My smaller Smeg oven gets fairly regular use, and I have become quite comfortable with it by now. The only thing I wish is that I could broil with the door open, but it will not work that way so I do not have a choice.

With regular use, no matter how carefully, there is a build-up of oil and grunge on the top and bottom plates. Left and right are self-cleaning liners, so they are not a problem, but what gets on the top and bottom plates gets baked on really well, and cannot be wiped off with soap and water only.

My wife called the local Smeg distributor to enquire about the oven cleaner they recommend. The person who took the call had no idea what she was talking about. Next, my wife called up the sales-person who sold us all our Smeg equipment. She was quite helpful and suggested that as the equipment was still under warranty,we could get it cleaned by their service personnel. Sounded good.

So, my wife then calls the service department. Yes, of course they would be pleased to clean our oven, but we would have to bring it in to the shop where they would clean it. I nearly had a fit when I heard that. It’s a built-in oven and it took 2 strong men to lift it into position and hook up the wiring. Now they expect my wife and I to disconnect the wiring, take it down, and lug it in for cleaning? Talk about crap offers that are made for the sake of sounding good, with no real sincerity behind them - this definitely belongs in that category.

So, the oven was just getting more and more grungy. Looking at the local supermarkets for oven cleaner yielded nothing. Your typical family here apparently does not use an oven.

Finally, I was talking to my buddy about it and he mentioned that I could get it at the Villa Supermarket on Sukhumvit 33. Well, I had looked there before without success, but decided to try again since he was so sure. As yesterday was my weekly pub crawl day, I gave it a try on the way home. Yes, the supermarket is open 24 hours.

All the kitchen cleaners were on 1 shelf, and I could see BBQ cleaners, counter-top cleaners, sink cleaners, but no oven cleaner. On the verge of giving up, I gave a final try near where the detergents were, and on an upper shelf well above my head,  saw “Easy-Off” heavy-duty oven cleaner. The blurb “America’s #1 oven cleaner” caught my eye, but frankly it was the only oven cleaner available so it could be #2 for all I care.

So now I have oven cleaner. This is pretty caustic stuff and my buddy emphasised that I should be sure to wear rubber gloves when using it. I should have bought them last night, but I was so delighted to get the cleaner my brain shut down and I did not think of it. That or the beer was doing its job. Well, I’ve waited so long a few more days won’t hurt.

I’ll update on how it goes when I use it.

Well, I finally got around to grilling the great cuts of pork that I bought a while back.

As promised, you can see the photograph in the latest article, Cooking Methods and Cuts - Beef, Pork, Lamb, Chicken.

Now, I can think of Moo Ping and other great uses for it.

Looking for good quality cookware can be a thankless task in Bangkok, and possibly other South-East Asian capitals. Forget about smaller towns, probably no hope at all.I still recall visiting literally dozens of department stores, supermarkets and any place selling cookware in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in a fruitless search for a heat diffuser or flame tamer. The quest only ended when my buddy went to the States and returned with 3 of them, which he apparently found with little difficulty.

My latest search has been for bakeware, roasting pans and the like. I had 3 non-stick pans of an imported brand commonly found in Bangkok, but they were not heavy duty and warped alarmingly when placed right under the broiler. Aside from putting some of the food closer to the broiler than the rest of it, it also meant any oil or juices pooled in one corner - not ideal.

The final straw came when I roasted tomatoes for soup, and when I was chopping them after roasting, I noticed a fleck of something grey coloured mixed in with them. I had to switch from my cooking glasses to my reading glasses to identify it, but it was just as well I did because it turned out to be a bit of the non-stick coating that had flaked off.

I know that there are no health warnings about non-stick cookware (apart from dangers to birds if over-heated when empty of food), but I am fairly certain this does not extend to eating the non-stick material.

I tossed the lot out and relied on Pyrex for a bit. OK for baking but I have read warnings about tempered glass cracking when right under a broiler at high heat, and did not feel like risking my Pyrex. It would serve me very well for other things.

I tried sourcing good metal bakeware from a couple of the Central Department Stores, a Tesco Lotus and Paragon Department Store, without any luck. Quite by chance, I popped into the Emporium Department Store, and in the cookware section found a stack of Master Class Heavy Duty Non-Stick Bakeware, all sizes and descriptions. Imported from the UK, they had a 20 year warranty.

I’m not too crazy about warranties in Thailand, after a backpack I bought with a lifetime warranty opened at the seams. I took that back to the department store where I bought it, together with the warranty card and proof of purchase, only to be told the distributor had ceased dealing with that brand, and I would have to send it back to the manufacturer at my own expense etc etc.

But at least if Master Class offer a 20year warranty, that would hold good in the UK, and could be taken as an indication of the confidence they have in their products. Plus, it did have a really solid feel to it, and a very nice finish.

I wound up buying 3 of varying sizes. I steered clear of the largest one as it would only fit in my wider rotisserie oven, not the smaller unit that gets the most frequent use. And the clincher was when my wife, usually very indulgent of my passion for all things food related, remarked that it was so large we would probably never see any real use for it. That was true enough, it could hold a huge turkey easily, and I doubt I’d ever be cooking one for a dozen people.

So, I am pleased with my find. Time will tell if it holds up to use, and I am extremely light-handed with my cookware.

My only disappointment is I still cannot find wire racks that fit in my Pyrex ware and these new roasting pans. The ones I see are either way too large, perhaps designed for a barbeque, or hideous high sided things that look more like they are meant to lower French fries into a deep fryer, rather than be used in a roasting pan.

Still, I’ll keep looking - might get lucky someday.

I’ve checked and Amazon UK sells Master Class bakeware. Amazon in the States has other brands, including Calphalon which is certainly worth checking out. I have some of their cookware which I find to be quite good.