Mozarrella Cuisinart

While I was working at Fort Collins (Colorado State University) as the Instrument Maker for the Superconducting Super Collider I lived in university housing for married students.

One afternoon, I noticed from the balcony an Asian man squatting in the playground sand, working and pounding with small tools and a block of wood.

I listened carefully, as a machinist should, and decided to walk down and ask about his project.

He explained in a thick accent that his wife was a graduate student and that he was making a vegetable peeler for her.

He had a block of wood (a small length of 2*4 I think), and the laid out flat side that had been removed from a steel can of vegetables.

With a large nail, sharpened on one side of the head and the other side of the perimeter as a striking anvil, he pounded a pattern of slots into the side of the steel can.

Laying the steel flat (while the rolled edges remained on the sides) he held the nail laid flat on the steel, and then created a small slot by iteratively tapping the anvil side of the nail head.

Using the round body of the nail, he then formed the steel into louvers.

Vegetable skins, he explained, are nutritious and also more delicious, when prepared with this technology.

I appreciated his work, and made a quick trip back to my rented apartment. I returned and gave him quietly a small flat file. He accepted gracefully and I hope wherever he is, that he believes my gift was as valuable as I hoped.

Good Exchange for Good Information.