An Update

I started this blog three years ago, when I was in the middle of studies in Mellbourne, Australia, to document my cooking experiments while keeping to a (relatively) tight budget - hence the name. There, a cheap meal costs AUD$7 and can go up to $20, so cooking really made sense in order to keep costs down. Along the way, the blog grew as friends and other students-on-similar-budgets chipped in as guest contributors. In 2006, I returned to Singapore to begin life in the working world. I tried to keep the blog up as best I could, although not too successfully.

This year, I'm back to being a student again, which means hopefully I can dust off the cobwebs from this blog and start chronicling my culinary adventures in a new country. As of June, I've moved 400km north of the peninsula and started postgraduate studies in Penang, Malaysia where I'll be a student again for at least another two years. Unlike Melbourne, food in Malaysia is cheap - and there's many a Malaysian who can attest to the wonderments of Penang food! The challenge for me here is not to replicate the local food (which is available cheap, anyway) but make up new ones - while keeping on a tight budget.

I've been really lucky that none of my housemates cook, so I've just about taken over the entire kitchen. I set myself up with just about everything you see here, from the fridge, to the microwave oven to the induction cooker. (The toaster oven was a kind donation). It's not a big kitchen to work with, but for a student on a budget I think I can get by.

More to come!