Cheryl Marie Cordeiro – Page 86

Doktorspromotion 2009, University of Gothenburg

Posted on November 1, 2009June 29, 2025 by cheryl

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, Doktorspromovering 2009, PhD graduation ceremony, University of Gothenburg, Svenska Mässan

On stage, halfway through the ceremony. I’m seated third row from the back, in a white dress. Deans and faculty leaders of the University of Gothenburg (GU) are seated at the front of the stage, in the respective faculty colours and gowns.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, David Neikter Nilsson, Anders Lindström 2009

The 30th of October, 2009 was the University of Gothenburg’s annual prize giving and doctoral awards ceremony and gala event. It was wonderful to have these grey autumn days lit by people dressed up in formal attire, tailcoats mandatory for all men receiving awards that evening, and all women in long dresses or ball gowns. Everyone looked smart and regal.

For this event, I wore the full length, white crochet dress that my mother had made for me more than a decade ago. It was meant for my college prom night, so I was 18 years old when I wore this dress the first time.
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Entrecôte á l’automne Suédoise

Posted on October 30, 2009June 14, 2013 by cheryl

entrecote_dish, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Entrecôte with baked tomatoes, fried mushrooms, potato gratin and parsley butter.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson and Cheryl Marie Cordeiro 2009

It’s during autumn in Sweden that you realize that the epitome ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’ is only valid during the short summers. During the winter, everything turns pretty much into the ‘land of the midday sun glimpse’, if at all, because autumn and winter days are often punctuated with stretches of dark grey, gloom and rain. So there isn’t much else to delight in during these days, except a hearty meal of your favourite cut of steak!

With logs burning in the woodstove and with a flip of a switch to turn on the lights, the kitchen is as warm and as bright as we could wish for. And we went about preparing the meat.

There are numerous recipes to be had over the internet with regards to preparing meat, most with detailed instructions, so here is an outline of our version.

In order of preparation.

1. Cut and put out the meat in room temperature. It cooks better if it hasn’t been previously refrigerated so that it is colder on the inside than the outside. Personally I think meat turns more flavourful if it is salted about 50 minutes before it goes into the pot, more or less.

2. Prepare parsley butter.

parsley butter, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Mix butter with chopped parsley.

We store our own parsley form the summer ready to use, in the freezer. Add some lemon juice, some Worchester sauce, salt and white pepper. Mix and refrigerate until serving.

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Reflections from days at the Division of Information Studies (DIS), NTU in Singapore

Posted on October 28, 2009June 29, 2025 by cheryl

It was at the end of 1990s that I was doing my MSc in Information Studies at NTU, graduating in 2000.
Photo by JE Nilsson, 2009.

My academic career has taken me through several institutes of education, and the Division of Information Studies (DIS) at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (NTU) has been one of them.

It was a part-time Master of Science course that I took with NTU, while pursuing my Master of Arts at NUS full-time. The schedule was gruelling but nonetheless manageable, with mornings through afternoons spent at NUS, and evenings spent at NTU. I thought it all fine, till exam period came along and it became darkly humorous at one point, when I found myself sitting for papers in the mornings at NUS and evenings, at NTU!

Perhaps it was that I spent mostly evenings at NTU, when the greater student population would have gone home or be back at their hostels that I found the place generally more relaxing than my time at NUS. The long corridors of the NTU wings seemed to help sort your thoughts as you walked to and from classes, pondering the day’s lectures or simply unwinding as you stepped away from the lecture hall.

As I’m now looking to pursue new research projects, I realize that my research interests have always been cross-disciplinary in nature. That I found myself wanting to learn about information management (at NTU) whilst majoring in the English language (at NUS) was just the beginning of it! These days, it’s linguistics, organization science and information management that draws my attention.

With NTU being in the top 1% of the world’s universities (together with Swedish universities such as Lund and Uppsala) it was not surprising that DIS at NTU has put into practice the use of social media, such as its blog, as a medium of contact and social networking and also giving it a place in the education system.

To Prof. Chris Khoo, Head of DIS, NTU: Thank You for updates and contacts!

Cheryl

Triumph’s Street Triple in matt graphite

Posted on October 25, 2009September 22, 2013 by cheryl

Triumph Street Triple R, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro-Nilsson, Sweden

On the 2009 Triumph Street Triple.
Photos © Jan-Erik Nilsson, Cheryl M. Cordeiro-Nilsson, Adrian Cordeiro for CMC, 2009

I grew up with having bikes around me, where as far as I could remember, I was hopping on and off a bike, to and from school mostly, with my dad in the rider’s seat.

The pictures below were taken in the early 1980s, in the East of Singapore. They show my brother and I on my dad’s Suzuki GP 100A, taking turns to be in the front seat of the bike. It wasn’t a big bike at all, but it was a stretch for the both of us, to reach its front handles!

And when I turned 18, encouraged by my dad, I went out and acquired both my car and bike licenses. I took the lessons simultaneously and the bike license came to me just two week after I received my driver license for cars.

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, Suzuki ca 1980s in Singapore

On darling little turquoise tanked Suzuki GP 100A. Small, fast and fun to ride, this bike’s an absolute classic in today’s auto world. Both my brother and I grew up to love bikes as more than a means of transportation. My brother has had several Hondas in the 750 cc range, both to himself and shared with my dad.

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Swedish autumn classic dish – Kalops

Posted on October 22, 2009June 14, 2013 by cheryl

kalops Swedish staple in autumn

Kalops, a classic Swedish autumn dish
A solid meat stew that fills you with energy to ward off the autumn chill.
Serve with potatoes, pickled root beets and a tall glass of beer.
Photo: Cheryl Marie Cordeiro for CMC © 2009

Living in Sweden, in Northern Europe makes you change your habits with the seasons and when the days get shorter and the leaves turn yellow, orange and brown and start dressing up the grass lawn in all kinds of colours, you start thinking about more hearty foods that warms the core of your body. Autumn is also harvest time for all kinds of vegetable roots and the livestock that had been grassing outdoors all summer are also now starting to fill up the meat counters in the supermarkets.

A traditional autumn dish in Sweden that is rather simple to make is kalops. Its a full flavoured, meaty beef stew that would feel completely at home in an Indian restaurant if it wasn’t for the spices that are different in Sweden.

Here are the ingredients if you feel like trying. Serves four persons as a single dish.

Heat up a large and deep pot with a dollop of butter and let two diced and sliced onions simmer.
Cut up about 1 kg (2 lbs) beef (marrowbone) in comfortable bite sized cubes.
Add about 10 allspice seeds and 2-3 bay leafs.
Add 1 meat cube if you like and if so, no extra salt in needed.
Add 1/2 liter of water mixed with 3 tbs wheat flower to thicken the sauce. Halfway through the cooking time, add two carrots cut up in thick slices.
Simmer under lid on slow heat. When the onions are mostly dissolved the stew is ready (about 1-1,5 hour).

This old fashioned dish just gets richer and better with longer cooking time. In many Swedish cookbooks, they also recommend that you let this dish sit for a few hours before serving. Overnight sitting is best.

Enjoy!

In The New Eurasian, Singapore, Oct-Dec 2009

Posted on October 18, 2009December 20, 2014 by cheryl

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro in The New Eurasian Oct-Dec 2009

In The New Eurasian, October to December 2009.

The New Eurasian: People

A truly multi-cultural perspective

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, former beauty queen, and current academic – has this year graduated with a PhD from the University of Gothenberg in Sweden with a thesis that compares the management styles between her adopted country, Sweden, where she is a PR, and her native Singapore.

“I came to notice that there were many foreigners coming to Singapore to set up and run Asian market head offices. Among those were many Swedish organisations. Based on Singapore’s financial and economic strength, it was apparent that these foreign companies were part of what made Singapore a successful business hub,” she said.

Her curiosity led her to get in touch with businessman Jan-Erik Nilsson, who lived in Sweden. As one of the founders of the East-Indiaman Gotheborg III ship project, it was Jan-Erik who encouraged her research plans. In 2002, she left Singapore for Sweden to begin her doctoral studies. Four years later, she and Jan-Erik married.

The talented Eurasian has a BA (Hons) from the National University of Singapore and graduated in 2000 with two separate masters degrees: an MA in English Language from NUS and an MSc in Information Studies from Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

As if she wasn’t busy enough with her studies during her undergrad days, she also took time to represent Singapore at the International Miss Universe Pageant in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999. Around that time, she also appeared as an actress in the MediaCorp TV’s series Brand New Towkay. But her passion for academic research never waned, and she returned to academia.

She hopes her thesis Swedish management in Singapore: a discourse analysis study will help Swedish executives doing business in Singapore to better understand the culture here and will also “show how different cultural backgrounds can make or break any cross-national deal, however brilliant things look on paper”.

As well as her academic life Cheryl, who speaks Swedish and Mandarin in addition to English, keeps a fusion blog on her Northern European experiences, writing on fashion, food, travel and lifestyle.

———oOo———

Thank you, to the Eurasian Association of Singapore, for a wonderful write-up and an update on Eurasians around the world. The October to December 2009 issue of The New Eurasian is out, and personally, I’m already looking forward to the New Year’s Eve Maquerade Soiree! For more information on October to December’s upcoming events, please visit the EA’s website.

A Swedish take on Singapore Chilli Crabs

Posted on October 12, 2009June 14, 2013 by cheryl

Singapore style chilli crabs, made with Cancer pagurus 3

North Sea “krabbtaskor”, Cancer Pagurus served as Singapore Chilli crabs
Photos © Jan-Erik Nilsson, Cheryl M. Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC, 2009

If you happen to live in any of the Nordic countries and so close to the sea that you can buy fresh crabs from the local fishermen, the Swedish “North Sea” crabs (Cancer Pagurus) are at their most delicious during the last three months of the year. The most popular way to cook and serve them in Sweden is, as simple as possible. Cook for 15 minutes with a dash of salt and a handful of dill seeds. Tidy up, crack open and serve with white bread, some extra rock salt and butter.

While I do love the simplicity of the Swedish version of crabs, I had begun to crave something spicier after the August crayfish celebrations, and the first thing I thought of when I got my hands on these Volvo of crabs was – Chilli Crabs!

A close second was to make Bakwan Kepiting, a Peranakan crab and porkball soup, but the former won hands down on my palate craving for the moment.

There are certainly many ways to cook Singapore Chilli Crabs, whether you find them at Changi Village, Punggol or along the East Coast in Singapore. Here’s what I used for my Swedish version of Singapore Chilli Crabs:

Ingredients

Cancer Pagurus

This sauce is really tasty and you can stretch the dish to serve more by just increasing the amount of sauce and serve with white bread…

Ingredients, pounded for Chilli Crabs Singapore style

The ingredients to the gravy, pounded. Somehow blending is just not the same.

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Paco Gil, a little bit of Spain in Autumn

Posted on October 11, 2009May 17, 2014 by cheryl

Paco GIl suede wedge heels, Louis Vuitton Vernis Mott, Louis Vuitton Multicolore, Nokia

Paco Gil wooden wedge suedes that puts a little Spain in the Swedish autumn.
Photos © Cheryl M. Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC, 2009

It is more yellows and reds these days on the ground and in the air, than the bright greens of a few months ago, and the guitar instrumentals of Michael Mucklow’s Joy and Govi’s Carioca Cat brings home a certain longing to be in Europe’s south, where the warmth lingers on just a little while longer than in its north.
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35 for Gothenburg: a book by Edwin Thumboo

Posted on October 7, 2009June 29, 2025 by cheryl

Singapore Literature booth, Göteborgs Bokmässan, 2009

Singapore literature, displayed at the Singapore booth at Gothenburg’s annual Bookfair, 2009.
Photos © Jan-Erik Nilsson and Cheryl M. Cordeiro for CMC, 2009

Even with new publishing spaces and mediums available on the internet with e-journals, online magazines, webpages and blogs, books in print continue to remain a stable platform for voices to be heard. It seemed that this year’s annual Gothenburg Bookfair was just as busy and electric in atmosphere as previous years. In fact, this years visit went straight to my heart. In the maze of exhibition stalls – some piled with books from the ground up so as to obscure vision – was a cozy and neat, red and white walled unit labeled, Singapore Literature. Even its colours reminded me of home and I was completely drawn to this year’s event as such, focusing my attention on the International Square, a hall dedicated to international authors.
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Kanelbullens Dag, Cinnamon Rolls Day 2009

Posted on October 4, 2009June 13, 2013 by cheryl

Cinnamon rolls, kanelbullar, with custard and sugar pearls

This year, Kanelbullens Dag that falls every 4th of October in Sweden, is proving to be extremely windy and rainy along the Swedish West Coast – which makes it the perfect weather to snuggle up to the warmth of some cinnamon rolls to celebrate its day.

Custard filled cinnamon rolls, kanelbulle

The custard filled cinnamon rolls, sitting in the corner of the baking tin before baking.

We decided in this batch, to make custard filled cinnamon rolls, which added a little variation to the standard pearl sugar drizzled version. I’ve always been fond of cinnamon rolls, having first been introduced to them in Singapore actually. About a decade ago, Singapore had a chain of small bakeries selling cinnamon rolls, filled with caramelized almonds, pecans, walnuts and even ones that were chocolate glazed! It was a fantastic variety of cinnamon rolls! I was quite saddened to find that they’ve all but disappeared these days, because I did have my favourite cinnamon rolls from their outlets and would buy a few whenever I came across their bakery down town.

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