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As I was quickly cleaning and packing some blueberries for the freezer this morning before work I realized I would not have attempted to do it without my handy measuring colander from Chef's Planet that I picked up at a discount store several years ago.  It looks like a 3-cup plastic measuring cup with holes on the sides and allows me to measure, clean and drain berries in one step.  I really love it for raspberries and other tender berries.

My other indispensable tool is the pair of onion goggles my children bought me for Christmas many years ago.  I cannot chop onions without profuse tears flowing and as a result have cut myself numerous times.  I remember an article years ago in Cooks Illustrated talking about all the methods they tried to prevent or reduce tears from chopping onions.  I think I tried them all - the burning candle next to the cutting board, trying to chop or cut under water (what a mess!) and whatever else they suggested as useful.  But I still remember their comment about the best technique was to wear swim goggles and how the only drawback is that they make you look like a kitchen terrorist!  Well, a few years later someone else must have read the same article and came out with the onion goggles.  They look like a combination of sunglasses and swimgoggles and they absolutely make you look like a kitchen terrorist or a googly-eyed alien but boy do they work!  Luckily I can still see well enough without my regular glasses to cut onions wearing them with no problem.  I cannot imagine doing onions or shallots without wearing them anymore and have purchased many pairs as gifts for friends and relatives.

I took a photo of these two gadgets this morning but cannot get it to post here so you will have use your imagination as to what these things look like.  What odd little gadgets have other EYB cooks found that the rest of us need to check out?

As a throw-in to a larger utensil order last summer, I bought a very small narrow-bladed silicone spatula. I thought it would be a handy item for getting the remains out of jars, etc., but was surprised and a bit disappointed at how short it was: less than six inches long (I hadn't looked closely enough at the description). 

But it turns out to be the perfect tool for a job that I do fairly often, especially at this time of year: scraping down the mortar and pestle when mashing garlic and salt to a paste, or making any spice or aromatic paste.  I'd been very reluctant to involve any of my existing spatulas in this work out of concern for lingering garlickiness or other aromas, and they were mostly too big to be handy in any case.  But here's a utensil that can be dedicated to the job, lets me get the most out of any pounding and mashing session, and makes it easier and more pleasant to use the heavy granite mortar & pestle.

It's also just the right size to extract spicy goop like ginger-chile puree out of the immersion blender blades.

Surprisingly, it hasn't held on to any of the strong aromas it's been exposed to; the silicone has a very slick finish, and a quick rub with baking soda paste and rinse leaves it pristine.  Now I wonder how I managed without the tiny spatula for so long (A: with a lot of messy and inevitably wasteful finger-wiping).

Hillsboroks, we need a picture of you *wearing the goggles* <g>...

My kids took a "blackmail" picture of me in the onion goggles that Christmas but I have managed to "lose" it.  I took a photo of the goggles on my dining room table this morning and tried to post it but my old trick of putting it on my Facebook page and then copying the URL isn't working today.  My goggles are lime green and black but you can get them in tortoise shell, black with red, hot pink and other colors so they are kind of wild looking but I love them.

I too bought a couple of the tiny silicone spatulas at a cooking store in Canada a couple of years ago while on vacation and also wonder how I managed without them.  Mine came in a set of two, with one being a little concave like a spoon and the other longer and thinner like yours.  They are the first thing I grab when I'm working with a smaller bowl or trying to clean something out.

I love the idea of the kitchen terrorist!

I haven't got any super specialised gadgets, but I would not be without my jar-opener! And I don't mean my husband.

It's not particularly odd, but I absolutely love my pastry blender -- I've even been known to pack it when going on vacation! To be fair, most of our family vacations are house-rental situations where we do a fair amount of cooking during the week, and it comes in very handy when I make scones for the group. I could make do without it, but it's small enough to be worth taking when I remember.

Not really a kitchen gadget, but contact lenses worked real well for me for chopping onions.

I have some odd gadgets I cannot live without.  They are mostly using in Japanese cooking, but I also use some of them for regular cooking as well. 

Care to guess what this is for?  

Very close.  It's to make tokoroten "noodle" which is made from agar agar.  Agar agar does not require refrigeration to set unlike jello.  But this is served chilled and in summer with either vinegar sauce or ponzu sauce with nori and smidgen of hot Japanese style mustard.  You can use to this make other types of "noodles" using jello or agar agar. 

That finished dish looks very refreshing!

Rinishin, what's the Japanese name for the noodle-maker?

Originally Posted by: ellabee

That finished dish looks very refreshing!

Rinishin, what's the Japanese name for the noodle-maker?

It's called tokoroten maker.  Tokoroten is traditionally a summer food.  The wooden tokoroten maker is used to force the jello like formed agar agar called tokoroten through to make the noodles.  It is normally served with either rice vinegar or citrus juice like yuzu, mirin and small amount of water or ponzu sauce.  It can be used as salads as well.  You can add any type of taste to the agar agar itself too. 

pgarcia I love the idea of the little fan by the cutting board, especially in the summer!  Like you I cannot even mince a shallot without the tears streaming down my cheeks if I don't use my onion goggles.  I have gotten so used to my onion goggles that it is just second nature now to grab them out of the drawer whenever I pull out the cutting board and an onion.  I may have to try a small fan just for the heck of it and I will definitely remember this when I am away from home and don't have my onion goggles available. 

pgarcia, What a great idea! I happen to have two desk fans sitting on the counter that just arrived in an Amazon order. I bought them for additional breeze power on my seedling propagation rack. Now I guess I will have to buy another one for the seedlings since I will be diverting one of those to the kitchen. :)