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Add interest to your homemade dishes with the help of this ‘vegetable pencil sharpener’

Rachel Tackett Jun 19, 2013
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The kitchen can be a dangerous place, full of intense heat and sharp, pointy objects. For people who lack the culinary skills to so much as peel a potato, ambitious kitchen exploits can result in a great deal of blood, sweat, and tears. The thought of thinly slicing a carrot puts fear into every fingertip. Thankfully, there’s a new product on the market which makes the act of cutting thin strips of vegetables quick, safe, and easy. Anyone who’s ever owned a box of colored pencils can now use those grade school pencil sharpening skills to use on their favorite veggies, adding some healthy flair to any dish.

This new product, called Nejicco, is also known as the “vegetable pencil sharpener.” It cuts your vegetables into long, thin strips, like the shavings you get off of a hand-held pencil sharpener. Just insert your veggie into the colorful cone and twist it against the blade. It doesn’t matter how thick the thing is that you’re cutting. This slicer can handle anything from cucumbers to carrots to giant white radishes, as long as they fit inside the cone. The only sort of ingredients it has trouble with are slender and elastic foods that bend when you twist them.

▼ Here’s the stack of Nejicco sharpeners on their little stand.

The company that makes the Nejicco is Kanda , based in Tsubame City in Niigata Prefecture. They specialize in making professional-grade Chinese food preparation utensils but have started making tools for the general public in recent years. When they released the Nejicco at an exhibition in April this year, it was an instant hit with visiting chefs. Although it’s a product meant for the general public, it promises to be a big hit in the food service industry, where cooks of various skill levels must produce dishes of consistent quality at a constant speed. To get thinly sliced vegetables with just a few quick twists should save a lot of time and open up a whole new realm of menu options to both professional chefs and home cooks alike.

The Nejicco comes with three different “sharpeners” to give you slices of three different widths: thin straws for garnish, wide strips for wraps, and an in-between noodle width. It can be purchased online or in stores like Kappabashi Dougu Street and Tokyu Hands department stores at just 2,500 yen (US$26) per set.

▼ Mint green gives you the thinnest pieces, great for garnish and mini salads.

After such an enthusiastic entrance into the market this May, Kanda is predicting to sell approximately 12,000 units in their first fiscal year. Be one of the first consumers and try out the Nejicco for yourself. It promises to open up a whole new realm of possibilities for not only vegetable garnishes but also veggie noodles, pickles, and a slew of other interesting dishes.

Source: Nikkei Trendy, New Pack Sumitomo (Japanese)
Images: Rakuten

▼ Carrot orange offers a cut that’s perfect for thick vegetable noodles.

▼ Mimosa yellow makes the widest vegetable slices and also comes with a handy peeler on the side.