Tokebi Hand Blender - Cooking Experiments

Have been using the Tokebi Hand Blender quite frequently these days to blend fruit shakes, soups etc. One major plus point is that I can blend HIS multi-vitamins together with the selected ingredients for fruit shakes. HE is not very pleased though as I have been preparing various 'concoctions' to ensure that HE has a balanced diet (basically involving lots of vegetables). 

Tokebi Hand Blender - Cooking experiments

The Tokebi Hand Blender tends to splatter if the bottom rotating component is not submerged in sufficient amount of ingredients. It is quite powerful in the sense that it can blend ice cubes with ease. Cleaning the Tokebi Hand Blender is also a breeze. I will usually clean it right after usage by letting it operate in a jug of diluted rice water enzyme for around 10 seconds and repeat the same cycle using clean water. Not much scrubbing is involved.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with this buy.   

Rice Water Enzyme - Highly recommended!

Read about this rice water enzyme online and decided to give it a try to play my part in creating a clean and green environment (low cost and less wastage). 

Only 2 ingredients are required - 2 litres of rice water (refers to water which you tend to drain away while rinsing the rice) and 100 grams brown sugar (cost around S$0.60 for 300 grams). The mixture smells quite bad (vomit-like =<) and lemon peels was added to the mixture subsequently to improve the end product (lemon like smell).

Rice Water Enzyme
(Source of lemon peels image: www.tiemiaomo.com)) 

During the fermentation process, you will notice whitish stuff floating on the dark brownish mixture which is normal (by-product of the fermentation process).  I left the mixture to ferment for 1 week in a dark corner (cabinet under the sink) and it is ready for use!

I filtered the liquid portion of the Rice Water Enzyme out before mixed it together with dish-washing detergent and water in the following proportion (2 : 1 : 4). This new detergent is quite fluid in nature (tends to drip) but it is rather effective in removing oil/grime.

Quite happy with the outcome. I had fun carrying out this science experiment although HE was quite disgusted (kept complaining about the smell). I find it quite ok lei =) In any case, I think HE has got used to our new detergent although HE is still complaining about the smell while doing the dishes.

Other than washing dishes, the Rice Water Enzyme is also very effective in cleaning the kitchen floor. Imagine the stickiness of splattered oil remains etc which is part and parcel of the kitchen environment. 

Look at the Before and After effect of using the Rice Water Enzyme to scrub my kitchen floor. I was quite amazed at the big difference. Pardon my dirty kitchen floor! I did carry out vacuuming thrice a week and mopping weekly ok!  

Rice Water Enzyme - Effect

 You might want to give the Rice Water Enzyme a try since not much cost is involved and it is a high effective product.

Tokebi Hand Blender - Review

There are actually quite a number of blenders available in the market, ranging from S$40+ to S$200+. 

Source: courts.com.sg

Being a noob cook, I was looking for a mid-range hand held blender cum mixer for my cooking experiments. Did research for months before deciding on Tokebi  Hand Blender listed on Qoo 10. Item was sent out from Korea and shipping took around one week. Total cost including shipping is less than S$100.

Tokebi Hand Blender V-5500

What I like about Tokebi Hand Blender V-5500:
1. The pretty detailing on the product (very important as I will be slaving away in the kitchen!)
2. Blender felt sturdy
3. Item came with a variety of accessories including a stand which is very useful
4. Only 1 button to select for operation (dummy proof especially for 1st time user like me)
5. Small selection of recipes (in English) available for download (recipe provided in package is all in Korean)
6. High number of revolutions per minute (22,000 - 24,000) compared to other brands
7. Low power consumption (170 W) compared to other brands
8. Blender can also act as a mixer (looking forward to my 1st baking experiment)!


What is not so great about Tokebi Hand Blender V-5500:
1. Blender feels quite heavy after awhile (How ironic, I know...)
2. 2 pin plug converter is required
3. Recipe book provided in package is in Korean =<

To be continued (with my various cooking experiments).... 

Updated: It seems like the above Korean hand blender is no longer being sold on Qoo10. Another item with similar functions can be found on Qoo10 as well. So far, reviews seem to be quite positive and much cheaper than my Tokebi which is still functioning well 1.5 years from the purchase.

Melamine Sponge - Review

This product is a godsend ever since we shifted in to Park Central.

I have been using it to clean the white kitchen tabletop, kitchen stove, kitchen sink, toilet basins, shower screens etc.

I like how effortless it makes cleaning become.

Soak it in water and use it to clean any stains or dirt.

Daiso melamine sponge

Accordingly to the packaging, it is suitable to be used on the following surfaces: glass, ceramic, tiles, uncoated mirror, stainless steel and non-glossy plastics. And it is not suitable for usage on the following surfaces: resin type products, coated mirror, printed surfaces, car exteriors, wood, uneven surfaces, absorbent surfaces, lacquer ware and glossy plastics.

Before and After using melamine sponge

It is rather effective in removing brownish stains/pencil stains/pen stains from the ceiling. All that remains are the holes that can only be 'repaired' by patching up using wall putty.

You might want to give it a try to remove stains. 

I would highly recommend getting this product from Daiso ($2 only) instead of neighbourhood stores ($3.90 at slightly bigger size).

Pre packed Laksa sauce from NTUC

Various ingredients for yummy laksa

Took the lazy way out by buying pre packed sauce from NTUC and cooked this laksa dish a few weeks back. Although I have not noticed the brand before but it turned out quite well. However, the sauce was abit salty.

Bought Sakura laksa beehoon, fish cake, taupok, coconut milk and some eggs as well as part of the ingredients. Quite a yummy and easy-to-prepare meal on a lazy weekend.

Mixed vegetables fish porridge

Decided to cook this broccoli, carrot, potato and Sutchi fillet porridge for breakfast.

Soak the rice with a tablespoon of black sesame oil.

Thereafter, add in cubed carrots, potatoes and broccoli before starting to cook using the rice cooker.

As for the Sutchi fillet, I soaked it in diluted white vinegar solution for 15 mins before slicing it up and rinsing under running tap water.

Marinated it with a tablespoon of Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce, a teaspoon of rice wine and a tablespoon of Taikoo ginger red sugar (new found treasure at AMK Hub NTUC Xtra).

When the porridge is halfway into its 1 hour cooking cycle, I added the fish slices in.

The porridge turned out to be quite nice n a twinge of sweetness without having to add in additional seasoning.

Best thing is that HE didn't complain that the porridge is bland which I took it as a major achievement as HE is always complaining that I don't add enough seasoning.

Whenever that happens, it just pisses me off haha.

Less salt is for the sake of YOUR health u know !!!

Sutchi fillet in Chinese style

Bought lots of Sutchi fillets (8 pieces to be exact) as it was on sale. Have to seek HIS consent before buying just to be on the safe side (if the picky eater don't want to eat this, I will die lo).

Read online that these Sutchi fillets tends to taste fishy so I always soak them with a super diluted solution of white vinegar before cooking. So far so good.

Have tried pan frying it, cooking it in fish and chips style and also in fish soup.

Today, I tried steaming it with HuaDiaoChiew (a type of Chinese wine), sea salt, pepper and also fermented black beans. Turned out to be very appetizing.

Korean Ginseng Chicken

Bought prepacked Korean Ginseng Chicken from Jia Yen quite a while back as emergency supplies on days that we are feeling lazy to cook.

The portion is just nice for 2 of us with half a chicken and three glutinous rice balls.

Just empty the contents into the cooker (rice cooker with soup function/pot) and cook it for around 40 mins.

For me, I put the rice cooker to soup function for 1 hour so that the glutinous rice gets infused with the ginseng soup and turns into a nice gluey texture.

Selling at around 10 over bucks at NTUC or Cold Storage. Worth a try especially on cold rainy days!

Wai San Chicken

First time cooking this dish based on the following newspaper cutting.

Chicken fillets was already marinated using italian herbs instead of what was recommended in the recipe. My tiny attempt at fusion cuisine.

Added mushrooms to the above recipe with the end product below.

This dish is supposed to be good for people with weak constitution or people who tends to "kill" alot of their braincells.

Remaining amount of Wai Shan aka Shan Yao will be used to cook this Wai Shan minced meat porridge for tomorrow's breakfast.

Chicken gone bad...

Having this family steamboat gathering later and was happily planning and buying the various ingredients the past few days.

Bought 2 sets of chicken bones from Jingshan wet market downstairs on Saturday and was happily boiling water to rinse the chicken bones to prepare the chicken soup base when I realized it has gone bad!

I whiff at the bowl of raw chicken bones so many times to be certain and even asked HIM to do a whiff test to be certain.

The raw sourish smell plus the roasted chicken rice we had just a few minutes ago was enough to make me feel nauseous :(

Got to depend on my trusty pork soup powder for the soup base later...

Felt so cheated sia...

Bought for less than 3 days and the chicken bones had gone bad? Keeping in mind that I washed the items and freeze them on the same day before defrosting them this morning.

Should have just bought the items from NTUC etc.

Candlelight dinner for HIS birthday

My first attempt at candlelight dinner while enjoying the city view with HIM (but HE is still busy Diablo-ing and is totally unaware of this surprise!)

Hopefully he likes it :)

Installation of lights

Have installed our lightings on 10 Sept.

Makes our painting/cleaning up job much easier especially when the weather is gloomy/dark.

Spent less than $1k on simple lightings.

Luckily within budget.

Location: Entrance of master bedroom

Location: Studyroom

Currently in the midst of painting the unit.

Super tiring from mask-taping/painting/cleaning.

Will be installing wooden planks on the planter box as well as expecting all deliveries this week.

Hopefully things goes smoothly.

We are now left with 1 main defect which is the laminated flooring.

Have been waiting for rectifications since 6 Sept.

If they still fail to settle by tomorrow, I am going to just give up.

Trying hard to juggle between work/interviews/house-related matters all at the same time =<

Are you sure the unit is really ready for handover? Part III

Called the Bangladeshi supervisor who is supposed to be in charge of rectifying our unit's defects this afternoon.

And got the reply which I had already anticipated....

The defects on our laminated flooring is still yet to be rectified.

From 9 Sept to 10 Sept to 13 Sept and still nothing was done.

When we handed over the keys on Sat, he promised 3-4 days is all he need to clear the remaining defects.

Thus, we decided that Friday would be the deadline.

Perhaps this is why he said laminated flooring will only be rectified on Friday.

As for the rest of the defects, he mentioned that they are currently cleaning up the unit.

*Faint*

Am I supposed to call him up every single day just to check on the defect status?

Starting to feel like a loanshark...

Anyway I guess I have no choice but to do so since HE will only be back on Fri and it is up to me to ensure that things do progress smoothly for us to start painting on Saturday.

*Gambate*

Hope things are progressing more smoothly for the rest of my neighbours.

Are you sure the unit is really ready for handover? Part II

Not sleeping well for the past 1 week.

Kept worrying about the house whether can the defects be rectified by this week so that we can finally start painting.

Was really irritated at the supervisors.

Imagine taking leave to come down to the unit early for defect inspection but they take their own sweet time to turn up.

No sight of them at all from 1000 hrs to 1700 hrs despite numerous calls and smses.

They seemed to think that they are the only busy persons in the whole wide world and the rest of us are just shaking legs *Argh*

The workers who are actually the ones rectifying the defects are so much better in comparison.

So far we are super happy with the workmanship of the rectified defects.

The Chinese worker 'trimmed' numerous tiles for us just to get a perfect piece to replace our chipped tile.

Another Chinese worker who was repairing the chipped/dented/ wall was also very professional.

We thought he would only 'putty' the affected areas but we were wrong.

He even sandpapered the region after the putty had dried, resulting in super smooth surfaces.

Hopefully the rest of the defects will be rectified by Fri as promised by the Bangladeshi supervisor.

If not, he is definitely going to get it from me since he is the one who promised to finish in 3-4 days and we have given him close to a week.

Are you sure the unit is really ready for handover?

Pretty stunned at the state that the unit is in and keys were still handed over to us.

I don't think that we are very picky but look at this....

Are we supposed to install this ourselves?

And this is just the drain hole under the kitchen sink.

Imagine the same for all drain holes in the unit.

Who is going to be held responsible if someone gets injured?

The cement unfinished surfaces are super rough lo...

As for the bomb shelter, there are missing ventilation covers.

Starting we are quite noob at all these defects checking but I seriously think that we are now quite expert at spotting defects...

Other things like dents/holes on the walls and cement/paint stains, we can still close 1 eye and omit it from the defect list.

Just hope they fix the defects asap *sigh

Sliding Kitchen Door - Not achievable?

According to 1 ID which we emailed for quotation, it is not possible to install a sliding kitchen door due to the limited wall width outside the kitchen opening.

This was his exact reply: "Not possible for sliding door as the wall beside is shorter than kitchen entrance width. Can consider a wooden bi-folding door in laminate/ glass finishing $900 (size:W3ftxH7ft). "

What he brought up did make sense especially after looking at the latest 4 room drawing uploaded at the forum.

Perhaps it is time to shelf the plan...

Save cleaning/wiping time.

Save $ which is very important since I have been shopping like mad this GSS.

GSS Loots - Bosch Washer WAS28448ME

Bought my dream washer today after a comprehensive explanation by the sales assistant at Courts.

Most of the specs seemed to be quite similar to WAS28444ME.

Was not able to really identify the difference between the 2.

Furthermore, both looked the same and I was just too lazy to scan through the technical specs available on the Bosch website.

Just that WAS28448ME is made in Germany as stated at the Bosch webby but not for WAS28444ME.

http://www.bosch-home.com

Some advantages of Bosch Washer WAS28448ME (Logixx VarioPerfect Front Load Washing Machine):

1) During a wash cycle, can add in clothing halfway.

2) Able to finish a wash load in 15 mins with the results as the normal wash cycle but just that warm water will be used instead (higher electricity usage)

3) Supposed to be really water and electricity efficient compared to other models/brands

Hopefully the washing machine really turns out to be as good as the sales assistant claim.

Total damage: $1699 (exclude delivery fees of $29.90)

Freebies: $150 Choice vouchers and Bosch Vacuum Cleaner BSD 2023GB worth $249 but selling at $169 now)

Sliding Kitchen Door - Ideal design!

Found this Italian company that sells super nice kitchen doors.

Clean lines.

Elegant feel.

Too bad they don't seem to have any outlets in Sg.

Shall try my best to replicate their design.

Due to the tiny kitchen & cabinet layout, our kitchen door choices are quite limited.

Prefer sliding designs as it takes up less space (both in 'idle' mode & in operation mode)

Furthermore, the kitchen door has to slide 'outside' of the kitchen opening.

There is no way the door can be located between the kitchen cabinets & the kitchen door opening.

My preference is tilted towards 'woody like' designs as we would like to have furnishings in warm shades of brown.

Various door designs that slide from right to left

The following designs readily gives me an idea of how the door would appear like/function when installed as our kitchen door has to slide from Left to Right based on the flat layout.

Various door designs that slide from left to right

Simply love the 1 on the left.

Classy & nice.

With the door frame located outside the kitchen, I hope it equates to lesser cleaning after cooking sessions. 

Perhaps one way of DIYing/customisation to get what we want

1) Get a normal glass door

2) Apply some tinted window film on it

3) Install the door with the wooden door frame

4) Get some nice wall decals to decorate the door

Source: http://www.cristalsrl.com/doors-as-furnishing

Sliding kitchen door - PD Door

Seems like that is not much good reviews so far on PD door.

Poor customer service, bad installation, inferior material etc...

Price wise, it is not exactly cheap.

Refer to http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?s=cd57c9be67c44d17ab0a022298e899fe&showtopic=18123&st=0

Basic acrylic PD door - $299 (subjected to GST) (GST waived only if full payment is made upfront) (door areas <= 800mm)

For new flats, the door area most likely is around 900 mm which means the price would be $449 (acrylic/ glass)

Even worse, I get the impression that Swing Slide Door (http://www.swingslide.com.sg/gallery_glass.html) (located @ Balestier Road) & PD Door (http://pddoor.com/index.html) (located @ Eunos) are actually the same companies.

Time to hunt for other alternatives.

Renovation List

Kitchen

- Sliding kitchen door

Yard

- Windows & grills

Living Room

- Rotating TV wall (maybe)

Living Room Balcony

- Cover up planter box with wood planks/artificial grass

Bomb Shelter

- Book shelves with sliding mechanism (something like what you see @ Comic Connections)

- Storage shelves

1st Bedroom (Study Room)

- Raised platform with built-in ledge & recessed area for leg space (maybe)

Master Bedroom Toilet

- Rain shower