Monday Quiz: Name that tool
I’m writing from the Sick House today so am kicking off the week with a quick quiz.
Can you tell me what the following object from my kitchen shelf is?
If you hate the kind of quiz where you’re never actually given the answer, then best tune out now. Seriously, can anyone tell me what that is? I bought it in a shop selling all sorts of gumph in Hanoi years ago and mostly I use it for beating meat* and grinding spices in the absence of the right tools for those jobs. Could it be for making a dumpling or a sweet pastry?
Please let on if you think you have the answer. Or don’t if it’s something ghastly – anyone remember when Junkaholique found out from a reader that she’d unwittingly been drinking tea out of a ‘vintage’ hospital TB mug used for spitting into? Ick.
*Sorry if that sounds too grim for our vegetarian readers.
No clue, but I’d like to tell you that on the stall last week I had a nice enamel pot with a hook for hanging it up. I labelled it ‘utensil holder’ as I couldn’t really think of anything else, then on Call the Midwife last week they had the exact same one – it was for douching.
So continuing on the ‘oh no it’s something disgusting’ theme, I’m going to guess yours is for the relief of piles.
I think it’s more for leaving a nice pattern on a large piece of butter or something equally as maleable… it could be pressed on to bread dough before baking to make a nice pattern on the top of a loaf? Will look out for more enlightenment.
I reckon either shaping butter into pretty little shapes – or I’ve seen something a bit like it for moulding shortbread???
But I don’t suppose there’s much call for either of those functions in Hanoi…
No idea but it’s a thing of beauty. Lovely wood. The very thought of it being for treating piles brought a cry of fear to the lips of him accross the table.
The same cry has just happened here – thank you JW. Are you still selling the douching implement and will it be more expensive having been on Call the Midwife?
Patsy J and DN, if I wasn’t so lazy I might start putting out pretty butter on the table – think it could work.
Hi
It is a mould for making mooncakes, which are eaten during the Chinese August moon festival. You see lots of these wood moulds in antique shops in China and SE Asia.
Do a google image search for mooncake mould (or mold, I’m a Brit) and you will see lots of examples.
Enjoy
Alex