# Tamarind cutting boards



## Noodle Soup (Mar 18, 2015)

I'm just back from another trip to Thailand and 4 different cooking schools there. Like usual, I can away wanting one of the large market stall size tamarind log cutting blocks. I found the shop that sold them but didn't know a way to get one home. Import Foods.com sells a version but I consider it too small for serious use. Anyone know a source for large size tamarind blocks in the U.S.?


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## Asteger (Mar 18, 2015)

Just checked on the importfoods site where the boards are 9" across and apparently weight 6lbs. Just curious, what was the size you saw and liked in Thailand?


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 18, 2015)

They offer every possible size in Thailand but the market meat cutter models probably start at around 14-inches and go up to maybe 24-inch or so. The big chopping models are 4 or 5-inches thick too. I have one of the Importfoods models already and it is just too small for any serious food prep. I know I can get by with the 16-inch Boos maple Asian style chopping block I already have but you know how it is. I just want to try what the real pros use where ever I have been.


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## Asteger (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks. Maybe your baggage limit was the problem? I wonder if you could bring one of these as carry on? :dontknow:


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 18, 2015)

Lets just say weight limits are a major handicap for me on trips. No way I can make it home with a 50 pound limit. I bought two extra bags in Chiang Mai, one to check and one for carry on. Both had 25-30 pounds of bring backs in them. Things like a container of 1.5 kilos of chicken bourgeon powder and 3 kilos of palm sugar.  And avoid transiting through Vancouver B.C. on your way home! Even though I was on my way to the U.S., Canadian custom put me through the hardest inspection I have ever been through on a trip. That includes places like Viet Nam and China. Did they really think I had something taped to the soles of my feet?


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## Roger (Mar 18, 2015)

You could have used the postal services, shipping it to you. Good luck with your search.


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 18, 2015)

Can you say that from experience in Thailand Roger? I haven't tried it there but shipping things back from foreign countries has been a very mixed bag for me. About a 50/50 chance of receiving anything from a third world post office. And then there is the problem of finding a large box etc. in a strange place.


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## Asteger (Mar 18, 2015)

Noodle Soup said:


> ... shipping things back from foreign countries has been a very mixed bag for me. About a 50/50 chance of receiving anything from a third world post office.



I've shipped to loads of places. Only time something has ever been lost: package to the US, and US Post was the culprit.


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## knyfeknerd (Mar 18, 2015)

I thought tamarind wood was kinda poisonous.


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 18, 2015)

If it is, no one told folks in South East Asia. It is used all over Thailand, Viet Nam, the Philippines and probably Cambodia and Laos (I haven't been to the last two as a civilian) for cutting and chopping blocks.


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 18, 2015)

Getting back to my original question. If not tamarind, does anyone know of a U.S. source for heavy log section type chopping blocks? I know about the pine ones Wok Shop sells but that doesn't seem like the right kind of wood to me. I have access to plenty of standing timber on my own land but I have never had any luck drying and seasoning a "pad" for a cutting block. They always end up checking and cracking too bad for use.


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## natto (Apr 10, 2015)

Nearby is a shop with one chop block left. It is about 20" * 4" and has a crack which makes a third or more of it useless. They had written some Chinese and 85(EU) on it, wondering what it says. Next visit I will know how much it is. 

I like this piece of wood, but have no idea from which tree it is made, or how the crack will develop? Any help would be appreciated!

@noodle soup
I hope it is ok to join, to gather information about chop blocks in one thread.


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## Noodle Soup (Apr 10, 2015)

Fine with me. I asked one Thai knife seller on E-bay but was told he wasn't interesting in shipping large heavy objects to the U.S. Probably reasonable.


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## natto (Jun 14, 2015)

The wok shop has chop blocks made of ironwood or pine.

wokshop

The description says


> This wood may crack, does not warp or splinter. Soaking periodically will eliminate cracks magically.


, so the one I saw might be better than worthless.


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## XooMG (Jun 14, 2015)

Sorry not much help here, but I'm going to be picking up a round block of &#28879;&#24515;&#30707; wood (_Michelia compressa_ variant)...popular for choppers in Taiwan but not well known elsewhere.

Have had poor luck hunting for end grain laminate boards like folks have abroad.


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## Keith Sinclair (Jun 14, 2015)

Chinatown here carries a variety of chopping blocks. Most are round up to the tree trunks. It would not be practical at all to ship by mail or try to carry butcher blocks. These come off of large cargo ships like the rest of the items in the Chinese kitchen supply store.


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

Just came back from another trip to Thailand. I found some great tamarind chopping blocks in Bangkok's China town, somewhere between 25 to 30 inches in diameter (I didn't have a tape.) and about 5-inches thick. Wow, where they heavy, felt like about 50 pounds each. Roughly $60 U.S. But I still don't know how to get something like that home. It would take one dedicated suitcase to fly home with it in checked luggage for sure. Wish someone would import a shipping conex box or 10 of them over to the U.S.


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## Asteger (Mar 23, 2016)

You could do what I (tried to) do in Vietnam last year. With the block too big and heavy for the suitcase, I attempted to carry it with me in a backpack, but the airport security wouldn't allow it. I guess some Hanoi airport staff member's grandmother somewhere might be home chopping away on it as we speak.

In my case, it cost a lot less though. $10 maybe? Forget. I bought it in a normal market and not in a big city, and a Vietnamese got the price for me first. If $60 then I would probably have had a different plan.


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## mikedtran (Mar 23, 2016)

Question on how these types of boards are on knife edges? Should these only be used for cleaver usage or is this ok for gyutos etc?


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

They seem to work fine for Thai style chopping and slicing. I don't know about hard edged Japanese gyutos but I don't think it would be a problem. Most of the real Asian chopping blocks are made of fairly soft wood by choice. 
As for backpacking a block home, you would need a serious military style pack to bring this one home. No way it would have ever come close to fitting in the pack I wear on these trips. Probably be too large for the overhead then.


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## Asteger (Mar 23, 2016)

Noodle Soup said:


> As for backpacking a block home, you would need a serious military style pack to bring this one home. No way it would have ever come close to fitting in the pack I wear on these trips. Probably be too large for the overhead then.



Whoa, military pack? This is serious! Bit o'camouflage, swing through security, then stick it under the seat in front?


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

Too big for in front of the seat. I'm not looking for some little cheese and cracker appetizer cutting board.  As per my standard SOP on these trips, I bought a new suitcase there and filled it with my play tools, knives, kitchen gadgets, sharpening stones etc. 37 pounds worth. A 50 pound chopping block might have been a little over the top.


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## Asteger (Mar 23, 2016)

Noodle Soup said:


> Too big for in front of the seat. I'm not looking for some little cheese and cracker appetizer cutting board.



Get you. Floor camouflage then? Feet on top, feign innocence? Colour depends on airline.

Too bad.... I'm imagining this baggage carousel as a few new arrivees start to congregate. A beeper goes off, suddenly it starts to turn. Suitcase... suitcase... another suitcase... and then, one gigantic board from Thailand. Could be worth the trip alone


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## Noodle Soup (Mar 23, 2016)

Hey, you are the one that told they took yours away from you in Hanoi.  The last time I was in Hanoi I bought a coke out of a vending machine at the boarding gate. Before I could even open it, they started loading the plane. The "NVA" (I'm a Nam vet) security at the gate threw a fit about me trying to get on the plane with liquids. But I bought it out of that machine 20 feet away!!


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## DanHumphrey (Mar 25, 2016)

Noodle Soup said:


> Hey, you are the one that told they took yours away from you in Hanoi.  The last time I was in Hanoi I bought a coke out of a vending machine at the boarding gate. Before I could even open it, they started loading the plane. The "NVA" (I'm a Nam vet) security at the gate threw a fit about me trying to get on the plane with liquids. But I bought it out of that machine 20 feet away!!



Surely you don't expect airport security to be _reasonable_, do you?


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