Food Text

I love being busy in the kitchen especially at weekends. Through the week there is not enough time to cook special things but I dream about what I will make for friends when the working-week ends. Cooking for me is relaxing and I enjoy sharing food with my friends.
On Saturday mornings, when I have finished my chores, I visit the local market to buy the freshest possible ingredients for my weekend meals. I buy seasonal produce and utilise them in my food creations.
My kitchen always has a stock of good basic ingredients so that I have the foundation for most dishes. I also have a wide range of herbs and spices which amuse my friends as I am forever experimenting with new ingredients and recipes.
For me, cooking for my friends and sharing food and wine with them is a special
occasion. I pull out all the stops, and give them something different and delicious.
One of my specialities is Indonesia cuisine which I believe is the most delicious in the world. This Asian food involves using chillies, fresh are best and I always wear cotton gloves when I handle them to prevent skin irritation. The smell of them simmering in the pan when I make Sambal Oelek evokes my visits to Bali.
Cooking is my creative outlet and I present the food in as authentic a way as I can. With Indonesian meat, fish and vegetarian dishes I serve rice and a variety of sambals. I vary the sambals from mild to very hot. The very hot and spicy are my favourites. A cooling accompaniment is Cucumber Relish. In summer when cucumbers and mint are plentiful I make enough to fill a jar and serve it with salads and sandwiches.
I have fun making pasta. A pasta-machine I bought on holiday recently is frequently used and it pleases me that it is easy to handle. While on holiday in Tuscany I collected many recipes and I surprise my friends with authentic Italian heartland food. Tuscan cooks seem to favour spaghetti over other pasta shapes, I think it may have something to do with their aesthetic sense, there is something very visually satisfying about a plate of steaming pasta.
My friends love to eat Spaghetti Della Notte Di San Giovanni, Spaghetti on the eve of St John. It is a simple dish with a fiery sauce.
I have a Bergundian love of good food and wine. With Indonesian food there is nothing better than an ice-cold Indonesian beer. Chianti Classico pairs with well rich Italian food. Have fun cooking, experimenting and enjoy sharing with your friends.

How A Stranger I Met On A Trip Changed My Life

The guy who said that travelling is a great form of education definitely knew what he was talking about. I am Huub Teesing and I am a successful man in my mid-fifties. As the CEO of my own company, I meet people from different backgrounds. My job is to travel around Europe looking for good smart phone deals. My firm sells mobile phones. We have a large shop in central London and this location serves as company headquarters, showroom and sales office. This location is also my base when I happen to be in town.

Now, I really enjoy my job. I love meeting people. I love mobile phones iPads and computers. I also like buying phones at great prices and selling these phones at a decent profit. In my spare time, I play chess, drink beer, dance and swim.

One minor problem with being the CEO is that sometimes, you begin to feel you are a very special person. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it does not do your modesty much good. In my own case, I am the boss. The buck stops at my table. I give all the orders. I formulate and implement company policy and I come up with bright ideas once in a while. I built my company from scratch and I am doing quite well. If you are not careful, all these achievements will go to your head and this is exactly what happened to me. I began to see myself as a very special dude.

I usually travel first class. Nothing less will do. One day, I missed my flight and had to settle for economy class. It was on this flight that I met a stranger who changed my life for good. I was flying from London to Helsinki and my destination was Nokia Headquarters.

The guy I met on this flight was about thirty. He was educated, intelligent and very self-assured. I became very interested in this guy when he told me he sold mobile phones for a living. He was going to Helsinki too and he was interested in cheap Nokia phones with basic functions and long battery life.

This young man told me that he sold most of his phones to the African market. Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana were some of his favourite phone markets. I was learning a lot from this guy but I did not want to let him know this. Anyway, we got to Helsinki, exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch with each other.

A few weeks later, I was back in Helsinki. I had done some research and I found out there was good money to be made in the African mobile phone market. These days, I supply mobile phones, laptops and iPads to customers in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt. Thanks to a stranger I met on a flight to Helsinki, I have entered the lucrative African mobile phone market and I am making good money to boot.

Why I Am in Love with My Pick-up Van

A lot of people do not understand. They just cannot understand why Huub Teesing has been driving the same car for the past ten years. Now, in case you are wondering who this Mr. Huub Teesing is, I have to admit that I am the person. I am a successful bloke in my mid-fifties and I can afford to buy some of the best driving machines out there. The problem (for some people) is that I have refused to trade in my old pick-up van for a sophisticated vehicle. What a lot of people do not understand is that the vehicle I drive holds special memories for me.

I graduated from the university of Manchester at the ripe old age of 32. I got a job in a computer manufacturing firm the next year and spent the next twelve years paying my dues and climbing the corporate ladder. At age 45, I resigned my appointment, cashed in my benefits and set up my own company. I sell mobile phones and computers and I make a decent living most of the time. In fact, things are so good that I can afford to park a jeep in my garage but for some sentimental reasons, I have chosen to keep driving my good old Isuzu pick-up van.

You see, I am a smart man and I obey my wife. She has made me promise that I will never sell "our Isuzu" and this is one promise I intend to keep. It was even because of this vehicle that I met my wife in the first place. I remember the incident as if it happened yesterday. It had just stopped raining and I was rushing to deliver computers to my best customer. I did not notice the beautiful young lady until I had splashed her with rain water. To cut this interesting story short, I apologised to the lady and drove her to her destination. I also got her phone number. Things developed from there and today, we are happily married.

Apart from the romantic angle, my Isuzu is a very valuable vehicle. It is my basic source of mobility and it is a very rugged product. I use this driving machine to deliver mobile phones, computers and other accessories to my clients. My wife borrows the Isuzu sometimes because it is the perfect vehicle for shopping. Just think, you can load all the groceries in this vehicle and there will be space for more items.

As you can see, I have great reasons for my loyalty to this vehicle but there are other reasons. I am a pragmatic person by nature. I do not believe in changing a winning formula. My car is doing me a lot of good so I have no reason to buy another one.

Finally, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart is my hero. He drove a pick-up van for most of his life and this is why I have decided to emulate this smart and very successful man.