A Useful Momento

One of the most useful tools in my kitchen armoury in the UK is a utensil to hold an onion while you slice it.  When I was undergoing radiotherapy a few years ago I was part of a great group of people including Junior and his wife Marlene.  During a conversation one day the subject of onion chopping came up and I mentioned this wonderfully simple but effective gadget and also said that I'd been unable to find another one for my life in New Zealand.  So Marlene went on the hunt and found me one.  So every couple of days when I use it I think of that kindness and of Marlene and Junior.

A Sharp Knife

One of the things that I really really (a 2-really is seriously really) like in the kitchen is a sharp cooks knife.  In my Eagleton kitchen I have an 8" Victorinox cooks knife which has doen sterling service and is as sharp as a razor.  I've never been able to find one in Napier.  When we were passing through Palmerston North on Sunday Jayne and I stopped to stretch our legs and went into the shopping mall in the centre of town.  I didn't even know that it was there!  As we walked through there was a shop in the centre of the precinct selling, yes, Victorinox knives.  So I now have my treasured Victorinox here too.

I did wonder, mind you, at the law relating to offensive weapons and the carrying of knives.  There I was walking through a busy mall carring a very sharp knife with an 8" blade (in a bag, of course).  I think that in the UK now the very act of carrying a knife with a blade longer than a certain length is an offence per se.  How do you get your knife home?

Anyway that's academic.  I have my knife and it ain't goin' nowhere.