Woohoo! It is yet another review on fish packed full of Omega-3 fatty acids – Tuna! You remember just a while back we were “reviewing” the Ayam brand canned Salmon? Well today, we are reviewing canned Tuna by Farmland. I realize that Farmland isn’t a very popular brand in Singapore. In fact when I was doing some research on the brand, I could hardly find any information on it. Yes, no information whatosever. I am guessing the reason is that the name “Farmland” is pretty popular, thus it is very different to find the correct one. Anyway, no harm there. We are just doing a little review on this canned product.
As you guys know, it is very important for us to include some fish into our diets. A lot of us don’t consume enough fish. One of the main reason is that it is not easy to cook fish and have it turn out tasty. Most people just don’t know how to cook fish. It is not as easy as going out and buying some fish from the market and bringing it home to have it cooked. You need some preparation. And Singaporeans just don’t have the time and the energy to do that. I would then suggest canned fish. Unlike other types of “processed” foodstuff, canned fish like Tuna or Salmon or Sardines are not actually “processed” like what they do to dairy meat or to pork. We know that canned meat like pork comes from lousy choice of meat, so in order to make it presentable and with some flavour, the meat is first processed and then canned. However, for canned Tuna or Salmon, the fish is merely cleaned and cut, then cooked and either salted or soaked in oil. That’s it. No other processing is done. So although it is not as good as fresh fish, a good portion of the nutrients are still in tact. And it is so very convenient as well.
This is the Skipjack Tuna. Yes, not as good as the Albcore in terms of the Omega-3 fatty acid content, but this will do. And yes, it comes with my favourite – Onion! And in polyunsaturated oil! Cool! Furthermore, the Tuna is farmed with Dolphin safe methods! Good for them!
Sorry about the blurred picture. Light Tuna does not mean fat-free in this context. But of course, Tuna contains very little saturated food and is considered very healthy. However here, it means the type of Tuna. Skipjack is a light species of Tuna. Smaller in size and is supposed to have less mercury than bigger Tuna like Albacore. Whatever, it is not like we are consuming kilos of Tuna per week. If you are, then you should look at other alternatives like Salmon.
Farmland’s delicious and nutritious Tuna is in 100% polyunsaturated oil is ideal in sandwiches, salads, snacks or just on its own. Yes, very true. Would you believe that I eat the whole content of the can with my spoon in one sitting? It is just that delicious. Too bad, they don’t state the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids in the can. At least with the information, we could gauge the amount of Tuna or fish to eat. Remember,there is small amounts of mercury in the Tuna. Eat moderately is the key.
Okay, the ingredients are Skipjack Tuna, Onion, 100% Polyunsaturated oil, Tomato Puree, Vinegar, Sugar, Salt and spices. Healthy eh? Hey, check this out – it is packed in Thailand for Ben Foods Singapore. Hmmm….never heard of this Ben Foods Singapore before. Oh, this canned contains 185g of Tuna + other additives. Hope the majority of it is still Tuna meat.
Anyway, this is quite a”cheap” brand compared to others. And it does taste quite nice. If you are thinking of including a little fish to your diet, I would recommend you try out canned Tuna.
The cost of healthcare in Singapore has been rising continuously throughout the years. And even with the poor economic outlook, I really doubt that healthcare cost will go down anytime soon. I mean, people still get sick during recession right? In fact, more people are getting sick due to work related stress. It is not like doctors or whatever are not longer in good demand during recession. My friend told me that the most recession proof job is a doctor. Nowadays getting sick is like being fined in the courts. You pay lots of money. That’s about it. Just a few months ago when I was down with fever, the medicine and the consultation fee added up to S$150. Furthermore, I had to go for blood screening, which I think cost about S$30 or so. Yes, that is in total about S$180 wasted. And I got nothing out of it anyway. It is not like eating medicine will make me healthier or fitter. It is not like I won’t get sick again.
However, we all have alternatives. The best way is to start eating right. It isn’t expensive at all. If you browse through your local supermarket, you can find all sorts of healthy food which are pretty reasonably priced. Fruits, vegetables, fish among others are all healthy alternatives to fried and oily staff we eat everyday. I eat yogurt and drink Kefir everyday. The additional cost is like S$3 per day or so. But I definitely feel much healthier now. I don’t tired easily and at night, I can sleep properly. The S$3 I spent is more than worth it.
Another way to a healthier lifestyle is to exercise. I am lazy and I found it very difficult to get myself to exercise. Well, pretty sure that I am not alone in this. Everyday after work, we are all so tired that we just want to go home and sit on the couch to watch TV and relax. Well, to at least have some exercise, now going home, I stop about 1 bus-stop before my actual bus-stop and walk to rest of the way. I know it is not optimal, but it will do for now. For those who drive, it can be a problem, especially if you have limited parking areas.
If you find it difficult to get up and exercise, what you need are friends! Yes, they do help to motivate you to go out and exercise. Get a group of friends and regularly plan to exercise. It can be as simple as a game of squash, basketball, soccer or just a jog around your housing estate. Before I started work, I spend my days lazing around in the house. My friend living nearby asked me to go swimming with him. Initially I dreaded going swimming, but after a while, I found that swimming with friends can be fun and yes, it is good exercise as well. Or try taking up Yoga courses with your friends. Yes, I know that such courses are not cheap, but due to the reason that it is not cheap, it is good motivation for you to continue to go to the Yoga courses which you have already paid for. Wuhahah, money as a motivation actually works wonders.
Well, if you are looking for Yoga classes, please take a look at the list of Yoga Courses in Singapore I have created. Live long and prosper!
To say I am not fond of fish is an understatement. First of all, I need to tell you guys that I hate fish. I especially hate the smell of fish. Yucks! You know, older folks love fish so much that my parents everyday would cook fish. And worse of all, they claim that frying the fish makes the fish less tasty and you can’t taste the “sweetness”. So instead they boil the fish. For example, just yesterday, they de-scale a fish (I think cod or groupa), place it in a steamer and let it cook. The entire kitchen stinks of stinky fish. In fact, you can practically smell it anywhere in the whole house. The smell is just so horrible that I nearly puked. That is probably why I hate fish so much.
However for you guys who dislike the smell of fish (like me), don’t be dishearten by it. You are not alone and you have alternatives. We all know that eating fish is good. It provides you with proteins with less saturated fat and most importantly, most fishes are good sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. And that my friends, is currently the title of “holy grail” of health. Everyone is talking about it. Even baby milk powder comes enriched with Omega-3 fatty acids. I have even seen milk powder for adults that come enriched Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA/DHA). That is why it is recommended that we should consume at least 2 servings of (fatty) fish every week. But what can you do if you hate the smell of fish? You can of course fry the fish. Frying the fishing will most definitely destroy the fishy smell but from what I read, it could also destroy some of the Omega-3 fatty acids as well.
My suggestion is simple and cheap – canned salmon /canned tuna /canned sardines! They are available in all supermarkets in Singapore. And you get a large variety to choose from. However, the fish that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids are usually Salmon and Tuna. Sardines contains less of this essential fatty acids than Salmon or Tuna. Furthermore, Tuna is not recommended because of the mercury found in Tuna. As you guys know, tuna eats smaller fish and the mercury in these smaller fish accumulate in the Tuna, which can be damaging to your health. Salmon on the other hand does not contain as much mercury as Tuna (according to reports) which is why I am recommending Salmon. Yes, in our supermarkets, canned Tuna seems to have the biggest variety for you to choose from, but the interest in canned Salmon has encouraged canned food manufacturers to create more varieties of canned Salmon. Hey, more choices means more options for consumers! Furthermore, canned Salmon does not have that fishy smell and it is easy to consume. Just spread on bread. Or if you are like me, you can eat direct from the can with just a spoon! No hassle, just nutritious Salmon (and vegetables).
Oh, please read the label on the can before you purchase anything. Be sure to check what other ingredients are there in your canned Salmon.
It is time again for yet another yogurt fest! Yes, I have been making yogurt all this while but not as regularly as I would like. I am a fan of yogurt. Even those plain natural yogurt which nobody in Singapore likes to eat. If you hand me a cup of yogurt, as long as it is fresh, I will eat it! I am a yogurt maniac! And yes, I have been making yogurt using the Easiyo Sachets and the Easiyo Yogurt Maker. The Easiyo Yogurt Maker is a very low cost equipment for making Yogurt. Unlike those electric yogurt makers which can cost like 100 over dollars, the Easiyo Yogurt Maker cost about S$30 or so. And with it comes 2 sachets of yogurt mix. And you don’t need to boil or measure the temperature like other non-electric Yogurt Maker. You merely add boiling water to the flask and add the mix to room temperature water. That’s it! And you get perfect yogurt every time. In fact, I have been making Yogurt since October and never once did I fail using the Easiyo Yogurt Maker and the sachets. I would highly recommend it to everyone. The only problem is that the Easiyo Yogurt Sachet is a bit on the expensive side. One sachet costs about S$5.60 to S$6.10. I guess this is how they make money. Sell the Yogurt Maker at cost and make money from the sachets.
Oh, this time I purchased the low fat variety of Easiyo sachets. No, I am not worried about my weight. I am a skinny dude. In fact, I am looking to increase my weight significantly. But I am interested to see how the taste of the low-fat yogurt would be. Something new for me. All these while I have been eating Easiyo’s other varieties and the low-fat yogurt comes with several flavours which are not found in other varieties. Cool. The flavours I purchased are the Berries and Apricot flavours.
Expensive or not? For 2 packs of Easiyo low fat yogurt sachets, it cost S$11.00 cash. Come on, it is expensive! Brands like Marigold Yogurt are cheaper than that. Of course there are brands which are more expensive but those are like gourmet-kind of Yogurt. It is not like the Easiyo yogurt’s taste is ultra tasty or anything like that. Yes, it does taste nice, but the price is seriously a bit on the high side.
Yes, Low Fat Yogurt! Yum yum! Check it out, this is unsweetened which means that there is no sugar added. I am guessing that this will be as sour as natural yogurt you find in the local supermarkets. Might not be something a lot of Singaporeans like. Actually, this seems quite healthy, especially if you are watching your weight.
Ahhh….the back of the Yogurt Sachet. Yes, the smiley Ang Mo man is still there and it seems that he doesn’t stop smiling. I actually like Low Fat yogurt, makes me feel less guilty when I eat a lot of the stuff.
Check it out. This is about 140g of unsweetened real yogurt base & culture. And if you check out the sweetened variety of yogurt mix, you will find that it contains about 240g of yogurt mix. This means that 100g of the yogurt mix consists of sugar! Yup, something to think of when you make yogurt. You really need a lot of sugar to make the yogurt taste like what we find in the stores. So you should really go and try to make your very own yogurt and avoid all those sugars. Think “healthy” my friends!
The ingredients are pasteurised semi skim milk solids, flavouring, live lactic cultures like l.bulgaricus, s.thermophilus, l.acidophilus and natural colour. If you are looking for more live cultures, you will have to purchase the BioLife series of Easiyo yogurt sachets. It cost about S$6.10 per pack and comes with limited flavours. However, you do get the additional benefits of those probiotic cultures. Remember fresh yogurt means more probiotic cultures in the yogurt!
Now, it is the Apricot flavour Easiyo Low Fat Yogurt mix. Yes, unsweetened as well. And it makes 1kg of wholesome yogurt.
The back of the Eaiyo Yogurt Sachets. Nothing much of a difference from the Berries flavoured one.
Low Fat Apricot Flavour Real Yogurt Base & Culture. Basically this is the milk and the culture with apricot flavours added to it. The cultures are the live lactic good bacteria which helps to turn the milk into yogurt. And it is Halal certified! If you are a Muslim, this should be okay for you to consume. Many of my Muslim friends are worried about using this Yogurt mix since it comes from New Zealand, but I tell them it is Halal certified.
Basically the ingredients are the same as the Berries flavoured one. The only changes should be the type of flavourings.
I will be making both of them next week and I will definitely try to post a report on it soon. As I said, I will consume yogurt as long as it is fresh. I don’t mind much the taste of the yogurt. I want to be healthy what. And if you are thinking of improving your health, I can think of no other easy ways than to eat fresh (unsweetened) yogurt everyday! Even if you don’t want to spend a few minutes everyday making your own yogurt, you can easily go to the store and buy a few cups of yogurt. They are good for you too.
I read from somewhere on the Internet that Salmon is one of the healthiest fish you can get. As you guys know, Salmon is very popular among the Japanese dishes and are mostly eaten raw. You ask me to eat raw stuff and I will puke. No offense to those who like raw fish. But I really cannot stomach raw, especially when you look at Salmon, it looks a bit like red meat! Eeeeeek! I don’t even eat the raw fish in Yueh Sheng during Chinese New Year. Yup, I eat the rest of the vegetables, sweets and stuff. Well, my parents keep telling me that I am missing a lot if I don’t try raw fish, but hey, that’s what life is all about – missing things. Furthermore, I don’t like seafood. Never did. The only seafood I eat are those fried fish which does not have the fishy smell. Or fried scallops. Or fried Ikan Bilis.They taste great in Nasi Lemak and in Bian-Mian. I also enjoy cooked canned tuna. Canned Tuna tastes exactly like Chicken! No kidding. It is very meaty, delicious and does not have any fishy smell. And they go very well with rye bread.
As you can see, I am trying my best to add fish and seafood to my diet. The most important is the Omega-3 essential fatty acids which is very beneficial to our body. It helps our improve Cardiovascular Health, increases Heart Rate Variability, protects against Fatal Heart Arrhythmia, lower Triglycerides, helps prevent and control High Blood Pressure and Stroke Prevention. For more information on the health benefits of Tuna and the Omega-3 essential fatty acids, please take a look at WHFood’s Tuna page. However, there have been some concerns about the mercury level in Tuna, since Tuna eats other fish and this in turn accumulates mercury in the Tuna making it much higher than other fishes. Well, for me, I think if you eat like maybe 2 servings per week, it should be okay. Some people love fish and seafood. And this group of people are the ones that should be worried about the mercury level in their seafood.
Anyways, after reading rave reviews on Salmon and what it can do for your health, I decided to try it out and bought myself a can of Salmon. I got this from NTUC and it is the Ayam Brand Deli Salmon. This is a spread, that is for you to put on your bread.
Yes, this is ready to eat: Just spread on bread.
The Ayam Brand has been around since 1892. Very old brand. However, the word Ayam is a Malay word for Chicken. Pretty interesting, considering that their core products are seafood stuff. Well, perhaps it started out as a chicken seller, then branch out to seafood? Anyway, I have bought Salmon Mayonnaise! Got to be good for some great tasting spread! Wuhahahaha!
Check out the Omega-3 they have in 100g of Salmon! Wow, 600mg! The daily reommended intake of Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) is 650mg. So just 100g of this Salmon and you are all set for the day! Cool right? I guess the problem is most of us don’t eat so much Salmon to get enough of the Omega-3 everyday. I think I might just ned to really started eating more fish. Old already, must take care of my health.
Product of Thailand! The ingredients are Salmon, Soya Bean oil, Pickle Cucumber, Carrot, Vinegar, Onion, Water Chestnut, Thickeners, Sugar, Egg Powder, Permitted flavouring & Colouring, White Pepper and Salt. Yes, the more ingredients something has usually means that the food stuff is full of additives. But we are talking about a spread here, not like this is just Salmon. So I guess it is okay. The vegetables in the ingredients are also beneficial as well.
Yes, the Salmon is fished in a Dolphin friendly way. We don’t want our dear lovely dolphins to be hurt in anyway in the farming of Salmons! I support!
And finally how to open this can. There are only 2 steps involved. Truly amazing all these innovations. Now you can open up a can with just two steps and you don’t need a car opener! And after you open the can, you can eat the food inside the food straight away without cooking! Cool times many.
See, it actually isn’t difficult to be healthy. You can find all sorts of healthy foodstuffs easily in Singapore’s supermarkets. And they aren’t very expensive either. So all the best and hope that you will be healthy.
I normally drink my Kefir straight up after I strain the Kefir. The reason is due to the fact that I lack the space in my house to store my Kefir for further ripening. I believe that if you ripen your Kefir for a day or two, the health benefits will even be better than just plain straight from the strainer Kefir. Even Dom (an expert on Kefir) recommends ripening the Kefir. Please take a look at his website which mentions more about storing and ripening of the Kefir.
Anyway, I have started a batch of Kefir which was then later ripen to compare the taste. I have no way to test for the nutritional value of the ripen Kefir and that of the unripen Kefir as I do not have the necessary equipment for that. Hey, I don’t live in a laboratory! However, what I can do is to compare the taste. And that is exactly what I did. I made myself a batch which I then ripen for 2 days and another batch which was freshly strained. Both batches were fermented for 24 hours first using the same milk (Farmhouse Fresh Milk).
The first thing I found is that the ripen Kefir is slightly more sour and has a more alcoholic taste to it. The sourness is not really that significant actually. In fact if this was not an experiment, I would probably not have noticed the difference. The reason could be that I ferment the both the batches for 24 hours in Singapore weather. Thus a large portion of the lactose in the original milk was already converted to lactic acid by the Kefir bacteria. That means that the ripening process produced very little sourness. However, the alcoholic taste was quite a jump from the freshly strained Kefir. Could that mean that the yeast during the ripening process is actually doing most of the work? I also found that 2-day ripened Kefir has a more profound “Kefir-y” smell. Unlike the freshly strained Kefir which has this slightly rotten egg smell, this ripened Kefir smells more “elegant” and cheesy. Again, not really that significant, but it is interesting nevertheless. I also never notice any increase in the complexity of the ripened Kefir which is surprising. As with all aged beverages, there should be at least some complexity created with the majority of the lactose and sugar gone. Perhaps it is because I only ripen it for 2 days.
I have read that some people ripen their milk Kefir for up to a week or even more. I am wondering what kind of alcohol booster will it produce. And for those who adds sugar to their milk when making Kefir (to encourage Kefir grain growth), how potent will the Kefir be? Anyway, if you are ripening your Kefir, please leave a comment here and tell us about your experiences.
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Yes, I am not an expert in making Kefir. I have been making Kefir for only about 4 months, but I have learned quite a lot. Mostly from reading from the Internet and through my own experience with making the Kefir. And hopefully it can be useful for you guys when you are making your own. If you have no idea what Kefir is, let me enlighten you. I am talking about Milk Kefir here, so it is some sort of a cultured or fermented milk product. Something like yogurt or like Yakult where you ferment milk with (good) bacteria. So you get yourself some milk and ferment with some bacteria (in the case of Kefir, you ferment with Kefir grains). The end product of a Kefir ferment is a healthy probiotic drink. To learn more about Kefir and what it can do for you, please take a look at Dom’s Kefir Site. This site has nearly all the information you need to understand Kefir.
Anyway here are some tips which I have picked up:
- Good quality and tasty milk will produce a good quality and tasty Kefir. You will need to experiment with different milk to find out which is the best for you.
- Temperature do play an important part. The recommended temperature for fermenting Kefir is 20-24°C. Yes, it will ferment at higher temperatures but the resulting Kefir might not be as tasty. It might be difficult for you to maintain that kind of ambient temperature in your kitchen. Try your storeroom or somewhere less expose to sunlight. Temperature also plays a part in how fast the Kefir is done fermenting. The warmer the temperature, the fast the Kefir ferments.
- Longer you ferment, the more sour and alcoholic your Kefir will get. This is because the bacteria will ferment more and more of the lactose in your milk to lactic acid, hence making it more sour. The same goes for the yeast (which converts the sugar in your milk to alcohol) in your Kefir grains.
- Insects will be attracted to the Milk as well. Ensure that they do not get into your Milk/Kefir Grains or you might have some nasty surprise the next day when you check on your Kefir.
- Healthy Kefir grains make good Kefir. Just like us humans. If you are sick or tired, you can’t do your work well and your social life will be affected. Same goes for the Kefir grains. So ensure that the grains are healthy by providing them with plenty of milk, good temperature, away from direct sunlight and do not starve the grains.
- Feed the grains regularly. As I mentioned above, you should not starve your grains. These Kefir grains are living organisms and they need food to thrive and produce Kefir for you. Remember, healthy grains make good Kefir!
- Cleaniness.Of course you will need to ensure that your container, spoon, strainer/sieve or anything to comes into contact with the Kefir or Kefir grains or the milk should be very clean. I would recommend cleaning your utensils and containers with a little bleach. This kills off harmful bacteria that might be present. However, if you use bleach, make sure that you rinse off the bleach/water mixture properly before using them to make your Kefir. Bleach also kills off good bacteria and might damage the Kefir grains.
- Use proper equipment. It isn’t expensive. In fact, all of the equipment used in making Kefir can be easily found in the Kitchen. However, using the proper equipment is important. First of all, you should get the correct strainer/sieve. If your strainer has holes which are too big, smaller Kefir grains might slip through and after a few tries, you might find yourself without any grains left. If your strainer has holes which are too small, you might spend hours trying to strain your Kefir. And do not use any metal equipment or utensils except for stainless steel.
Well, these are the little Kefir making tips I pick up here and there. Hope that they will be useful for you if you are making Kefir. Ciao!
Not sure whether most of you agree with me, but for me, I think that Notepad is still the best little software out there. It is convenient, easy to use and well, you can do a lot of things with it. For example, you want to write a little text file to tell someone something, you simple start the notepad and then save it. It becomes a text file which anyone on any computer system can view. No need to worry about your recipient using Windows or Mac or Linux or whatever. It is universal! And how about coding HTML? Yes, you can do it too. Notepad allows you easily code HTML, CSS, PHP among other things. Of course there are many other software which can do it better and easier but we might need to purchase or install it. Notepad comes installed by default in Windows. In fact, when I first started HTML Coding (years and years ago), I use notepad for the job. Yes, coding was much less complicated (but more tedious) then.
It is so damn handy and useful. That is why it is available in all versions of Windows. It does not come with any bells of whistle so it is very lean. Useful for viewing any text file in a jeffy too. If you would like to see what is inside a file, you ca use notepad as well. Simply start the Notepad program and open the file, remembering to change the file type to “all”.
Anyway, do you have a text editor which you like very much and would like to recommend to the readers? If so, please leave a comment.
Looks like there is no end to this madness eh? What we have here is yet another of those little milk reviews that no one wants to read. Even photos of the milk packs are not longer attractive enough to lure readers to this blog! Well, you are here, so there is at least something. Anyway, the milk for review in time is the Cowhead UHT milk. Yes, the brand is Cowhead. Probably used to make fun of the owner of the brand when he was much younger, most likely in school. I guess everyone knew that he loved cows and dairy so much that they gave him the nickname “Cowhead”. It probably stuck till he went to work and even when he started his own company. So he finally gave up and named his company Cowhead. Not sure whether this is true or not, but this is what I believed happened. Don’t be surprised to learn that this is true! hahaha!
Okay, before we begin, I need to tell you guys that I bought this at a very cheap price. It was like S$2.20 for 2 packs of milk! The reason could be because they were soon to be expired. As you can see from the below photos, the milk expires on 27th of May. But no worries, I will be consuming them very soon and we have still May to wait. I really don’t worry much about UHT milk as they are processed in such a way that they are very long lasting and will stay relatively fresh. The biggest problem I see is that UHT milk usually don’t taste very good. From my several experiences with drinking UHT milk and pasteurized milk, I have to tell you if you can, go for the pasteurized one.
Yup, Cowhead slim pure milk! This is fat-free milk and comes with high calcium. Of course, the term fat free does not mean that it is completely free of fat. In this context, the milk is 99.5% fat free. I believe that means that there are still 0.5% fat in the milk. I guess it is impossible to remove all the fat from milk and you won’t want to do it either. The milk will turn like water. Eeeeeek!
Oh, made from natural fresh milk! And check out the Superbrands logo on the top right! If you would like to know more about this “Superbrands” thing, please check the wiki. Basically it is an organization which pays tribute to outstanding brands in the country. So that means that Cowhead had done something significant for it to attain the Superbrands Logo. What it did, I have no idea. But it should be something good.
Long life milk! And look, it even comes with instructions on how to open the pack!
Natural Fresh Cow’s Milk! And the UHT process is to maintain long life and retain all the qualities and flavours of the milk. I disagree though.The UHT process is sure to destroy something and usually it is the taste and the aroma of the milk. You don’t expect all the milk to be able to withstand the kind of heat right?
And yes, I will be using this to make myself Kefir once I finish the Farmhouse fresh milk. Ciao! And take care of your health okay?
Oh my god yet again! It is going to be yet another of those boring milk “reviews”! You might be wondering whether I have a life or not, considering that I am something doing milk reviews on my free time. And on Valentine’s day somemore! What can I say? Some people go out and spend hundreds of dollars on fake flowers and overpriced restaurants, some people (like me) write little milk “reviews”. That’s life. We are all different in one way or another. And hey, I spend very little money and I hope that it might be useful for readers to know the different kinds of milk available out there. And yet again, this milk I bought is to make my Milk Kefir.
I bought this from Sheng Shiong supermarket. It was on offer. Actually the lady kept on pushing this brand to me and well, I thought it was very well priced so I bought it. It was on offer for S$5.25. Not too expensive for a fresh milk. Of course, UHT milk would be cheaper but hey, this is fresh (pasteurized) milk, not “dead” milk like those UHT ones. And the Kefir I made from pasteurized milk usually taste better than those made from UHT milk. Furthermore, the pasteurized milk is much better for the Kefir grains than UHT milk as there are more nutrients in pasteurized milk. Remember, healthy grains produce better tasting and more nutritious Kefir!
Ahhh…..the bottle of Farmhouse Fresh Milk! Looks good. And if you look carefully, I had already used about one quarter of the milk. Sorry, my previous Meiji milk ran out before I could take photo of the milk bottle, so I had to use the Farmhouse milk first. But that is not important right?
Look, F&N! As I said, there are everywhere in Singapore. You probably can’t escape from F&N. You buy milk, fruit juices, carbonated drinks and what-not, you will definitely encounter F&N.
Yes, it is made from Fresh Australian milk. Well, that is what I hope the logo means anyway. And look at the different between fresh (pasteurized) and UHT milk. This milk has to be used by 19th February 2009. That is 5 days from now. UHT milk can last you months without refrigeration! But as I said before, the UHT process will destroy some of the nutrients and favours in the milk. So if you can, always use fresh milk.
The ingredients are 100% fresh milk! Looks like they buy the milk from Australia, import them to Singapore and pack them here. This is actually a good thing. If those huge containers of milk are properly maintained, the milk would arrive from their source relatively fresh and immediately packed and shipped out to ensure that the final product will also be fresh. Also it provides jobs for Singaporeans.
Hey, look, Trans-fat free! Healthy stuff! Hahahaha!
This is a boring photo of the top of the milk bottle. Nothing special, so we better move on before all of you fall asleep.
Anyway, I just had a taste of the milk Kefir I made using this Farmhouse fresh milk. It was delicious! And very very creamy. I was shocked at how creamy it was. It was just as creamy as the one I made from the organic milk! Took quite a while for it to strain properly but it was all worth it. Thick, creamy and tastes wonderful. I think I will be making more using this brand from now on.
