Blue Knife with Cheese and Crackers
The blue knife is a Joyce Chen kitchen knife. It has a blue handle, a painted blue blade and a blue sheath of hard plastic. To be honest, it may be a Joyce Chen knock-off. I don’t remember. I bought it when I was on a trip in Oregon, so I would have a knife in my hotel room to slice cheese and cut up nectarines.
The knife goes on trips with me. I take it out of the drawer and put it in the red Trader Joe’s insulated bag. Or, if it’s a day trip or a long walk, in the little bag with an apple, maybe, a peanut butter sandwich and a water bottle.
I don’t take the knife when I take plane trips. Clearly it’s not going into my carry-on, and if I have checked luggage it’s jammed so full I usually don’t have room for utensils. But on road trips, oh yes, on road trips the blue knife is king.
Sometimes the knife never makes it out of the bag. Some trips I eat out all the time, or the place I’m staying (like this one) provides breakfast and utensils… or I’m lying on the bed watching HBO and eating a bag of chips. You don’ t need a blue knife for that.
Sometimes the knife is vital for a piece of fruit or an impulse buy like a salami or a wedge of firm cheese. Sometimes, the knife just spreads hummus or cream cheese. More often, the knife splits open a lime or a lemon to add to my glass of ice and fizzy water. This is very important. What would I do without the blue knife in those situations?
Right now the blue knife sits on my table next to a melamine snack plate with an octopus painted on it. There is a wedge of cheese from my guest basket, and some crackers. How handy that I have the blue knife!