Seoul food

Another trip to Seoul this week. I wrote about my last trip in May, under the pithy title of "Seoul mates"; definitely worth a read  if you haven't yet seen this post.  This time, I had the pleasure of making kimchi - pretty much the Korean national dish.  Kimchi is basically pickled vegetables, the most common form of which is cabbage kimchi (see picture).  Kimchi is also used as an ingredient in other Korean dishes, like kimchi stew and kimchi fried rice.  Koreans love their kimchi, and so did I before I learned how to make it!

Kimchi is everywhwere - so much so that the Korean Aerospace Research Institute developed a space kimchi to accompany the first Korean astronaut to the Soyuz space ship. Kimchi is served at almost every meal, and few Koreans can last more than a few days without a fix.

On the subject of national dishes, I came across this website the other day and I'd like to share it with you.  The website is devoted to stuff about Aberdeen, where I lived for many years before moving to London, but the Whack The Haggis game cracked me up.  I'm not much of a gamer, which probably explains my pathetically low score, but if you've a few minutes to spare on a rainy afternoon, give it a go.

http://www.aboutaberdeen.com/whackthehaggisgame.php

Moon cakes

Autumn: season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, according to Keats, who obviously never lived in Singapore.

Here, Autumn brings increasing humidity and the mid-Autumn festival, celebrated - of course - with food.  In this case, the moon cake. The mid-Autumn festival, also known as the moon festival, falls on October 3rd this year - the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is brighter than at any other point in the year.  As with most Chinese festivals, there is a special food associated with the event - in this case the moon cake, currently being heavily marketed in all its many forms.  The round moon cakes eaten on this festival are symbolic of family unity and closeness and come in all sorts of guises.  "Traditional " moon cakes are enclosed in a sweet(ish) pastry and contain lotus paste and whole egg yolk.  They are very heavy, and ususally served cut into tiny wedges.


The modern moon cake is encased in "snowskin" (much nicer than it sounds, basically a paste of baked white flour combined with icing sugar) and features all manner of fillings, like lavender, chocolate truffle, wheatgrass and melon seeds, hazelnut and coconut, green tea and of course, durian, to mention just a tiny number of the varieties on offer.  Singapore's hotels seek to outdo each other with their inventiveness every year.  How about "Almond Snow Skin with Premium Bird's Nest and Custard Paste" or "Almond Snow Skin with Advocaat Egg Liqueur Truffle and Black Sesame Paste" at the St Regis Hotel, or "Snow-Skin Apricot Mooncake with Popping Candy" from Raffles, pictured top left and described thus:  "luminous snow-skin encasing a velvety filling that yields apricot fragrance and a popping surprise! " 

My regular readers will know my feelings about durian - that most exotic and smelliest of tropical fruits - but nonetheless I decided to give the durian mooncake a try. Mistake.  I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth (or the smell out of my nose) until I had downed half a bag of spicy curry snacks and two cups of tea.  Just thinking about it brings back the smell.........

That said, I also have a very pleasant mooncake memory from this week, which centres around spending time with our new group of HR graduates, who have just joined the Bank.  I spent time with them as part of their training programme and took along some mooncakes to share.  The lavender snowskin went down particularly well, hence the colour of this post's text, as a tribute.

I must say, it was a real pleasure to spend time with such a great group of talented youngsters.  It's easy to become too focused on the day-to day issues of a job and forget about what it was like when everything was still in front of you.  What's in front of us this weekend is the Hari Raya holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.  We're hosting a Sunday roast lunch in celebration, the first ever since we've been here, but the invitation seems to have struck a chord with our guests, so this may be the beginning of a new tradition on the Kiddy household.  I'll keep you posted! 

Back home

It's good to be back! 
We returned to Singapore last night, to a rapturous welcome from Lola and an equally excited one from the heavens in the form of a gigantic thunderstorm.  Thank you, Thor - a nice touch. 

As always on returning from holiday we were met by a gigantic mound of post.  My first reaction is to ignore it for as long as possible, whereas Chris likes to dive straight in.  Much of the mail is made up of publicity material of one sort or another, and it's clear (to me at least) that Singpapore is well on the way to economic recovery, judging from the number of flyers about new property developments that have arrived in the course of just a few weeks. I've mentioned peoperty in the blog before, but let me share with you today how new property is sold.  Most new property comes in the form of high rise condominiums, many of them with exotic names like Amaryllis Ville, Aspen Heights and Palm Beach Garden, to quote just a few.  When a new condo is being developed, it is pre-sold long before it is completed.  This is done through the construction of a show apartment on the site of the development, which potential customers (and people who just fancy a nosey round) can visit in order to see what the finished article will look like.  If you'd like a virtual wander round, have a look at http://www.ascentia-sky.com.sg/.  I swear you'll want to buy one after reading this, so compelling is the "lifestyle" sell!

If property (owning and investing in) is a key component of the Singaporean psyche, so too is a fierce national pride.  Singapore has been through a lot in the last half century, and some of this is reflected a new exhibition, which we're planning to go to this week, hosted by the National Archives of Singapore.  The exhibition is called “Coping with Vulnerability: The First 50 Years. Posters from our Past” and traces Singapore's trials and tribulations on its journey to nationhood through posters, news clippings and other visual media.

One of the focus areas is water, which has been a big problem for Singapore over the years.  It's strange to think of water shortages in a country that gets so much rain, but the issue is catchment.  The solution to the catchment problem is reservoirs, and there are several on the island, the latest of which is the Marina Barrage - a wonderful piece of engineering and construction - have a look at it on wikepedia at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Barrage.  We haven't been, but reading about it really makes me want to visit.

French Leave

If I have any faithful readers left, they must be wondering what on earth is going on and why I haven't been blogging recently. If any of you can work it out, please get in touch, becasue I'm darned if I know.

Perhaps it's to do with having completed two years in Singapore, so there are fewer new expeiences to write about. Anyhow, I've signed up for another year, so I'll just have to get busy on the research front and make sure I have plenty of stories to amuse and delight you. Let's start with an update on Lola dog, for those of you who are fans of our Miniature Schnauzer puppy. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that that she had been unwell; it was very sad to see her so throughly de-perked by her illness, so we were delighted when she returned to her customary bouncy form. Since then, however, she has been sick several times with the same symptoms, but the vets (we've moved to a new practice) have never been able to find anything to explain what is wrong. It was with some foreboding, therefore, that we set off for our annual leave in Southern France, especially as Lola had been ill just before we left and was only just on the mend. The good news is that, according to the daily Lola bulletins from Ding, our live-in helper, all seems to be well. That said, I'm a bit worried about Chris, who is currently on the phone to Singapore, making "whoo-whoo" sounds in an attempt to have a conversation with Lola. Barking....

With that weight off our mind, we are free to enjoy our French leave to the full. The weather here is unseasonably hot - hotter even than Singapore, but mercifully much less humid. Our days are spent relaxing by the pool (and in my case, perfecting my handstands in the pool), reading, cooking lunch on the plancha (Chris's new toy) and doing bits and pieces on the house. I am feeling immensely pleased with myself as I write this, having just cleaned and lined all the kitchen drawers; clearly I'm wasted in HR and should be pursuing a career as a French maid (which would have the benefit of allowing me to dress up in the odd saucy uniform). All comments welcome.

Red hot in the red dot

On Wednesday, I had one of the most entertaining nights of my life. I'm not sure how many of you have heard of the Red Hot Chili Pipers - have a look for them on youtube - but if they come to a venue near you, buy a ticket and you're in for a treat. I've always found that the sound of bagpipes brings out intense feelings of Scottishness in me and by the end of Wednesday evening I was ready to buy a timeshare in Inverness and book in at the nearest tattoo parlour to have a thistle emblazoned (ever so tastefully) over my left bosom. Normally, of course, bagpipes play traditional music, but there's very little traditional about the RHCPs, apart from their musical skills. They are, in fact, damn good musicians. Their snare drummer is a world champion, and several band members are graduates of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. They call what they do "bagrock", but however you characterise it, it's a damn good time.

So why the "red dot" of the title, I hear my faithful readers ask? Well, it's like this. Singapore is affectionately known as the "little red dot" on the map of the world - in part a reference to its ability to seriously punch above its weight. There are may red dot references in Singapore - from brew houses to museums (see picture). The Red Dot Museum is Singapore's design museum, and it is housed in an old colonial style building that used to be the headquarters of the traffic police. It's a big space and the first time we went we were amazed by how empty it seemed. Actually, we felt pretty much the same when we went back again, so now we've decided to think of it as minimalist rather than appear rude and superior!

I mentioned the Red Dot Brewhouse a moment ago, which reminded me that I don't believe I've written much about Dempsey in my posts. Dempsey Hill used to be the site of the British army barracks, and is now what is known as a "lifestyle destination". It is a lush green paradise close to the centre of Singapore, and home to a variety of rather nice shops and restaurants, of which the Red Dot Brewhouse is one - not that I've ever been there. I have been to Samy's, however (curry served on banana leaves), The Karma Kettle - Indian restaurant with Scottish bar (and the site of the Red Hot Chili Pipers show as it happens) and Au Petit Salut, which is a wonderful French restaurant, better than many I've been to in France. Singapore has many fine eateries, as I've mentioned before. Last Saturday we went to 53, a new place, at 53 Armenian Street, which is home to a chef who used to work at the Fat Duck, and which bases some of its methodology on Heston Blumenthal's approach. There is no a la carte menu, so when you phone up to book, they ask if there is anything you don't like. Now, as you know, there are lots of things I don't like, but since Chris has no such foibles, I figured that he would eat whatever I didn't, so we'd be OK. And so it proved.

The restaurant was as minimalist as the Red Dot Museum, with probably only 20 covers in the downstairs (main) dining room. Scrubbed wood tables with no tablecloths, which I found it a bit iffy in a fine dining setup, but I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to napery. The food was a bit minimalist as well, so it was just as well that the bread was fabulous and kept coming. It came in a little sack with heated pebbles in the bottom which promised to keep the bread warm for 20 minutes, but it was so good that there was no way it was going to last for 20 minutes, quite frankly. So, what did we think? Here's a haiku restaurant review:

6 out of 10 for

the experience but we

wouldn't go again

Feng Shui and Black Swans

The feng shui master came to the office the other week. Feng shui (pronounced fung schway) is very important in the Chinese culture and for every one who thinks of it as a pseudo science, there are many others who truly believe.



Before spending time looking round the office, he sat with me (and one of my team, who acted as a translator, as he does not speak English) and , based on birth date and time, gave a sort of astrological reading on me and several members of the team. Very interesting.......


My office now features red and gold (mainly in the form of an abstract paining in a gold coloured frame), a small fountain and a permanent light. The running water produced by the little fountain is meant to enhance energy and keep my chi flowing round the office and light, being the most powerful manifestation of energy, should be present always.


Furthering the interests of my Chi, I spent time with a Tai Chi master last week. This was part of a management development programme that I was attending last week, which included an optional early morning Tai Chi class. The programme was held at a rather lovely resort and spa hotel on the island of Sentosa (more of which will feature in my next post about the "Integrated Resorts") and the Tai Chi class was held just after first light overlooking the bay (don't think golden sands, think parked oil tankers and container ships, but nonetheless....) and it was a lovely experience, even for one as uncoordinated as me. As many of you know, I'm sure, Tai Chi is described as a martial art, but I think of it more as a sort of moving yoga. Like yoga, it has set moves and series of moves, and getting it right depends a lot on breathing. While I only had a taste, I think that I could get to like it, and possibly even remember a couple of the moves after several hours of personal tuition.....


Black Swans also featured on the programme, but unlike Tai Chi, this was a completely new concept to me. A Black Swan is basically an unpredicted and undirected event that has major consequences. Think 9/11 and the rise of the Internet. A bloke called Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote a book about this - The Black Swan - in 2007 and although I had not heard of his book until last week, I have seen articles that he has written about the financial crisis (a rather large Black Swan). Interestingly, and most bizarrely, much of the world seems already to have forgotten just how major the consequences of that particular big bird were and are are talking about not just recovery, but mega bonuses. I have worked in financial services for 22 years, and this business never ceases to amaze me.

Seoul mates

Dear readers, it's been a while. I'm not sure whether the reason I haven't been posting is because there is too much happening, or not enough. For this post I've picked out a couple of themes - updating you on the lovely Lola's goings on and sharing with you the highlights of my recent trip to Korea.

Lola is our miniature Schnauzer puppy, now 8 months old. She has given us many hours of joy (especially once the house training bit was over) and out and out hysterical laughter as she races around the house in pursuit of one or other of her squeaky toys or just because she is so full of energy she has to let it out. Because Chris is away and our housekeeper has gone back to the Philippines for an extended holiday, we had to put Lola into kennels. She was a weekly boarder there with a sort of doggie exeat at weekends. When she got back last weekend, she was very sick. I won't go into the details for fear of offending the more squeamish amongst you, but it entailed an urgent visit to the vet, X rays, antibiotic injection and much squealing from an anguished puppy. Not for the first time, I wished that we could each understand what the other was saying.

She is better now, and back to her normal, slightly crazy self, although she does seem to have developed a taste for poached chicken breast, which was all I could tempt her with when she was feeling so low last weekend. As it happens, I had occasion to go to the doctor here this week, and my bill for consultation, X rays and medication (the same treatment as Lola, albeit for a different condition) was exactly half of what I paid for her! I am definitely coming back as a Singaporean vet in my next life.....

Once I was sure that Lola was on the mend, I was much happier about taking my planned business trip to Korea. It was my second ever visit to Seoul, and I managed to pack in a great deal, including experiencing several important aspects of Korean culture, by which I mean eating, drinking and karaoke.

Before any of you get excited, let me say right away that I did not try (nor was I invited to) bosintang - dog meat soup. Bosintang is not an everyday dish - perhaps a bit like guinea pig in Peru - but it is one of the traditional elements of Korean cuisine. It seems that bosintang came to Korea from China hundreds of years ago, at a time when the posh folks ate far more meat than the lower classes. Dog was apparently one of the few "meats" available to all classes of ancient Korean society. In modern South Korea, the sensitivities around eating dog have led a number of restaurants to use lamb or goat as a substitute, although you can still find the real thing also.

Those of you who know my eating preferences will understand why I would have been delighted with another aspect of Korean cuisine - something called banchan. Banchan is a sort of Korean antipasto, lots of small dishes that are served at the beginning of a traditional Korean meal, and when I say lots, I do mean lots and lots (see picture above for examples of banchan). There must have been at least 25 banchan dishes at the lunch I was treated to, mainly vegetable, fish and tofu based. My favourite was the "Korean pizza" - which was only like pizza in that it was round and flat. It was actually made of some sort of shredded green vegetable and was absolutely delicious. I also loved the tofu, fermented sesame leaves and all the different sorts of kimchi. With banchan, ingredients and dishes vary by province but a constant is kimchi - a fermented vegetable dish usually featuring cabbage, but it is also made with radish, cucumber or spring onions - and lots of chili.

Kimchi also featured at the dinner the Korean team took me to. This was a Korean barbecue, where the meat is cooked in front of you on a on a gas grill in the middle of the table. The dinner was accompanied by soju, a sort of Korean sake, which tastes a bit like vodka, but sweeter. Our evening was pretty restrained, by Korean standards, but it did still feature a round of "bomb shots" when we went off to the karaoke rooms. For those of you who don't know about bomb shots, they consist of a shot glass of some spirit or other dropped into a glass of beer. The spirit in Korea is often soju, but in our case it was whisky. I knew I hadn't a hope of downing this in one, the required bomb shot etiquette, and so I asked for a "white knight" to help me. A white knight is a member of the group who will do the drinking for you; they are happy to be asked, so honour is satisfied all round!

There was no chance of my asking anyone to take my turn at karaoke however - I love karaoke, and I get so few chances to have a go, since none of my friends or rellies seem to feel the same way about it that I do. I was first up, with a poignant (at least I thought so) rendition of Angel of the Morning by Juice Newton that seemed to go down well. That said, there were a couple of really great singers in the team and I was completely outclassed, which didn't stop me going up again, and again, and again........

The other Celt in the group - a Welshman, whose rendition of Delilah is something everyone should hear at least once in their lifetime - asked for an a capella version of Flower of Scotland. Of course I obliged, and then threw in the Corries version of "Will ye go, lassie go" for good measure. If only my friend Eddie had been there, we could have tackled the entire Corries oeuvre and a couple of Runrig songs for good measure. Perhaps the next time.......