Cheesecake

You are probably wondering why the subject of cheesecake deserves a post of its own. Unless you are my sister, of course, who will understand perfectly. She and I are big fans of cheesecake - the New York, baked variety, so imagine our surprise - and delight - when we arrived in Singapore to find that it is ubiquitous - and occurs in so many different varieties that it could almost be thought of as the national dessert (unless durian pudding has already claimed that title).

So where is it to be found? Well, for a start, most of the big hotels have a patisserie which both serves cake and sells it on a takeaway basis. You can buy a single slice, or a whole cake, and you can choose from plain, Oreo, chocolate, chocolate walnut, chocolate chip, chocolate mocha marble, blueberry, orange macadamia, apple nut, strawberry, mango almond, tutti frutti, toffee, to name but a few - honestly!

My favourite so far is a seasonal cheesecake - made only for Chinese New Year. It is tangerine flavoured, as tangerines and oranges play a big part in the new year celebrations and are passed out freely during the festival ( because the words for tangerine and orange sound like luck and wealth, respectively). It is decorated with mini tangerines, made - I think - of white chocolate and both looks and tastes gorgeous.

The availability and variety of cheesecake in Singapore stand in sharp contrast to my early experiences. I spent almost 17 years in Aberdeen during the 70s and 80s, and it was not possible to get some of the foods that we now take for granted - pitta bread and cheesecake to name but two. Having fallen in love with pitta bread on a holiday in Greece, I found a recipe and made it at home. Tasted fine, but a bit of a palaver, quite frankly. My friend Lins and I were gutted when M&S stopped making their American cheesecake, and spent some of the best years of our twenties in pursuit of the ultimate cheesecake recipe, and the ultimate pair of black trousers. Because we had very limited success with the former, we were able to fit into the latter when we managed to locate them!

I'm still composing the review of the Oktoberfest, so keep reading.......

The expat weekend

It is Saturday, 20th September 2008, the end of one of the most surreal weeks in the financial industry. For those of you who have not been following the press, recents events have been described variously as "the end of investment banking", "the latest terrifying phase of the credit crunch" and "massive humiliation for Wall Street" (there are many who would say this last one is no bad thing). However, I am no financial journalist, and this blog was never meant to be a running commentary on the financial markets, so I will leave it there.

One of the best things about our life here in Singapore is the weekend. Because we have live-in help, in the form of the lovely Ding (real name Ester, but she has been called Ding ever since she was a child), we don't have to spend the weekend doing chores - luxury! A typical weekend involves a lie-in, since I normally get up pretty early, a visit to the gym, a movie or two, eating out on Sunday, which is Ding's day off - perhaps brunch (see previous post "War on Buffet" from April) at one of the many fabulous bruncherias on the island, or a visit to one of Singapore's many festivals, like the Singapore River Festival which starts this weekend. This is a first for Singapore - but it sounds a lot of fun - so I hope it becomes an annual event.

The festival is set along the Singapore river, and its various events will celebrate the elements of water and Singapore's heritage. There will be lots of music, outdoor parties, and of course, eating opportunities, many of which will take place at Clarke Quay. I'm not sure if I've written about Ckarke Quay before, but it's one of the first places I encountered on my very first trip to Singapore - when I came here for my interview in early 2007 - as my hotel was just around the corner.

Clarke Quay is Singapore's premier entertainment district; it's full of clubs, bars, restaurants and nightspots and really comes alive when the sun goes down. It's located near the mouth of the Singapore river and was the centre of commerce during the late 19th century - although obviously lacking the clubs, bars, nightspots etc., which are situated in a number of different blocks, based on the "godowns" of yesteryear (a godown was a dockside warehouse or storage area). Many of the restaurants are housed in old shophouses - an architectural form unique to South East Asia and a wonderful piece of Singapore's heritage.

A shophouse - there's a clue in the name - consists of a shop on the ground floor and residential accommodation upstairs. They were typically built in longish terraces - sometimes a whole street's worth and have narrow fronts and very deep rears (as it were). The residential part was meant to house one or more families, who may or may not have been connected to the commerce beneath. Many old shophouses have been converted into business premises, but many have become modern-day dwellings. There are lots of shophouses on Boat Quay, which is very close to where I work - and is host to Harry's Bar, where Nick Leeson used to hang out. The picture at the top is Boat Quay, with the CBD (central business district) in the background. I often have lunch on Boat Quay, and never fail to think how fortunate I am, to be living and working here.

This weekend started on a cultural note - with a visit to the launch of a book of poems by a friend of ours - Hsien Min Toh. You can see him if you follow the link below. He was launching and reading from his latest collection, called Means To An End, and I bought two copies, one for me and one for my friend Steve, who will, I think, appreciate both the sentiments and the language of the work. Let me know what you think, Steve. It's on its way.

http://home.pacific.net.sg/~hsienmin/

Tonight's outing is to the Oktoberfest night at the Swiss Club, with a couple of Singapore friends. Oktoberfest in September I hear you ask? Good question, but the real thing in Munich starts in September and runs for 16 days into October apparently. I'm really looking forward to it, which is quite strange as I'm not the biggest fan of beer, or bratwurst, so I'll probably spend the evening with a sauerkraut sandwich and a glass of dry white wine. With any luck there will be singing and group dances - heaven for the extravert in me, since I never seem to find anyone to go out to play at a Karaoke club with me.

Just another meltdown Monday

Who would have thought? I am posting this on Tuesday 16th September, the day after Lehman Brothers went to the wall. Two of my dearest friends work there, and my heart goes out to them. It feels to me as if we are seeing history in the making - a financial services equivalent of the tearing down of the Berlin wall. I have worked in HR in the financial markets for 21 years and I don't believe I have ever seen anything like it. So what happens next? Damned if I know, but I'll keep you posted as I work it out.

One year in.......

Dear readers (I can say readers with confidence, because a number of you have taken me to task for not posting anything recently), I am back at the keyboard and brimful of reflections, so sit back and get reading.

It has been just over a year since we first came to Singapore - the end of July, 2007 - and what a year it has been. There was little notion of the impending turmoil in the financial markets, Bear Sterns was alive and kicking and my friends at Lehman Brothers were hard at work for one of Wall Street's most prestigious firms. I feel immensely fortunate to be working in the Asian markets at this time, in a growing business, but, as my CEO is wont to observe, there is no room for complacency.

We returned to Singapore from a holiday at our house in France last week. It was a delicious break, and some friends came over to join us in surprise (early) birthday celebration, which began with dinner at the Domaine d'Auriac (pictured, - no, that's not a picture of our house) - and ended with a firework display on the hill behind our house. We had been to the restaurant before with a group of some of the same friends for my 40th, which just seems like yesterday but appears, in reality, to have been xxxxxxx years ago! How did that happen? At moments like this I am tempted to quote T.S Eliot's lines from The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

if only I knew what he meant. Re-reading the poem just now brings back memories of secondary school - probably in 4th or 5th year - and studying that particular piece. I don't think I got what he was talking about at all, but 30 something years on, it strikes a chord. In case you're feeling poetic, here's some more:

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question …
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

Talking of poetry, I am sure you have been missing my haiku film reviews. That said, I do not think that I could convey the necessary level of enthusiasm for my latest two recommendations in a mere 17 syllables. We have just returned from seeing Wall-E (recommended by my friend Steve, who has great taste in movies, food and friends) and it was a complete delight. A robot love story - strangely touching - and possibly a political commentary on our disposable society (less sure about this) but one of my must see recommendations. At the gritty end of the scale is In Bruges, which I saw on the flight back from London. It's the story of two hit men - one played by Colin Farrell - who have to spend some time in Bruges after a hit goes wrong. It is by turns very funny, dramatic and sad, and absolutely made me want to visit Bruges at Christmas time.

So what does it feel like to be in our second year as expats in Singapore? Well, some things have become completely familiar, yet we are still discovering the new also. Singapore is full of traditions, as I have said before, and this is the season of the mooncake festival.

Mooncakes are Chinese pastries traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. They are typically round or rectangular and measure about 10 cm in diameter and are quite thick. The filling is thick too - and very rich. There are modern versions, but the traditional mooncake filling is made from lotus seed paste and contains whole egg yolks. They are rich, heavy, and very dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries and are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea. An acquired taste for the Western palate, I think.