TVaddictlovesfood

Despite my love for fresh home-cooked meals, I must admit that instant noodles have a small place in my pantry. It is quite a guilty pleasure. Almost like chocolates. All the various Es' and chemicals in one packet that satisfies that midnight crave in ten minutes.

I haven't tried them all which explains why I still have most of my hair (there is a myth that eating too much instant noodles will give you cancer and makes you lose your hair). But I do like a couple:

1) Prima Taste Singapore Curry Noodles
The portion is very generous. You can easily share a packet with a friend. It does take more than 10 minutes to cook but when done well, it is almost the real deal. What I love most about it is that the manufacturer finally understood that pots are not square. Their dried noodles are shaped into a round patty instead of a square patty and it fits easily into a pot without having to crack it into pieces. So your noodles remain in long strands. How clever!

Photo sourced from foodology.ca

2) Indomie Mee Goreng
This is my all time favorite. I remembered my dad used to bring home cartons from Indonesia when he was working there. These days they have many variations of it: extra spicy, chicken flavor, rendang flavor etc. I like the original.

Photo sourced from Amazon

3) Nissin Cup Noodle
I ate too many of them during my university years. Just add hot water and you are done! My favorite is the chicken flavor. It comes with dehydrated corn and spring onions, adding some luxury to the otherwise unhealthy and boring cup of soup noodles.

Photo sourced from Google

4) Myojo Mee
Anyone who grew up in Singapore in the 80s would remember their advertisement and jingle. I honestly don't remember how they taste. I just love their marketing campaign.

Anyway to round off this post, while googling for the various images off the internet, I found out that there is a blog (www.theramenrater.com) that reviews instant noodles all around the world! I wonder if the reviewers still have a full head of hair. Nevertheless I am proud that Prima Taste is in the top 10!

So Christmas is around the corner and you dread getting presents you don't want, especially from relatives or friends who don't know you well enough. Luckily for us, we have gone past this and tell our parents and friends what we like. Some might think that this misses the point. I don't agree. I am always much happier to get what I want and the giver is still happy as they are feel like they have given us something that we appreciate.

However if you would like to surprise your love ones who is a foodie with presents this holiday, here are some items you can consider.

1) Cold Press Juicer
This is one of those items that I would never have bought for myself. It is significantly more expensive compared to other juicers, and I wondered if I was going to use it enough to justify the cost. Once you have it, however, you will never buy another bottled juice from the supermarket again. This new technology of juicing retains more nutrients than the traditional centrifugal types. The pulp is collected via an outlet while the juicing happens, making it also easier to clean. For more details on the health benefits of a cold press juicer, you can read it here.

There are many brands out there offering this technology with its growing popularity. Find one that fits the size and budget.

2) Pans that can be used with almost any heat source
Our new place has an induction stove top. However, the pans that C & I both brought to our relationship were not induction ready. Also, they have plastic handles so I can't use them in the oven. I took the opportunity to splurge on a set of Le Creuset aluminum core series but they are worth it. Searing a filet mignon on the stove and straight into the oven to finish off to medium is much simpler now, saving me on the hassle to transfer it to a baking tray. You could probably find something less expensive but it is good to get something that you know can be used with almost any heat source.


3) Joseph Joseph set of chopping boards
After my culinary course, I now understand the importance of cross contamination. Most people get food poisoning from home cooking without even realizing. How often have you chopped your veg and use the same chopping board to dice up your chicken without giving it a good wash. Well, luckily for us, Joseph Joseph has come up with a stack of chopping board with clear labels for the home chefs to use without consuming too much space. With anti-slip rubber corners, it also prevents the board from moving about when chopping. The only downside is that it is just a little too small. So if anyone from Joseph Joseph is reading my blog, please make a bigger version.

http://www.josephjoseph.com/product/index-chopping-boards



4) A pair of kitchen scissors that comes apart
Something that every avid home chef should own is a good set of knives. However the tool which often gets forgotten is the scissors. Prior to my culinary course, I never gave much thought to scissors. A good pair of scissors can help you cut off fat from bones to render. What annoys me is that scissors are difficult to clean. As part of my school kit, there was a pair of Wusthof scissors. It's everything you expect a scissors to be and it comes apart for easy washing. There are no screws whatsoever. Just a really simple design that clicks into place once you are done cleaning and drying.


5) An experience gift
If they have it all, why not give them an experience gift such as learning to cook a new cuisine. There are many culinary schools that offers short classes in various types of cuisine. Anything from a day to five days, you would be able to find classes for thai, indian, traditional french or italian cuisine. Of course if you wish to splurge, you can always send them to the country to learn from the masters and have a little holiday while they are there.

So Christmas is approaching soon. I am off to do some shopping of my own.

Images from JosephJoseph and Amazon

I grew up on Indonesian food. Weird? Not so. Most of the domestic helpers my mom hired while I was growing up were Indonesians. In Singapore, it is a very common practice especially when you have both parents working full time and there was no such thing as parental leave those days.

I blog about these 3 places because they remind me of home. The food is very authentic. Their menu do not just feature the regular Beef Rendang or Babi Gambing which you can find in any place. If you are adventurous, do not order the rice table but from the ala carte menu.


Srikandi - For that special evening
The service is impeccable, the food is tasty and the ambience is traditional yet intimate. The price however is a little on the high side. If you do enjoy some kick, try the Ikan Bakar Jimbaran which is a dorade marinated in spicy balinese sauce and grilled in banana leaves.
Toko Ikan Mas
Eerste Constantijn Huygensstraat 61-HS, 

Another discovery on Harlemmerstraat - Ibericus

It's self explanatory. Legs of ham used as wallpaper. Iberico tasting and fresh Iberico sandwich made in front of you. What else is there to say?

Vegetarians should probably avoid this place.

Ibericus
Haarlemmerstraat 93
Amsterdam

In Amsterdam there are a few Italian gourmet food shops where you can grab a small bite while shopping for homemade fresh pasta or imported Italian cheese. Recently there is a number of similar speciality shops springing up in the city, focusing on other cuisines. Here are some that I discovered in the last 6 months.

Transilvania
When C and I decided to take a new path home in November and discovered this newly opened speciality store, he was like a kid in a candy store. After the last Romanian restaurant in Amsterdam shut down 5 years ago, you could only enjoy Romanian food if someone actually cooked it. This small little shop stocks from pre-packed desserts to fresh salty cheese which Romanians love so much. Some of the items I would say are an acquired taste, nevertheless, it is quite a trip for your senses.

• Transilvania
• Bellamystraat 6 hs
• 1053 BL Amsterdam,

Website

Olivity
Located on the Overtoom, this Greek speciality store stocks some imported and home made food products. They also have an open kitchen where you can watch your lunch being prepared. We ordered a Greek mountain tea which according to the owner is like Paracetamol to the local doctors. In any case, this is a great place to enjoy the "multi-purpose" mountain tea while reading a book on a rainy day.

• Olivity
• Overtoom 239
• 1054 HV Amsterdam, 
• Website

I think Portuguese food is highly underrated. Overshadowed by their Spanish counterparts, Portuguese food is honest yet creative. Take for instance Carne de Porco à Alentejana, the famous pork and clam stew. Who would have thought putting pork and clams together would create an amazing dish? In this small store located on the Haarlemmestraat, you can enjoy a cup of coffee together with their homemade pasteis de nata while browsing through their well stocked shelves of Portuguese delicacies.

Casa Bocage
Haarlemmerstraat 111A
1013 EM Amsterdam
Website

Recently Albert Heijn started to sell lactose free milk and yogurt. Since I am lactose intolerant living in a country full of cows and where people drink milk for breakfast, lunch and dinner; and I was starting to get sick and tired of soy milk and since they usually add sugar to soy milk to make it drinkable, I was really happy. But it got me thinking, what is in this carton of milk that makes it lactose free?

After some quick research, thankfully, I found out that the ingredients are pretty much the same as regular milk. The only difference is that an enzyme is added to the milk to break down the lactose into compounds, which lactose intolerant people can easily digest.

So now I am off to my nearby uncle AH to get my top up of milk. Lactose Free.

Were there ever moments when you are searching for an idea and when someone else has presented it to you, you wonder why didn't I think of that? Well this is exactly one of those moments.

2nd day in Bucharest.

We went to the local Christmas market on the university square. There were many stalls selling food and Christmas related items. They range from gloves made from sheep skin to gluhwein. One stall that caught my eye was a stall that sells Kürtőskalács.

Yes it is difficult to pronounce. Don't try. But it taste good. It is a type of Hungarian pastry a little bit like cinnamon rolls. They roll the pastry base into long cylindrical tubes and roast them over an open fire. Once they are done, they are rolled in a bed of sugar of your choice. I opted for cinnamon sugar. Delicios!

If you still don't know what I mean, here are a couple of photos.

Jamie Oliver and Philips came together to create a tool that can chop, stir, cook all in one tool. It's called the home cooker. So if you have to cook something like risotto which usually takes a long time, this home cooker will save you time and effort as it not only cooks the risotto in half the time (approximately), but also stirs the risotto constantly for you. To make the product even more attractive, a book of recipes created by Jamie Oliver is thrown for free with every home booker.

So I keep wondering why would someone need this. If you like to cook, this kind of takes away the joy of watching your dish transform in front of you. On the other hand, if you do have to balance a working life and making a healthy meal for your whole family, this could save you a lot of time.

Any how if you are interested in this product, check out the website. http://www.philips.co.uk/e/homecooker/home.html

As my boyfriend and I are discussing about moving out of our current place, I can't help but start wondering what items to buy if we get a unfurnished rental as our next place. So I started to wonder what are the top 10 items I can't live without in the kitchen.

10. A good pair of oven gloves
You will be so surprised how essential this is. I always manage to burn myself with the oven one way or another. I like these from KitchenGrip®. They are not only heat resistant, they are also slip resistant. You can get them at De Bijenkorf.


9. A trio of pots in sizes ranging from soup for 2 to soup for 6
I make soups quite often and I find it very useful to have 3 different sizes. When making soup for 4, you don't want to have the smallest pot filled three quarter full when you are using a handblender. Not fun cleaning up.

8. Two oven dishes of different sizes
Actually we had one large lasagne dish. But recently I started to make oven dishes for 2 and my boyfriend decided to buy a smaller one. Now we cook just enough for 1 meal. So we make sure we don't eat too much left overs.

7. A whisk
For the many pancake mornings we have, including those at K & R's when I crashed over at their place after 1 night of Malushkas.

6. A multi-cooker
I am Chinese and I like to eat rice. So I bought the multi-cooker actually only to cook rice. But I find that it is actually pretty useful. You can stew, reheat and steam with this little thing. Set it on a timer and it switches to "keep warm" mode after the cooking is done. So after your shower, you can still expect to get soft warm rice. I got mine from Philips but I think the Japanese brands such as Zojirushi are better.


5. A set of 3 mixing bowls.
Again, very useful. You can use them for making dough, serving a salad, and even serving chips at a party. I like these Melamine ones from World Market.


4. Small and large frying pans
This is pretty obvious.

3. A wok
Actually my parents used to cook everything in a wok. They even steam using wok. So actually a wok is even more useful than frying pans and multi-cookers. If you ask any Singaporean, they will say that the wok is the best. In hawker centers in Singapore, every hawker owner has a huge pot. They cook everything from fried noodles to chili crabs in it.

2. A good set of knives
I get so tired from cutting using blunt knives. I don't need many knives. Just 3. Bread knife, a large blade knife and a fruit knife. Everything else is extra. My dream is to own these beautiful Japanese knives from Global®. This is also a hint to anyone who has no clue what to get me for Christmas.
1. A stable chopping board
Very common but not very obvious. There are so many cheap and lousy chopping boards around. You can spend anything from €3 from Ikea to €40 made from organic bamboo. My only criteria is that they do not warp in the dishwasher. I opt for these from JosephJoseph™. They are not called Big Foot™ for nothing.
That's it. So what is your top 10?

While I am in Moscow this week, my colleagues brought me to a really beautiful supermarket. It is called Eliseevsky. It is so beautiful that I had to buy something.

I am meeting a colleague from Singapore who is visiting next week for dinner and strangely, he asked me "so do you have any cravings?" I found that surprising coming from someone who is visiting since it is usually the host who ask the guest. He replied that since I am the one who has been away from home, I must have some cravings. But then I realise that actually no. I opted for Italian.