Tuesday 29/04/2008 – a comforting meal of rice, minchee and stir-fried green beans. The beans were cooked with onion, garlic and dark soy sauce and finished with a drizzle of sesame oil. The minchee was just good old minchee, cubed potatoes, pork mince, garlic and onion cooked in oyster sauce and a little chicken stock. Yum.

Friday 02/05/2008 – Jac cooked oven-fried chicken – she coated the chicken drumsticks in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, a little bouquet garni and chicken salt. She baked corn on the cob in the oven at the same time. I ate my corn without any butter – its natural corniness was sweet and delicious just on its own. The salad consisted of fresh cucumber, red capsicum, mushrooms and cos lettuce, with a little briefly blanched broccoli. I had a little dish of aioli for dipping – chicken and salad.

Jac placed the drumsticks on a rack over an oven tray, which ensured they wouldn’t get soggy as they cooked. She baked the chicken drumsticks until the skin was golden-brown and crispy. As soon as I looked at the chicken on the plate all I wanted to do was pick up a drumstick and start gnawing. And that’s exactly what I did. She’d really cooked the chicken perfectly – the meat was moist and succulent. I love that satisfying, pleasurable moment of biting through crispy chicken skin and then feeling the hot puff of delicious-smelling chickeny steam that is released as you sink your teeth into juicy, tender chicken. Oh yeah.