Dear Gardenwebbers, I haven't posted in a while but have been following every single word you have all typed-I've turning into a stove stalker ROFLOL! Of all the threads I've read over the past year regarding stoves, this is the only one whose posters have actually taken the time to break down the decision-making into the critical components. Not just reviews or opinion, but usage, wear, cost, BTUs, options,even the way the stove sticks out from the walls and integrates into the space. Well done!!You have no idea how helpful you've been! I still haven't made a decision, but I'm inching closer. Like a few of you, I took a step back and asked what I really needed/had to have. One of you rightly pointed out that deciding whether one is a stove top or oven cooker could help out. My ovens are super important to me, and have been the big sticking point in my choices (more on that in a minute) but I do most of my cooking on the stovetop.I REALLY want a coup de feu.If I pick the two burner one coup combination offered by Molteni or Gullo, I'll have to really up my cooking game and plan a bit more ahead (you have to allow the plaque to come to temperature to really use it effectively. So I was concerned I wouldn't have enough "regular" burners.But then, like you all advised, I took a step back and paid attention to what I was really doing "most" days-turns out I'm usually only turning on two burners anyway. When i move to more burners, that's when I could use a million more, so the coup definitely could work out then. I'm still kind of intimidated by it-the Molteni and the others I'm considering are very powerful, but I think that's just lack of self confidence. Burner strength/BTU's were very important to me as well. I currently have an old Wolf Gourmet line-they were better made than the current offering, heavier and more powerful.The max burner is 18K, but it loses power when the other ones are turned on, and then I can't get that nice carmelized sear on the food. I love the oven though. It's gas with a broiler and a (very noisy) convection fan, and sticky racks. Don't love the noise and the stick, but the size is pretty good, and it works well. All the units I'm considering are more powerful, but some more than others.Like everyone has noted, the ovens seem to be what pose the most dilemmas. I worry about cleanability. My current stove is a PITA to clean.The Rorgue has a neat water bath under the burners to rinse out spills-cool!It's also the least expensive of my three choices (So far. Am waiting on the cost of the UL listing fee, plus I have to add in taxes and VAT) but I can have every little gadget I had lusted for(of course, I'm now really rethinking everything). But it's the least pretty/french range looking of the batch. It does come in colors though. I'm nervous that if i select a range with two ovens that I won't be able to use them for what I occasionally need-larger sheets and pans, so I'm really leaning towards one gas oven in the range, and a Miele Masterchef 30" in the wall, which is 6" bigger than my current oven (I have a few pans that I really have to grease up the sides of the oven to squeeze in). I'm going to a Gaggenau cooking demo at Purcell-Murray this weekend and check out their ovens too. Anybody have some feedback on those? I'm also considering getting a smaller range and adding in two induction burners into the counter for quickie cooking for the kids (I have five). I could have had them built into a bespoke range, but the electric components have to be kept far away from a high heat source, which screwed up the size of the unit massively Our quotes from the contractors are coming-scary! I just wanted to thank everyone for all the input-every single comment has been so helpful. Oh, on a side note, there's a ROCKIN' Morice stove for sale that I found on the internet. It's not the right color for em (it's blue and silver) but maybe it would work out for you. It's got 3/4 burners (one is a single grate but with two burners under it-is that one or two?LOL) and a coup de feu. The oven is electric. I've (hopefully!) included the link. Parts are still available for the Morices. If it had been a different color, I would have jumped on it-great price. well, I'll be continuing to follow everybody's stove progress, and hope to have a stove too. Soon... Here is a link that might be useful: Sea Sales Morice cooker

For baked (fried) okra without the oil... - I can't stand it just tasting like breading, so I cut off the ends that connect to the stems, and to minimize any slime, I slice them longitudinally in half. You do not need to cut them into quarter inch or half inch things, which once breaded will simply be heavy breading! Here is a Paleo recipe with some suggestion for regular wheat etc.: 15-20 okra, about 2-2.5 inches long. Remove tops, cut them in half lengthwise. If they are longer than that, you can cut them once again crosswise. Usually, the smaller okra are more tender. 1/4 cup arrowroot powder, coconut flour or AP flour. Prepare to need more... 1 egg, beaten, 1/3 cup coconut flakes, or corn meal, or pulverized bread crumbs. Salt and pepper to taste - you can add other seasonings as desired, perhaps a hint of cumin. Just please don't ruin the okra by chopping them into small bits that will turn them into a Cracker Barrel misery. Preheat oven to 350 F/ 177 C. Set up bowls or plates for the arrowroot (or flour), egg, and coconut flakes (or breadcrumb/cornmeal). Either season the last bowl now or wait until the okra is in the pan. Roll the okra through the arrowroot or regular flour, then the egg, then the coconut flakes or bread crumbs/cornmeal. Lay outside surface up in a baking pan, one layer only. Cook for 10-12 minutes, or until coconut turns gently brown. Keep an eye on the oven. Conclusion: this recipe does not at all taste like that from Cracker Barrel, so if you were wanting that, please seek elsewhere. (Note, after 20 some years, I still remember how greasy and awful that breading-thing tasted… and the fact there was absolutely NO okra taste, slimy or not, whatsoever!) You could deep fat fry them, but I tend not to do so.

It's hard to make generalities about over 1 billion people, lol. But I have found that there are many, many Chinese families who don't stir-fry at all, or do it very seldom. Not every American family eats burgers and hot dogs, either, for a local analogy. I guess if others judged American culture by TV ads and billboards, they would think we all lived on a daily diet of McDonald's Big Macs! But in general, many Asian cuisines do have a "triple path". There is home cooking; there is restaurant cooking; and there is banquet, or feast, food. I was talking to my Hong Kong-born Chinese-Portugese DH a few weeks ago, and he (finally) remembered to tell me a story about one of his uncles who died over 15 yrs ago. This uncle was famous in the family for making the Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, or ho yau gai lan as it used to be spelled (I'm terrible with the new spellings, sorry). I've done this dish, and it seems very simple. Blanch the gai lan, stir-fry it quickly, drizzle it with oyster sauce. What's so hard about it? DH told me his uncle was so meticulous and painstaking about doing this dish, it was intimidating even to just watch him. Every cut had to be a precise size, the water had to be just the right temperature, the timing was down to the second. The wok had to be heated for XX number of minutes with just enough oil but not too much; the tossing and last-minute steaming done always the same way. In six decades of eating, DH says his uncle's gai lan remains the best. And every time, because he was so exacting about it, it was always perfect. But it was a lot of work, done to ensure that nothing was left to chance. He very seldom made it, in fact. Just the news that there was going to be a party and that Uncle had promised to make his gai lan, was enough to make everybody, even reluctant-to-socialize teenagers, show up for dinner! Oh, and outside of the gai lan, hardly anyone in DH's family, all 200+ members in Vancouver BC, stir-fries. Most of them don't even own a wok, which is interesting because otherwise they've kept their HK culture intact very assiduously. Unlike the American relatives, all of whom by the second generation barely remember their Cantonese, all the Canadian relatives speak Cantonese at home, so that even the fourth generation little kids are bi-lingual.

Talk about a coinkidink... this thread came up to the top again, just as the A&E service guy left my house. We got our new GE Profile 30" Induction cooktop installed this weekend. There is a "Control Lock" that disable the controls so that you don't turn on the stove while you're cleaning it, etc. Well, Day #1, and we had trouble with it. I swear, this appliance nightmare is giving me gray hair. First, I couldn't get the control lock ON so that I could clean the grubby fingers prints off after it was installed. After messing with it, I got it ON. I got out my new pots & pans and was ready to cook dinner that night, and I couldn't get the control lock OFF! I fiddled with it, then hubby fiddled with it - and he finally got it off so we could have dinner. After dinner, I had a hard time getting it back ON, so that I could clean up. Long & short of it is, that they had to order a $500 part for our brand new induction cooktop. They'll be out in 10 days to put in the new circuit board. Arggggg..... I am SOoooo over this whole appliance nightmare. Boxie