Question for Americans - what is the PROPER toaster ? :)

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

So we have this budget toasters in our apartments, I have one at my home, my daughter has it, my mother has it and we have the same one in our holiday home. We use it all the time for sandwiches and for toasting the bread  🙂

Our American guests said we should get a PROPER toaster !

I would like to know what the hell is it? Is it something like Mercedes among toasters? Does it bake the bread, make sandwitches and bring them to you in the bed? Does it babysit too ...?  :)))

[Cathie19]

Yes @Huma0 & @Donna240, instant noodles can vary in types and price and are a helpful add on, especially if guests are arriving late morning or late evening, or have travelled far. Something quick and easy to appease the hungry gut, whilst they are getting settled. Especially for kids and teenagers whilst mum and dad are working on the next travel sightsee/move...

[Ben551]

Hey @Cathie do you know if it's possible to get instant noodles without plastic?  I quite like them but I won't buy them because of the plastic.. but it's something on my list of "must find packaging free solution one day" etc.  If there is an Australian brand let me know, I may be able to find it here...

[Mark116]

@Huma0  Okay, educate me.  Why do people need an electric kettle?  What's wrong with the traditional kettle that is heated on the stove?  The electric kettle has always seemed one of the most superfluous of kitchen items to me, but maybe I'm missing something, LOL. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mark116

the same reason they turn on A/C when they could just open the window 😛

I visited my Canadian friend in Canada many years ago. He had a lot of stuff so I asked him the same question - why do you need this ... and that... and he said: Because it was there and I could buy it.

It is the same friend who was looking at the catalog he got in a mail, pointed the finger at different products and asked me: Branka, what do you think? Do I need this?

😄 omg...

[Ben551]

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@Branka-and-Silvia0 wrote:

@Mark116

Because it was there and I could buy it.

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Ahhh the delightful downside of advances in marketing and mass consumerism. We are constantly being told to buy things we don’t need and the marketing strategies are so good, they really break down resolve.

Check out this list of completely useless (but successfully marketed and sold) kitchen devices:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2013/02/the-10-most-useless-kitchen-utencils.html

[Emily352]

@Ben551

Since you’re our hundredth poster, you win a toaster.

[Ben551]

@Emily352 Awesome! Thanks 🙂

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ben551

did you read the book " £9.99 " by Frederic Beigbeder? 🙂

My name is Octave and I’m dressed from head to foot in Tom Ford. I’m an advertising executive; yup, that’s right, I pollute the universe. I’m the guy who sells you **bleep**. Who makes you dream of things you’ll never have. The sky’s always blue, the girls are never ugly, perfect happiness touched up on Photoshop. Immaculate images, in-yer-face music. When, after painstaking saving, you manage to buy the car of your dreams (the one I shot in my last campaign), I will already have made it look out of date.

I’m three trends ahead and I make sure you’re always frustrated. Glamour is a country that no one ever gets to. I intoxicate you with new things, and the advantage with the new is that it never stays new for long. There are always new things to make the last lot look old. I want to make you drool. I want to make you drool – that’s my vocation. No one in my profession actually wants you to be happy, because happy people don’t spend.

Your suffering boosts sales. In our own jargon we call this the ‘post-purchase downer’. There’s some product that you just have to have, but as soon as you’ve got it there’s something else you have to have. Hedonism isn’t humanism; it’s cash flow. What does it say? ‘I spend, therefore I am.’ But in order to create a need I have to arouse jealousy, pain and dissatisfaction: they are my weapons. And my target…is you.

I spend my life lying to you, and I’m paid a shed-load for it. I earn around £12K a month (excluding the expenses, the company car, the stock options and the golden parachute). I should say 19,440 euros really, because I would look richer. ... I manipulate you and they give me the new Mercedes SLK (the one with the roof which slides automatically into the boot) or the BMW Z8 or the Porsche Boxster or the Mazda MX5....  

[Ben551]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 LOL! Omg that is just awesome!!! This is the best thing I’ve read all week!! Hahahaha... quality

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ben551

I love this book 🙂

Intersting fact - Frédéric Beigbeder worked for the advertising agency and wanted to quit, but he was under the contract and in that case, he wouldn't get his severance pay. So he decided to write this book where he revield the dirty  side of marketing so he get fired . He sucseeded hehe :)))))

[Sandra126]

I have never felt the desire to own an electric kettle but I do anyway, because of an English partner who drinks perhaps 25 cups of tea a day. I was against it, vehemently, and suggested using the metal kettle on the stove but found it used up all my gas (was on bottled gas only). Electric kettles are fast. That is the attraction, I guess.

[Sarah977]

@Sandra126 I've never owned an electric kettle either. My neighbor loaned me an extra one he had when we had a propane crisis a month ago and my tank was empty. He insisted that I was nuts to boil water in a kettle on the stove because the electric kettle was so much faster. When I finally managed to get a tank of propane, I did a test. It took the kettle a whole minute longer to boil than the electric kettle 🙂  I don't know about you, but it's not that crucial to me to have my coffee water ready one minute sooner.

I'd be interested in the cost comparison as far as consumption- electric kettles, and any appliances which heat up very hot very quickly draw a lot of electricity. May be more expensive than the gas.

Funny story- because I'm not used to an electric kettle, when I was staying at my daughter's house in Canada for a couple weeks, one morning, distracted carrying on a conversation with my granddaughter while filling the electric kettle with water, I automatically and unthinkingly set it on the electric stovetop where it promptly melted and filled the kitchen with toxic burning plastic fumes. My daughter has high-end taste so of course her electric kettle wasn't a $30 Black and Decker from the hardware store, but a $100 Cuisinart one. When she and her husband got home from work and I told them what happened, my son-in-law, always the hospitable gentleman, said not to worry about it when I said I'd buy them a new one and where was the best place to get it. He said it was an accident and they weren't that expensive to replace. When I mentioned that I'd looked them up online and that they were actually $100, he turned to my daughter with an incredulous look and said "You spent $100 on a KETTLE????"

[Huma0]

@Mark116

Maybe it's not essential, but I would say it's probably the most common small appliance in UK kitchens and has been for decades. Most British guests would find it bizarre if I didn't have one.

Why do people need it? Well, it's useful because it automatically switches off when the water is boiled. Yes, they do consume electricity, but a stove top kettle is still using energy, whether that's gas or electricity, and guests could leave it boiling much longer.

That is also a safety issue. I let guests have full use of the kitchen but I have a gas stove and I am just waiting for the day when someone leaves the gas on and blows up my house! Of course I stress to them that they must turn off the gas properly but we all know that not all guests listen. Luckily, not too many of them use the stove, but if they needed it to boil water, you can be sure they would be using it constantly. I would much rather they use the electric kettle.

The only problem I have is that most guests seem to think it's necessary to fill the kettle to max just to make one cup of tea which is a totally pointless use of energy. So I have bought one that has an indicator on the side to tell you how many cups worth of water is in it. I show them this, but they still fill it to maximum. I guess they would do the same with a stove top kettle though.

[Huma0]

As you can see, there is a long way between one cup and max.

I find it baffling why people fill water to the top regardless of the size of the kettle, but I guess it's the same reason they turn a shower on full regardless of the water pressure or leave the tap running on full while brushing their teeth. 

Many people claim to be environmentally friendly when they are not at all. I did once ask a housemate why she always filled the kettle to the top when making one cup of tea. She said it was so that the next person had water. Most people put convenience over the environment every time. I had one housemate who would turn all the lights on right BEFORE going out so she didn't have to do it when she got home hours later!

[Sarah977]

@Mark0  When I built my house, my electrician was surprised that I only wanted and needed 2 outlets over the kitchen counters. The only kitchen appliances I use that need to be plugged in are the toaster and the blender. I've managed quite well all my adult life without all the other useless and redundant stuff.