Kitchen Gadgets - Tech Report Review!!

(forgive the facial expression in the above screen-grab...not my most flattering moment)

The recent phenomenon of reality cooking shows has made millions realize that being a dab hand in the kitchen is not necessarily as hard as it looks…And as the general population gets whisking, baking, grilling & poaching, we thought it was time to augment the skills needed to deliver great dishes with just a little technology…

  

We start simple… how to boil an egg…

What could be more useful than a boilable egg timer. Simply pop it into the pot of boiling water along with your eggs and just follow the indicator depending on how you want your eggs boiled, soft, medium or hard. (see video for results) At R80 it's a little expensive to tell you when the egg is ready but it does work.

So you’ve had the egg, now it’s time for a bit of refreshment. This nifty little gadget called the Zoku Slush Maker does just that by making a slush and it’s so easy. Place the inside cup section into the freezer for around 8 – 12 hours, then pour any liquid into the cup and start scraping down the sides. Within minutes you have a slush. Clever and refreshing! However, it’s R250 and can only make one slush at a time so it’s quite expensive and if you think about it, selfish too, well unless of course you share...but I don't think you'll want to :)

Then it comes to that time of the day when you feel like a quick pick me up coffee but with a twist, or in this case a whisk. The aerolatte will whip up some beautiful milk froth to put on top of your coffee. Put the milk into a glass, grab your aerolatte, start whipping and within seconds you'll have a professional looking coffee ready to serve at a restaurant near you…well, almost. It’ll set you back R150 but will make you look like a million bucks when you serve a frothed coffee to your guests.

On the topic of coffee, let’s take a look at these 2 beauties. The new Nescafe Dolce Gusto (on the left) and the Nespresso UMilk (on the right). Both work on a coffee pod system that produce single coffees at the touch of a button. The Nespresso uMilk uses a single pod to make your coffee to which you can then add your own warmed, delicious, frothed milk using the integrated aeroccino machine. The dolce gusto however uses 2 pods to make a coffee because the one is a milk substitute. Ugh! Not great! The machines and pods are relatively the same price. The Nespresso uMilk with aeroccino is R2550 with a R300 voucher for coffee and the Nescafe Dolce Gusto is R2490 with no vouchers. The Nespresso coffee is slightly cheaper and in my opinion, MUCH better and because of that reason alone, I’d buy the Nespresso no question!

So with a bounty of gadgets to make you look impressive in the kitchen, what are you waiting for? Go get 'em, Gordon/Jamie/Nigella/Nigel/Guy/Ina/etc etc 

Some fun water game apps!

With summer well and truly here you’re likely to find most South Africans  outside braaing, sun tanning and swimming. But what if you can’t swim? Or if being in the sun has left you red and lobsterlike…Or what if it’s raining – that means you Cape Tonians - but you’re dying to get back into that water? Well, we have the perfect solution.

Smartphones are nothing without apps… Education apps, work apps, cooking apps and perhaps the most successful of all, game apps! In particular, due to our location today, I thought I'd touch on some water based ones.

There’s no better feeling than being all by yourself… and owning the ocean as you surf, jetski, swim or drive boats. Drown out all the ambient noise and focus on beating that time. In this case however, we’re setting our sights on pelicans, people & other fish, in the cute but angry app called, Hungry Shark!

So, sharky here will have you addicted from the first level as you hungrily gobble up seagulls, other fish and my favourite, people all in order to gain coins to upgrade your shark to the ultimate, The Great White! It's a pleasant way to just pass the time cruising the ocean but be warned, you better not get stung by jellyfish, blown up by mines or get eaten by things bigger than you or it's down to Davey Jone's you go... the best part...it's free!

Next up is a Fish out of water! As the title suggests, you’re out of the water a lot.

This is the aim of the game as you have to fling your little fish across the ocean across the waves in various missions that’ll have you seeing how far you can go, how fast you can go & how many skips you do. In-app purchase upgrades are available so that you can slowly build up your fish’s momentum enough to skip across the entire ocean! Well, not really, but you get what I’m saying. It’s also only available on iOS and also R10  It’s easy to master but is left a little high and dry because there’s not much to the game and the in-app purchases are way too expensive but it does look nice though…

And finally, my favourite...

Made famous by that silly American show where you see people wipe out in the funniest of ways, if you’re a fan or not, this app will have you dodging sponges, swinging on poles and of course trying to make your way across the big balls! You get wipeout style points, unique characters and a barrage of various challenges that’ll have you slo-moing your wipeout and saving a snap shot to send to your mates! It’s $1.99 in the app store but so far, I’m loving the game and in my opinion, it’s worth it! Besides, when you do the conversion, it’s only like R20!

So with an absolute wave of apps to keep your head above the swell, wait… another few water puns coming up… you’ll be delighted to know that even if it’s raining outside… you can still have a whale of a time…