Almost everyone I know already has and loves their air fryers.
But countertop space is prime real estate in my closet-size kitchen.
I have to think long and hard before I acquire a new appliance.
And more often than not, they were relegated to cabinets and drawers when the novelty ran out, occupying valuable storage space, gathering dust and getting in the way.
I think I had used my juicer a grand total of only 3 times before I bumped it into storage.
Naturally, I wasn't thrilled when I was gifted a bulky Pery Smith air fryer that squandered my precious countertop space.
I chalked the fangled appliance up to a glorified mini convection oven.
Anyways, I decided to give Mr. Pery a chance — a new gadget to play with, a new adventure in my uneventful life.
It has been 3 months since Mr. Pery came to us.
My boys and I use him just about every day now, even if it’s just to reheat leftovers or frozen foods.
Super crispy pizza straight from freezer to air fryer in 7 mins!
WHY I LOVE MR. PERY
1. He's easy to use and SO, SO simple to clean!
2. It's so easy to check if your food is cooked — simply pull out the fry basket, eyeball the doneness and push the fry basket back in to cook longer if needed.
3. It’s like deep frying with very little or no oil.
Crispy outside, moist inside
No more oil splatters! Ever experienced hot oil spitting, sputtering and exploding from your stovetop like fireworks on the Fourth of July? Ouch! Not fun!
4. Cooking time is faster with Mr. Pery than a convectional oven.
I made ultra crispy pork crackling in under 3 hours that would otherwise require a whole bunch of steps with a convectional oven. No overnight refrigeration, salt crusting or long roasting time! No vinegar or baking soda needed! Plus, you don't have to line the sides of the meat with aluminum foil. Mr. Pery made it way too easy to do.
Thick pork chops cooked to perfection in under 10 mins on each side!
DOWNSIDE
1. Things fly around in an air fryer. Think AIR FLYER! I once placed a McD burger inside the fryer with extra slices of cheddar in between the buns, expecting a perfectly molten cheese burger. Instead, Mr. Pery disassembled the burger! The cheese came off the patty and melted into an icky mess and stuck to the fry basket! Later, I learned that securing the burger with a toothpick does the trick.
2. Wet, battered and loosely seasoned foods are a NO-NO!
So, is the air fryer just a load of hot air? Does the tiny fry-basket justify the space it takes on the counter??
Mr. Pery has really blown me away! Now, I can't imagine life without him.
My son Rodney pranked me with this Christmas gift.
I thought it was a cordless hair dryer!
Turned out , it was a gag gift — a big-ass airpod!
He had me there!
I used it to boom up and play on repeat my playlist of whiny, mopey, achy-breaky songs that I listened to when my heart was shattered by my first major crush at the tender age of 17.
Haha! The songs drove Rodney crazy! "D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G!" he groaned !
Guys 'n' Dolls - How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
Guys 'n' Dolls lead singer Dominic Grant died of abdominal aortic aneurysm at the age of 71 in November 2020.
Skeeter Davis - My Last Date With You
Skeeter Davis died of breast cancer on September 19, 2004, aged 72.
Anne Murray - Broken Hearted Me
Retired from singing, Anne Murray, 75, now settles into Nova Scotia life.
Linda Ronstadt - Long, Long Time
Ronstadt, now 73, prematurely retired from her singing career. Parkinson's disease has silenced her emotive voice.
Oh, the hauntingly beautiful vocals and lyrics...
Lyrics that rhymed so perfectly...
The nostalgia...
What were your breakup songs for wallowing when you were a teen?
Scrolling down her page, I discovered that Rommy from The Netherlands creates fun, quirky food-inspired handbags, clutches and purses.
All of her unique designs are meticulously handmade. The bags feature a concealed zip and hollow centre, with enough space to hold a phone, keys, purse and even a little makeup!
In case you are wondering how much they cost...
These are only 25% of all her bags!
Feast your eyes on loads more on her Instagram here.
You probably have seen photos of bowls of colorful rice balls (tang yuan) on social media and especially on December 21st/22nd every year when the Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese the world over celebrate the Dongzhi festival.
Tang yuan is a Chinese dessert that consists of sticky rice balls in a pandan and ginger infused syrup.
Tang yuan means "soup ball".
The dessert is traditionally enjoyed during Dongzhi, the Lantern Festival, at weddings and essentially any family reunion dinners.
These days, you can have tang yuan any time you want. I always have a packet of those store-bought ones in my freezer.
But half the fun of eating tang yuan is in the rolling of those colorful balls! And especially back then for boomer kids like us when play dough wasn't around!
Tastewise, I personally don't find the starchy and chewy balls amazing but I like eating them because they always evoke fond memories of my childhood with every bite.
Even as I'm writing this, I can almost smell the aroma of pandan and ginger wafting from the pot of bubbling syrup in my late grandma's kitchen where we all gathered to make tang yuan.
While Grandma and the aunts worked on the dough, me, my sisters and the cousins would be seated around a huge marble table and tasked with shaping the balls.
Every now and then, one of the aunts would inspect our handiwork to ensure that the tang yuan were roughly of the same size and most importantly, perfectly round as Grandma was a stickler of tradition. The spherical shape of the tang yuan and the bowls in which they were served symbolized family togetherness and completeness.
Ha! I think my purist grandma would roll in her grave if she were to see the spin people put on tang yuan these days!
Great balls of fires! Square tang yuan??!! I see Grandma spinning in her grave!
My first encounter with an XLB was painful (literally) and embarrassing!
It happened during a business luncheon with my boss and a couple of clients.
Back then, these soup dumplings had just recently debuted in Malaysia and I was totally uninitiated.
Long story short, I ended up with a scalded mouth, a wet chin and blouse and guffawing co-workers!
I had no idea there was piping hot soup inside the dumpling!
Now that I've wised up after that mortifying experience, here's a 101 on soup dumplings for the clueless!
First, a little fun trivia!
So, what are XLBs?
Xiao Long Bao (XLB) aka soup dumplings are tiny, delicate, pleated pouches that encase a pork filling and a rich, savoury broth.
Xiao Long Bao literally translates as "little basket buns", so named after the bamboo baskets in which they are steamed.
How to get an XLB from the bamboo steamer basket and into your mouth
Place your Chinese soup spoon close to the dumpling and gently lift it up from the steamer onto your spoon. Haha! The first time I tried to pick one up with my chopsticks, I inadvertently punctured the skin and the leaking dumpling conspicuously left a wet trail on the red table cloth all the way from the center of the table to my plate!
I didn't know you had to use a spoon!
Once the dumpling is safe in your spoon, resist the temptation to pop it into your mouth immediately lest you suffer first-degree burns from the blistering soup.
Nibble the top of the dumpling to let some steam out. Give it a moment to cool and slowly slurp out the soup. Once this "dangerous" step is over, you can now devour the rest of the dumpling any way you please!
I like my XLB plain but you could gingerly (don't mind the pun) dunk it in the dipping sauce of vinegar and julienned ginger while waiting for your dumpling to cool.
I've just had an amazing pasta meal cooked by a 5-star hotel chef and at a very affordable price in the safety and comfort of my own dining room.
I am doing my bit in keeping local businesses alive as best as I can.
Amid these crazy times, people are avoiding buffets like the plague (pardon the pun) and hotels are the hardest hit as the pandemic drags on.
Swanky hotels with extravagant all-you-can-eat buffets now seem like petri dishes than a nice place to dine in.
Think communal salad tongs! Shudder!
Pre-Covid-19, I would drool at the mere thought of the rainbow swirl of desserts, pastas, curries, satay...
In an effort to keep their staff, a local award-winning 5-star hotel has taken the initiative to repurpose their buffet cooking stations into take-away counters, offering meals at modest prices.
Now, with all the trappings of a luxury hotel gone, the restaurant looks more like a canteen.
Pre-Covid-19
Their seafood bar was to die for
Notice the sad chocolate fountain
In its glory days
Do you think hotel buffets may be a thing of the past post covid-19?
A friend has been raving about an artisan milk teahouse that has opened in her neck of the woods for some time.
Curious, I decided to give the high-end tea a try and ordered via a food delivery service.
The milk tea was delivered in this beautiful paper bag...
and in a tall, elegant, 9 inch cup.
It cost me almost twice the price I would pay for my regular bubble tea but I thought it was well worth the money, judging by the height of the cup.
I had the White Peach Oolong Milk Tea and it really was amazing!
Funnily, when I savoured the last drop, it didn't feel like there was a lot of tea in such a tall cup.
My curiosity piqued, I tore up the back of the cup and here's what was revealed!
Haha! This explains the very short thin straw that came with it!
So was I duped?
Not really. I was told that when the milk tea shop first opened, they launched their "Tear Cup" campaign where mystery gifts like discount vouchers, lipsticks, mini bottles of hand sanitizers and perfumes, etc were hidden in their signature cups.
A rather clever marketing gimmick, don't you agree?
