I had never made spätzle before, but have always loved them when I had them in restaurants. Sadly, there are no German restaurants here, so I decided to learn to make them myself. It didn't make any sense to me to buy a cheap version, as I wanted to be able to put it in the dishwasher, and didn't want one which would just have to be replaced relatively soon. This is thoughtfully designed, with no seams in the metal which would come in contact with the dough with normal use), and extremely well made, using high quality materials! I can't believe how easy it was to make delicious, properly seasoned, homemade spätzle with this spätzlehobel. I mixed the dough (1 cup flour mixed with a pinch of salt, some freshly grated nutmeg, and a few turns of grated pepper, made a nest in the flour, then mixed in 2 eggs beaten with 1/4 cup milk, and added more milk until it would pour off a spoon in a thick string, similar to crêpe batter, and let it rest while I brought the salted water to a boil. I sprayed the plane and hopper lightly with oil, put them back together and placed them over the pot. Almost all of the dough fell through the holes on its own, forming lovely little dumplings/noodles, and I barely needed to move the hopper, which slid very easily. The whole process was so quick that the metal did not have a chance to overheat, and the spätzle cooked in about two minutes once they'd all popped to the surface. After draining, I sautéed the spätzle in butter until they started to brown lightly (next time I'll add onion). It was much easier to make than I'd thought it would be, and we really enjoyed them. Cleanup was a snap: I just took the spätzlehobel apart, rinsed the two pieces, and put it in the dishwasher. I'm so glad I didn't get a cheap model, that wouldn't hold up well, or would be difficult to clean, as I'm sure this will get plenty of use!