Jade DragonBytes

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting! If you haven't already, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks again!

With convenience food so easy to obtain in the market these days, almost everyone has grown a bit rusty even on  simple food preparation. Cooking rice is one good example. At the grocery store, I was astonished to discover cooked rice and vegetables inside the freezer section, all wrapped up, with an enticing label of “ready in 4 minutes”! Furthermore, you will discover packages of fried rice presented in numerous varieties of flavors and meats. Nuke and serve.

What exactly was I doing, perusing these shelves of comfort foods? Why I was trying to find my nuke-and-serve lasagna. Hey, I was short on time! The thing is, all of us are short on time, but with rising food prices, some meals would be best made from scratch with some of our useful kitchen appliances. A few convenience foods aren’t worth the hefty price. Preparing rice, for instance, is one such case.

Many Chinese food cooks scoff at the thought of preparing a great batch of rice and freezing portions for future meals. “It is so quick to cook rice, why hassle?” is what I normally hear. But, I think otherwise. I can cook rice in just one effort. Rice freezes well, so hold that bit of idea in your mind. This way, it would convenient for me to get a bag out from the fridge and just steam it in a microwave, especially when I am in a hurry. After all, that is what those expensive  food suppliers are trying to market: saving you the time and effort of cooking rice!

So, listed below are our two ways to cook rice that’s nice and fluffy and never sticky.

1. If you don’t have a rice and vegetable steamer, consider acquiring one.
   This can be a very beneficial kitchen appliance as it delivers effortless clean up, won’t have to be monitored, and yes, it ensures that you get the utmost nutritive value out of the cooked rice. They come in different sizes and prices from $10 to $20. Basically, it has a motor situated at the bottom level and a multi-purpose bowl that sits on the top. All you need do is determine the amount of rice desired, add water, put the lid on, and set the cooking timer on. Each and every device specifies the rice to water percentage, as well as preparing times, not only for cooking rice, but for a number of different vegetables. You may also dissolve a chicken or beef cube in the water for flavor. To bring in more aroma and taste to your rice, you may add in parsley or a few herbs like Chinese Five Spice.
2. The second method to make a nice, fluffy and non-sticky rice calls for a 3-quart microvable dish to produce 5 cups of cooked rice.
   To achieve this, estimate 2 1/2 rice cups into the bowl, add 5 cups of water (you may prefer to have it blended with a bouillon cubes) and a teaspoon of salt. Make sure to stir the salt through the rice. Put it in a microwave for thirteen minutes, and set the power level to 6 (based on an 1100-watt oven). There should still be water in the dish. By this time, change the power to level four and continue microwaving for 3 minutes. If the rice is cooked, and no water remains, it’s done. Fluff it up using a fork and cover with plastic wrap. Set it aside on the counter and allow it to steam for thirty minutes. It should be perfectly cooked by then.

If you want to have a fool-proof outcome every time you are going to cook rice, abide by these above procedures. Cooking rice is simple!

After placing a horse in my travel position, this dragon was blessed with a trip to Cancun. Though I took my Blackberry phone with the red paper behind it and never turned it on, the red paper and phone still performed its magic! (See my earlier article on the wonders of red paper behind your business phone.)

With Blackberry in claw, I started out in a rustic, mosquito-ridden hotel room on the island of Isla Mujeres and soon manifested a major “free” upgrade by moving to Sun Palace, an all-inclusive resort on the hotel zone.

I ended up in a suite big enough for this dragon, including a huge in-room jacuzzi, ocean view, and awesome fire show on the beach! I got massaged, “facialed,” seaweed wrapped, and manicured as part of the package deal! (My scales have never felt or looked better!)

Read the rest of this entry »

This dragon went trick-or-treating around Asia the other day since eating cow was getting boring. Got to try some very odd foods. Still not sure if those were tricks or treats, as I’ve had bad belching and gas ever since! (Fried a pasture of bushes around me so got to get some anti-acid soon!)

In the Philippines, I’d heard of this delicacy called balut. After seeing these partially developed chicken embryos served out directly out of their eggs, I changed my mind about being hungry. They looked a little too much like baby dragons to me. Though I’m carnivorous, I’m not cannibalistic! (And I gave up eating road kill a while back after moving to America. Balut fans eat balut like we eat chicken nuggets! Bleck!)

Moving on, I was ravenous by the time I landed in Thailand. While wandering the streets, I discovered bat stew. Didn’t care so much for it since it took me two days to get the bones unstuck from my teeth. Also, after eating 20 bowls,  I was still hungry!

So I hopped over to Japan, where I decided I needed some caffeine to give me some much-needed pep. I came upon some very tasty coffee. After gulping down 10 gallons of Kopi Luwak, I discovered the secret ingredient: weasel poop! It’s made from coffee berries eaten, partially digested, and then pooped out by cute Asian weasels—and priced at $120 per pound! (After getting over the grossness factor, I thought I might want to buy some more of this coffee. I was happy to find it on Amazon!)

Read the rest of this entry »