Desperate

[Chef]

It's time I broke my duck and posted, I suppose!

My 30 year old, trusty, daily-used blow-torch has recently spluttered it's last pfffft and died on me.

Please, please can somebody tell me where to get a real, honest-to-goodness chef's blow-torch in this godforsaken country.

The best I have been offered to date, at Global House, is an Oxy set-up.

I am struggling with a hot air gun, but it does not do a proper job.

HELP!

Edited October 18, 2007 by Chef

[Austhaied]

Wouldn't have a clue. Just out of curiosity, what would it be used for ?

[p1p]

Blow torches have a multitude of uses in the kitchen, from singeing off small hairs from pork or feathers from chicken and game birds to caramellising sugar on top of a Creme Brulée etc.

[sabaijai]

When I lived in Bangkok's Pratunam area, the small Chinese restaurant next door used to since the feathers off its ducks using a blowtorch. They started around 3am, sounded like a jet landing on the roof.

[Rasseru]

Wouldn't have a clue. Just out of curiosity, what would it be used for ?

I would guess, for enticing gods back home.

[legag]

When I lived in Bangkok's Pratunam area, the small Chinese restaurant next door used to since the feathers off its ducks using a blowtorch. They started around 3am, sounded like a jet landing on the roof.

Pratunam area, street, side opposite heading to Pantip should have your blow job! Take a walk pal. I think you might find it.

Before I clicked and read the topic -- it got me -- hahaha

[sceadugenga]

Good for taking old oil paint off timber, heating up old soldering irons.

A gas bottle and burner would do the same trick.

[Dustoff]

Turn straight North from the NE corner of the moat and on the left, well before the light, is a Chef's shop. Some things are hard to find and I think they have a lot in the back so be sure to ask or bring your old one.

Also, I don't know if they have them here but BernzOmatic

makes quite a variety of torches. If anyone knows where to find them, please let me know as well.

Perhaps Global or Home Depot?

Good luck

[ThaiPauly]

I only came here because of the title...sorry I have nothing to offer....except a bluddy great oxyocetaline machne that I have impounded because bulders did not finish work on projects at our restaurant for which I paid them in advance (fool) I have had it 3 months now...they are NOT coming back !

Anyone wanna buy it ...cheap?

[Goshawk]

The best I have been offered to date, at Global House, is an Oxy set-up.

I am struggling with a hot air gun, but it does not do a proper job.

HELP!

If you're really desperate and want it done on the cheap, then simply take a can of your dearest's Axe and...

children, do not try this at home.

[FolkGuitar]

It's time I broke my duck and posted, I suppose!

My 30 year old, trusty, daily-used blow-torch has recently spluttered it's last pfffft and died on me.

Please, please can somebody tell me where to get a real, honest-to-goodness chef's blow-torch in this godforsaken country.

The best I have been offered to date, at Global House, is an Oxy set-up.

I am struggling with a hot air gun, but it does not do a proper job.

HELP!

Many of the shops that supply bottled gas have hand held burners that use the fuel canisters. I bought mine from a shop on Chotana Road, east side, about 20 meters in from the super highway. Self igniting and the gas lasts quite a long time.

[Chef]

Thank you everybody for your help. I shall go exploring later.

For those still unsure of the reason for using a blow torch in the kitchen, I enclose a quote from Delia Online

Way back in the 1960s, when Elizabeth David first had her own kitchen shop, I remember being there when a customer was buying a salamander – a heavy, round iron weight on the end of a steel rod. The idea behind it was that if you heated it until it was red hot and then placed it over the sugar surface of a crème brûlée, it would instantly caramelise it (the point being to bypass the British domestic grill, with all its vagaries and unreliability). Mrs David suggested to the said lady (and me, as well, because I couldn’t resist buying one, too) that we should practise with ramekins filled with tinned rice pudding first, so as not to waste gallons of cream and eggs. It turned out to be sound advice, as I got through several tins of rice pudding without a single success.

Thus, the art of acquiring that thin, glass-like coating of caramel eluded me. British grills, after all those years, are still universally unreliable: until recently, it seemed the only answer was to make up a caramel and pour it on top of the set custard. Then along came the answer and, when the chef’s blowtorch first hit the kitchen shops, it was a must-have for all who wanted to cook.

However, the early consignments were not quite the ticket – too faint-hearted by half – so you would spend absolutely ages just getting one ramekin caramelised. Next stop, DIY stores – why not get the genuine article and really give your brûlée a blast? But that was not the answer either, because the heat was too fierce, and I was envisaging hundreds of fire-fighters up and down the country taking me to task for recommending their use!

But, at last, a great step for mankind: there is now a blowtorch that does the job perfectly. It is self-igniting and makes short shrift of changing sugar into caramel. It does a few other jobs as well, such as helping unmould a jelly, skinning tomatoes and giving a smoky, charred taste to aubergines.

They are also perfect for skinning chollies and, as p1p & sabaijai pointed out, giving the final touch to feather plucking etc.

[realthaideal]

"They are also perfect for skinning chollies......"

What's a chollie ? I know a dog called a collie, and a bread called a challah, but I never heard of a chollie.

And then...

I've raved about a not-well-publicized kitchen supply warehouse before, so here goes again. I'd be really surprised if they didn't have one based on their inventory of other gadgets like mixers and commercial ovens, not to mention extensive bakery and catering supplies ie baking sheets, spatulas, sleeves of cupcake papers wholesale bags of nuts like almonds and peanuts, etc. - everything you can think of.

It's called Pheuan Krua ('Kitchen Friend' or liberally 'Cook's Friend') and it's on the CM- Lamphun Rd (the one with the big ancient trees (Dton Yang) running along it ) headed south from the city, past the Super Hwy (Nong Hoy) Intersection. You go about 3-4 blocks and it's on your left just after the Caltex gas station on your left. They have a big steel storefront that's 2 storeys high. Sign's only in Thai. But be assured it's just after the Caltex. If you keep going and pass a field and start to come upon the 7-11 and mini Tesco, you've gone a ways too far.

And so.... what will you use it for ? And where ? Where you be cheffing ?

[Chef]

Thanks for all the help.

Eventually got one from Pheuan Krua, but in a typical Thai competent manner, they stock butane gas canisters that do not fit the torch! I am now looking for a stockist of butane gas canisters, used for refilling cigarette lighters. Anybody know of one. I used to purchase from the toyshop in Airport Plaza basement, but they don't stock them any more......