Like many Israeli families, we have granite countertops.
Aesthetic considerations aside, their main advantage is that they can be kashered. (CYLOR for further details.)
Simply put, the process involves pouring copious amounts of boiling hot water over the counters. (Again, CYLOR, but I believe that every authority agrees that one isn’t yotzai if one hasn’t made the annual corny joke about nisuach hamayim on Pesach instead of Succot…)
Which brings me to the Great Lip Debate.
Most Israeli kitchens have a lip around the edge of the counter. The idea is that the hot water is thus somewhat contained.
However, the down side is that dirt inevitably gets stuck in the crack between the lip and the counter, and one has to resort to toothpicks to remove it.
And so, we opted for a lipless sink. (Random bit of trivia: “Lipless” is a real word. Who knew?)
Although some native Israelis believe that our counters are rather odd-looking, we feel that we made the right decision.
Where do you stand on this all-important issue?
