Asian food is about curry and rice.
However, people are creatures of habit, and try to stick to food they know, especially kids, would you agree? Challenge is, the familiar food may not be available in Asia like cheese, ham, pork, bacon, sausages, tinned sweet corn, baked beans or even pickle. If I find it in the supermarket, it is expensive as it is exported, such as smoked salmon, salami, potatoes, apples and oranges, chocolate, ice cream or any kind of cereals.
As the apartment kitchen is quite small and the presence of utensils limited, I have been challenged in terms of cooking and baking, but I had a go.
I have been inventing one pot pasta dishes which are easy to make and don’t require great deal of equipment (I have got only one big pot!) and cooking lots of different kind of soups, which all of us love (noodle, lentil and pork & leak are our family favourite). One of the ladies I met by the pool and Emilka became friend with her daughter, has lived in Colombo for 12 years and lent me her old mixer, so I can liquidise soups now which the kids and Steve love. Hurrah!
We have bought some English produce with us too, to remind us of how lucky we are (Nutella, Marmite, Marmelade, Honey, Cherios, Wheetabix, Ready brek, Worchester sauce), which we are saving as a special treat so hoola hops or baked beans on toast with cheese must be earned!
Steve’s boss has come to Colombo for a few days at the end of August and as a gift in return for dinner, he brought us 2 jars of decaf coffee and 4 blocks of cheddar cheese! Kids are loving having the cheese in the house and cheese and cracker is snack which they enjoy.
Baking is easy, especially with yeast, as the dough rises nicely in my warm kitchen, so making bread rolls, cinnamon buns and sweet loaf was a success.
I have managed to make cream profiteroles and one cake with butter cream, but the challenge was to keep it in cool environment.
Making kids’ lunch boxes is a challenge too – how do you keep the content cool in 30-35C? We have bought from England two padded lunch boxes and what I do, I freeze bottle of waters and add it to the lunch box which keeps the sandwiches cool.
Kids favorite sandwiches are with very limited fillings: egg and cucumber are most frequent, salami, Nutella or cheese as a treat.
I have cooked some curries and noodles too, but I am hoping for a tutorial of Asian cuisine soon so I can make something different.
Rennie
