Friday, September 23, 2011

Wal-Mart Replaced My Missing Vancouver PNE Slicer/Dicer After 2 Decades

Multi-Slicer Kitchen Helper
There was an August day back in the late 1980s, or early 1990s when I made my last visit to the PNE in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

PNE is what people who live in the Pacific Northwest call the annual Pacific National Exhibition.

The PNE is like a state fair on steroids. Or a small World's Fair. It is the location where I first rode a giant wooden roller coaster and saw my first strip show.

Several people went with me the last time I went to the PNE. One of them was this nurse who's nickname was the Fat Lady.  I drove us to the PNE in the Fat Lady's car. The Fat Lady's car was a humongous antique Cadillac. It was fun to drive.

Like all fairs, the PNE has a big exhibit hall with vendors hawking their wares. I bought one of those wares, it being the best kitchen gadget I ever bought. A slicer, dicer piece of equipment that made quick work of making french fries, slicing onions and tomatoes and all sorts of other things.

When I moved to Texas, among the many moments of idiocy that later became obvious moments of idiocy, was I boxed all my kitchen stuff and, rather than move it to Texas, I gave it all to my oldest nephew. The only thing from my kitchen that I took to Texas was my Vita-Mix.

When I moved to Texas it did not dawn on my limited imagination that the domestic situation I was moving to might not be long lasting.

In less than 3 years after moving to Texas I found myself having to buy all new kitchen stuff.

But, I could not find a version of my PNE slicer/dicer.

Until last week. At Wal-Mart.

If I remember right my PNE slicer/dicer cost $29.99. That would be Canadian dollars. The actual amount, at that time, would have been less than $29.99 in American dollars. When you visit Canada you can buy stuff with your American money, but it can be confusing. It's much simpler to convert American money to Canadian before crossing the border.

The slicer/dicer I got at Wal-Mart is called a Multi-Slicer. It only cost $9.97. That is in American currency, not Canadian. The 2011 version of a slicer/dicer seems to be better built than the PNE version from a couple decades ago.

4 comments:

CatsPaw said...

That little guy in the bottom corner looks a little wary of your new kitchen guillotine ...

Anonymous said...

Your slicer is called a mandoline or madoline slicer. I would have spent years reading reviews and comparing prices before buying one, but I do that with almost everything I buy.

Durango said...

CatsPaw, the little guy was behind a layer of protective glass, safe from the guillotine.

Anonymous, if that really is your name, thanks for the technical name for the slicer/dicer. It cost less than 10 bucks. I think below 10 bucks is below the need to research before buying price.

GG said...

Hi Durango. These mandolines are cool, that's a great price. I have a pretty nice one by Zyliss with lots of different blades, but never use it. It's packed away -- I should find it and start using it again. One time I didn't use the protective top part and cut my finger, so that was not a good idea. I've collected so many cool kitchen gadgets over the years and cannot seem to part with them. Luckily they don't take up too much space.