BIGGER IS BETTER, AND EASIER TO CLEAN TOO

It was almost a year ago that the better half bought me the original Hamilton Beach Meal Maker Express Indoor Grill 25300 . Her reasoning was simple to try and reverse the effects of three plus decades of fast food addiction on my poor body. As I noted at the time I loved it. To be honest I don't mind cooking at home, but at times for one it's time consuming and inconvenient. This changed all that and I found myself using it daily.

I really don't know if it had the effect on me that she was looking for. Mind there is a lot of abuse raked up there and it may take more than twelve months of eating healthy to overcome it. On the plus side my waist size while not going down a size has stayed constant. The only tangible difference I've noted is that several take out fast food business' near my place have gone out of business in the past year. I'm sure that's just a coincidence though.

Last week I got a nice surprise when I came home late after putting in a few extra hours at ye olde Gerbil factory. The better half had shown up and was preparing a home cooked meal for me. She'd already put a couple of potatoes in the oven to bake and was in the process of making up a salad. Sitting on the counter were a couple of nice chicken breasts she'd already marinated.

Hey this kind of surprise I enjoy. My culinary plans for that evening had been to crack open a can of corn beef hash and eat it cold out of the can in front of the TV. It was too cold to even consider going across the street or grab take out from the one remaining place in the area.

I offered to help but was told no. "Just check your e-mails and relax on the couch or something. Dinner will be ready in a minute." Hey much as I was really getting into this June Cleaver fantasy, I figured I'd better do something. So I went and turned on the grill to let it warm up before dropping the chicken on it.

After five minutes I presumed it was hot enough so I tossed the meat and went back to the living room. In ten minutes chicken dinner and prime time TV. Life doesn't get any better.

Ten minutes passed and lo and behold the chicken wasn't done. The grill was turned on but it was still cold. We stared at it, poked around a bit and came to the inevitable conclusion that it was broken. Hey both of us are graduates of higher reading and writing school.

The better half now asked what we were going to do for dinner, as raw chicken breast isn't really number one on either of our palettes. My suggestion to dump the whole thing into the garbage and head across the street to Good Tymze my favourite sports bar for wings and beer to wash it down with did not go over well.

Eventually I fumbled around in the cupboards and found a frying pan. That impressed me as I thought I'd tossed it out after I got the grill. We fried up the chicken and to be honest it wasn't too bad, Not as good as had we used the grill, or as good as chicken wings either, but not bad.

Later after examining the grill I realised that it wasn't working. We dragged out the warranty and confirmed it was still covered. The next day at work I called Hamilton Beach and was given the addresses and phone numbers of a couple of places in Toronto where I could take it to be repaired. The warranty specifically stated not to return it to the place we'd bought it at.

The better half was also calling around regarding it. Not having the warranty in front of her, she called the store where she bought it The Hudson's Bay Company. They told her to just bring it in and they'd replace it.

Saturday rolled around and We dragged it over to the "Bay" customer service department. I was of course expecting a major hassle even though we had the bill, the warranty, and I'd, ok she'd, wiped off and cleaned up the grill before coming over. Surprisingly there were no problems. They took it back and said to grab another one and bring it to the desk.

Now there was problem. The "Bay" didn't carry this model anymore ( bet you were wondering the whole purpose of this review up till now eh). They had two other similar ones though. A smaller version similar to mine and a newer larger version, the Hamilton Beach Meal Maker Express Contact Grill 25325 . The price on the little one was about the same as the one we'd turned in. The love of my life, ever practical, had bought it on sale. The really good larger one was about $20.00 more.

The first one was really too small for us. It might be ok for a single person, but the one drawback we'd noticed with the one we'd just turned in was the smallish cooking surface. Obviously going down a size was not the way to go. The second one though seemed like the right choice. Hey I'm going to be cooking for two on a regular basis in a couple of months anyway.

The ever helpful customer service said we could take either and he'd give us store credit for the one we returned. So $20.00 poorer we hurried home to try our new toy. Even though we try and eat out on Saturday, there was no way we were going to wait to test it out. We ran over to the local grocery store and grabbed some chicken souvlaki and prepared to cook. (Yeah I know there's a chicken thing going on here, but like I said someone is trying to get me to eat healthy.)

This model is very similar to the one it replaced. Cooking time, ease of use and other features are almost identical to the Hamilton Beach Meal Maker Express Indoor Grill 25300. Therefore I won't go into details here as I'd just be repeating the information in my original review (I wouldn't want to be caught self plagiarising by the spelling Gestapo now would I).

There are a few major differences though worth noting. All of them are improvements on the earlier model, which I guess is the whole idea of releasing this version in the first place. First of all is the colour. The original was in white, this one has a sleek black finish.

Now being a guy, I just thought great it's cooler looking sitting there on my counter top. Hey come on black is just cooler than white right. Little Ms. Practical though pointed out that stains and grease spills wouldn't show up as much on a black surface as on a white one. That's actually an important factor considering my rather laisser faire approach to kitchen cleaning. Or at least it will be for the few months of bachelor hood I have remaining.

Second is the size. Overall this one is larger than it's predecessor as I noted. Not too much bigger as to cause a major reorganisation of where things go in the kitchen, but bigger in the one place that counts. The grilling surfaces are about 20-25% larger I'd say.

This is an important factor when cooking for two or more. There was more than adequate space to cook something for one person with the original. For two though we often had to open the top and cook on both surfaces. This slows down the cooking time considerably. This of course defeats the whole purpose of this appliance.

No more with the new improved model. We can easily cook enough for two with the lid closed. In fact the chicken souvlaki looked rather tiny and insignificant on the grilling surface. The only need to open the lid and double the cooking surfaces would be for larger portions say dinner for four or more. Neither of us plan on entertaining much at home.

Finally we come to the most important improvement, at last as far as I'm concerned. One of the attractions of the original was the ease of cleanup. One just wiped the non stick grills with a damp cloth, and you were done. Great unless of course you forgot to do it right after cooking.

Trust me trying to scrape that mess clean the next day is not fun. Remember you can't damage the special non stick coating of the grill, so no abrasive materials could be used. Somehow paper towels and/or the puny little plastic scraper they give you just don't cut it.

The new model has removable grilling surfaces. You can pop them out, after they cool down of course, and wash them in the sink or even the dishwasher. Sure you can still wipe them down while attached to the rest of the grill, but if you forget, then no more scrapping with that pathetic plastic paddle.

Not of course that I would deliberately forget to immediately wipe down the grilling surfaces after cooking, but accidents happen. Hey sometimes there's something really good on the tube and you forget, or the commercial breaks aren't long enough. This one is to be honest even more bachelor proof than the last one.

Well I just checked, the better half isn't joining me for dinner tonight. I think I'll stop by the grocery store on the way home from work and grab a nice steak. I think it's time I gave this new baby a real test drive.