HeiBlog

Why get excited about a garlic press? Well for one I love garlic. I refuse to use the pre-ground stuff, maybe I would use the shelled cloves packed in olive oil. There’s just something about the aroma of fresh crushed garlic. I’ve gone through my share of presses, most of them just cheapo ones that you get at the super market. The ones in the bins at Williams and Sonoma or Crate and Barrel just didn’t seem any better or really worth the price. They all work fine, but are a pain to clean and you always have some left over garlic in the press.

No more. I was at TAGS hardware a few weeks ago to get can opener for my Mom (that’s another story) and made the mistake of looking around some more. If you haven’t been to TAGS you might put yourself in danger if you, like myself, have a weak spot for kitchen wear(especially gadgets). They have a very good hardware department in the basement (found a great hard drill there a few years ago, everybody else had the crappy ones). Looking around I say IT. The garlic press from Roesle, a thing of beauty. $35! Then I looked closer. It is extremely well constructed and machined all of stainless steel. But what sold me was that the grate part of the press was hinged and swung out for easy clean (no build in “punch” like the Oxo version). It’s heavy, enough that you could inflict damage.

When I first tried it out the garlic pieces just burst out of the press. Inside? Just husk, nothing you would want to use. I didn’t even bother to peal the clove. If you use garlic find see out this press, it is the best I have seen on the market. From the looks of it, it will last years.

With the new Mini iPods coming out on Friday it may me think about mine. I’ve had my iPod about a year now. At first I thought it a frivolous buy and just a toy. The little guy has been really useful though. I’m hardly ever home and have about a 45�60 commute to work on public transit. Boston seems to have the tradition that no one in the train car or bus make eye contact, let alone talks to each other, so it is been a welcome diversion to incase myself in my own little world. I can have a chunk of my CD collection in my pocket to listen to whenever I want to. Kind of makes me wonder why I build up an low-end audiophile stereo system last summer (though I can enjoy it with my headphones it would be nice to use my speakers more often).

I remember talking with my friend Janice one and we were talking about it might be interesting of everybody had their own soundtrack (I think this was covered on a Family Guy episode when Peter got three wishes from a genie). If you tell you something about them and perhaps their mood. Sometimes the song that is playing on my iPod matches what I am seeing around me. For instance yesterday I was listening to a song from Combustible Edison’s last album “Impossible World”, think if Weber wrote music for an Atlantic City cocktail lounge in the early 80s just as I was talking past Franklin Park in the South End. It was early morning and a bunch of people were playing with their dogs. An unleashed Yorkie’s theme song was playing my ears. Quite amusing.

So I am in agreement with the review that say the iPod is one of the best MP3 players currently on the market. It is expensive, though I don’t think it is all that over priced for what you get (considering that it can double as a hard drive). At least in my case it is 20 GB of portable storage that has been put to good use.