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Homecooked meals are the way to counter increasing food prices

My hubby and I went to have breakfast this morning. Just the two of us spent RM28 on one plate of fish head fried beehon and a single portion of bak kut teh! Ouch! It is ridiculous to pay RM12 for a single portion of bak kut teh which contains only a few pieces of meat. No rice, no yau char kuay, no nothing.

The fried beehon meanwhile is enough to feed only one big eater and it costs RM12 too. Never again will I go to Gurney Drive for breakfast.

Anyway, I have to be home to prepare meals for a relative. Since I am already all sweaty in the kitchen, I have been cooking the family meals more often.

Dishes are nothing elaborate but simple dishes. I see so many people suffering in the hospitals and I guess their diet have a lot to do with their health too. So many have diabetes and their huge, blackened swollen foot are enough to warn me to eat healthily. Hahaha, food blogs aren’t suppose to contain gory stuffs like these but it is true.

Deep fried white pomfret which my kids love. The older ones will chew away the crispy tails and fins while I like the crispy heads. What’s left will be just the middle piece of bone.

Some potato, leek, tomato and carrot stew. Really easy to prepare and the gravy is delicous with white rice.

Spinach soup I made with yoke-chok (a kind of bark), red dates, ikan bilis and century eggs. Refreshing and easy to eat.

Start learning to cook now before the price of foods get ridiculously high. Learn from my blog.

Popularity: 42% [?]

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Al dente spaghetti

Many people are afraid of making pasta because of their earlier, failed experiences of boiling the perfect pasta and especially spaghetti.

Some expensive, high class restaurant still failed in this art of getting the spaghetti to be just al dente, i.e. not too hard and not too mushy. There is nothing more turn off than to pay for a lot of money and when you ask for ‘al dente’, the waiter goes…”huh? our sauce is tomato”. *roll eyes*

Al dente means -

The term comes from Italian and means “to the tooth” or “to the bite”, referring to the need to chew the pasta due to its firmness. The term is also very commonly used as a name for Italian restaurants around the world. (source : wiki)

Both hubby and I are very particular in getting our pasta to taste just right the right bite. Therefore, if you are buying pasta, always pay more for pasta from Italy with durum wheat as the ingredient. Never settle for cheaper ones from the hypermarket. I had got a batch of mushy macaroni and swear off forever from buying pasta that costs two bucks cheaper.

The other thing that most people have problem is figuring out how much pasta is needed per person. A regular pack of say, spaghetti usually weighs 500 grams. 500 grams normally can feed 6 regular (Asian) eaters. However, if you look at recipe books, they normally say it is enough for four.

I had been to Italy for almost a month and after looking at the portion those Italians serve, I think I will grow very fat if I eat like them.

Boiling long pasta like spaghetti needs the right pot. I do not have that. So I normally use my wok and fill it with water and let it boil vigorously. Then, I add in a teaspoon of salt and generous amount of olive oil. After that, add the spaghetti.

Now, the tricky part is following the instructions on the packet. Many of the brands use marketing gimmicks like ‘quick boil, serves in five minutes’ etc to get people to choose their brands. The best way to know if you spaghetti if just al dente is to keep testing it.

It shouldn’t have a hard middle part. So, keep testing, strand by strand until you feel a nice bite to is and strain the pasta immediately. Pour some olive oil to keep it from sticking together.

Boiling smaller size pasta takes lesser time and it is only with some trials you get to learn how long it takes to get the right pasta.

When you have mastered the art of boiling spaghetti, you will discover that it is one of the easiest food to prepare. Just a sprinkle of salt, pepper and olive oil with some cheese on top will make it delicious already.

IN BRIEF :

1) Use lots of water
2) Leave water to boil vigorously before adding pasta
3) Keep checking and tasting if the pasta is cooked

Popularity: 38% [?]

Foodbuzz sent me some Moo!

Great things come to me lately. Earlier, I received a cheque in the mail from Nuffnang. Then, after that, I received some expensive samples of body detox program (which I haven’t started ).

Today, when I came back from lunch, I found an evelope from the USA. I am surprised because I wasn’t expecting anything from USA. Upon opening, I found these cute yet classy moo minicards sent by FoodBuzz.

In case you do not know, moo minicards are printed and handpacked in London, England. The material is not like any other namecards but it has this velvety feel to it. The size is so unique. Most of all, those coloured foods on the other side of the cards are absolutely stunning.

Most of all, I have always been ‘card-less’ ever since I become a full time blogger three years ago. It is kind of embarrassing jotting down my URL on pieces of old receipts, serviette and just about anything and pass it to people when they ask.

Now, I got my very own, very stylish card with the food blog URL. Actually, I normally do not reveal that I have a personal blog but rather tell people about this food blog. I do not want those nice people to get a culture shock when they stumbled upon my personal blog when I was ranty.

Thank you Foodbuzz for the cards and of course, the nice community of food bloggers. Do read my FoodBuzz post and if you have a really nice food blog, you would want to join FoodBuzz too.

P/S : I have two stacks of cards because I have two great food blogs.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Online auctions

Some of you may have notice the recent increase in websites which offers online auctions. Sometimes, it is very interesting to browse around and check out what are some of the interesting things people put up for auction. The other day, I found a supplier for organic chicken. I tried to make enquiry but that online auction site have some problems and I failed to get a reply from the organic chicken supplier. I wanted to know if I can just buy one organic chicken and whether the chicken will be delivered to my doorstep like how other products are delivered.

Oh well, they should have get themselves a better platform if they are serious in setting up an online auctions site. Take for example, this eBid Online Auctions . They have organised their auctions according to countries and they have half a million auctions in 6,000 categories. What is best is there is no listing fees. According to them, they provide great value to their users with a $49.99 all you can eat tariff that goes against eBays charging per item. I believe they mean that you pay a one-time fee for everything.

There is also a Singapore eBid Online Auctions and you can buy or sell practically anything through their listings. I am looking for something for Easter and I think this Easter candy treat craft bags will come in nicely. By the way, Easter is on March 23rd, 2008 so you still have time to plan for some Easter shopping. The same supplier also have some lovely party favor muffin cups and these can be delivered to almost anywhere in the world. One can make payment by PayPal or credit cards.

I have never tried bidding or put up anything for auction before. I think I will be so addicted to these sort of things so I better stay away. However, if you love to shop, this is for you.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Useful information on webhosting articles

A friend who is also a food blogger asked me if she should also go dot com. Currently, she is hosted on Blogger and she heard that getting advertisers to place ads on Blogger’s blog has a slight disadvantage over own hosting. Of course, nowadays, most advertisers prefer own hosted blogs because they are more permanent than free provider. For example, a few Wordpress.com users found their blog accounts suspended and eventually shut down because of some misunderstandings over the terms of service.

For example, you cannot monetize your site if you are using Wordpress.com. So, don’t try to beat the system because eventually they will find out. From an online forum I participate, it has happened to a lot of people.

So, if you are serious about blogging and wish to continue doing so, then the best thing to do is to get your own hosting. Many people asked me for recommendation but I dare not commit eventhough I have two webhosts right now. One provides me the webmaster service as I am not good in dealing with the ground works of setting up a new site and the other one is cheaper but without any service. I am using both because I do not want my server to crash, leaving me blog-less.

If you wish to know more about what are the things you need to be aware of before you host your own blog, do read up webhosting articles which are available online. Find out what’s the cost and what are some of the terms you need to know like ftp, bandwith, diskspace and etc. Of course, the first thing you need to do is to think of nice name for your domain.

So, I hope this little post helps in your decision in going dot com.

Popularity: 9% [?]