Scissors have always been one of our favorite kitchen tools—for trimming pastry, untying roasts, even cutting off octopus tentacles (see Preparing Octopus? No Problem!). San Francisco restaurateur Cecilia Chiang shares our sentiment: Scissors are her tool of choice when removing the stems of reconstituted mushrooms, which are pretty soft and squishy. Trying to prop one up while you cut off the stem with a knife, she says, is just too frustrating!