mmoa_writes

The main thing I have to get used to when it comes to cooking for self is the difference in proportions. I tried making some rice and stew last night, only the can opener didn't work properly so I went back to the egg fried rice standby. This turned out surprisingly nice, surprisingly because the oil I used was probably going a bit rancid and I had already dumped a load of garlic with the onions from the stew making attempt. It still looked a bit icky, but tasted marvellous so I'm sort of happy. Only problem is that in my head, I'm still cooking for myself, my two sisters and perhaps my mother if she doesn't want to eat anything heavy, so my fridge shelf is now filled with enough rice to last me the week.

Awesome.

I've discovered the most amazing shop nearby, called 'Worldwide' which is basically Brixton market encapsulated into one store. In short, Lidl can kiss my arse. 'Worldwide' is where it's at: they sell okra (fresh!), sweet potatoes, yam flour, garri, plantain and green dwarf bananas; there's a certain type of tomato puree which makes teh best jellof rice in the world, the most versatile brand of rice evah and the perfect oil that barely darkens white rice; spices that I only vaguely know the name of in Igbo and MAGGI seasoning!

Maggi, in case you don't know, is the answer to life, the Universe and Everything. The only problem is [apart from the fact it's owned by Nestle, I've just discovered :( ], scientists are still trying to express it's magnificence in a matrix suitable for it's future exploitation as a cure for cancer, Aids, the final solution to the question of God's existence and Jeremy Clarkson. That is how amazing it is. If you sprinkled it on day old dog mess, it would taste like a Michelin star souffle.

So you can imagine how happy I was to find some.

I've also discovered that there's a Farmer's market that comes up here every second and fourth weekend, so I will check out their prices and be able to avoid the devil that is Tesco's.

As I'm giving up on buying meat whilst away from home, I'll have to start properly getting to grips with fish. I'm really interested in eating more seasonal stuff and some of the weirder varieties of fish that you get around this bit of England, so that'll be one culinary challenge that lies ahead.

I went to a plant fair yesterday and bought a small flowering cactus and a... something or other (it has a lone purple flower-like leaf sprouting from the middle and long thin leaves spread around it. I've completely forgotten what it's called). I was going to get a flytrap, but the only ones there were tiny babies that took a while to close (the, um, whiskers(?) weren't fully developed so it couldn't feel whether something was landing in it or not); I think I'll just save up for a bigger one.