Sunday, August 1, 2010
Everything changed the day she got the Microplane Zester. 
Guys have their hardware stores, but women and men who cool have kitchen utensils! The thing about this zester is it scrapes lemon rind off lightly and easily, no skinned knuckes! And it’s just right for Parmesan, as well. When you have a tool like this, it makes you realize that life doesn’t always have to be so danged hard. For example, rather than heaping your arms with books and odds and ends that are falling on the floor as you go down the stairs and across the parking lot into your car, you could just put all those things into a bag and it would be so much easier. So many of us are used to just “putting up with” rather than getting an inexpensive proper tool for the job.
But back to the Microplane Zester. She would have skipped the lemon or orange zest in a recipe because it was such a pain to grate, and then she got this $10 gadget, and the chore became fun! Chocolate, too. Chocolate can be grated over whipped cream on a cup of steaming hot chocolate. Just the finishing touch it needs.
This zester was modeled on a tool for woodworking that someone saw and got the idea that it could be used for the kitchen, as well. Why did it take so many years, decades to discover this simple thing?
So, with her Microplane, she started making madeleines with the subtle flavor that makes them what they are. She produced fresh Parmesan for the table; it lay in light fluffy ethereal piles on the cutting board. She didn’t curse at having to haul out the old tin grater. No no no. And she felt powerful swishing it into and out of its plastic “scabard” like a sword of the kitchen.
And this is why the Amazon kitchen tools section is so much fun to look at, with its reader reviews. This one got hundreds of five-star ratings, and this is how it landed in my utensil collection.
