The Quest For Popcorn

We really like popcorn, it is one of our families favorite snacks, I make it in coconut oil and have a recipe that pops perfect every time.

When we moved to Singapore we quickly realized that they don't really eat popcorn here, you can get it in the movie theaters but not really anywhere else.  We did finally find some microwave popcorn in one of the expensive stores that has imported items but we really don't like microwave popcorn and it was expensive, we bought a box anyway just so we could have a treat.  Much to our dismay when we opened the box we realized that the oil leaked out of the bag probably due to humidity and so we had to throw out one of the three bags that was in the box.  The box said it was butter flavored popcorn but when we popped it up it clearly had sugar on it so we really did not care for it.

When we moved to Singapore we did not have any pans with us so we bought some from Ikea, the soup pan really is not very big so it would be hard to make popcorn in that pan.  Larger pans with heavy bottoms on them are expensive, like $80.00 each so we asked my Mom to bring us a Whirly Pop when she comes in March. 

We stumbled upon actual popcorn kernels one day while grocery shopping, this got our mouths watering for our favorite snack so we decided to buy a lid for our wok so we could try making the popcorn in the wok after all the wok worked great to make our cookie dough.  We found wok lids at the Victoria Street Wholesale Centre but of course they had 2 sizes and we did not know how big the wok was so we got the bigger on which ended up being the wrong one.  Scott was able to bend out lid to make it fit but not seal.

This brings us to this morning.  I want some popcorn so I got all ready, put on our lid, and realized that we had to stand back because oil and popcorn were squirting out of the lid holes.  If you have to stand back from the pan, you can not shake the pan, thus your wok popcorn looks like this.

and the whole house stinks.  We were laughing at our pitiful sight so we posted this picture on facebook.  Our facebook friends came to the rescue, and suggested using a paper bag with some popcorn kernels in it in the microwave.

Singapore is not a big paper bag country.  Every grocery store we have been in has one bagging option.... plastic.  We happen to use cloth bags when we shop so we are not getting all those plastic bags in our house, just a few to use as garbage can liners.

I did happen to bring paper lunch bags with me so we were going to give the microwave option a try.  This is when I noticed smoke coming out of the garbage shoot.  We are on the 11th floor so if there is smoke coming out there must be something wrong.  Now mind you, our burnt popcorn was still sitting on the stove so we did not do the smoke causing activity.  When I opened the shoot door to check things out the smoke came pouring into our kitchen.

Immediately I told the boys we had to evacuate right now.  We grabbed my purse and phone and headed out the door down 11 flights of stairs.  Caleb ran ahead to tell the guard station that the garbage shoot was on fire.

When we got to the guard station we were told, "all is OK, we are fogging the rubbish bin for bugs".  Oh, that would have maybe been good to know ahead of time.  Then I noticed it, you could smell our burnt popcorn all the way down to the guard station due to my open windows.  When we got in the house we noticed that our kitchen was now filled with bug spray, not cool with this organic girl but there is nothing we can do about it.

Back up we went, in the elevator and we continued our popcorn making quest in the lunch bag.

it worked, however we blew a hole in the bag while it was popping so we had a small mess but the end of all of this is a great bowl of popcorn.