Reviewing Extra Virgin Olive Oil Brands

Have been trying out different extra virgin' olive oil brands.

Extra-virgin olive oil refers to oil from cold-pressed olives, not processed and often more expensive than regular olive oil.

So far I have tried 5 brands, namely, Filippo Berio (Italian), Colavita (Italian), Red Island (Australian), O' Forest (Malaysian brand but using Olive oil from Spain) and California Olive Ranch (American).

In the end, after the taste test (yes, we consume it raw) the clear winner is the Australian brand, Red Island. Really mild, smooth and delicious. 

It is also the most recently pressed 2020 as compared to the others which were cold-pressed in 2019. I am not sure whether it tasted better because it was the freshest. The others have a slightly more peppery after-taste. Supposedly the more peppery, the higher the antioxidants.

Let me know your favourite brand and why.

Gluten Free Casein Free Pancakes

My wife made these pancakes for 2 hungry boys, Imaan and Noah.

Gluten free, casein free and sugar free as well.

Really simple to make. Blend all the ingredients below:

3 bananas
5 eggs
3 dates (to sweeten)
Almond flour
Rice flour
Sodium bicarbonate
Vanilla essence
Coconut oil for cooking


Yummy!

Coca Cola's secret formula

One of the World's best kept trade secrets is is finally out - Coke's secret formula.



The secret was discovered by producers of the radio program This American Life in a photograph used to illustrate an article on the history of Coca-Cola in an old copy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The photo is a hand-written copy of the original recipe by John Pemberton, the inventor (is that the right term) of Coca Cola.

You can now make Coke in your own kitchen. The 7X flavour is the secret ingredient which gives Coca Cola it's unique taste and kick.

Here are the ingredients:

A) The Syrup:

Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP
Citric acid: 3 oz
Caffeine: 1 oz
Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity)
Water: 2.5 gal
Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart
Vanilla: 1 oz
Caramel: 1.5 oz or more for color

B) The 7X flavor (2 oz of flavor to 5 gallons syrup):

Alcohol: 8 oz
Orange oil: 20 drops
Lemon oil: 30 drops
Nutmeg oil: 10 drops
Coriander: 5 drops
Neroli: 10 drops
Cinnamon: 10 drops

Read the article about Coke's original recipe on the This American Life site.

My favourite pizza

Right now I am in the process of writing up my thesis and this means sitting in front of the pc most of the time. This means that I don't have much time to do most of the things I love - like blogging (the reason why this blog is not updated regularly), gardening (the lawn is is need mowing) let alone cook. My wife is in the same boat and she is writing up her thesis as well. We only cook for our son who needs a special diet and occasionally for ourselves. Thank God for Domino's Pizza which is just around the corner and of course the Internet.

Domino's became our favourite just because of the convenience and as for my favourite pizza - nothing fancy, the Original Cheese and Tomato. They also have subs and dessert as well. I am always on the lookout to save money and I usually go to the Voucher Hub - my favourite discount voucher site. They have online as well as printable voucher codes. The site updates vouchers available in the UK daily for high street stores such as Debenhams as well as online retailers like Littlewoods among others.

They have dominos discount codes as well and I always save some money every time I buy online by using their codes. All I have to do is click the discount code on the site and the code is automatically copid and I am taken to the site. One great deal I look forward to is Domino's special offer every Tuesday, where you get a pizza free for every one you buy. However, I sometimes get tired eating pizza and might go for a vege sub with a chocolate melt. Yummy!

Yes, you are right. All this rich food and lack of exercise means that I have been putting on some weight. But I am going to sign up with a gym once I submit my first draft and go on a strict heath regime.

Writing this is making my mouth water, and I think I will go down and grab the leftover from yesterday.

Strawberries with cream

Enjoying the fresh organic strawberries from my garden. I am harvesting like a small bowl a day and wondering how long this will keep up.



My favourite recipe is to cut them into two pieces (after washing them of course). Sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar and pour a bit of cream in.

Tuck in.

My special day

It was my birthday a few days back. Normally I don't make a big deal out of it and usually celebrate it with my wife and kids but this time my sis-in-law and her family joined us. She brought along a lovely cake as well.








We we supposed to go tho the Afghan restaurant in Stoney Stanton but it was closed and we decided to have our lunch at Nando's in the City Centre instead.







Thanks for the delicious cake Eju and Muz.

Mango Lassi recipe

Here's the recipe of my home made mango lassi. This drink is very popular in the North Indian states especially Punjab and I developed a love for this drink during my undergraduate days in Himachal Pradesh.

It's really easy to make. Normally it is made using fresh dahi (whole milk yogurt with live culture). Unfortunately as I don't have dahi, I have to make do with yogurt sold in Tesco in packs.

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• 1 mango chopped
• 100ml Mango juice
• 250 g yogurt ( I have used Tesco Light Greek Style Yogurt)
  
• 1 tbsp Sugar

Add all the ingredients together and mix



I added the mango juice as using only yogurt makes the lassi too thick.



Finally we have delicious Mango Lassi ready to be gulped down.

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Dinner at the Saxon Mill

Our friend Jens is going back to Switzerland and we decided to have some drink with him before he leaves. Luiz suggested The Saxon Mill in Warwick. It is actually an old mill over the river that has been converted into a pub / restaurant.

Some really nice views over the river. We took our kids along and they enjoyed it even though it got a bit bit chilly later in the evening. Later on we went in to order the food. It was really nice and comfy inside and the food was not bad either. However, my son was not happy at all and I had to take him out. He was fascinated by the water rushing away.

Here are some pics:

Empty Coventry Ikea store

Just got back from Nottingham where I had spent the night together with the wife and kids. Had a wonderful dinner yesterday at our friend Amrul's house. Not many guys like cooking but it's a fact that some of the best cooks are men. Amrul happens to be one of them. He loves cooking. He has a nice kitchen fully furnished with Ikea furniture in the house he's renting. Our small kitchen looks terrible in comparison.

Talking of Ikea, we visited the huge Ikea store here in Coventry on Tuesday. Both my wife and I, are long time Ikea fans and if we had the choice (and money), we would equip the entire house with Ikea furniture and stuff.

Anyway, when we entered the store, we were shocked when we found that there was absolutely no one around - not even the store employees. It was like we had the entire store to ourselves. We did get to see a couple of other customers after a few minutes. But having got used to crowded Ikea stores in Malaysia, it was a big surprise. Made me wonder whether the Coventry store is making any money at all.

We also decided to try out the food here. The food was great and quite cheap. Reminds me of the days in Malaysia when we used to go to the Ikea store for food.

We had wanted to grab a few items but like usual ended up with a whole shopping cart load of items. Looks like more DIY time for me.

Dinner at My China, Coventry

Last Sunday evening both my wife and I were feeling too lazy to cook and we decided to eat out instead. We went to our favourite Chinese restaurant - my China at Priroy Place, Coventry City Centre.

This was our second visit to the establishment. Charles Lim the friendly proprietor is originally from Malaysia (the World seems like a small place).

They have such a extensive list of food on their menu , it's quite hard to choose. We finally decided upon Crispy Vegetarian Spring Rolls (starters), Malaysian Style Fried Ho Fun, Egg Noodles and Vegetarian 'Ma Po' Tofu with rice. As usual we had Chinese Tea to go along with the food.

Here are some pics. Sorry they aren't that clear as they were taken using my Skypephone and the light was quite dim inside.


Egg Noodles


Malaysian Style Fried Ho Fun


Vegetarian 'Ma Po' Tofu


Rahil trying out chop sticks for the first time and somehow she managed.

Our son refused to get off the stroller and slept through the whole dinner. He only woke up when we got home.

The food was great and reasonably priced. Would definitely be going there again.

Online grocery shopping - Tesco vs Sainsbury's

Both my wife and I shop a lot online. I guess we are what marketers refer to as a "innovator" especially in relation to stuff online. However, I never imagined that I would be shopping for groceries online one day.

As compared to books, software, electronics or even clothes, shopping for groceries is totally different. I like to look, feel and sometimes smell the food I buy. My wife wanted to try out some of the online grocery stores here. She gave a couple of resasons why buying groceries online was a good idea. According to her:
1. These stores would ensure the quality of stuff sold online.
2. We could shop at leisure.
3. We could avoid the crowd at the stores.
4. We could save on petrol.
5. We could avoid the temptations of the "spur-of-the-moment" buys.
6. It would give her a better insight into service quality of online stores, which is somewhat related to her PhD research.

We tried out Sainsbury's Online Groceries first of all. We bought products worth £77.41 - mostly organic food. I also earned two Nectar points for every £1 spent online.

The groceries were delivered on the appointed date and we were satisfied with the quality of the products.

A few days later we decided to take a look at Tesco's online grocery store. We had one coupon which enabled us to get a discount of £10 on orders over £50. The final amount came to £64.32. The stuff will be delivered to our house this Monday.

Here are some of our observations:

Website Navigation: We found Sainsbury's store to be more user friendly. Easier to find items.

Product Choice: We were looking for organic food and Tesco definitely has a wider choice.

Pricing: Tesco products were cheaper. As for delivery charges, Sainsbury's was comparatively cheaper but as I mentioned earlier, we had a discount coupon for Tesco.

Conclusion: I would have to give a thumbs up to Tesco's online grocery store because of the overall savings. Plus I get points on my Tesco card.

PhD Dinner Pics

Here are some pics of our PhD dinner at Kenilworth last Thursday:

Dinner with Friends

Drove to Kenilworth town yesterday with a few friends for the PhD dinner. The venue was Sunam Balti House, an Indian restaurant at 57 Abbey End. My wife stayed back to look after the kids. Thanks Darling.

They had booked for 20 guys but only ten of us turned up, which was good in one way and bad on the other hand. Good because it gave us a chance to interact more but bad because we had to pay more in the end. I thought it was a a little bit on the pricey side but the food was quite good and we had a nice time.

Was about 12:30am when I finally reached home.

Hari Raya open house pics

We had an 'open house' - a Malaysian tradition, on the 13th Saturday. We planned to have it from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm but somehow it got extended by a around 2 hours as some of our friends were only able to visit later.

Here are some pics:


Our second Raya in the UK

FOOD



Serunding (squarish plate), Chicken Rendang (yellow bowl), Lamb Rogan, Dhal Curry, Saffron Rice, Pulut Kuning & Nasi Impit (on the silver oval plate), and some different varieties of raya cookies.

Most of the dishes were prepared by my wife. The cookies and serunding were gifts from my in-laws in Malaysia (came by Fedex). The nasi impit was prepared by Nana's family. I only made the Dhal.


Cadbury Cocoa pudding


GUESTS


Rahil and friend











Thanks to everyone who visited our house. Special mention to Nana, Mozard and Family and Min who helped out.

Meeting Robin Hood - Episode 2

Some more pictures from our trip to Sherwood forest last Sunday.


Great story tellers




Rahil invited to join the orchestra


She's playing the tambourine


Dads with the kids


Now the mum's turn


An old oak tree int he forest


The jousting arena

We left without watching the jousting tournament as it was extremely hot and I was having a splitting headache.

We dropped by our friend Amruls' house Nottingham. He had cooked spaghetti and had baked a chocolate cake for us. Yes! It was as delicious as it looks.