So Easy to Buy

Hello.

My name is Nad****.

I am a member of Ezbuy Prime.

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Homaigoats.

It all started when we moved to our new place. I wanted to buy a bed for Ihsan but the beds that I like were the expensive ones from ibenma. I've heard of taobao but never got round to buying anything from there as I no understand how to read Chinese.

Then I heard of Ezbuy. Seasoned Taobao buyers are not fans of ezbuy.sg for many easons. I am a fan of it for one reason - English. (BUT, the English is only in the basic description of the item. Everything else is in Chinese. Google Translate is a very useful tool.)

After buying Ihsan's bed from it (cheap but I won't recommend it), I got lured into the whole seductive world of ezbuy. I've been an avid online shopper since my maternity leave days with Huda. I managed to rein it in after a few years, buying mostly necessities online instead of everything. Then came ezbuy...

Realising how cheap most stuff on taobao/ezbuy are, I paid a small fortune to become a prime member. The main benefit of being a prime member is that shipping from China to Singapore costs $2.99 per checkout. After piling my cart high with a dining table and 6 dining chairs, $2.99 is how much I need to pay to send the 7 pieces of furniture to Singapore. For home delivery, I topped up another $8. (For the record, I won't recommend that dining table either.)

In the early days of becoming a member, I went on full-crazy mode. I've learnt that big furniture was iffy but everything else was okay-go. I was adding so much stuff to my cart. Then, close my eyes, click purchase. Close my eyes some more, transfer money from my bank to the ezbuy account. Then twiddle my thumbs and wait for things to arrive.

With some 8 months left to my Prime membership, I have run out of things to buy (partly because of my minimalist measures). So, I asked family members if they had anything to buy. Oh yes, they did! But now, remorse has set in. I feel quite bad for being the enabler in other people's expenditure. They do need the stuff, I comforted myself. My parents wanted to buy those wrought iron flower pot racks for their corridor. About $15 for this is a good price to pay. https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000004247218.html Of course, we have no idea what the quality will be. The racks haven't arrived yet. They also bought this to hang over the parapet: https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000001863970.html

Then, my mother casually asked if ezbuy sells swing chairs. Of course they do! That was another motivation for moving house - to move to a place big enough for a swing chair. Unfortunately, I didn't get it in the end. (That's another story) Since I was so interested in a swing chair, I had spent long hours poring through ezbuy for one. They have plenty. My mother liked the first one I showed her. The price is less than half what you'd pay in Singapore. https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000000943469.html
My sister then decided to get the same thing. Long live my prime membership!

The rest of this post will be for recommended, tried and tested products that I've bought from ezbuy/taobao. I will add on to this list from time to time. It will stop on 9 January next year when my prime membership expires. Not too sure what to feel about that. Ha.

1. Magf**mers

A year or 2 ago, I bought M**formers from Amazon. A 30-piece set costs about USD30. That is a lot of money in SGD. I yearn for more but I could not get myself to spend that much money despite knowing that the toy can keep children occupied for more than just 2 minutes.

Here comes ezbuy.

A, errrrmm, exact replica of this toy is sold here: https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000004468686.html You can buy piece by piece or in a set. 30 squares, 40 triangles, 2000 pentagons. You name it, they'll sell it to you.

Needless to say, price is great. About 20 cents each for squares, triangles and circles. 40 cents or so for pentagons and hexagons.

Vibrant colours. So easy to put together. Can make 2D or 3D figures. Doesn't hurt when you step on them (I'm looking at you, Lego)

2. Sensor-operated dustbin

R2-D2 here lovingly opens up his lid when I put my hands above it. TheHusband likes his bins rectangular but I'm happy with this feller and his curves.

 It can be charged using a USB charger. I've only charged it twice since I received it sometime in December. (I got a prime trial membership first before embracing the year-long membership)

I cannot remember the exact price I paid. It was about $25 maybe? From https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000000172360.html


3. Rocking chair

Instead of a swing chair, I got myself a rocking chair. Main reason - I was afraid the swing chair would be too big and overwhelming in our tiny balcony.

This chair is comfortable. But it's always hogged by the kids in the daytime. They sit and read in this, often fighting over it.

Another reason for not getting the swing chair: I would need to move it into the house from the balcony when it rains. The swing chair would be too cumbersome to move about.

Got it for about $40 from https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000004291753.html

---That's it for today, 30 March. Will add more when I have more time.

Pressure Cooker

My lovely friends, D & J, presented us with an electric pressure cooker recently. Taiyo Pressure Cooker, PC66D. I have never used a pressure cooker before. My mother had a stove-top pressure cooker when I was a little girl. What I remember most about the pressure cooker was that the cleaning was #&*! Scum that collected on the sides was impossible to clean off!

Anyway. This pressure cooker is an *electric* pressure cooker which means that I don't have to remember to turn off the fire or figure out how much time I need to cook anything. Just press a button and (voila!) food will be cooked. 

Unfortunately, the instructions were not clear enough. 

The first time I cooked beef ribs, it turned out perfect! (Thankful for that because I was cooking it for guests.) Second time, chicken soup. It turned out like chicken soup but steam poured out of the lid continuously. Third time, semur daging, ie, some beef dish. Turned out too dry and steam was seen too. 

I sent an SOS to my friend who gave me the pressure cooker who in turn told me to go to Metro Causeway Point. There is a dedicated Taiyo counter manned by a Taiyo staff who can answer all my queries. She's there on weekends but avoid 4/5pm thereabouts because that's her break time.

3 things that I didn't do correctly were:

1. The seal position of the exhaust valve must be turned to the right. It doesn't matter if it feels loose. Just turn it to the right and leave it there. If you try to turn it further down, you can't. Unless you use extra force in which case you can turn it around and around forever. 

This is the seal position of the exhaust valve. The manual states that there is a sealing small icon but that's not true. There's no such icon. You can see the release/exhaust icon but no sealing icon.

2. Make sure the lid is in the locked position.

This is the locked position. 

3. You must cook it in one continuous process. You cannot set it at 15 minutes, then open the lid, add potatoes, set it to another 15 minutes, continue cooking. (I did that with my semur daging.) Nope. The Taiyo lady said that if I wanted to do that, I must cook it the traditional way, in a pot on the stove.

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I hope this info I'm sharing will be useful for all noob cooks who are using the pressure cooker for the first time in their cooking lives. (Especially this one because when I googled for more info on this particular pressure cooker, nothing came up.) If the thought of cleaning the cooker puts you off buying one, fret no more. The inner nonstick pot of the pressure cooker makes cleaning a breeze. If you are as forgetful as I am, you no longer have to worry about burning the house down because you forgot to turn off the stove. (A real problem for me. A $2 kitchen timer has saved me many, many times. Turn the heat on, set the timer. When the timer beeps, you know that it is for something in the kitchen. Go to the kitchen and check for things that need to be turned off.)

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Now, there is beef rendang in the pressure cooker. If it turns out nice, hooray! If not, I will share my fails here. :D

If successful, imagine how easy hari raya cooking will be when the rendang pot no longer hogs one of the burners on the stove! 

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Beef rendang is cooked! Not as dry as the semur daging. Hooray!