I own 2 cleavers....oine a "Whack it apart" cleaver I bought for very little at an estate sale and a chinese "chop-chop" cleaver which was a gift. I don't use either very often, but am glad to have them both when I do use them.
Linda c

I don't have a cleaver but I'll be very interested to see what you think of it if you buy the Ikea one. We do have an Ikea near here but I don't go very often.

Um the thing I love the most from Ikea, the chairs I have and the picture frames, oh and I so want the floating shelves...

But back to kitchen stuff...
I have these grater/bowls things. I use them so much. Either to grate on the bowl, or just use the grater in my hand, and the bowls are great with the lid.

And I love the Burken canisters.

Here is a link that might be useful: CHARM grater

I wish they sold more online then they do. I live almost 3 hours from Ikea, so have only been once, but I would buy a whole lot more if I could mail order.

Gosh for 24.99 for the "top" one..that's a great price if it feels good and works well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cleavers

I have the J.A. Henckels meat cleaver & their Chinese cleaver. I use the Chinese cleaver for about 85% of my chopping/dicing tasks. The weight of the knife does virtually all of the work. Before getting the cleaver I used to struggle with acorn & butternut squash...sometimes, even large watermelons. My Chinese cleaver slices through even very thick-skinned squash like they're butter. I also use the cleaver for potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, gosh...most everything. I've become quite skilled at using this cleaver! If I could only have 2 knives, they would be this Chinese cleaver & a paring knife.

The meat cleaver is useful because I frequently purchase large cuts of meat & whack them down to a more appropriate size for two. Knocking down a whole chicken only takes a few seconds with the cleaver & again without much effort from me.

Since being diagnosed with lupus...easy has become my mantra. If it's not easy...I don't do it. Cleavers make otherwise difficult tasks easy. Well worth the money.

I don't shop IKEA so can't help you on that one but it'll be fun for me to read what others suggest.

/tricia

I've been told their Swedish Meatballs are good but I have yet to try them.

I was at IKEA this week - in the kitchen accessories dept. I bought napkins, dish towels. They have cheap drawer/shelf liner.

I use my cleaver to drain things. :/

Thanks for the tips, Terri, Gina and Tricia. Terri, I'll look at the CHARM graters, although I'm wondering about the advisability of adding too much more to my kitchen! Tricia, that's becoming part of my problem. I can still manage, but maybe a cleaver would help. Like Linda, I'd probably only use it occasionally, but glad of it when I do. Gina, I'll check out the dishtowels. They have/had a cute apron and the price is right! And May...I'll be sure to tell you how I like it if I make a purchase. I'm looking at the Slitbar cleaver, and am hoping it's a good fit.

Fori...:)

Foodonastump, Swedish Meatballs? Is there a lunchroom or cafeteria? Or yeah, I think I'm dating myself aren't I?

Yes there is a cafeteria in the joint. Pretty good food, and very reasonable too.

I don't have a cleaver, I just use a big ole' chef's knife for hard squash like butternut.

Never been to an IKEA either, Elery just detests the place, says it's crowded and poorly organized and there's always a bunch of people with strollers in the aisles, LOL, so I haven't asked him to take me. Maybe I should...

Annie

It's not that it's poorly organized - it's ingeniously organized to confuse you and make it hard to find any exit, so you must go through the entire maze like a rat, surrounded by cute room displays and shopping opportunities, and walking on the hard concrete floor which will reward you hours later with a backache, until you finally reach the checkouts and the awaiting exit and are so happy to do so you are always cursing the dang store and vowing never to go back. Until next time.

At Ikea we stock up on tealights (cheapest I've ever seen them) and love to browse through the kitchen and tableware accessories but I just love to browse through the entire store - lots of neat space saving furniture and storage ideas at good prices and its a fun walk through, even if you don't need anything. I bought my light pine desk for $75 a few years ago and we bought a dresser there too a few years ago.

The food department can be fun - caviar paste in tubes (yum) and Swedish meatballs frozen in bags, lots of cookies and candies (Daim is good toffee/chocolate) and a favorite of mine from when I was in Sweden - Princess cake - not as good as one fresh from a Swedish bakery but good enough - http://www.lovescool.com/archives/2005/05/11/princesscake/. We like to buy fiskeboller which is a can of fish balls like little dumplings and you make a white sauce with dill and just heat them up with boiled potatoes for an easy Scandanavian meal. I also buy Lakerol throat lozenges - their logo is "makes people talk". Our Ikea usually has a large selection of green house plants. The Ikea name just came up today because I need a new desk chair and we thought maybe we'd take a run there tomorrow! They have a good selection of toys and bedding for babies and young children. The cafeteria is nice - we have a $.99 breakfast here in our Ikea - and Ken likes to get the gravlax open sandwich and I usually get a few meatballs.

I think you'll enjoy yourself. They have a yellow line on the floor that you just follow through so you go in order and then browse as you like and don't get disoriented - cause it is pretty large and open. I hope you have fun!

Fiskeboller sounds like gefilte fish?

IKEA can be fun, but only when you have plenty of time (and good shoes). The one here in Iceland is organised in such a way that I don't go there unless I need something, whereas at the smaller old location I would sometimes go there just for fun.

I recommend going there with time to spare and have a really good look around. I always discover something new on each visit and come home with 2-3 more things than what I set out to buy.

We have a Henckels but I hardly pick it up because it's way too heavy for me to handle. My husband loves IKEA but I am not too crazy about it. It's like a very disorganized warehouse where tons of people trying to run you over. The only thing I like about IKEA is their cheap hot-dogs and frozen yogurt. My son goes to their play center to play while we shop and afterward he gets a treat at the snack bar.

I use a medium weight Chinese chef's knife (cleaver) for almost all of my cutting in the kitchen. My two other knives are a narrow paring knife that doubles as a boning knife and a heavy Chinese cleaver for chopping through bones and stuff.

--Doug

We own two cleavers...both very inexpensive Chinatown models. My BIL picked them out....not sure what his parameters were. DH gets them razor sharp with a stone.

Ikea is only fun on a weekday, and early if possible. On weekends, it is like Disneyland and almost scary! :-)

Gina I don't know much about gefilte fish but I'd guess they're very similar to fiskebollar except that one is usually served cold and one warm. I do enjoy the warm dill cream sauce a lot :)

I guess the Ikea that I go to must be better organized and neater than many of them, according to these posts. I've only been to the store in Elizabeth NJ and have never found it disorganized or sloppy or anything but nice! However, I do shop on the weekdays and have never been there on a weekend but so far I have nothing but good things to say and I will say that the babysitting ball crawl looks like fun :)

gina, I thought it sounded like gefilte fish too! It is probably very similar.

I don't go to Ikea often because I don't often find things to buy when I'm there. But, when I DO go, I figure on hanging out there a minimum of an hour, just because I think it's fun to saunter through the maze and look at everything. Especially if the kids are with me (well, when they were younger) we could get loads of entertainment just out of the product names.

I remember being there at least a couple of times with a few items picked out to buy, then leaving them behind because I didn't want to wait in line. So yeah, if possible, go on a weekday. Otherwise just know, it'll be crowded.

I have a cleaver somewhere but I think it's in the back of the hall closet where little-used things get buried. When I need a good whack on a bone, I use a very old, heavy chef's knife and a hammer. Put a teatowel on the top of the knife blade and then whack it with the hammer. Works fine.

There is an Ikea here too, but it's a 70 km round trip and I decided that I don't need any more stuff from there. I have an unmounted shoe closet from there that is still in its box, which I bought about ten years ago. Nope, I'll skip it for now and only buy things that don't have to be put together at home. Nice place though. I do love Skandinavian decorative articles.

SharonCb

OK...I'm getting the unveiled message! DO NOT GO ON A WEEKEND...I'm certain it would make me want to scream. Are weeknights a bad time to go?

I love their flexible cutting boards. Bought a spatula there though, stirred some melting chocolate and the spatula melted! Some of their kitchen gadgets are plastic-y junk.

I do love, love, love their kitchen shears and use them for everything (especially good for cutting up pancakes for the kids)

I keep looking at the cutting boards at Ikea. Would love a new set. But the simple white plastic ones I like say they are not DW safe. Hard to believe. Any one here with experience putting these in the DW?

I guess I am lucky to live between two IKEAS, one in Orlando aond the new one soon to open in Tampa. I am saving my money to get a new mattress.

I tried the flexi cutting mats and give them a thumbs down. They do not stay flat and they move around. Therefore dangerous.

The spatulas and other utensils are not the new heat-resistant silicone - they are old-style, so don't expect them not to melt.

I am surprised that folks think the stores are unorganized - they are highly organized. Maybe the "maze" organization gives folks the feeling of disorganization. The ones I've been to are never sloppy either. The warehouse section is at then end. You find your larger items there yourself (providing you've written down the aisle and section numbers), or ask an employee to do it for you - they are pretty helpful.

No home furnishings places are crowded right now. Your area may vary!

I also forgot - wooden clothes hangers - cheap-cheap! Between IKEA and Costco hangers, I don't have any more wire hangers in the house. (Channeling Joan Crawford.)

I have one of their non-stick frying pans $15 and it has outlasted every other non-stick I have ever owned. I generally like their kitchen stuff.

DH has two cleavers, hardly used but he wouldn't give them up. Neither from Ikea. Sorry...

What is the difference between a meat cleaver and a Chinese cleaver? TIA

Never would own one after that Lorena Bobbitt debacle.

I have an Ikea 1/4 mile from me. It was a novelty at first. When it first opened you had to take a shuttle from across the street it was so busy. I did get a great computer desk. Heavy duty and exceptionally well built for about 100.00

Duane

Gina, Michigan's unemployment rate is nearly 13%, but IKEA is still apparently doing OK. Elery's daughter in law went to IKEA two Saturdays ago, they just bought a new house and she was looking for something or another. She said the IKEA in Ann Arbor was packed, they couldn't find a parking spot. After she and the kids got dropped at the door while Chris parked in a parking lot across the street, they went in. She said it was so busy it was difficult to navigate the aisles, and that when she did find what she needed she waited in line 40 minutes to check out. She did say they had some well made chairs on sale for $15.00 but they were so low they were nearly impossible to get out of, so she passed them up.

Annie

"What is the difference between a meat cleaver and a Chinese cleaver?"

A meat cleaver is a brute force tool for chopping through bones and other tough things. It is heavier than a Chinese chef's knife and has a wider angle at the cutting edge (the blade is fatter).

A Chinese chef's knife, which is sometimes called a cleaver too, is a more delicate tool than can do just about everything a French chef's knife or a santoku can do - and a few things they can't. It has a narrower angle at the cutting edge (the blade is skinnier). A chef friend cuts radish roses with a Chinese chef's knife. The trickiest thing I can do with it is peel apples.

An easy way to tell them apart is that most meat cleavers have a hanging hole at the top front of the blade and I have never seen a Chinese chef's knife with the hole.

Okay, if I have a smaller ?I think 6 inch chef knife that I do most everything with. But I would like something bigger for turnips and sometimes winter squash. What would you suggest? A larger chef, Chinese cleaver or meat cleaver?

Doug, we also have Chinese chef's knife, which my husband uses almost every day. I'm not in the habit of using it, but it's one of his favorites. I was hoping when I bought it I could use it for bones, but feel it's too delicate for that. He loves it for the veggies though.

Eandhl, I'd probably recommend a meat cleaver for large, heavy squash, as I'd want the knife to do most of the work and think a regular chef's knife or Chinese chef's knife isn't quite heavy enough (for me).

I'm still wondering if weeknights are a bad time to visit...Does anyone know when it might be a little less crazy? I don't want to get burned out before I even go!

I use my Chinese chef's knife (Chinese cleaver) for veggies including winter squash. Actually, I use it for just about everything. I've never peeled an apple but I sure peel zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, pineapple, onions, etc. with the cleaver.

I use the meat cleaver for piecing chicken & cutting ribs. It's a butcher's tool.

Of the two, the Chinese cleaver is the one that you'll reach for every day. My Henckels Chinese cleaver easily slices through the toughest squash...they are made for those purposes.

/tricia

tricia, how long is the blade on your Chinese cleaver? Would it go through a large turnip in one slice? That is the problem with my smaller chef Wusthof classic. I have to get the knife out and turn the turnips to do the that.

eandhl,

Here's the J.A. Henckels that I have. My Chinese cleaver is the first product shown (8" cleaver). Scroll down for the meat cleavers...mine is the 5th product from the top...the 2nd meat cleaver. Mine are about 8-9 years old.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Chinese Cleaver & Meat Cleaver

tricia, thanks. So for doing freq turnips as well as winter squash this is what you would use? I do not do a lot of meat cutting but I do a lot of veggies.

I'm not Tricia, but I believe she said this is what she uses. (The meat cleaver being a butcher's tool.) It's what my husband would use, even though I don't seem to be able to handle it as well as he does...

You can buy a heavy duty Chinese cleaver that does the same job as a European meat cleaver. From the side it looks like a somewhat larger Chinese chef's knife. From the end it looks a lot thicker. It's a lot heavier too. Here is the one I bought from the Wok Shop.

About Ikea in the evening. I don't know about our local stores but a couple of years ago (whoa---4 years ago!), I visited my son and his family and we cent to the IKEA near them in the Philadelphia area. We ate dinner at the cafeteria at about 6 PM and then browsed the store. The store was almost empty.

I own both styles. The Chinese cleaver, I use every day, multiple times a day. Basically, the only knives I 'need' (or use, for that matter) are a paring knife, the Chinese cleaver & a bread knife.

I use the butcher's cleaver almost never, maybe a couple of times a year?

I have a large cleaver that I use only occasionally, but it's good to have one when I need it. I think I bought it at the indoor antiques swapmeet where I found a couple of my Griswold cast-iron pans.

Thank You Sushipup!

Claire, I just came home from Ikea. I was looking for a desk chair, didn't find one that I liked but we both enjoyed the walk-through and the food department! The store is under reconstruction/remodeling but still nice. We bought some great "Lant" potato chips and a couple of packages of different flat breads which we like for breakfast, some pepparkokar in a very pretty blue tin (thin crisp ginger cookies) and some other very thin crisp oatmeal cookies, large chocolate bars - 3/$2.49, some Swedish fish candy for me, some toffee laces candy for me and YAY, I got my Princess cake! They had it in a package with 4 small one serving size cakes, I couldn't wait to get home to try it - just as good as I remember :) We didn't have lunch there today but they still had the .99 breakfast and a Wednesday special was a $7.99 dinner of babyback ribs. I really wanted a coffee and some almond cake or Daim cake, but allowed Ken to talk me out of it when he said we were going to the Jewish deli for pastrami.

Thanks for the tips Woodie. I'll be sure to check it all out when I'm there. What are Princess Cakes, and why do you love them?

The Princess cake is light as air and fluffy and creamy - the marzipan (which I normally do not care for) is not a strong flavor at all. The first time I had it was in Sweden at my friends home and I fell in love.

Here is a link that might be useful: Princess Cake

Woodie, that sounds divine. Great. Another thing to look for!

I have a small lightweight cleaver that was made probably in the 1920s.

Mom found it and gave it to me for my Birthday one year.

It was in rough shape, very rusty, and I worked long and hard to get it cleaned up. I couldn't buff all the pits out of it, but I got it sharpened and it's like a razor.

If I have something heavy that I need to cut, I'll either use a hacksaw or a hatchet.

"I have a small lightweight cleaver that was made probably in the 1920s."

That reminds me, I've also seen a miniature cleaver shaped exactly like a meat cleaver, complete with the little hole, but intended for cutting and serving cheese.