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!)

All food, drinks, and most tours were included and free after we joined the royal membership of Palace Resorts. (While there, I had steak almost every day, till I couldn’t take any more! And I thoroughly devoured six-course Italian dinners for two nights. Alka Seltzer time!)

On the tour to Chichen Itza I loved  flying over the main temple, that is until I realized this was where hearts were once cut out of sacrifices! It was kind of creepy. (I myself prefer that my sacrifices [aka food] not suffer. It’s not polite to play with your food you know.)

On my last day in this luscious resort, I launched off the room balcony to cruise over the ocean at sunrise! Ah, freedom! Check out the view below!

I later found out that Sun Palace is number 3 in Trip Advisor for Cancun. It was number one in my book!

If you and your honey would like to go to Sun Palace or another Palace all-inclusive, drop me a line for a very cool discounted rate! (You can have this sensational holiday for under $2000 for two people [or dragons]! Be prepared to be treated like royalty with no worries beyond deciding between steak, shrimp, lobster… pina colada, strawberry margarita, mint julep… Chichen Itza, Tulum, Isla Mujeres…)

Ah, paradise…

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!)

With all that caffeine in my system, I was really hungry so stopped at a fancy restaurant and asked for the daily special.  For $400 I got a four-course meal that tasted like rubber bands! It was all really pretty but didn’t do a thing for my taste buds or hunger. I later found out I had eaten the highly poisonous flesh of a puffer fish. Specially trained and licensed chefs prepare this dish in restaurants since cooked wrong, it could kill you! (Hope my chefs did a good job!)

I felt a little queasy after that so flew to Korea with the hope that the poison would work out of my system with all of that exercise. I developed another big appetite and felt like I wanted some seafood that tasted like seafood this time. So I closed my eyes and randomly pointed at a dish in the seafood section of menu, landing on something called sannakji. Soon I opened my eyes to a plate of squirming octopus! Looked kind of like worms but I was hungry so proceeded to slurp up some octopus. It was a challenge as those wildly squirming tentacles kept trying to slink off of the plate and out of my mouth. (I eventually had to incinerate a few to unstick them from my throat. Parents, don’t feed these to your kids!)

The grossness factor was beginning to wear off so I was game to try another country so off to China I flew. I landed in the streets of Beijing and instantly spotted my next treat! Crispy scorpions on a stick! Crunchy! Yum! Kind of reminded me of chewing on old dragon scales as a kid. Not so filling but at least these weren’t as potentially poisonous as the puffer fish! And they worked off some of the built-up plaque on my teeth!

Okay, it was about time to fly home, but someone suggested stopping in Cambodia for one more yummy (not!) delicacy so I thought “why not?”  I could use a snack before my long flight home. In the streets, I soon found the equivalent of our potato chips – fried tarantulas!  Kind of like chewing a crispy seasoned fish eyeball. Not bad… The taste grew on me so I had 20 packed to go.

I’m home now and feeling really funky. Perhaps it’s imagination that I have legs and things poking me in the stomach and I may still be dying from slow-acting poison! Oh well! What a way to go!

Have you “enjoyed” any of the above “delicacies?” What’s the strangest or grossest stuff you’ve ever eaten? Let me know so perhaps I can search for it on my next eating adventure!