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Showing posts with label Cooking Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking Books. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Do you love Books?

Ok. this is blatant advertising – but i’m only doing it because i have enjoyed the products and services of this company. and i want to share it with all of you.

If you look just right below my blog’s banner. There is a banner for The Book Depository.

This is a online book store which has a great variety of books and cookbooks (obviously).

The best thing is .. their prices are one of the lowest i have managed to find and and and…. they offer FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE. Amazing!

So.. just to illustrate my point. I bought:

The “I” Diet by Susan B. Roberts for AUD$14.90

@Fishpond.com.au (where i used to buy my books) AUD$22.90

The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater for AUD$24.91

@Fishpond.com.au AUD$39.90

So.. i do think this is my new favourite place to buy books. Obviously you can’t get the book in 3 days like you might with Fishpond. I usually get it within 14 days – which i don’t mind.

And.. good for me.. they charge in 5 major currencies: USD, Pounds, CAD, Euro and AUD. So i don’t get any international transaction fee. Great.

I’m not sure how much Singapore banks charge for their international transaction fee, but if it is worth it – it sure is worth a try.

My post office isn’t the most reliable – actually Australian post itself has been said to be not that reliable. I usually get 95% of my online orders. Once or twice the postman forgets to leave a card – or just leave a card without trying the intercom. This time – i had a cookbook that is not here yet. 

So i emailed the people @ book depository. and i think i must be in luck or their customer service is 100x better than their Australian counterparts, but i got a reply in 3 mins.

The person who replied my email said he was terribly sorry. and would either send out a free replacement or give me a full refund. Wonderful.

I was thinking about which one to choose. and i chose a refund. I didn’t seem to be missing the book much. so i thought i might as well get a refund. and if i really wanted the book, i could always buy it again @ a later time.

So, if these blabbering seem to tickle your fancy – just click on the banner up the top. and you will get transported there!

I hope you guys like it as much as i do.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Dinner! & New Cooking Books!

Well today… the guys from the construction company came again to do the ceiling. and they will still come again tml. and the day after tml. until they’re done.

Anyways, I didn’t go upstairs the whole day today. I woke up late, used the computer for a while. and decided it was time to exercise.

Got out my pilates dvd. Did around 30 minutes of pilates cardio. and went to take a bath. I soaked in the bath for maybe 45 minutes while reading a new book i bought from www.books.com.tw, speaking of which, i haven blogged about yet. Ok, i shall talk about dinner then the books.

Fish was really sweet, he made dinner tonight.

We bought a roast chicken from Woolworths a few days ago. so he shredded that and roasted it again in the oven. We also bought a loaf of garlic bread – not the ones with butter and garlic, just the aroma of garlic. So he sliced that and baked them in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper.

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He also cooked a can of minestrone and added salami to it. It made the soup meatier and spicy. It was also very nice to add the crunchy bread into the soup.

We also had a premade potato salad from Woolworths and it didn’t taste good so we threw that out.. There were salad veggies too, although that was for Fish, i don’t like rocket.

Thank you darling for a wonderful dinner! =)

Now.

Onto the books i got. There are 6 books, so there are quite a few pictures. Bear with me =)

1. 就爱这样吃面包!- 200种面包的绝配吃法!

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This book i really quite like. I was reading this just now when i was soaking in the bathtub. It is not entirely a recipe book. It’s about her journey with bread. her love for bread. as she introduces the reader to different kinds of bread and what goes well with bread. So she has recipes inside for food and drinks that would go well with a particular bread. and there are already a few recipes that catch my eye. She has a chapter on coffee or tea with instructions on how to brew the perfect cup of coffee and/or tea.

The book is very cute, with cute illustrations.

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Very very cute. A light read but very informative yet personal at the same time. This book was bought at a whim and i really enjoy reading it and have no regrets about buying this book!

2. LOVE 樂活风便当

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I’ve read a few bento books and haven’t really found one that i liked. The website i was buying from was have a discount if i bought more than TW$1000 worth of books, so this was one that i chose to bring the total up.

But. I didn’t really regret this. This is actually quite a nice book. It has beautiful yet practical bentos.

The pictures were also beautifully taken.

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There are also recipes for mains and side dishes. A few of the recipes are definite favourites and i will definitely try them when making bento for me and fish and hui next semester.

3. 第一次做点心

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This one was a slight slight let down. The pictures are nice etc.. but just not really what i was looking for. I will still attempt to try some of it’s recipes since they still look really good. It’s just that in comparison with the other books, this would be my least favourite. =)

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I’ve always wanted to make roll cakes. They have 3 recipes in her, though i don’t really like all the flavours they’ve done, the one on the left is Chestnut and Pear, which i find interesting – so i might try that. =)

4. 3杯面粉72变 by 阿芳老师

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This has to be my favourite book. I did buy another book with the exact title by another teacher and i think there are both good and bad in each book. but i really love this book. It comes with a dvd which is great as she illustrates how to create the different doughs and also demonstrates some of the recipes in the book.

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This is a dual coloured mantou made of normal sugar and black sugar. The other book also had this, but instead it’s white and green – green is made using macha powder. which i don’t really really like. So i prefer this.

I actually have not got down to comparing recipes and seeing whose works better. but i shall and you shall hear from me.

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This isn’t the best of pictures, but it looks so good on the book. and she has this in her dvd as well. This is spring onion pancake. does this not look at roti prata?! how will i be able to resist this! haha.. i’m so making this!

5. 名师的快手私房菜

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This book is a collaboration between 阿芳老师 and 2 other chefs. It has a variety of recipes in all the major food groups.

I haven’t got a picture from this book as i have not really sat down and read the book. When flipping, nothing really stands out to me as yet. but if any does in the near future, i’ll be sure to take note of it.

The difference in this book is that the recipes all have a preceding question.

Eg: 如何让肉丸子吃起来滑嫩多汁?

Then there will be an answer from the chefs and a recipe to follow.

6. 阿芳的私房菜

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This is one of her older older books. Hence her look. haha..

This is her 10 year anniversary version of this book.

Inside, she has recipes that her different family members can, and like to make. although mostly are hers, duh.

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This is one that calls out to me… eat me.. eat me…

hehe.. it’s very much like dongpo rou. This is called 走油焖肉. which doesn’t seem to difficult to make and the picture looks delicious! so i am definitely going to try this. I’ve even bought the pork belly already.. hehe..

So there.

Those are the new books that i bought from www.books.com.tw 

I’m very happy and very full.

and i hope you are too!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

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I am so excited. Just received my Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the mail today. There is still volume 2 and ‘my life in France’ that is still on their way. But i am so excited.

This is the kind of cookbook that i like. detailed.. wordy.. and practical – since it was meant for the ‘servantless American cook’.

I just read word for word, all the introductions and meanings of words etc.. and a few soup recipes. and i’m loving it.

Julia’s recipe for Cream of Mushroom.. seems amazing.. better than the recipe i have. I am so so so going to try that.

There’s nearly 700+ pages in this book.

I am definitely intrigued to try the recipes, although, after watching Julie & Julia, i know there will definitely be some that i would not try.

There must be a word for the fear of bones. I cringe when i see bones on chicken etc.. That’s why i don’t eat chicken wings etc.. I’m just not the kind you will find sucking on a bone.

So, there will definitely be recipes that i would not attempt. Although, if the temptation is strong enough, one never knows… haha..

Well.. just wanted to put this post up to share my excitement and hopefully i’ll be cooking loads during the summer holidays from this cookbook.

Until then.. “small helpings, no seconds, no snacking, and a little bit of everything.”

Friday, June 05, 2009

My Current Favourite New Cookbook!

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I just bought this book at Kinokuniya. It is a Taiwanese cookbook. In case you can’t read Chinese, the book name says ‘just like to eat eggs’.

The book has i think 70 recipes using eggs as the main ingredient.

There are beautiful pictures to accompany each recipe.

There are recipes from the very basic and more advanced.

It costs $28 and i am quite happy with it!