As any student knows, especially those from Hong Kong studying in the UK, that these are the staple diet for those on lowly student grants. Well it was when I was in Birmingham!

There is nothing more satisfying than plonking a fried egg or two on top of a steaming bowl of noodles, meat and vegetables. The fact that the soft yolk oozes out just makes it even better. I like to fry them so that they are sizzled to give them an extra bite to their texture.

Unfortunately the inventor of the packet noodles has died.

Red sky in morning, Cottage Pie.

I thought I would just quickly list the differences between similar recipes or sounding dishes as they are sometimes the centre of frivolous office debate.

Shepherd's Pie - only made from lamb or mutton eg the meat comes from a sheep
Cottage Pie - made with mince or any other meat

Quiche - mainly egg or cheese based and savoury. Pastry based.
Flan - more custard or souffle based. Can be sweet or savoury. Can be sponge or pastry based.

I thought I was bad wasting time updating all these web sites and so on. I found this blog by Audrey Cooks that must get a load of time and attention plus it has fantastic photographs and recipes.

She says she is from Malaysia and the site is pack full of Far Eastern recipes. I was searching for information on my Pig's Trotters article and came across Audrey's web site. It is mouth watering!

We have been using those disposable BBQs from the main supermarkets for a number of years now. Some are better than others. A friend had one from Morrisons which was da bomb. It lasted for ages, very hot and seemed to be made up of wood rather than charcoal type things. We have found that the Sainsbury seems to be the worst performers.

Anyway, tonight we had a quick BBQ in the garden as the weather, for September, was nice enough to throw a few bits onto the fire.

A bit of advice. Even if you do not plan to eat sausages, or were looking forward to having shellfish or something, I think it is worth making one or two sausage offerings to the gods, before putting your food on. I say this as I was trying to BBQ two large squids but because of the moisture inside the squid, it dripped onto the coals and made them virtually unusable. I had to start another one.

However, when I popped a few Walls sausages on, the disposable BBQ came back to life. I reckon it all needs a bit of fat to be splashed around to kick off more of the coals.