Not all things I find in thrift stores are easy to identify. Take this thing:
When I first found it, I thought it was some kind of sculpture. It looked like it could be an arm or leg of a statute. It was made out of stone or concrete. This was reinforced by the tag I found with it that I assumed belonged to it, but it wasn't attached so I was making a leap of faith.
I went to Kheops International's web page. They were still in business, but there wasn't anything that resembled this. So I wrote their customer service and sent them some photos of the thing.
In the meantime I kept using Google Lens to try and identify it. If you haven't used Google Lens, it is an option to have Google search for an image you upload to try and find similar things. Some times it is spot on. Other times it is random. But after a few searches, I thought I found something that resembled the weird stone arm or leg.
It came up several places looking like a traditional Indonesian pestle called an ulek-ulek. It is typically used together with a mortar called a cobek to grind and crush spices, herbs, and other ingredients into pastes and sambals (chili sauces) that are essential to Indonesian cuisine. The ulek-ulek is usually made from stone or wood, and its shape allows for an effective grinding motion to release the flavors of ingredients such as chilies, garlic, shallots, and ginger.
Sure enough, the customer service people at Kheops International confirmed that it was indeed a traditional Indonesian pestle sans its mortar.
Go figure. I search Goodwill the next few days hoping to find the cobek to my ulek. But alas, either someone had snagged it or it got broken or tossed by the original owners and they threw the ulek into the Goodwill donation pile. Thing is, together, the traditional Indonesian Mortar and Pestle would be worth about $150. Who knows what a lonely ulek is worth? I figured it had to be worth at least a fourth of what a mortar and pestle would cost together and listed it on eBay for $45. Maybe there is someone out there with a cobek just dying to find an ulek.
You never know.
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