In re: Most expensive rice cooker

If you really like rice and have a spare 100,000 yen ( US$ 830) to spend you are now in luck as Toshiba’s rice cooking R&D unit has brought us a machine that utilizing vacuum pressure cooking, diamonds, silver and all kinds of electronics is able to produce, well rice. ” More than four years ago, Japan’s Toshiba Corp. began working on a top-secret electronic device…Toshiba’s creation is the “Vacuum Pressure Cooker,” the company’s most expensive rice cooker ever. The pressure makes it possible to boil the water in the cooker at a higher temperature.” (excerpt at WSJ, sub required for more, message board at Cooks Illustrated has a bit more of it and some fun censoring..)

Oh and if your curious there actually is a more expensive rice cooker out there: The “Mitsubishi IH rice cooker, Wclass NJ-WS10. Solid black skin hides a solid black inner pot, too. This pot, with its average thickness of 7.5mm, is a real sight because it was shaved from a solid carbon ingot. The ingot is sent to China, and there, skilled lathe turners shape the pot one by one, with its serial number proudly embossed. IH (induction heating) heats up the pot directly by electromagnetic induction, without a medium of heat conduction. To receive the induction heating, the pot has to be made of ferromagnetic material or, at least, be coated with it. But the solid carbon! Mitsubishi has manufactured a lot of IH rice cookers with ferromagnetic inner pot coated by a carbon layer. On this” (from CNet Asia “The deadly weapon for rice war“)

In re: Do I need one? World’s most expensive cup warmer?

If I have to ask then the answer is probably no… Despite my love of coffee I think that this might be a bit of overkill for the average household a $1,000 cup warmer.  That’s right, probably more then most of your espresso machines if you have one, and even if you do if it is top of the line (okay the line for espresso goes quite far, the matching machine to this warmer is over $3,500).  But…if you crave a hot mug and don’t like having to warm it up some old fashion way, this might be the thing for you.

(oh and in case you are interested, William Sonoma sells the Jura-Capresso Z-Series Cup Warmer for $999.95 and shipping is free – woohoo!)

In re: What’s Brooklyn style pizza anyway?

“Anyone in the Midwest who thinks this is real Brooklyn is getting fooled,’….The Domino’s pizza has an oddly sweet crust that somehow manages to blend the characteristics of cotton and rubber.” NY Times

The commercials are pretty stupid, with some stereotypical New Yorkers explaining that pizza that is foldable and with large toppings is Brooklyn style.  I’ve never been to Brooklyn, haven’t had the pizza but I can’t figure out why its different then pizza from Manhattan, or elsewhere in the city.  Well apparently some folks say Brooklyn has the best, downtown’s pie is going down hill.  Who is gonna save us?  Well Domino’s has decided to offer up a thin crust (they take a small ball of dough and stretch it to a large – sounds like a good deal for them!)

I’ve read a few folks take on the pie, they say its not authentic, its not that great, its pretty decent and some other things.  All in all if your in Brooklyn do you order this?  probably not, although I guess its affordable, so maybe you do.

See a review on Slice and NY Times  article (also on Slice most expensive pizza!  “The pizza is sprinkled with gold and topped with champagne-soaked caviar and lobster marinated in the finest cognac. Creator Domenico Crolla said it was worth more than $3,700.”)

In re: Most expensive apple pie?

Today at work they are holding a ‘dessert auction’ to raise money for the troops overseas, and that led to a co-worker mentioning a pie he saw on the Deen brothers cooking show (the two son’s of Paula Deen) which by the way I’ve been told isn’t a very good show. In general I am less keen on the shows that go around and show you places, versus teach you how to cook, but nonetheless, the pie “The Levee High Pie” is named after the flooding in the early ninties and costs $164.95, although actually only $29 is for the pie and the 18 apples it contains, the rest is for the shipping and dry ice–so not sure this really qualifies at all for the honor. You can see it or order it for yourself from the Blue Owl near St. Louis.

Update: So I didn’t order the Blue Owl pie, but I did end up going to the auction where I bought an apple pie for the modest price of $10 (I was the only one who bid, now I am not complaining but I was surprised to find myself in the minority on apple desserts)  I left after a bit due to the length of the auction (over an hour–wow) I missed it but apparently a peanut butter cream pie went for the astonishing $200, all for a good cause though but still is my apple pie really worth so much less?  (glad it is)

In re: What would Jay-Z drink?

Interesting article discussing Jay-Z’s boycott of Cristal Champagne (due to comments made by its maker about the reputation it has gotten from rap culture).  Jay-Z has apparently banned the Champagne from his clubs and will remove the name from his songs and is in the process of finding another > $500 a bottle brand of Champagne to drink.
See The Cristal Boycott (Slate)

In re: Most expensive sandwich? Well only in London.

If you got around to enjoying the most expensive pie ever created (see earlier post) then you've also got a sandwich up your ally. The sandwich is billed as the most expensive in London (guess some lucky city already has a more expensive one), but its much cheaper then the piece of pie, clocking in at only £85 for the sandwich of Wagyu beef (from Japan), foie gras, and black truffle mayo, at least for your £85 you get 2000 calories. (see story)