Appliances a DormRat Shouldn't Live Without!

Hey guys! Sorry I wasn’t able to update yesterday.. I was just soo exhausted. So I’ll just back-post yesterday’s food recipe. :)

So today I’m giving you a list of the appliance and food essentials that you have to have, as a person who lives independently, away from Mommy and Daddy, or in my case, Nanay and Tatay.

I had mentioned that an Asian person absolutely needs a rice cooker. In my country, meals are not complete without rice. We have rice and, like in the previous post, an entreé dish. As in my video, you can also use that rice cooker to steam yer pantz.

A rice cooker set in my country usually comes with a steaming apparatus (pictures after the article), a spoon thingie, aside from the heating component, which is the body of the rice cooker itself, and the pot where you place your rice and the water. Pardon me, coz I don’t know what they’re called, actually.

The steamer can be used for heating cold pizza, burgers, siopao (Those steamed buns with meat filling? What are they called?) and even frozen meats, if you have friends who give you their leftover roast stuff. Yesterday, our dorm's super/caretaker was steaming a dormmate's lechon meal. Lechon is roast pork. You can also cook leche flan/custard on the steamer. I tell you, the possibilities are endless!

..But if you’re just absolutely starting, with only so much to spare, I believe you can do with an electric fan and a water heater. A water heater is essential for coffee, and for us here in the Philippines, instant noodles, yum. We also have instant pancit canton, which is an adaptation of the Chinese stir-fried Canton noodles. One can usually prepare that in under 10 minutes. Just heat some water, place the noodles in a heat-resistant bowl like the one in the veggie dish picture, cover, and allow to soften for around 3-5 minutes. Contrary to popular belief, that process actually cooks the noodles already, so there’s no need to fear indigestion.

You can also do the same for soupy noodles.

When you can afford it already, however, don’t ever live without:

• stove
• refrigerator
• rice cooker, as mentioned
• water heater
• electric fan
• clothes iron
• your choice of entertainment appliances: DVD player/TV/radio or any music/audio player

And if you have cash to spare, a multi-cooker would be nice. You can grill, stir-fry, cook rice, and steam, and think up lots of other innovative ways to prepare your food on there. If you have more cash to spare, an oven toaster would prove handy for your minor baking needs. I just don’t advice getting a microwave oven, because I don’t like how it doesn’t heat food uniformly and because of the possible health risks it poses.

My friend also bought (or was she just planning to buy?) a slow cooker. She says it would be nice to cook meats and things that need cooking on there, so that food would be cooking or heating as she sleeps or while she’s still at work. Personally, I don’t like the thought of leaving anything electric on in my room when I go out, because I’m too paranoid about fires.

Neither do I recommend an LPG (liquid petroleum gas) stove because I have heard stories of these things blowing up. In fact, in my country, a family of 6(?) children (plus parents on top of that) had experienced second-degree burns when an LPG tank blew up due to a leak. The father tried to stop the gas tank from blowing up, but of course, the things are high-pressure objects. No stopping one when it decides to explode.

I hope this gives you an idea of what you need to buy for yourself. I’m putting up my personal checklist in another post.

Till then, ciao! ;)