With it comes to cooking a meal, nothing is more tedious than having to put aside whatever you’re doing just to stir a pot of soup, then having to remember to do it again only moments later.
Of course, you can drop $100 for a high-tech solution like Kitchenstir’s heavy duty, electric pot with a rotating mechanical spatula. But honestly, next to the automatic can opener and George Foreman grill, who needs another expensive, clunky kitchen gadget around the house?
Now here’s a real alternative. A Japanese inventor named Hideki Watanabe has created a pot that does the trick without any moving parts. It’s basically an ordinary cooking pot with spiral grooves along the cylinder that, when hot enough, helps to generate a whirlpool effect.
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I guess what I really love about this gadget, besides the fact that it’s hands-down pretty damn neat, is the approach. When people think of automation, we often think of gears and complex contraptions that need to be screwed together and plugged in. The beauty of Watanabe’s idea is in the sheer simplicity, a minimalist device that works using just the principles of good old fashioned design. No need for gears, elaborate machinery and, best of all, no additional electricity.
Watanabe, who happens to be dentist by trade, came up with the Kuru-Kuru Nabe ( (Round and Round Pot) while he was tinkering with dental plaster. He’s hoping to round up investors to help bring his product to the consumer market. At the very least, it has all the makings of a blockbuster Kickstarter project. Let’s hope he does come up with the necessary funding because we have better things to do with our time.
(via Watanabe)
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