Knifing around down on Knife Street

About a year ago, and during one of my attempts to leave Taiwan in search of a new career in the culinary arts, I decided it was time to buy some good knives. I was pretty excited--a good set of knives being something I'd always seen in the kitchens of mature and productive humans. I had been slumming around some pretty lame cutlery all my life. What I had in the way of knives were pretty low-rent utensils I'd purchased at 7-11, or else I'd discovered one or two in a box of hand-me-down articles left around one apartment or another. I had even found a knife close to a pile of garbage, from which I salvaged not only a knife, but a mug too. Cooking school or not, I had grown tired of dull and deceitful knives; their weary blades sliding off the face of an onion leaving not even a dent, yet brazenly slicing through my fingernails. Enough was enough.

Yet like any other lifestyle upgrade, you at once become the naive shopper, a kind of prey to a good salesperson, dazzled by shiny things, and you shuffle around the store secretly eying these items on display like they were an exposed nipple--ashamed as you are, you can only momentarily avert your eyes.

Basically, there are many great knife buys in Taiwan; some made locally by hand, and a whole range of German and Japanese blades ranging from around 100NTD to 6500NTD. Looking at them from the eyes of a novice, I immediately blamed such an exorbitant price discrepancy on name brands. This has worked all my life, and hence I still never got a pair of Jordan's. But once I took one of these blades in my hand, I could immediately see why it was so expensive, or 'dear' as my grandmother would say. The way it fit and balanced in my hand, the weight of it's handle, the subtle way the handle bulged out slightly to fill the recess between palm and fingers--made every other knife in the shop pale--no pekid- in comparison.

The brand I'm referring to is probably the most famous out there: Henckels of Germany. Thankfully, they have a wide range of knives in each price category. That is, the wammy-jammy high-enders are about 5-6000NTD, yet you can still get a decent cook's knife for around 1200NTD.

And this is what we're talking about; The Cook's Knife. The general all-purpose blade, referred to in slasher flicks as a 'butcher's knife.' This long triangular knife can be bought in lengths ranging from 6 to 12 inches. But in the case of buying that one good knife, size--meaning large--is not what's most important.

It's all about your hand size. And since I have small dainty little numbers, I opted for an 8 inch knife, though I was initially salivating over the 12 inch chief of knives. The second thing to consider is the weight. Do you like a heavier blade that will basically guillotine its way through onions, even when on the dull side? Or are you more like a glam guitar shredder like Yingway Malmsteen, and prefer a lighter blade? I myself like a heavier knife. I like the feeling of heavy steel in my hand, and though I look down on gun collectors, I can understand the fixation with heavy metal.

In the end, I went with a Henckels Twin-Cuisine 8 inch Cook's Knife. It is one long piece of steel, that is, the handle is steel coated with some kind of stone-like laminate. I figured this would fair well in Taiwan's humid climate. Wooden handles become petri dishes in which to grow sea monkeys and other fetid mini-lifeforms. The knife cost me 4700NTD, and I can honestly say that I've never looked back. It's like riding a good bicycle, or living in a place that has great water pressure. Once you've experienced these luxuries, you can never go back.

However, there are some other great knives out there in Taiwan for much cheaper. For one, the Japanese company Global makes a great cook's knife for around 1200NTD--if you like an extremely light knife. The handle is also of dimpled steel, grippy, and sea monkey safe. Another great knife is made by F. Dick, a German company that produces great kitchen knives, but just doesn't have the marketing buzz to charge as much as the other more popular brands. Their cook's knife will run you about 1000NTD, but that's for a 12 inch blade. I haven't seen anything of their's shorter than that. But, if this is still too much of a commitment, you can always go local. There is one "knife street" I know of in Taipei, just on the other side of the train station. Here you can find a wide array of cheaper Taiwan-made knives. They are trusty, well-priced, and most likely way better than anything you might pick up at the sevie, or if you're like me, find in the garbage.

In conclusion, my shopping experience was a good one. I got an all around knife that does everything. But like buying anything, there is a scam in knife-buying, just like anything else. There are many different kinds of blade out there; cleavers, deboners, paring knives, bread knives, fish knives, santuko blades, bird's beak paring knives, scalloped blades, and more. I would honestly say that if you do a lot of cooking, and you are in need of some knives, then a cook's knife is the best start.

There are sadly a lot of cooking students out there with a bag full of expensive knives they will never touch except to clean with their own tears. It's too bad the donkey wasn't there to tell them that a cook's knife, a paring knife, a bread knife, and a boning knife are all the blades you will ever need. And remember, the most dangerous knife is a dull knife.