lean, mean, fat grillin' machines etc!!

[ecoclean]

Hi everybody!

Well, having finally finished kitting out the house of my dreams, I have come to the realisation that I still have another move left in me! Damn!

Past experience has taught me that there is just no point in fightin' the urge to move, so I have no choice but to go with the flow, throw in the towel to fate and start plannin'. We're fortunate enough to have found the next house, still in the early building stages, and best of all we're dealing with the builder from heaven! (yes, he DOES exist!!). Nothing appears to be too much trouble for him, and he has given us free reign to design our kitchen from scratch. So the question is...keeping in mind my Miele-esque tendancies, does anybody out there have any recommendations for the final kit out? In the past, if I couldnt afford to get something straight away, I just did without until I could, so I'm pretty easy with your choices (Concrete floors downstairs for 2 1/2 years...get the picture??!!). Last time around, I had planned on going all-miele, but after some 'personal differences' with the rep, (he was a complete b#ll#x) I took a notion that I would make a stand and simply not purchase..... ended up buying De Deitrich everything that subsequently broke down, fell off or simply gave up the ghost. Also realised too late that the miele rep didnt lose too much sleep over my 'stand' either, damn him!!

Anyway, back to the kitchen. The question that kicked all this off is this.. Aside from the wish list, does anybody also know if there is a heavy domestic version of the George Forman grill being made by any other appliance manufacturers out there? I am trying my best to be healthy these days, and went as far as buying some overpriced aerobic contraption that took a half hour to get out of the box and never made it past the early stages of assembly. I ended up cursing the thing to high heaven and having a very nice bottle of wine to make myself feel better. Anyway, the grill is the easiest healthy option for me, and I use mine every day, so its kinda pointless pumping huge money into a whole load of cooking appliances that look fab but only get occassional use (good grief, did I actually say that??!!). Any and all information and opinions gratefully received!

Thanks!

 

[petek]

Yes there is!!! Breville! I don't have the grilling machine pictured but I do have their Panini press and it is excellent, heavy, good cord, works well. I've seen this Breville grill in stores here in Canada and it also looks extremely robust. I believe Cuisinart also makes one.

http://www.breville.com.au/care_detail.asp?prod=271&cluster=

 

[petek]

Breville makes other grills as well, there' clicable links in there to see them.

 

[whirlcool]

A few years ago we went with a Paninni machine as I found that they were more robust, and with a more adjustable hinge design, you can put in thicker meats and food than you can with one of the George Foreman stye of grills.
Just make sure it has a drip tray, or somewhere the grease can migrate to, rather than staying on the grilling surface.
It's quite amazing the amount of grease you can get out of some foods without totally drying them out.

 

[rp2813]

The Cuisinart one looks interesting. I've seen ads for it but they never show exactly what catches the grease. You can see there's a trough on the corner where the grease is supposed to run off, but no catcher depiction. I don't like the Foreman design with a catcher that isn't attachable/detachable and Cuisinart could have a similar system. Those little trays that come with the Foreman could be easily lost or otherwise separated from the grill forever. I'd wager that any Foreman grill you come across in a thrift store will not have the tray with it. I did just recently see a very large outdoor version of the Foreman at a friend's house and it has a bowl that sits in the base and catches the grease. This outdoor model has an R2D2 look about it. I thought it was a retro on-steroids industrial strength canister vacuum at first. Instead of a lid that closes down to cook both sides at once, this one has a bowl shaped lid that mimicks a Weber. The grilling surface itself is still on a slant to facilitate grease runoff but you have to flip the meat over just like on a "real" grill. Never seen one before and imagine they are not cheap if still on the market.