how am I supposed to cook anything in this temperatures?

[ratcreature]

I still haven't had any dinner, because it's clear that the Spanish custom to have dinner really late around ten or so in the evening, is the only sensible one in this this kind of heat. Any earlier is simply too hot to have any substantial appetite.

And this awful weather sucks for my food budget. In reaction to the intolerable temperatures I'm mostly subsisting on chilled yogurt and fruit and the like, which I'm sure is healthy and everything, but even in season fruits are expensive. Also, ultimately while tasty not all that satisfying.

I'm hungry, I have plenty of food at home, but I'm too sticky and lethargic to cook myself anything.

Comments

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Never move to Australia!

I make summer rolls which are delicious and involve very little cooking, apart from one pot of boiling water to quickly cook the rice noodles and dip the rice paper wrappers. This site (http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2008/08/01/thai-vietnamese-summer-salad-rolls/) has a really good roundup and wrapping instructions! You can include any ingredients you want - avocado is awesome. Sometimes I fry up some mushrooms to put in them, but usually not. On the other hand, Australia does have relatively cheap fruit and vegies all year, which helps.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I suspect Australia and me would be a very bad match, climate-wise. I feel miserable as soon as temperatures rise above 25°C.

But such rolls might be tasty, with the only inconvenience that I don't have an East Asian store really nearby.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I don't have any East Asian stores either - it's just regular supermarket food here, even out where I live. I expect the different immigration patterns to Germany result in different supermarket stocking, though!

[ratcreature]

The fancier supermarkets with deli sections also have all kinds of "ethnic" foods though usually more expensive than buying it in an Asian or Middle Eastern grocery store, or the like. The supermarket across the street where I buy most stuff is of the discount type, that has mostly a no-frills approach to shopping in that you get no name staples stacked on palettes,. The lack of extras (such as stacking a gazillion different brands of the same type all prettily onto shelves, rather than having a palette with one kind of flour, one kind of sugar etc in the store) makes the basics cheap (so cheap actually that Wal-Mart failed establishing itself in Germany because they just could not match the prices with their store model that has all kinds of extras like stacking stuff and employing service people and such), but the selection of specialty foods is limited. Mine has soy sauce and rice noodles, and canned bamboo and some other Asian stuff, but I've haven't seen rice paper wrappers.