A few of our favourite things... - Mike's Take

Okay, it’s not winter - but summer term is still a high-stress term here in Imperial, we’ll grant you that. Everyone’s got their own comfort foods/snacks (season be damned), favourite eateries, kitchen gadgets they’re biased towards. Even us as Food editors - we’re not going to pretend we don’t have a few favourites of our own; things that keep us going when the chips (hurr!) are down.

Here we’ve compiled our lists of personal favourites - eateries, gadgetry, dishes, foodie tips etc. Perhaps they’re here because they’ve got impeccable service. Perhaps it’s because they make our life over 9000 times easier when it comes to prep work. Perhaps it’s because they’re just plain cool, or simple. In any case, we hope they give you a few ideas - none of these are sponsored features!

We’d also love to hear about your favourites, so tweet us @feliximperial with #FelixFood - or Instagram your picks - and we might just feature it! Guilty or not, a pleasure is a pleasure.

MICHAEL CHUNG

_Personally I don’t often eat out - mainly because I have got a busy schedule at uni and it is nice to keep my bank account healthy! This leads me to cooking dinner at home most of the time, but I do have lunch on site as well. _

Favourite Campus Food

My favourite lunch option is at the Fuel Up outlet at the JCR. I’m not talking salads though - tucked in the corner of the small room serves the stew of the day. From butternut squash curry to beef goulash, the tasty pot of warm substance always brightens me up on a freezing winter day, but also serves well with the warm weather we had earlier on in the month. It costs £3.38 with bread and butter - not too expensive either.

Mentioning the salads, the choice at the bar is sometimes so wide that not everything is top notch. Not to mention the huge queue during lunchtime rush hour. If you want a salad and are in a rush, there are the green boxed salads from an external supplier in the JCR QT shop and in most departmental outlets. My favourite of them all is chicken and bacon caesar pasta salad. Okay, it’s not exactly a proper salad but the caesar sauce complements the meat and pasta very well. To spice things up a bit, just grab an extra pinch of pepper and you are good to go!

If you are looking more “on-the-move” food, you can try the wraps available in various outlets across campus. The Wrapid products are tasty, but rather expensive at nearly £4 for some flavours. There are some cheaper wraps available in the EEE Cafe and the fast food outlet at the JCR. I love the chicken fajita wrap, mainly because there is quite a lot of sauce in there, so the chicken won’t become dry while waiting for you to pick it up to enjoy!

But what if it is too early for lunch? Hello to my fellow early birds, you probably know that cooked breakfast is served in the SCR, but what if you are looking for something less heavy? We are once again back at the QT shop in the JCR - from around 9am, there are mini baguettes on the pastry stand. You feel so much more productive with a salmon and egg mayo baguette, perhaps even more effective than a Redbull! If you slept in and all the goodies are gone, than the next obvious choice would be the almond croissants on the same stand. It could be a bit too sweet for most, so pair them with a (strong) cup of tea!

Last but not least, this is a great snack or dessert or treat. It is so good that I have actually banned myself from it. There is already a great fanbase for the muffins at the Taste Imperial outlets, I am sure. I remembered the days in my first year when I had one every day, hence I decided to control my temptation. I am glad to report I have been a muffin-free man since April 2012, so I think I am doing pretty well! For those of you who are not yet obsessed, just get a chocolate or lemon poppyseed muffin - you will understand where I am coming from.

Favourite food shops

For a foodie, I’m actually quite boring in terms of where my food comes from. I buy most, if not all of my food from my local supermarkets. Here is one thing I found interesting - if you live near several supermarkets, it might be worth shopping around to see where you can get the cheapest deal. Due to the size of some Sainsbury’s Local or Tesco Express/Metro outlets around central London, they do not tend to stock the most “value”-for-money brands - making your essential Waitrose products in your local Waitrose potentially cheaper than what you can get in the others.

For example, a 4-pack chopped tomatoes (400g) at Waitrose will cost you £2, while Sainsbury’s might sell theirs in single pack, costing you 55p for 390g. Big difference if you are a tomato lover!

Does your ethical mind sometimes ring in your head while you are browsing the supermarket aisles and persuade you to get fairtrade and organic products? And wondering how you will manage to buy these good quality foods with your limited student budget? Don’t worry! That’s why the Imperial Co-operative was set up. The student-run stall has been running for just over a year now and aims to make Fairtrade and organic foods more accessible to students. Unlike the Tuesday farmers’ market, all food and snacks are bought from a wholesaler and no profit margin is added, meaning the food is cheap and comparable to normal supermarket brands. The stall opens every Thursday afternoon from 3:30pm to 6pm in Sherfield foyer. From chocolate to pasta, from tea to lentils, what’s there not to love?

This might sound silly, but I love shopping in oriental supermarkets. (Ed note: it isn’t, you’re Asian!) Well it is my go-to place to buy everything that is at leastmildly Asian. You’ll find that food and sauces sold here are perhaps more authentic, but also much cheaper. Oriental supermarkets also tend to have weirder, but often cheaper, cuts of meat in stock. Some of these, such as oxtail and beef shank, are ideal for slow cooking (more on that later).

Favourite Cooking Techniques: Steaming

Steamed food has to be one of my favourite cooking techniques thanks to my Chinese heritage. If you haven’t tried it before, have a go this weekend! Not only is it one of the healthiest ways of cooking with not much oil needed, it is also flavoursome since all the juices from the ingredients stays on the plate. And last but not least, it saves you washing up since it is a great way for one pot recipes!

Another advantage reason of trying it out is that no major investment is required. Pour hot water into a pan and put in a wire rack, put your dish on there and cover for faster cooking. If you want to be more authentic then try getting a bamboo steamer from a oriental supermarket - they are normally less than £10 and it makes your kitchen smell very lovely while you are cooking up your dinner!

Favourite Cooking Techniques: Slow Cooking

I received an Amazon voucher for my birthday last year and on the same day, an email arrived inbox with slow cooker discounts! After 5 minutes of Googling up what I could make with the cooker, I clicked the “Add to basket” button and it arrived on my doorstep a few days later.

It’s nearly as fuss-free as steaming, but an electric slow cooker means that you can do all the chopping and prep in the morning, switch the cooker on and head to uni. You will be greeted home after a long day of lectures and lab work by the lovely smell of stew. This means you can have your dinner straight away, since it is hot and ready. My slow cooker is quite large (30 litres in fact) so I can cook around 4-5 portions in one go and store any leftovers - thus cutting down the time needed to cook for the busy weekdays.

I guess you don’t necessarily need a slow cooker to slow cook - you can also use a casserole dish and put in the oven for a number of hours. However I would really recommend that you get one since it is just easier. I am not comfortable enough to leave the oven on for the whole day while I am away without worrying the house might get on fire. (Ed note: fuses in slow cookers exist for a reason.)

Slow cooking is a great way to cook tougher (hence mostly cheaper) cuts of meat, especially meat on the bone since it gives great flavour to the dish. Don’t make the mistake of think a slow cooker is only capable of cooking just stews/winter food - since it is in theory an electric oven, you can use it for baking as well! I have come across different slow cooker cake recipes online such as brownies and cheesecakes - even souffle is on the menu. Haven’t tried them yet though, but I shall let you know when I give it a go!