When the unrest in Egypt took place, the farthest thing on my mind was how it would affect us. Then, trouble in the Middle East broke out. Soon, prices of oil had gone up and everything else followed. Now, I feel the pinch.
Anyone who has a business is somehow affected. My small fast food outlet in Makati has been on crisis mode ever since the tenants of the building started moving out to new offices at the Fort or else where. Now, everyone is trying to cut down on costs and the last thing anyone needs or wants is a price increase in their meal dishes. So, we find ways to adjust!
A couple of months ago, I came across a local engineer who invented an oven, griller and burner using charcoal. For over 30 years, he had been in the business of making and selling Ceramic. One day, his son asked him to make an oven just to bake pizza for a birthday party he was going to celebrate. The oven became an instant hit and started a craze among friends. One of his guests, foodie Danny Dingkong was looking around for an oven to bake anything in. They brain stormed and the rest is history.
Today, Jerry Yu has perfected the oven that is made from ceramic fire bricks. Temperatures of these ovens go as high as over 600 degrees and can finish a nice, crusty and bubbling pizza in less than 3 minutes. It can also bake fluffy and moist cakes, nicely browned roast chickens and anything a normal convection oven can do. The ovens come with temperature gauges. His barbecue grillers are also a winner. The use of charcoal is very minimal and the heat it retains lasts a long long time. His burners have better efficiency that your ordinary table tops. He has invented one that can make his burners high pressure with the switch of a tiny fan attached to the side of the burner. It has the same principle as blowing on the burning charcoal to stimulate the fire. They are all smoke free except the grillers.
The principle behind it is the charcoal is heated using small pieces of coal soaked in denatured alcohol. This starts the heating of the rest of the coals. It takes just a few minutes for the other coals to heat up. The ceramic bricks then absorb the heat and retains it. When the bricks are hot enough, the consumption of coal drops significantly and all one has to do is to drop a few coals to retain the heat. Heat is controlled by sliding shut or open windows on the side and cutting the air off or letting it in. This too helps in saving some of the coals for future use. Except for the grillers, both the ovens and burners are self cleaning. Because of the high heat, almost nothing gets stuck on the hot bricks. Powdered and used coal fall from holes in the bricks into a pan that slides out for easy cleaning. For the burners, pans do not get black at the bottom. For the ovens, the heat is equally distributed all over. For the grillers, there is hardly any smoke except for the sauce dripping on the charcoal. The 2 others are smoke free.
I have used his products in my fast food outlet. For all my grilled items, I consume 15 pesos worth of coals grilling the whole morning. For cooking the rest of the food items as well as tenderizing meat, I use his high pressure burners just to jack up the heat then lower them when I get the right temperature. My gas consumption has dropped by half and they work as efficient with a fraction of the cost. In fact, I have been suspected of tampering with the gauges with the sudden drop in gas consumption. I am in the process of going 100% ceramic energy. I have also began using this in my home to cook anything. Every home and restaurant should use this. That should drop the demand and lower our prices. Charcoal consumption is very minimal.
Every home that wants to cut down on costs should have these. Jerry does custom made models depending on ones needs. Seeing is believing. Call Jerry for a demo or visit his showroom. You will not believe what these energy savers can do. Prices? Very reasonable and tons of savings.
This is how I’ve adjusting in this crisis. Now, I have to find something to replace gasoline. Hay, buhay!
COMES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
HAPPY EATING!
***March 31, 2011, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Lifestyle Section***
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