One of the cool things about being guys in our 20’s is the fact we don’t have to worry too much when it comes to food. Most of the time we eat out with friends, and if money’s tight, we could easily settle for something we could quickly revv up from the kitchen. The coolest thing about it is that we can be extremely terrible with a wok and spatula yet we can still get away with decent-looking dishes that can be done in less than 10 minutes, taste great and still have a great time.

However, just because you’re a bachelor with a thin wallet doesn’t mean you should make any excuse to remain a lousy cook and come out with lousier food. I’ve been messing around with cooking and eating since I was in primary school [I'm sure you can see me parading around the evidence *rubs belly*] and I’d like to share with you single-track-minded buffoons some easy tips when you decide to start cooking. So, leave the instant noodles in their shelves and the 3-minute pizza in freezer, and get it on with the real deal.

Leave the methodical, uncreative, guaranteed-delicious cooking to our mothers, sisters and girlfriends [cough]. Guys, let’s just cook stuff, shall we?

1. Onions have lots of healthy natural sugar, so chop and sautée them beforehand to add some sweetness to your fried rice/noodles. An even easier method is to mince 3-4 onions in a blender into an onion paste and keep them in the fridge. That way you can easily scoop about a few tablespoons and quickly sautée them whenever you need some.

2. Ginger and garlic adds some zing and an irresistible aroma. Minced ginger is a must-have for barbecue/roast marinades and crushed garlic makes a great combo when sautéed with onions.

3. Black pepper has strong aroma but subtle taste, white pepper are much hotter but don’t smell as strong. Avoid powdered peppers, they have rice flour mixed in so you’ll be losing on the 100% pepper goodness. Buy grains of peppercorns and crush them into powder yourself.

4. Pandan leaves are fragrant and adds great flavour to many things. Toss some into your rice before cooking them, or let them soak inside your ice-cold jug rose syrup.

5. Serai aka lemongrass gives extra flavour and aroma to soups and marinades. Cut off the leaves and slice the stalk into thin pieces. Or crush the stalk and you can use it to brush oil/butter onto food on the grill. On barbecues, and if you’re missing lemongrass stalks, folded pandan leaves can be used to brush your BBQ chicken wings, too.

6. Use butter or margarine instead of cooking oil for stir-frying, they’re healthier and smell nicer.

7. Get yourself some basic sauces - light and dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce.

8. Soy sauce is great for pan-frying noodles and seafood

9. Oyster sauce gives some sweetness to chicken and meat.

10. Fish sauce is a good substitute for salt. It’s got this crazy appetizing smell when its fried.

11. A few tablespoons of milk gives a nice smooth texture to your omelettes and scrambled eggs.

12. Don’t fry whole tomatoes. Or onions, for that matter. [I swear to God, I've seen it happen.]

13. Don’t add cheese into fried rice. Any kind of cheese. [I've tried. Tastes like crap.]

14. The Bachelor’s Fried Rice is more than a dish - it’s a concept. It doesn’t have a fixed set of ingredients but it does incorporate four basic items: onions, garlic, eggs and rice. Additional meats, spices and sauces vary between each bachelor. That’s what makes it special :D

15. Avoid unfamiliar raw meat [i.e. salmon, lamb, turkey].

16. Canned tuna does not combine very well with scrambled eggs. Smells horrible, too.

17. There are three items that will almost always taste great in any kind soup or gravy: potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.

18. Fresh lime and/or lemon juice brings out the awesomeness in soy sauce when used as a dip. Has a slightly different but equally awesome effect on mayonnaise, too.

19. Get two types of knives - a big one for chopping, a thinner one for slicing. That’s about all a bachelor cook would ever need to cut almost anything he would get his hands on.

20. A good Tom Yam is the easiest soup to prepare among other soups on this planet. It’s a globally accepted fact that it’s impossible for anyone, even a helpless nerdy bachelor, to screw it up. Unless you’re a muscle-brained intergalactic idiot who can’t tell the difference between a frying pan and pot.

Well then, that’s about as much as I could think of at the moment. For you guys living in the hostel with no access to a gas stove, too bad for you lah. Guess you’ll just have to keep spending money eating out, then, HAHAHAHA.

Now, anyone else [mommy bloggers perhaps?] would like to add anything?

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Small Talk:

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the temptation.

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