BROADWAY PANHANDLER CLOSEOUT

Since I started school in January I've gone to two stores to supplement the standard-issue tools we've been given. Both Sur La Table and Broadway Panhandler give students an xx% discount on xxx. Sur La Table is a Seattle-based company with stores across the country. It's full of toys and I like it but it's more shiny and my general impression is that it's a little more expensive. The Panhandler is rougher around the edges, a little more warren-like and a lot of fun. Unfortunately it seems as though the SoHo rents may be getting too high and the Panhandler is moving from it's location of the past 11 years at 477 Broome Street (conveniently near FCI) to 65 East Eighth Street (Broadway) in Greenwich Village and this Memorial Day Weekend the store held a moving sale.

Though I won't learn the grade on my midterm until Wednesday I'm fairly certain I've passed and to celebrate I went to the sale with two things in mind, a new knife and a Le Creuset tagine.

Some students at school have Global knives. They're the knives featured on Bravo's chef cook-off reality television show, Top Chef. They're light knives and they're all one piece, the metal handle extends into the blade with rubber-like raised bubbles on the handle for a good grip. The blades are super sharp and I was tempted to buy one but I've since been scared off because I've seen some of them chip. I went to the Panhandler thinking I would buy a Shun knife which Alton Brown endorses. But I came away (probably spending about $20 more than I would have online btw...) with a 9 1/2 inch Suisin Inox Wester Style Knife. The Shun Damascus knives have a beautiful rippling effect along the interestingly-shaped blade but in the end, when I held the two blades, the Suisin knife felt lighter and the edge seemed a little more impressive. I'm still learning about what makes these knives different. The Suisin website says the knife is made of INOX carbon steel, Chromium and molybdenum.

The Panhandler's knife salseperson, an FCI graduate suggested going to Korin, a Japanese knife store downtown for a more detailed explanation about how to sharpen a Japanese blade.

Aside from a new knife I've also been interested in buying an oval French oven, aka, a "Dutch Oven." The first thing that piqued my interest in getting a dutch oven was a Times article about tagines. The potential of $100 discount from the sale helped clinch the decision. In the grander scheme of things, my interest in Southern cooking also has something to do with the purchase. My recent trip to Pies and Thighs and getting a copy of the Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock wherein some of the recipes call for a dutch oven also clinched my decision.