Kitchen Wish Lists & Being Your Own Fairy Godmother

Dear Reader, meet Almond Roca Cookie. ARC, meet Reader. ARC is from the oven of Emeril BAM! Lagasse at the Food Network. Indeed, she is made of sugar and spice and everything nice, as detailed here. I made this particular batch for an F1 get together a couple Sundays ago, substituting toffee bits for hammer smashed Werther's Original candies and omitting the oil for the dark chocolate drizzle. Unfortunately, ARC is not what we're here to discuss today. She was just a lure. I promise we'll come back to ARC another day.

Now that I have your attention...

Late last night, in an afternoon nap induced state of alertness, I cruised the internet for recipes. I found some of the loveliest things to shove in the oven, but through my wanderings, I became increasingly aware of the kitchen equipment I was lacking/craving.

So, between obsessive compulsively linking recipe titles in my email, I came up with a kitchen wish list:

Things I Wish I Owned That Make Me Feel Dreamy When I See Them

• tart dish
• stainless steel mixing bowl(s)
• sharp knife (or rather a whole beautiful set of sharp knives)
• rubber spatula(s)
• 12+ cup muffin tin
• ramekins (plural is not an option)
• souffle dish
• electric hand mixer
• frosting spatula
• full spice rack
• mini torch
• cake stand
• pastry blender

I have always loved kitchen things. My boyfriend, being the wonderful and thoughtful man that he is, got me several pieces of kitchen equipment for my birthday last month. I have used them all, save for the fondue set, which we will remedy very soon in a chocolate dipped weekend paradise. Still, my addiction is not satiated. That's the nature of addiction, it's never enough.

I don't think I've ever seen a ramekin (let alone a mini torch) for sale in Singapore, so I looked to the all knowing internet for insider secrets. Big thanks to Only Slightly Pretentious Food and  She Bakes and She Cooks for pointing me to Lau Choy Seng at 23,25 Temple Street (below).

It sounds strange, but I seriously felt like a kid in a candy store. Shelves and shelves of knives, stainless steel bowls, gleaming white porcelain, and so much more I don't need but desire to slip off the shelf and into my basket anyway. Stainless steel mixing bowl, check. Sharp knife, check. Rubber spatula, check. After finding out that they were completely out of 8cm ramekins, I took about five seconds to tell the man I wanted eight of the 9cm size.

After a reasonable kitchen supply binge at LHS, I decided to give the other shop recommended in the blogs a try. Just down the street is Sia Huat Pte Ltd at 7, 9, & 11 Temple Street. Yes, it is true what they say, SHPL is a bit more organized than LHS, but the employees seem to be running around like mad and answer questions nearly breathless before dashing off to help the next customer. Rumor has it that they are more expensive than LHS, but I barely glanced at prices as I drifted down the aisles, eyes glazing over from the money I just spent at LHS and the glistening array of cookie cutters before me. They had just about any shape I could think of. I find this crab cutter aaadorable (below).

Unfortunately, neither store had what I envision a proper hand mixer to look like. They both had upright mixers (drooool), a variety that would fit neatly on the kitchen counter and also some that could destroy a toddler should one fall in, but no hand mixers.

When you're at a loss in the hunt for kitchen appliances, go to the domestic holy land: the department stores. I gave Takashimaya's basement a spin and while they have a decent selection and knowledgeable staff, I decided to shop around. Just down Orchard Road was TANGS. The people that work there are generally useless and have no real scope of their stock, so I took to wandering and happened upon a hand mixer that comes with a stand/bowl set up and a set of dough hooks for $39SG. DIRT CHEAP. Now it lives in my kitchen and makes me smile. While it's no shiny KitchenAid upright mixer, it'll do.

After my kitchen supply bender, my previous list now looks like this (items in purple have been added after the original post was published):

• tart dish
• 12+ cup muffin tin
• souffle dish
• full spice rack
• mini torch
• cake stand
• pastry blender
• pizza cutter
• cookie sheets (plural is important because one is not enough)
• an actual upright mixer (dream big)
• a jolly assortment of random cookie cutters

Much more compact, no? (Answer: Definitely no, because...) Still, I can say with absolute certainty that this list will swell again, but that's how wish lists go. In the meantime, I can day dream about fancy things to do with my little army of ramekins.

Current weather in Singapore: Warm, absolutely pouring, and peppered with lightning and thunder. Love it.