What's cooking?

There's a threshold to the number of non home-cooked meals I can stomach before the strong urge for some cooking (in the kitchen) sets in.

The rather well-stocked supermarket is just a stone throw away. The challenge was to decipher the food labels and find the required ingredients. Last night, the search for toufu was futile and enquiries were fruitless (the staff simply doesn't speak English).

The first cooked meal turned out to be Udon (my favorite Japanese carbo) in Miso soup with Japanese fish cakes (Oden Nabe). The Japanese food labels with Thai stickers stuck beside it was a little challenging for my linguistic ability, it ended up being a "visual recognition" of familiar food. Its a simple no-frill soupy dish.

Groceries shopping is therapeutic and cooking is gratifying. With the budget, I could be whipping up a feast. The other benefits is... I don't need to do the washing 'coz I don't own a washing detergent and the daily maid cleaning service comes in handy.

The kitchen is small enough for my liking but being limited to two electric hobs means it was a challenge to control the heat. I had doubts whether my food was even going to get cooked. Cooking is at experimental stage now (with limited resources, ingredients and without an aid of a recipe book - in a foreign land) and hopefully, experimental leads to scrumptious creations.

Tomorrow's menu: Sirloin steak in black pepper sauce. Due to another miscommunication, I failed to get my vegetables today.