Thermal Flasks for the Kitchen

Thermal Flasks.

Let us all bask in the thermal flask's warm glowing warming glow.

I highly recommend you go pick up at least a couple of these babies for your kitchen.  You could of course use them for what they were originally intended, to hold beverages like coffee or tea or something... if you wanted to be lame.  Instead, use them for cooked items which you'd like to retain heat for long periods of time.  So... sauces, gravies, etc.  But also - here's the interesting bit - some actual food.  In this case, peas!

I don't like to cook my peas for very long; I can't abide overcooked vegetables, for two reasons:

Firstly, taste/appearance.  They're mushy, sodden, and pale.  I'd say they were flavourless (certainly nutrient-less), but they still retain a funky, fetid, old-Ukranian-household smell to them that I liken to boiled cabbage.  Just thinking about this makes me gag a little bit. 

Secondly, quality/utility.  What's the point of consuming something intended to nutrify, that you've leeched all the nutrients out of beforehand?  I ask you, I tells you.  I prefer most of my vegetables raw, and always have (you can ask my mother.)  So, when I do cook vegetables, I cook them the barest of minimums - the absolute least amount needed.  It suffices to say that I quickly became proficient in such techniques as steaming and blanching.

Anyway... because I don't cook my peas for very long, they get cold pretty fast if served in a bowl or dish.  I learned that quickly.  They're still thoroughly cooked, and actually quite "hot"... initially.  However, I found that by storing them in a thermal flask like this, they not only do not get cold during the meal, but are actually still piping hot for a very long time afterwards.  This works so well, I was delightfully surprised the first time.

It may not look great, so I wouldn't recommend this for entertaining... but someday I hope some cookware manufacturer might design something similar for this purpose.  I envision something shorter, but fatter, and possibly with a porcelain, ceramic, or stoneware exterior (matching whatever larger dishware set it accompanies), but within which temperamental foods can stay hot for the entire duration of a meal by means of a tightly-sealing cap and thermally-lined interior.