The Happy Panda Toaster Page

And so Terri and Dave went on a Quest...

Demonstrating that I am, as always, just slightly ahead of the Hip Curve, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story about one of my favorite Japanese TV shows, "IRON CHEF". This week a local chef from The City was going to Tokyo to be the challenger in "Lobster Battle"!!!

"IRON CHEF" is that Fuji TV show featuring cooks from around the world challenging Japanese "Iron Chefs" in a contest resembling a professional wrestling tag-team match, with elements of a nitro-burning funny-car Super-Sunday thrown in for good measure (Drop www.ironchef.com in your web browser for a tour of IRON CHEF fandom). Add a healthy dose of militaristic ultra-nationalism combined with a menu including ingrediants like zebrafish and conger eel, a bizarre host who has to be seen to be believed, and you've got the recipe for a campy TV show that crosses the language barrier. "IRON CHEF" is currently showing only in the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and New York City markets, but if we all keep yelling "Mit‡i desu!" at the NHK TV Tower, we might get this on PBS over here in the States.

Anyway, I've been bugging Terri to watch this show with me, and she finally indulged me in my whim (somewhat reluctantly, I might add). This is what True Love will bring you to, folks...watching macho Japanese language cooking shows on TV to placate the BoyFren. Those of you of tender years, take note: sometimes your Sweetie may ask you to do really WEIRD THINGS!!

All the commercials on Fuji TV are in Japanese, too, and neither Terri-san or I speak any Japanese. About halfway through the show, a commercial comes on with a young woman making toast in this absolutely FABULOUS toaster; it's bright yellow and has pictures of panda bears on the side. Now, this is about the COOLEST toaster that I've ever seen, but all of a sudden the toast pops out, and the toast has a PANDA branded on it! There is a panda shaped heat shield inside of this thing that imprints a panda right on to your toast!!

Well, you just KNOW that from that moment on, DRaftervoi would not rest until he had found that toaster!!!

And after a trip to Japantown, Terri and Dave now actually OWN a PANDA TOASTER!!!!

I'm going to ask Terri to help load a graphic of that toaster right here, as we found a picture of it on a Sanyo website. And guess what? It's a Y2K Compliant Toaster, so we'll be able to eat toast after the End of Civilization!!! We may be forced to live in some sort of Blade Runner meets Road Warrior apocalyptic hell, but we will have Happy Panda Toast to keep us smiling!!

I will leave you with these amazing words from the package of a Japanese cooking utensil:

HELPS YOU IN COOKING FAST. JOYFUL BEAUTIFUL SHARP EDGED. With fresh vegetables daily. Just a little bit, different Tastes of a regular cook.

It just doesn't get any more ZEN than that, does it?

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