For years and years, I have called the rice cooker an indispensable appliance. My favourite cooker was a small National model, it cooks about 4 small cups max, and accompanied me when I was living on my own, and moved into our marital home. All in, it gave us nearly 20 years until we retired it, not because it wasn't working (actually it is still working), but because we decided we didn't want to continue cooking with aluminium pots. Most of the models of rice cooker in the stores are lined with teflon or similar material, I have never liked the idea though I have always been intrigued with the fuzzy logic-ness.
The only non-aluminium, non-coated pot we found in the local market is a Song-cho stainless steel model, but honestly, it didn't work for us. The steel doesn't conduct heat as reliably as aluminium and we ended up with terribly cooked, well, mostly under-cooked rice. I thought I was going to have to lapse back to my student method which was to cook rice on the stove. Not that dificult- basically bring rice and water to the boil, cover for 20 minutes and try not to open the lid to check in the meantime.
One day, a promoter at the Toyomi section at Taka B1 suggested steaming our rice. I was sceptical, but after a couple of tries, was sold on this method. It is quite fool-proof. Equal measure of water to rice. Steam for about 20 minutes. It varies with the quantity of rice, but after a few times one can easily get the hang of it. We use the Toyomi hot pot/ steamer which is essentially a kettle with steamer inserts. When we had no helper, this pot got us through some tough times - I would steam rice on one layer, steam a meat or fish dish on the second, and make a salad. Easy, mess-free dinners. Like this:
This was even more of a cheat, the canned dace is layered on top of the nearly cooked rice at the final stage of cooking. It was what I make for lunch when I was pressed for time and did not feel up to dealing with ubereat/deliveroo/foodpanda either.
Yea, this is a filler post. Haven't eaten anything remarkable these days, but if you curious, I post IG stories nearly every day. It's hard as we have a rather long and rigid list of places to avoid, it runs something like this:
- chains like Katrina, Tung Lok, some Crystal Jade. Exception: Imperial Treasure. That Sarawak kolo-mee place, it's not in the least authentic, but it serves a very good chicken curry noodle, especially if you don't eat the chicken.
- sous-vide: which rules out many roast or meat dishes, but you can kind of guess when you see some protein-intensive menus. I don't object to the method, but it makes most meat turn cottony or mushy. Fish is ok, eggs too. Many places serving non-Asian food fails this test.
- new and/or reviewed by "influencers", food bloggers. Been stung so many times. Lolla was the worst, it really hurt our wallet.
- buffet joints, especially hotel cafes. At my age, I rather eat $88 in fabric, as I will not be able to consume even half the amount.
- menus with these items: egg ben (really vomitous by now), waffles, truffles oil anything, wagyu (especially non- Japanese ones), lobster, uni, matcha, quinoa, kale, chia seed, raw, salted egg, insert trendy food-of-the-moment
- any items that are torched. nope, don't want to eat second-hand butane.
- any places tainted with 'celebrity' status, which also rules out most places in MBS. I hate that place, it is a nightmare to park, and is a pain to walk around in. This rule applies also to many local chefs and new generation "hawkers" lionised for taking up this job. I don't care if the food is good, but if the noise is borderline health-damaging just because the arrogant chef wants it that way, then it is dead to me and nothing that comes out of him will ever impress me ever again. I even muted the TV when he spoke. Another example: Venue by Sebastian. Seriously, we paid $148 for lunch for the three of us, and husband still said he was very hungry at the end of the meal. Let's see if they will survive even the duration of the lease.
- most hipster/"modern dining" places or what I personally call "siu ye" restaurants, i.e. run by scions/rich patrons that serves miserable over-manipulated food in mean portions under uncomfortable surroundings (noisy, hard seats, bad AC or all) at shamelessly high prices. I actually started a notebook on Evernote to track these places so I can avoid them.
- styrofoam plates. this is about that over-hyped kueh place.
- "IG-worthy"
- this is pretty recent but am close to adding this to list: dodgy overpriced cakes.. when you charge $10 per slice (takeaway), it better be pretty damn good.
- ramen joints. why?
- even cze char, because most are just variations of deep-fried foods glooped over with mystery brown sauce.
I have been feeling, for a very long time (like 5-8 years), that we have come to a stage of overwhelming mediocrity in our local food scene. Our interests as paying consumers has been neglected at the expense of the greedy landlord, the entitled chef and the bottomline-driven restaurateur. Throw in social media influences hyping and occasional fads to shake the parameters. Now we just survive on medium-cost chains and stressed hawker joints. If I find any thing of joy, I will share here. Otherwise, we will save ourselves more of these rants, and prattle on about C-drama and xianxia instead.
