that we have are some pots and pans and some different things like this one out here is an oil container used in the south. I saw this in my travel when I was in Kerala and I picked it out. I thought it was very, very cute. Kathleen Squires: Is there a particular kind of oil that you would put in there? Jehangir Metah: No, they used to put coconut oil in here. These are two pots which I have here. It’s very, very awesome thing from the 1800’s belonging to my family and what is funny is as you might see here almost is there’s name written here and in India, especially in our community we would always write our names on pots and pans so you would know from where it is. And sometimes it really helped for the simple reason is because we would have so much food going from one house to another that it was very good to identify which belongs to you. This one out there, if you could pull it closer again I mean this one, in fact, here is the date has erased but I know it’s somewhere on the same time but here it also has the date and it is 1812. It’s a water container and you can also heat water in this. So it would fit directly on this coal stove which had the fitting of this as well as people would carry two of these at the same time so the same design would fit on top very well. They would carry it on their head to carry water. I just love the piece as a decoration which I use now. It’s amazing how people have used I think different utensils or different equipment in different ways and I don’t see so much of copper and silver in usage in America. What do you think? Or is it just something that got lost? Kathleen Squires: I think it’s gotten lost. I think it’s because of the cost of it too and the rarity of those materials as time went on. Jehangir Metah: Where do you like to shop for different unique equipment? Kathleen Squires: I like to shop for things when I travel. When I'm visiting a country I love to go into there -- Jehangir Metah: Pick up something? Kathleen Squires: Yeah, home shops and see what people are using and just I remember in Tokyo for example. Jehangir Metah: Alright. Kathleen Squires: There’s a whole district called Kappabashi where you can find everything and anything in terms of kitchenware and I would just spend hours and hours there searching out everything. Jehangir Metah: Yeah, I mean even in Tokyo the other thing was it’s very cool because you’d see these people who would make knives, I mean and they would literally put the handle of the knife that you really wanted or you're comfortable with and they are shopping for almost two hours you are in knife store. It is so interesting to see that. You know here you go to a big department store and buy the best knives. Kathleen Squires: Exactly, the real artisans. Jehangir Metah: You’re right. And it’s very -- I think they are all in places, I mean there is a gentleman in Brooklyn who does that too I think who makes knives but it’s so nice to see that again. Kathleen Squires: Those lost parts come back. Jehangir Metah: Come a little back, competent things get lost because you're not making money. Kathleen Squires: Right, exactly. Jehangir Metah: I mean it’s very simple and it’s nice that I think even the public is appreciating that again. Kathleen Squires: Yes. Jehangir Metah: So those people who have the potential to make something like that can come back. Kathleen Squires: Absolutely. Jehangir Metah: And revisit itself.