Asian

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Ma petite cuisine

15. mars 2010 in Ukategorisert by Christiane | 2 comments

This is where the magic happens! Approximately 2 x 2 meters, and that’s even a bit exagerrated.  Yeeaaazzsshhh…it IS indeed possible to cook here. It does help that I’m about as tall as an eight year old child/156 cm or 5’1”.

From the midget sized fridge with only one shelf freezer section, to the tiny work top that is alway covered by dishes due to lack of dish washer, to the tiny circular sink that really is no good for washing dishes, my kitchen holds MANY annoying factors. I haven’t even mentioned Mr.Big Brown Spot on the stove and I do not intend to either since I’ve given up cleaning him off a long time ago (he just won’t budge!). But asides from its handicaps, my kitchen has brought lots of joys and exciting discoveries – my first sushi was made here for instance. And it hasn’t stopped me from experimenting and enjoying myself in the kitchen, and that’s the most important part of a kitchen, isn’t it ?
Another shot of the kitchen and it’s decor :
My pantry, as I like to call it, and more dishes! Did you really think I’d put them away for you ?
The “pantry” is actually just an old Ikea book case that we painted and attached to the wall with iron wire since we’re not allowed to drill any holes in the wall, but I think it does the job. Loads of storage space for whenever I go crazy when the supermarket has a sale on whole wheat penne (it happens regularly).
Can you guess what kind of food I like to cook ? Why yes, I do indeed need 4 kinds of vinegars, if you have to know. Chinkiang brown rice wine vinegar, distilled rice vinegar, red and white wine vinegar. Nothing more nothing less. Well, I do need some more balsamic vinegar. And a sherry vinegar would be nice. Nevermind. I love it when I buy condiments like these in big bottles because they’re cheaper and then I actually manage to finish them before the contents go bad. It’s in direct correlation with how many delicious Asian-inspired dinners I’ve made recently.

And now…in english!

31. august 2008 in Meg og mitt liv, Ukategorisert by Christiane | No comments

As my Norwegian readers know (if there are any, except for my boyfriend), I’ve just started my masters in biology. I’ve finally decided on the thesis I want to do: Personality development of chicken. – Behaviour biology, that is. When I’ve finished writing the thesis, which I can either write in english or in norwegian, I can choose to make a scientific article out of it and publish it. Then I would have to re-write it and translate it into english, so I’ve chosen to write my thesis in english. So I’ve started writing this blog in english – for the practise first and foremost, besides, I’ve accumulated a couple of non-Norwegian friends over the years (thank Darwin!), so I thougt it would be cool for them to be able to read my blog.

So, whats new since the last post? Tore has finally booked tickets for his flight home from Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen, where he’s been doing the fieldwork for his masters – in biology as well (we met in the first semester). He’ll be back the 15th of September, just two days before my birthday! I can hardly wait to see him, it’s been a month since I last saw him. Maybe we can go to this restaurant; http://www.bocata.no/dinner/. We ate there two years ago, on Tore’s birthday, and the food was absolutely delicious! My favourite, well, our favourite (I know it sounds gooey but it’s true), was Crispy Duck with Chinese pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and hoi-sin sauce…I’m salivating all over the key board just thinking about it. I tried making it once, but it just didn’t turn out the same. 

In the meanwhile, I’ve been busy with lectures, having hardly any time for cooking. I’ve been dealing with the beginning of a cold all weekend, and haven’t had energy for anything else than to watch tv..and eat (and do the laundry, because i HAD to). Tonight the pre-cold started to loosen its grip (I hardly ever get really sick), so I treated myself to some homemade spring rolls – they gave me a feeling of having accomplished something today, kinda making up for the bunch of reading material that got neglected during the weekend. Anyway, I can’t really say how they tasted, because by the time I had finished them, my nose got all…clotted, and I wasn’t able to smell or taste anything. But I think they were tasty, I love the combination of ginger and garlic. And they contain crab sticks! I love crab sticks, and I love fun, good recipes for getting those recommended fish meals every week. I found a nice recipe on the internet, but I adjusted it quite a lot; to my taste and to what I could find in the supermarket, for instance; they didn’t have cabbage!  I had to settle for Chinese cabbage. Which isn’t that bad a replacement, but I really had my mind set on cabbage. Darn. By the way, did you know that cabbage is full of natural toxins ? My ‘general toxicology’ teacher would go on and on about how toxic it is, luckily it’s only deadly to insects, but it makes you think..one of the Nnational dishes is “Sheep and cabbage stew”, which I love, but luckily people mostly just eat it a couple of times in the autumn..maybe that’s a good thing. But back to Asian cooking, here’s the Vietnamese spring rolls, with the dipping sauce:

Although I couldn’t quite taste them, the texture was good, I love rice paper wrappers. I’ll put my take on making them on the site called “Oppskrifter” (=recipes in Norwegian) tomorrow. - I’ll change the layout of this site soon, I just have to get around to choose some nice photos to make a header of.