Behold my latest kitchen gadget – the Egg Steamer Mini Ceramic Soup Bowl. Thanks to this cutie, I made my first quiche today. I used an egg, a big mushroom and some shredded cheese. There was something missing though – milk. So the end result was a little dry but I’m looking forward to more experiments.

And yes, it’s all cooked with the microwave oven. It must be the greatest invention ever! Hardly takes long to cook or heat up food. And when you are cooking for one, it’s not worth slaving over a stove top and spending all that time preparing a gourmet cuisine.

Eating out all the time is not really healthy either – you never know if they are using good quality ingredients or if their cooking oil has been recycled to death (for fried stuff).

So if you know of any proven microwave cooking recipes for one, drop me a word.

Image Credits

When I was working in PJ, life was peachy when it comes to catching up with friends. PJ is central to everything – many people I know either work or live there. The Curve, One Utama and Decanter (PJ & Bangsar) were our favourite haunts.

But those places and things I used to do are distant memories now. With my current work place and digs being in KL as well as the horrendous traffic on all roads linking KL to PJ, I hardly enter the PJ area these days.

The good news is, I get to see a lot of my friends staying and working in formerly remote areas like Puchong and Putrajaya. Not so remote anymore, hehe. The bad news is I am seeing less and less of my PJ friends.

Oh, when will someone hurry up and build a transporter??

I can’t wait for the day where I can yell, “Beam me up, Scotty!”

Now this is just darn hilarious.

Variety is the spice of life. Same goes with foodie friends. There’s not one person that I can hang out with that enjoys everything that I like. Or maybe there is but with time and distance constraints and such, it’s kinda hard to have one foodie buddy accompany me in all my foodie exploits.

But it’s not hard to find kakis (buddies) for separate foodie outings. These are the people whose ears perk up and hands go flying up whenever I mention the following words:

• Mushrooms
• Coffee
• Pork
• Wine and dine
• Japanese
• Seafood
• Steamboat
• Italiano
• Sinful desserts
• Western
• Budget makan
• Indian
• Strange-never-tried-before stuff

To all my foodies buddies, you know who you are. Thank you for enriching my life and it’s true – food tastes better when you are in good company who enjoys every morsel like you do.

I am still not fully recovered from the cold I contracted since I last blogged. This is despite an enjoyable holiday at Langkawi last week where the hot island weather made me feel chirpy in no time at all.

However, prior to the trip I was battling with fever for one whole week. To be honest, it was worrisome. I’ve never had fever for such a long duration and I had planned for the island holiday for so long that I simply must go on with the plan – fever or no fever.

Out of sheer desperation, I decided to try out a remedy that I have scoffed off before. I mean, I always thought that no one in their right minds would drink boiled Coke. Not unless they are in their death beds or something.

But when I was feverish and hacking my lungs out the day before my Langkawi trip, I knew I had to swallow humble pie and drink the darn boiled Coke.

My brother got me a regular can of Coca Cola and I boiled the contents in a small steel pot. There were some sinister sizzling noises and a burned caramel smell wafted from the nasty looking concoction. Eeeewww.

Once the coke boiled, I poured it into my mug and took a tentative sip. The gassiness of the Coke was long gone. In its place was an awfully sweet syrupy drink which tasted faintly like Coke. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. I finished the whole thing and waited for results.

The next morning, I woke up without fever. The cough was still there but I decided that I could live with it. I just couldn’t stand guzzling diabetes-inducing sugar laden water anymore. But at least the fever had gone. Boiled Coke works!

However, I still have an awful lot of phlegm in my system. The solution for reducing phlegm? Abstain from all sorts of dairy products :( So no more yummy milk, eggs, chockies and the likes for me until I get 100% better. I wonder if boiled Cokes work for phlegm, too. Hmmm..