How about tomato and eggs?

Nachos?

Mag, this is an oven. Why would you make soup in an oven??? (Take Geezer's advice...use a pot.) As for the nachos, I think it would do an awesome job. I've made nachos in a convection oven before and the result is excellent.

Geez, you mean like a tomato omelette? If so, that's one thing I'd cook on the stovetop, myself. (In a skillet.) Or, are you referring to something else?

Because I thought you were suggesting that you only keep this in your kitchen.

Sham, did I say omelet? No, my newbie friend, I meant tomato and eggs a popular Chinese dish made and eaten throughout most of China. Todmato and eggs are far better than steak and, yuk, eggs.

Anyway, I guess you cant do 火锅 either.

Mag...no, I bought this so I would be able to bake and broil. I have quite a nice, liliputian kitchen. Two burner gas cook top, miniature dual well sink, and some really badly laid out cabinets. I've got a rice cooker, a wok, a skillet, and a couple of pots. I've also got all the utensils I need. What I lacked was any way to do convective cooking. (I've never had much use for microwaves...and I don't even use the one I have back home.)

Geez, it's spelled "omelette" and you wrote "tomato and eggs". You didn't say Chinese tomato and eggs. Sloppiness cometh before a fall, my friend. (BTW - tomatoes and eggs are cooked in a lot of ways, by a lot of people around the world.) And, no...my geezerly-inclined friend, there is no such thing as "better". There is only "different". :)

(BTW - Why is it so important to you to vindicate your manner of cooking??)

Sham, omelet is just fine.

dictionary.reference.com/browse/omelet?s=t

Gosh, pardon me for thinking that as we are both in China, and tomato and eggs are pretty popular in China, that you wouldn't make the leap to a tomato and egg omelet (a pretty sorry omelet that). Thanks for your homely my friend but being overly, and incorrectly, critical can get you egg on your face. :-)

I am not vindicating my cooking, it is just different from yours. You use UV from a halogen lamp. Guess your Physics is different than mine. As I remember it, halogen lamps emit heat in two ways. First the intense light which is primarily infrared and, secondly, the physical construction results in a physically hot bulb.

Like Magni, I too thought you had eschewed all other "gadgets" as you had found the single wondrous device that would only ever be needed. It is nice to learn your missionary zeal for halogen cookery does allow for other ways to cook.

And lastly, there is a "better." Especially if you allow opinions. You do allow opinions I hope.

Geez,

The "omelette" is a French innovation, so I choose to pay homage to its ancestral origins, through my spelling. However, if the Anglo-cized knock-off spelling is good for you....well...why the hell not? It takes all types! :) By the way, I think you meant to write "homily"....not "homely". (Is this going to be a continuing problem??) Geez...what is that on your face, dude? Egg, maybe?? What did I tell you about sloppiness?? :))

No difference in physics, my friend. You're just partially incorrect. :)

Ultraviolet light (which is 10-400nm on the overall spectrum) is invisibly present in both natural (sun) and certain artificial varieties of light. This includes halogen lighting. In fact, most halogen light fixtures have both a anti-UV coating on the lamp and a glass UV filter covering the lamp. Unfilitered, halogen lamps are one of the most intense sources of UV light. UV light has a shorter wavelength. You may find this Wiki page of interest:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halogen_lamp

By contrast, infrared red light (which is 1-700nm on the overall spectrum) has a longer wavelength, while still occupying an invisible part of the spectrum. You may find this Wiki page of interest:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared

There are basically only 3 ways to cook: a) conduction, b) convection, and c) radiation. Radiation is a wet process that can (presently) only be done in a microwave oven. Conduction requires that the food contact a hot surface so that heat is transferred into it. Convection occurs from exciting the molecules that surround the food (either through gas, or liquid) in order to infuse heat into the food. My particular oven cooks food primarily using convection, created by intense radiant UV light, aided by forced air agitation.

Both UV and IR can be used to cook food (or, anything else).

Lamp cookers emit heat in ONLY one way: radiant heat from the lamp that excites air and/or liquid molecules, thus producing convection. The "bulb heat" that you refer to IS radiant heat. (Lamps never make conductive contact with the food.) Almost all of the heat comes from light. This is essentially what the sun does to the Earth.

The product I bought is advertised as UV...and something happened this week to prove it. When I was younger, I worked in a photo lab of a printing company. We did lots of transfer work with UV processes. I accidentally recreated one of those processes on my countertop, when I left my shopping list lying next to my UV oven. The light expose actually leeched the yellow and blue pad pigments (along with some of the writing) onto my counter top. Not only is it UV light....its intense UV light.

But, don't feel bad, Geez. There are other similar products that advertise IR as the lamp source. But, some seem a bit UV-like to me. (Many people mistake anything with a red lamp to be infrared, but infrared is actually invisible. This means any visible light not infrared.)

I'm not sure why you would get the impression that I wanted to make this my one-stop cooker. (Didn't you see the earlier part of the thread...or, the microwave thread before that?? I've always been looking for a way to bake and broil.) I'm afraid your inference was wrong, my friend.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but "better" implies a standard, uniform criteria for that object that you are referring to. In other words, anyone who believes in a universal concept of "better" believe that everyone should like the same things. In my opinion, all taste is subjective...therefore, there is no such thing as a universal standard when it comes to the concept of "delicious". To impose your tastes on others is a bit presumptuous, to say the least.

Regarding the person who wrote...uh...hem...this:

"Todmato and eggs are far better than steak and, yuk, eggs..."

The statement was intended to impose a person opinion on someone else and render a value judgment. I think that qualifies as presumptuous.

(By the way, it's spelled "T-o-m-a-t-o".) :)

you say to-may-to

I say to-mah-to
let's call the whole thing off

LOL...bravo, Mag. :)