Durian Cake.
Text and Photo © CM Cordeiro 2012
Part of my culinary adventures is to combine bits and pieces of knowledge and inspirations picked up from one context and transfer that to a different context, in anticipation of the results. Besides which, I didn’t think I could get away being back in Singapore without cooking or baking with the family.
Continue reading “Durian Cake, Singapore”
At Catalunya Singapore, The Fullerton Pavilion at Collyer Quay, Singapore.
Text and Photo © CM Cordeiro 2012
If it were not for a kind Samaritan I met along the way who pointed out directions to the Fullerton Pavilion in Singapore, I would have taken much more time before landing at the day’s lunch venue – Catalunya Singapore.
Coming in from the scorch of the mid-day tropical sun, it took a few seconds for the eyes to adjust to the dimmer interior of the bar and restaurant, though the line of sight didn’t need to venture farther than the reception to find a touch of Gaudí’s influence in the gleaming white broken mosaic pieces that clung to the columns of the dining interior. This influence of Gaudí would also continue, as I found, through the dining experience in the shapes and motifs of the plates and utensils on the table. Not two steps into the place, I was surrounded by individuals who spoke Catalan and Spanish, déjà vu and I felt right back in Barcelona again, and felt right at home.
Continue reading “Catalunya Singapore, a touch of Barcelona, Spain at the waterfront”
A weekend morning at the Strysö yacht marina – ’twas the time before breakfast, when all through the lull, not a creature was stirring, not even a gull… (freely after C. C. Moore)
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
The summer has been unusually rainy they say. But for me, it has felt like each summer’s day thus far has had something interesting to share or show. Perhaps it was the growing up in Singapore, in the midst of warm tropical rainstorms that hits you one minute just to be replaced by sunshine from a clear blue sky the next minute that makes it impossible to think anything bad about rain, especially the warm kinds. Perhaps it is the fresh Nordic air, the complete silence or the deep sapphire blue waters lined with green, softly waving gossamers of seaweed that touches the primordial in you. The sense of serenity that greets you in the early mornings of the southern archipelago of Gothenburg is priceless.
In the land of the Midnight Sun, where the nights are short during summer, the stillness of the early weekend morning goes uninterrupted with nothing much stirring. It’s difficult to tell if the occasional persons are early risers or just on their way home from a yesterday’s come-together.
As I sit at pier side contemplating the breaking colours of a seaside dawn on the late summer days of 2012, I overlook the narrow waterway that leads the occasional boating tourist to this place that is also an important coastal route for commercial trawlers and bunker boats servicing containers ships en route to the Gothenburg harbour. I think it marvelous too that the same waters would come in rich shades of azure when lapping off the shores of the Swedish west coast archipelago that turns various shades of mangrove green when curled around the granite littered shores of Pulau Ubin in the archipelago of Singapore. Sitting here at dawn, that one force that swirls around the two entities that are continents apart in different climate zones reverberates at your core.
Continue reading “Weekend dawn, Swedish west coast marina”
On an island vintage transport moped, with an Emilio Pucci beach shopper bag.
Sail preppy in nautical red and blue at this year’s Donsö Harbour Festival organized by the local sports club.
Photos JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro © 2012
As is the tradition the first Saturday in August, it was festival day at the island of Donsö in the Swedish west coast archipelago just outside of Gothenburg.
The crowd filled up fast along the Market Street as soon as the festival began. Compared to the Donsö Harbour Festival of 2011, where an enormous Skandia engine from the 1950s caught everybody’s attention with its comforting low key chug of a ship’s heartbeat, there was no real crowd stopper around this year.
The narrow street between the small red storage huts for shipping goods huddling near the seafront soon filled up with stands carrying all kinds of items. Everything from Swedish homemade marmalades and candy to hand knitted woolen scarves that one would always need up here in the Nordic countries, to high style cruising outfits.
Besides being something of a tourist summer’s paradise, Donsö island is also a functioning suburb to Gothenburg with the extra feature of having more ship owners and freight companies per square meter located here than anywhere else on the planet. Nothing much hints of this though except than that the number of luxury yachts and motor cruisers that are docked here side by side, reminds you more of Cannes at the Cote d’Azur than a Swedish fishing village.
Continue reading “Swedish west coast Harbour Festival, Donsö 2012”
On July 4, 2012, AsiaOne News ran an online article entitled “Social media drives MOE to revise sex education”.
In the past few days, news of sex education in Singapore had hit the international scene, crossing both geographical and virtual boundaries. Having only read some about this happening, I can share here that I remain ambivalent on the choice and use of words between “sex education” rather than “sexuality education”, the distinction of which might seem inconsequential but shows a general attitude and level of comfortability / approachability to the subject, AsiaOne indicating greater comfort in managing the topic than Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE), the very institution responsible for the education policy planning and general dissemination of knowledge of the subject at hand to promising young individuals upon whose shoulders Singapore will need to depend upon for its future success.
In today’s world of the Internet savvy where information is literally at one’s fingertips, and where search retrieval results act as general classifications, associations and even branding of identity, what is perhaps more important than a false sense of modesty is the accessibility and availability of information retrieved.
A google search and retrieve (dated 10 June 2012) for the terms “sex education” and “sexuality education” renders 661,000,000 hits in under 20s to the former and about 45,700,000 hits in about half a minute to the latter.
On the perspective of branding by association, the term “sexuality education” in contrast to the more direct “sex education”, carries ambivalent connotations. While the term is used by UNESCO under its efforts on improving prevention on HIV/AIDS, it at the same time appears in retrieved searches that tend towards the ultra-conservative in political views. From The Huffington Post, for example, a news article entitled “Abstinence-Only Sex Education Bill in Utah Prohibits Teaching Contraception” (posted Feb 2012) appears close in searches retrieved with Singapore’s MOE pages. Utah is one of USA’s most religiously homogeneous state, with approximately 60% of the population reportedly belonging to the Mormon Church that greatly influences their culture and daily life. Other closely associated results retrieved with the search terms “sexuality education” include videos, one of which is a cartoon version of “sexuality education” from Belgium targeted at children aged 6.
At MOE’s website under “Education > Programmes > Social and Emotional Learning > Sexuality Education > Scope and Teaching Approach of Sexuality Education in Schools”, readers will find find in the opening paragraphs (retrieved Tuesday, 10 July 2012, 22:40 hrs):
Sexuality Education
Scope and Teaching Approach of Sexuality Education in Schools
Abstinence before marriage is the best course of action for teenagers. Sexuality Education teaches students the possible consequences of sexual activity and that pre-marital sex is not desirable as there are inherent risks.
To reduce the incidence of STIs/HIV and teenage pregnancies among our young, a practical approach is adopted. Sexuality Education teaches students facts about contraception, repercussions of casual sex, and the prevention of diseases from a health perspective. This is in addition to teaching teenagers about building healthy relationships and how to say “no” to sexual advances.
Sexuality Education teaches students what homosexuality is, and the current legal provisions concerning homosexual acts in Singapore.
Both teachers and MOE-approved external speakers should respect that they are in a position of trust with respect to students and ensure that schools are not used as arenas for advocacy on controversial issues.
A quick discourse analysis of the text uncovers the Singapore governmental institution’s underlying sense of Victorian values and lack of ease with the subject of sex education. The opening paragraph that outlines the “scope and teaching approach” of sex education in Singapore schools raises a few questions due to inconsistencies in conceptual definitions (defining “secular” vs. “mainstream” values in multicultural, multi-religious Singapore) and logical fallacies, one of which is faulty correlation that the discourse tries to equate facts (how STIs are spread) with social values (preferred abstinence from pre-marital sex).
One wonders what kind of cat and mouse game teachers and students would play during class on the topic of sex education, or on whom the blinkers will lay when “abstinence before marriage” (a material act of individual choice) is considered “the best course of action for teenagers” (a social value hegemonically advocated in this discourse) that is also “a practical approach” (begs the question, from whose perspective and for which party concerned – the teachers, the parents or the teenagers?). Even the Roman Catholic Church in their long history of struggle and balance of politics and power, where abstinence, the result of which was a purposeful lack of heirs that dissolved assets in their division amongst many, was deemed a necessary measure of wealth building, power retention and consolidation for the institution and regime of the Church, has had trouble keeping their ordained leaders chaste.
Continue reading “Singapore needs a more mature perspective to sex education”
At Tjolöholm Castle for a Swedish summer wedding, 2012.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2012
Even in secular Sweden, the magic and stardust of a fairytale wedding never fades. This wedding was appropriately set in the last castles ever to be built in Sweden, Tjolöholm Slott, built between 1898 to 1904.
The relatively modern castle, located on the grounds of an older one that dates back into medieval times and beyond, is as romantic as could be. Though heartbreakingly enough the original owners, Blanche and James Fredrik Dickson never got to enjoy it together, since her husband James Dickson passed away when the building was just about to begin and only the facade had been decided on.
How apt too, that just two years ago in 2010, the Danish film director Lars Von Trier shot the exterior scenes just here, for his film Melancholia at this castle.
Continue reading “A summer wedding, Tjolöholm Castle, Sweden”
With Valentino Valtulina in his wine cellar that in quick glance, shows his passion for remarkable passito wines such as Amarone and rare Italian specialties.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
I have often written about Italian hospitality and how their spontaneous generosity has the ability to grab and wrap you as a warm blanket. Just a few days ago I found myself back at what I have to admit is one of my all time favourite Italian restaurants in Singapore, and was hardly out of the taxi when I met the first of the Valtulinas outside of their restaurant at Jalan Bingka.
In an instant I was properly greeted Italian style, and promptly whisked into Perla Valtulina’s next door pastry boutique for a peek at her latest creations for their upcoming new restaurant and pastry boutique, to be located at 200 Turf Club Rd (#01-19) in Singapore.
Having not been back in Singapore for a while it felt I had missed quite some happenings on their side, not in the least that there is now a sit-in dining possibility at the pastry boutique – an option I thought brilliant for a chocolate addict such as myself – with the equally delightful possibility of takeaway gelato.
Continue reading “Back for lunch at Valentino’s, Singapore”
Naturally everyone has their own shortlist of things to do when swinging by their hometown and when the opportunity arises. One of those pit stops on my list is to hit the pretty touristy Long Bar at the Singapore classic Raffles Hotel.
Settling for the classic Singapore Sling at the Long Bar, Raffles Hotel, Singapore.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2012
Nasi padang and ice-lemon tea in Singapore.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
The perpetual question when coming home to Singapore from a long stay abroad is – what developments will I discover this time?
The rapid speed of life in general and the perpetual state of flux and development in Singapore make for that the only constant one can expect in Singapore, is change itself. In the background would be the distant rumble of hundreds of gigantic diesel engines of the more than 400 container ships and tankers anchored along the skirts of the Singapore shoreline. The humidity, the temperatures and along the East Coast, the curious intermingle of the salty sea air and the familiar aromas of various types of food – Malay, Indian, Chinese, Nonya etc.
One of the distinctly comfortable things to find is that there still exists home made ice-lemon tea, and with it why not a portion of the Indonesian influenced Nasi Padang in a heartland coffee-shop of the East?
A comfortable lunch in a non-air conditioned place – a priceless comfort in a rapidly developing world.
Late morning marketing at Kuta market, Bali.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
If you live in Southeast-Asia, a piece of information you neeed is the opening or business hours of the morning wet markets. Some beginning as early as 05:30 hrs in the morning, where by late morning at about 10:00 hrs, business is concluded, the stalls washed and goods neatly stashed for the next day’s trading.
In search of pulot hitam at Kuta market, near one of the almost invisible entrances.
Having had some requests for specific goods only to be found in Indonesia and likewise, Bali, I conveyed my brief shopping list to a local taxi driver, who was happy to be our guide to the island. He quickly settled where to go and so we were off towards one of his favourite markets – Kuta pasar – though I had gathered from what he told, I would need to improvise with my spattering of the Malay language since Balinesian and Indonesian languages differ, in order to do my shopping as no one in this market would speak English.
Cleaning up for the day at Kuta pasar.
True to marketing times, when we arrived in the late morning at Kuta pasar, the floors were being washed, and the white tiled counters cleaned. It took a brief moment to orientate ourselves, across language barriers, I managed to locate the stall that sold most items I had wanted to purchase, including pulot hitam, that is black glutinous rice that they call nasi hitam, and gula Bali, a variant of palm sugar produced right on the island.
This narrow corridor leads to houses behind the market. On the left and out of sight, food stalls that cater to the local area.
The ground floor to this market is compact, with stalls selling wet goods situated in the center of the square and shops selling dried goods and vegetables, lining the outer rim of the square.
Through one of the back lanes, a narrow path leads to the village houses where two or three stalls selling food can be found. We were invited to try their variety of food from nasi campur (rice with mixed food) that included ikan goreng (fried fish) to mee ayam (chicken noodles).
Kuta pasar, Badung. The sign to look for.
Compared to the enormous wet market at Denpasar well equipped with supply chain outlets running as arteries towards the main centre of activities, I think I’m most grateful to the taxi driver for introducing us to this little market square, as another peek into the lives of the locals of this island.