Born in the vibrant city of Singapore with a unique Eurasian blend of Portuguese and Chinese heritage, my journey has taken me from the bustling streets of Singapore to the serene and open landscapes of Sweden. My educational pursuits in Singapore culminated at tertiary level with two separate Master degrees, after which I embarked on a new adventure in 2002, moving to Sweden. In Sweden, I pursued with deep interest, the knowledge field of applied linguistics, particularly corpus linguistics research methods, earning a doctoral degree from one of northern Europe’s largest universities, the University of Gothenburg. I currently work as Project Manager, focusing on EU and international projects, at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, at the Division of Bioeconomy and Health, Department of Agriculture and Food. My office is located in Mölndal municipality. Mölndal, known also as the Valley of Mills, is located about ten minutes by bus ride from the city center of Gothenburg to the south. If you’re ever traveling south from Gothenburg to Malmö, whether by train or car, you will likely come by Mölndal municipality. In these pages at cmariec.com, you’ll find my lifestyle musings on culinary and travel adventures from Singapore to Sweden, and from when I lived and worked the Arctic City of Tromsø (2018 to mid-2022). SINGAPORE | SWEDEN | NORTHERN NORWAY Life in Singapore Pursued all academic interests in Singapore, of which the post-graduate years were founded in two separate disciplines. In 2000, graduated with two separate Masters Degrees: (i) Master of Science in Information Studies at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore (ii) Master of Arts in the English Language at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In 1999, represented the Republic of Singapore at the Miss Universe Pageant in Trinidad and Tobago. With this came a variety of film, educational TV, media, and ambassadorial work for the Singapore Tourism Board. Life in Sweden In 2002, moved from Singapore to Sweden in order to pursue a PhD in Gothenburg, where a number of international corporate head offices were located that all had a substantial business presence in Singapore and also Asia in general. In 2009, graduated with a PhD in applied critical linguistics from the faculty of humanities at the University of Gothenburg, with a cross-disciplinary thesis entitled, Swedish management in Singapore: a discourse analysis study, looking particularly into the concepts of assimilation, integration and hierarchy, at top management levels of Swedish-Asian corporations in Singapore. 2013, as research fellow at the Centre for International Business Studies (CIBS), School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, researching the future implications of increasing Asian-Swedish cooperation within the field of international business. The project is entitled Gothenburg in Asia, Asia in Gothenburg, funded by the Anna Ahrenberg Foundation. The project is aligned with the 400 years anniversary of the city of Gothenburg in 2021, and falls under the broad category of Kunskap Göteborg 2021 initiated by city representatives of Gothenburg, Göteborg & Co, University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. 2015, was granted the Flexit post-doctoral scholarship by Bank of Sweden Tercentennary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ) for a three year project together with the Swedish-Swiss multinational enterprise ABB. From 2015-17, the research will take place at ABB Corporate Research Sweden HQ in Västerås, and at CIBS during 2017-18. The research focus of the project is how new technologies are perceived and accepted by users and customers, using linguistic methods of data analysis. More information can be found at RJ’s website, at Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) Felxit 2015. Life in Northern Norway (2018-2022) 2018, late summer. I acquired new work as Market Scientist at Nofima. Having moved to the county of Troms in August, I’m currently enjoying myself, exploring the island city of Tromsø. From the 1900s, this city became known as Paris of the North due to how the people of Tromsø were exceptionally stylish and sophisticated in contrast to the fishing village preconception that many might have of a city located in the Arctic Circle. In my years in Sweden, I have known Sweden to be called the land of the midnight sun. During the long summer mights, it was beautiful to sit and watch the sun’s languid pendulation between east and west, touching the horizon out at sea before going up again. Northern Norway takes this languid pendulation of the sun to the extreme. It is not only known as the land of the midnight sun, but it is also the land of polar nights and the northern lights. This is my new adventure. And in these lifestyle blog pages, you’ll find my personal thoughts, insights and musings. Cheryl Marie Cordeiro | PhD MSc MA ACADEMIC REFLECTIONS | CV LIFESTYLE BLOG

Variations of the Coconut Candy

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Coconut candy variation, mocha, pandan and traditional.

Variations of coconut candy – mocha, pandan and a traditional version in pink.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

While difficult to find in Singapore these days, homemade Coconut Candy packed and sold at small grocery shops cost about 10 Singapore cents for about 4-6 pieces during the 1970s.

This candy is popular in Asia and Southeast-Asia, and can be found in variations from India, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The ones that I tended to purchase when young and subsequently became my favourite, came mostly from Indian convenience stores.
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Rum and raisin

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Homemade rum and raisin ice-cream, Sweden in summer.

Homemade Rum Raisin ice-cream.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Clearly you’ve never been to Singapore.

~ Captain Jack Sparrow,
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).

While rummingly proud that Singapore was once a notorious pirate cove that helped wreck havoc on sea trade, that quote is sadly enough inaccurate, since Singapore would not have been founded for more than a century after the period in which the movie was set.

Still, rum and raisin is indeed a fantasy encouraging concept, with rum itself hailing from the Caribbean, where it was just as popular with the British Royal Navy after their colonization of Jamaica during the 1600s, as with the English privateers (some turned bucaneers / pirates) that traded (stole) it as a popular commodity. Rum soon became a favourite drink of seamen, Naval officers and pirates alike, straight or in a variation of rum made cocktails. The trade of commodity calls to mind Singapore as a free port of trade since the early 1800s, where therein intertwine the stories of rum, pirates and the continuing evolution of global trade.

Homemade rum and raisin ice-cream, coffee and newspaper, Sweden in summer.

Rum Raisin ice-cream, coffee, a newspaper – for that late afternoon wind down.

My first taste of Rum Raisin ice-cream was when growing up in Singapore, on one of the occasions visiting the American ice-cream parlour chain, Baskin Robbins 31 during the 1980s. Together with Rum Raisin ice-cream, I also recall a certain bubble gum ice-cream, the latter being a strange combination of ice-cream and gum so that that you can’t entirely swallow what you ate. But as a kid, you enjoyed almost all food tasting adventures, especially the sweeter ones, thinking little of the inconvenience of having to chew gum and swallow ice-cream at the same time!
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Windy!

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, highpoint, Swedish west coast.

Battling the wind!
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, high point, Swedish west coast hp1.

One of our favourite things to do, is to go out taking pictures when the weather turns really dramatic. There was no real storm today as there can sometimes be along the Swedish west coast, but it was certainly WINDY! Us picking the highest available viewpoint of course brought out some extra shows of temperament among the local pagan weather gods.
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Apple banana crumble – a warm dessert for a cold day

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Apple and banana crumble with vanilla sauce.

Apple banana crumble served with vanilla sauce.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

With very hot weather in Sweden comes tropical rainstorms that makes headlines in the news, a raging wind and a pouring of warm luscious drops of water from the skies with which the Swedish westcoast borders on inability to cope. But that’s Sweden.

Being one of the few individuals now living here to have grown up in tropical rainstorms, I revel in such weather and thought this sticky, molten fruit dessert served with a thick vanilla cream sauce would put everyone at home back in their comfort zone again.

This apple and banana crumble or cobble, that had found its way both to Singapore and Sweden, has its roots in cottage country Britain, during WWII actually when pastry rations were restricted to make proper pies. Actually the word ‘cobble’ would be right at home in Sweden too in describing this dessert since it calls to mind the narrow cobblestoned pavements that once was carriageway for horses of both Gothenburg’s and Stockholm’s Gamlestan / Gamla Stan.

Apples and bananas, chopped, drizzled with dark syrup.

Apples and bananas, chopped, drizzled with dark syrup.

I started out making this dessert back in secondary school in my teens, with only flour and butter for the crumble on top, but these days, I make them with rolled oats in combination with flour and butter on top because the resulting texture of crisp, baked to a deep golden brown coupled with the smooth melt of warm caramelized fruit on the tongue eludes sensory description.
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The Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Macau

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Facade to St. Paul's ruins, Macau.

The facade of Ruínas de São Paulo or the Ruins of St. Paul’s, Macau’s historic landmark that attests their Portuguese heritage.
Photo © C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

In today’s modern Macau, it is difficult to find any trace that Macau had set out its life as a western outpost in Asia, as a matter of fact together with Malacca as one of the oldest. Macau is also one of the most visible reminders of the fact that it was actually the Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz who in 1488 discovered a sea route to China and that Great Britain, still so present in today’s Singapore, arrived centuries later in the Far East.

Today Macau has been given back to Chinese administration, however the remnants of Portuguese culture is deeply instilled in the food, culture and architecture of Macau. During my recent visit, one of my ‘most important places of interest’ was the Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral. To find my way there was a mixed experience.

The Ruins of St. Paul is constantly filled with people, so walking from Senate Square in the direction of the Macao Museum would be one of the most convenient means of getting there. Even when driving, we parked some 400m away and walked.

Parking meters, Macau.

Parking meters is the system in Macau when parking along the streets.

Scooters and motorcycles, common mode of transport, Macau.

Scooters, a common sight and mode of transport.

Narrow street, Macau.

All the better to navigate these older, narrow streets.

Parking meters are the system in Macau, if you’re driving and you’ll also notice a fair bit of scooters and small motorcycles on the roads, which are excellent vehicles to navigate the narrower streets of the region.

The Ruins of St. Paul is today what is left of a Portuguese Jesuit cathedral that was accidentally destroyed by fire in the early 1800s. Dedicated to Saint Paul the Apostle, it was in the 1600s, a collegiate church that the Jesuits used to house those of their society who were on their way to Japan, via Macau. These ruins are one of the region’s most historic landmarks and enlisted as part of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site in 2005.
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360 Café at Largo da Torre de Macau

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Torre Panorâmica, Macau Sky Tower from the highway, Macau.

Torre Panorâmica or Macau Sky Tower, one of the region’s landmarks with the world’s highest bungee jump point from its outer rim at 233 m. A thrill to all Evel Knievels out there, and certainly not for the faint hearted!
Photo © C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Driving along the highway, Macau’s Sky Tower looked akin to Seattle’s Space Needle, though at 338 meters, it stands considerably higher than Seattle’s landmark. Both structures halfway across the globe, have a revolving restaurant at the top and it was there, at 360 Café that we were headed to have lunch.

Torre Panorâmica, Macau Sky Tower, elevator to the 60th floor, 360 Café.

360 at 60.

Having never been to Macau or dined at such an altitude, I hardly knew what to expect. The enthusiastic discussions between well-meaning and highly adventurous relatives on bungee jumping after lunch made me think twice about having lunch at all, wondering which was worse, never having bungee jumped at all or contemplating bungee jumping after downing lunch.

My quiet reservations about eating at 360 Café lifted however, when on the 60th floor, I stepped out of the elevator and was greeted by the most delectable spread of cookies, cakes, jellies and fruits – the dessert table laid just where the elevator entrances were.

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Through the backstreets of Macau to Margaret’s Café e Nata

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The Grand Lisboa as seen from the fortress, Macau.

A view of Macau today with the towering Grand Lisboa as seen from Monte Forte.
Photo © C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

When in Macau, what hits you first are the ostentatious buildings, mostly casinos to attract all sorts of tourists. And some people frequent Macau with what I find in slight irony for masochistic reasons, the gamblers for a purpose and the non-gamblers for the sheer delight to revel in what they are not.

But Macau, rich in its history and currently known for its distinctive blend of Portuguese-Chinese culture ingrained into the administrative and education system of the region, is also known for its food.

Café e Nata, Macau for Portuguese egg tarts.

Highly reviewed and written about, though more difficult to locate for first timers in Macau.

In this post is a discovery of some of the most sumptuous Portuguese egg tarts in Macau, tucked away in a highly unlikely corner of the region in Gum Loi Building – Margaret’s Café e Nata.

I thought the café unlikely because of the manner in which I found it. Bundled in a car by relatives and driven to a nearby parking area that wasn’t exactly nearby after all, we walked through busy main streets, crossed several large junctions where the golden glint of the Grand Lisboa loomed large before us, not to be missed by anyone and as if out of nowhere, shuffled into a back alley that though sunny, looked the complete opposite of all that glittered in Macau.
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Reflections on durian ice-cream

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Being a great fan of both the durian, the royal fruit of fruits or the stinky fruit (depending on how you view it) and ice-cream, what would be more natural than combining the two to make durian ice-cream?

durian_1

Durian ice-cream made with gula Melaka and coconut milk, an old Nonya recipe from Singapore. Served in a Straits Chinese porcelain bowl from the 1920s. This bowl is decorated with peony flowers, a ‘feng’ bird (phoenix) and Buddhist emblems. All very traditional, the emblems also reflected in the textiles they produce.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Moving between countries as I do, I often reflect upon the differences and similarities between Singapore and Sweden where I find Sweden a solid structure that is not likely to change very much, ever, and where everyone is “pretty much ok” or lagom, while Singapore is a nation whose wealth has come more recently, where education really pays in terms of income, and the large proportion of citizens who are well off, are bathing in new money in a way we cannot imagine in Sweden. And I am perpetually convinced that both nations would have a lot to learn from each other, their histories afterall intertwined by the Swedish East-India trade from even before Singapore was officially founded by the British.
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Trying your hands at homemade ice-cream sorbet

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Home made elderberry sorbet.

Home made elderberry sorbet topped with frozen raspberries.
Photo © J E Nilsson for CMC 2010

When summer finally arrives in Scandinavia and Northern Europe it hits all of us as a great event that somehow needs to be dealt with and celebrated. The dishes gets lighter, are often served cold and more efforts are put into deserts that might even develop into a full meal, and lets admit it, might end up as the meal itself since it turns out so delicious you start with it, and then you get too full to eat anything more.

I have many favourite ice cream parlors in Sweden as well as in Singapore but occasionally it is fun to see how far you can get on your own with all natural ingredients and a few minutes of efforts.

This is how to make the above sorbet with no special machinery or very complicated ingredients.
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Swedish crayfish lunch

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crayfish_july_2010

Swedish crayfish for lunch. One more no cooking lunch suggestion for a sweltering hot summer’s day.
Photo © J E Nilsson for CMC 2010

I don’t know what it is with the Swedish summer heat that makes me, an absolute tropical person who should be able to deal with searing heat with a smile, completely lose all motivation when it comes to spending time over a hot stove, cooking something for lunch.

As luck would have – a large tub of ready cooked Swedish west coast crayfish for sale at a nearby island, presented itself as a saviour. Served with a freshly baked baguette, homemade mayonnaise and a glass of iced white wine.

Splendid.

And something sweet for dessert – fresh strawberries and cream.

No cooking whatsoever. All at home were delighted.