One of the essential tools in my kitchen is a microplane. They come in multiple forms (e.g., zesters, graters, shavers) and shapes (long and narrow, fat and short, upright, hand-held, etc.). I have two long and narrow ones now - one zester and one grater. The microplane zester is just amazing compared to what came before it. On the old zesters most of what came off was mush and half the zest was left on the implement - let alone the not infrequent scraping of skin on the zester itself. With a microplane zester virtually all of the zest slides right off and in the perfect miniscule small gratings. You still have to be careful to avoid shearing off knuckle skin, but like a sharp knife, you have to use so little pressure that as long as your fingers are out of the way, you are much less likely to hurt yourself than with the old implements.
For a fascinating read on how the microplane came to be a kitchen implement, go to this New York Times article. To sum up, it seems the microplane was really meant for to be a rasp used on a hacksaw frame for woodworking, but found its way into the kitchen and many a cook's heart. While the Grace Manufacturing company may not be excited about producing a kitchen gadget, I am indebted to them and I wouldn't want to live without one. Do you remember the lime zest you need for making the killer margaritas I mentioned in a past post? The microplane is the only way to go. Your wrists, knuckles, and fingertips will thank you.
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