Entry tags:
Surly Table
I'm still far from well, but yesterday libertango did manage to get me out of the house long enough to eat some lunch at Noah's. At the last moment I took a pass on the bagel&lox, and went for a pastrami-on-bagel sandwich instead on the theory that if I continue to avoid large glops of tasty dairy I may also continue to avoid glops of sinus-stopping mucous the consistency of set rubber cement. Yes, you're welcome for that image. Have some rhino-snot pie.
After food I was wobbly but not quite ready to fall over. I suggested that we might seek out the Kirkland Sur la Table which was supposed to be right nearby, so I could maybe spend some of the gift card I had been hoarding since I moved up. (The other local outlet is in Pike Place, which is singularly inconvenient were one to decide to spend one's loot on a cast iron thingumy, or a Kitchenaid whatsit, since the only times when it is possible to get the car near enough to the store to load into are times when Sur la Table has been closed for some while.)
I wandered around fingering things and exclaiming over others for the half-hour or so before the flu decided it was time to lie down again. I'm very pleased to see that someone has cottoned on to the idea of making the little fluted brioche and petit four tins in a non-stick-coated version. That is an invention that was morally necessary some time ago. And I'm very curious about trying some of the new silicone cake pans, which are supposedly not only non-stick (and able to withstand baking temperatures) but flexible enough to make it easy to simply pop your finished baked-goods out. Very whiz-bang. But I couldn't quite bring myself to trust a cake pan that is the color and consistency of a cheap Chinese marital aid.
On the whole, I find myself still vaguely disgruntled by Sur la Table. They display prominently weird one-of gizmos that I have no earthly use for, and hide, or do not have, stuff that I consider basic. They have a wall full of pepper mills, but not the William Bounds "love" mill that actually works. They have balloon whisks in every imaginable size, some large enough to bring us back to the topic of marital aids, but no spiral whisks. Okay, I take that back -- they had one weird silicone spiral which, while made inline to its shaft, could be made to take the right 45 degree angle and be used as a spiral whisk. But just that one.
And while they do have tampico bristle "vegetable" brushes, they cleverly hide them behind and amongst the vast array of nylon-bristled ones. Feh.
I came away with some pretty good loot, though. I bought two heinously expensive lifetime-non-stick cookie sheets (though I had to ask to be shown something that wasn't a jellyroll pan), three Orrefors knock-off rocks glasses (they didn't have more), a handful of the tampico brushes, and two sizes of the fancy, brightly-colored silicone spatulas that le creuset makes. Mine are red, natch. And I still have a hefty balance on the card. Woot.
After food I was wobbly but not quite ready to fall over. I suggested that we might seek out the Kirkland Sur la Table which was supposed to be right nearby, so I could maybe spend some of the gift card I had been hoarding since I moved up. (The other local outlet is in Pike Place, which is singularly inconvenient were one to decide to spend one's loot on a cast iron thingumy, or a Kitchenaid whatsit, since the only times when it is possible to get the car near enough to the store to load into are times when Sur la Table has been closed for some while.)
I wandered around fingering things and exclaiming over others for the half-hour or so before the flu decided it was time to lie down again. I'm very pleased to see that someone has cottoned on to the idea of making the little fluted brioche and petit four tins in a non-stick-coated version. That is an invention that was morally necessary some time ago. And I'm very curious about trying some of the new silicone cake pans, which are supposedly not only non-stick (and able to withstand baking temperatures) but flexible enough to make it easy to simply pop your finished baked-goods out. Very whiz-bang. But I couldn't quite bring myself to trust a cake pan that is the color and consistency of a cheap Chinese marital aid.
On the whole, I find myself still vaguely disgruntled by Sur la Table. They display prominently weird one-of gizmos that I have no earthly use for, and hide, or do not have, stuff that I consider basic. They have a wall full of pepper mills, but not the William Bounds "love" mill that actually works. They have balloon whisks in every imaginable size, some large enough to bring us back to the topic of marital aids, but no spiral whisks. Okay, I take that back -- they had one weird silicone spiral which, while made inline to its shaft, could be made to take the right 45 degree angle and be used as a spiral whisk. But just that one.
And while they do have tampico bristle "vegetable" brushes, they cleverly hide them behind and amongst the vast array of nylon-bristled ones. Feh.
I came away with some pretty good loot, though. I bought two heinously expensive lifetime-non-stick cookie sheets (though I had to ask to be shown something that wasn't a jellyroll pan), three Orrefors knock-off rocks glasses (they didn't have more), a handful of the tampico brushes, and two sizes of the fancy, brightly-colored silicone spatulas that le creuset makes. Mine are red, natch. And I still have a hefty balance on the card. Woot.