Eggbeaters and fry-pans

On that short shopping expedition yesterday we were all looking for different things. I was pretty sure the two things I wanted would not be available, but I am not often in that area so it was worth checking, just in case.

The two things I was looking for are extremely domesticated and ordinary, and not at all urgent. They are just things that I want to get AT SOME POINT, and now and again I get a bee in my bonnet about it because I cannot believe that in this country where you can buy ANYTHING you cannot easily find –

1) An eggbeater. And no, I do not mean an electric eggbeater. I mean an ordinary eggbeater. And no, I do not mean a whisk, either. We HAVE a whisk. We also have an eggbeater, actually, but it is not a good one. Sometimes it jams. I bought that eggbeater here, and the shop where I bought it has since closed and I CANNOT FIND ANOTHER EGGBEATER. How do Japanese people beat eggs? How do they make custard?

2) A fry-pan that is NOT coated with that horrible non-stick stuff. I hate those things, and refuse to use them. We have a wok that is non-non-stick, but that is too big, and our old wonderful little fry-pan, which had become utterly perfect from years of use, has an irrevocably broken handle. The bit where the handle fits in is broken as well. It has been mended countless times, and it has given up the ghost.

I am prepared to admit that my aversion to non-stick fry-pans is not entirely rational. It has very little to do with the various rumours and reports questioning the safety of the coatings and more to do with the built-in obsolescence (at least when I use them). I resent having to replace a fry-pan every couple of years. It makes me get all stroppy. WHY SHOULD I? Fry-pans should last twenty years, AT LEAST.

Yesterday I found two non-non-stick fry-pans, and the prices made me gasp. I was prepared to buy one anyway, but the big one was too big and the small one was too small. I want a fry-pan that is exactly the right size, and not coated with that non-stick rubbish.

Why is it that what used to be an ordinary fry-pan in the good old days has become so damned expensive? How come the non-stick stuff wears off the non-stick fry-pans? Where does that stuff go? Do we eat it? I do not want to eat non-stick stuff. I do not want to buy a new fry-pan every time the old one starts looking grotty. I want an ordinary fry-pan that will last twenty years and be nice to cook with. Not that I'm a good cook, but I was USED to our old fry-pan. Things very rarely stuck, and when they did, they could be removed without too much trouble.

Actually, The Man tells me it is easy to find an non-non-stick fry-pan. You just have to go to the right, specialized part of town where they sell equipment for restaurants, because professional chefs use non-non-stick fry-pans. That's where he got the old one, about twenty years ago.

Before you tell me about the wonders of online shopping, yes, I know that I can probably get both of these things online. But that would be too easy. Buying these things IN JAPAN has become a sort of challenge I have set myself, mostly because it annoys me so much. And anyway, as I said, these are not urgent necessities. I just look when I happen to be in an area where there are shops that might have them. It gives me something to get irate about.

Yesterday I got irate, in a very enjoyable way. I also amazed my friends, who had not realized that egg-beaters were so hard to find.

I was also going to write about what terrible shoppers those particular friends are, and how I discovered why they are always complaining about being short of money, but now I find I can't be bothered. Apparently I can only get irate about two things at a time, and right now eggbeaters and fry-pans are it.