sweden shenanigans, pt 1.

been awhile since i blogged, although i've been playing with the idea of a travelogue (that will probably only materialise in my dreams)

so let's just put on some stuff that's interesting (and perhaps informative) for future exchang-ers as well.



not ordinary white bread you see back home. comes with a mean expiry date (often 1 week), and available in (most commonly) 600g packs. Means you wolf down 4 to 6 pieces a day if you don't want it to go bad.

the cheapest brand is eldorado, which is a budget brand we're making fast friends with.



mr milk also comes with a great price to pay. even though it's very much cheaper than the watery milk we have in SG. (1+SGD/litre) dairy products expire DAMN fast, even though there are opportunities to pick up half-prices for almost-expiring or expired ones (which i'm not gonna try).



the siemens stove we have in the accommodation. runs on electricity, which is good (and bad). i suppose you can't have a closed room filled with gas anyway. but the oven is always good (since i've never used one) for food experiments, like grilled chicken, grilled hotdogs, grilled meatballs...



corn. you don't have a lot of vegetables here in ulu Jonkoping. only broccoli (green and white, for variety), some peas, carrots, and frozen stuff. corn is only available frozen and their texture is.... smudgy. Very very soft yucky corn. Or maybe i just cook too long. not cheap too, even for frozen ones.



weird minty vegetable. unknown thingy, but apparently it's part of a soup mix. tastes like carrot, but don't think it's white carrot leh. in any case, some potatoes also taste minty.



Rice! Not cheap here, at 4-5SGD/kg. It's really 粒粒皆辛苦. Although you do find rice cookers as cheap as 60 SGD, super cheapo me prefer to steam rice and chicken instead. The only hard part is defrosting, which takes A LOT of time. And also the metal stand, which I'm still unable to find, so i get lots of ceramic marks on my pot.



Sauces! No Chinese (and sometimes Western) dishes are complete without a hell lot of condiments. BBQ (for marinating grilled stuff), oyster sauce , pepper, soya sauce, salt, sugar (which can all be bought here), and MSG (which i haven't seen - maybe not looking out for it)

Just bought starch powder today, which means no more watery 'zup' from vegetables! Yay! Tempted to buy 麻油, but seems to be more limited, for rice, chicken, and instant noodles.

Speaking of which, one of the best instant noodle brands Nissin can be bought here, but for 1.4SGD per packet. Compare that to the 6 pack in SG, for 2+SGD. Daylight robbery, but oh well. Time to gam with the Cantonese owner....



crazy weather for nighttime jonkoping today. the floor is icy and i keep feeling cold drafts at my feet. apparently the room isn't airtight enough and lets cold air from outside in. free aircon.

shall never complain that marina square is cold again.