Mustafa swanked up!

"Darling, I can't sleep and I need to shop... now!"
"It's 3am in the morning, can this wait until tomorrow morning?"
"No, now!"
"Ok ok, let me get changed and we'll go to Mustafa..."
- I am not kidding when I say that I have overheard this.

Mustafa is another one of those reasons why expats come to Singapore and don't want to live in any other comfortable city after that. Yes there may not be as much culture as say, New York or London, but where else can you find comfortable, air-conditioned shopping, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Where else can you buy anything your heart desires, ranging from air tickets to air cleaners, couscous to cars, toothbrushes to tennis racquets?

To make matters better and migrating from Singapore harder, Mustafa has recently swanked up to add 2 new floors to their already extensive department store. I found a $600 Victorinox accessory, and silverware from WMF. Mustafa has begun to look like John Little's on a normal day.

Honestly, folk, Mustafa is starting to give Harrod's a run for their money, with an extra 24 hour factor thrown in, so you never need to stand pressed against the store window at 8.30am in the morning waiting to be let in.

It's starting to get so famous, I get a smile on my face when tourists come to Singapore and tell me that they've visited Mustafa, like it is a tourist attraction. Oh yes, and incidentally, in case you wonder, it does also come with its own hotel and money changer.

Mustafa Department Store
Mohd Mustafa & Samsuddin Co Pte Ltd
145 Syed Alwi Road, Off Serangoon Road, Singapore 207701
Ph 6295 5855, Fax 6295 5866
Website : www.mustafa.com.sg

Sheng Siong Supermarket

If you didn't already know (you must!), Sheng Siong supermarket is a Singaporean home-grown supermarket enterprise well known for its low-cost, no frills approach to the staples in Singaporean living.

It's recently made its way to the expat sites in Singapore, so I think the cat is well out of the bag. Joy of joys, they've recently been happily opening franchise branches all over the island, starting from their very first in my sister in law's homeland in Bedok.

These days, they're very good for fresh produce (poultry and meats, fish and vegetables) at prices hovering around wet market levels, but with the added convenience and comfort of air-conditioning and upper levels of dry goods and other household items.

I especially love their cartons of soft drinks for stocking up on my regular staples: Coke and Pokka Unsweetened Oolong tea. Also available for about $10 for a carton of 24 are Pokka Lemon and Calamansi, Kickapoo Joy Juice and the good ol' Schweppes ranges. Ice Mountain retail for about $6.90 per box of 24 bottles, much cheaper than the equivalent price from a petrol station of about $24.

Household Tip #2: Nice smelling moth-balls

This has very little to do with food of course, but still has a spot reserved on my refrigerator as "specific things to buy for the house that I will accept no compromises and no other brand/type of".

One of this is the lavender (lilac colored) moth-balls made by Farcent Corporation, selling for $6.50 per large, never-ending pack of 360g at Sheng Siong supermarket. The big pack holds several tiny sized little paper sachets containing the nicest smelling moth-balls (no scent of napthalene!) I have ever encountered, all of them nicely wrapped in porous white paper with tiny purple printed flowers. They smell decent enough for your delicates drawer and can be thrown into any drawer in the house to ward away house pests like lizards, cockroaches, moths, mozzies and other nasties. I love them!

This product hailing from Taiwan touts a high-quality perfume that creates a comfortable atmosphere and, most importantly, doesn't leave a nasty scent that gives the indication that you've left your stuff in that drawer for way too long (which you probably have). After 3 months, boxes and drawers (and the objects in them) remain fresh, clear and dust-free.

Perhaps it comes with age, but these days, I accept no compromises on the little things. I'm definitely getting these anti-insect balls for as long as I can find them.

"Do you like dates?"

"Do you like dates?" - question asked to determine if I was part Arabic or part Turkish in a conversation I had about 3 months ago (long story, another time...)
"Who doesn't?" - Me, tongue in cheek
"No no no... I meant do you like *eating* dates?" - I know he meant the fruits, not the dinner invitations
"I do have a few of them for dinner if they're rude." - Me, tongue in cheek again.

Yes, just in case the question ever cropped up (which I'm sure it doesn't), and in case you're wondering if this is some house-proud, middle-aged, old-fashioned prude of an aunty - no, I'm not married, yes, I'm incredibly house-proud, finicky and have great attention to detail and take great pride in the state of cleanliness around the house that I keep. And no, I'm not actually middle-aged... yet.

If you're wondering why I say this with a certain measure of pride, the reason why I still declare this happily is because most people looking at me on the streets wouldn't think I knew how to cook. If you were to buy me a magazine based on how I looked, you're 10 times more likely to opt for Cosmopolitan or Harper's Bazaar than the BBC Good Food Guide. Great, great misunderstanding there... I feel I ought to clear the air.

Then again, these days with the myriad of Discovery Travel & Living type TV, I love to crow that food has suddenly, blissfully, happily, become sexy.

I am not married nor looking to be married, until I can find that ideal person who wouldn't leave dirty laundry around the house, is able to self-sustain without having to call in, survives without a maid and above all, still knows the symbol for "dry-clean only" instinctively. Finding someone like that is honestly harder than you think. It's like dreaming of dating the chief editor of Wallpaper* or the CEO of Habitat.

In the meantime, I'm happy to leave quick house-hold tips and other practical and convenient displays of aunty-hood on the net.

But, if you have both their numbers, call me.

Grilled Pemberton Marron

Grilled Pemberton Marron
Originally uploaded by metaphoric.

I just had to post this one although I didn't eat it because it's definitely one of my favourite food photo shots! Look at the warm, glistening melted butter nestled on the curve of the marron on the right!

Steamed Asparagus, Wild Olives, Parmesan

Steamed Asparagus, Wild Olives, Parmesan
Originally uploaded by metaphoric.

A few of my favourite things done right today. This was part of lunch (a second time) at Leeuwin Estate during a recent trip to Perth, Western Australia.

Note to Self: Always use kalamanta olives. Despite being tempted to take a shortcut with black olives, the temptation never turns out worthwhile!

I'm also wondering how things would turn out if the parmesan was replaced by a manchego or a parmagiano. Thoughts anyone?

Recipe: Tiramisu

One of the things I make a lot of (usually on demand) but don't eat is tiramisu. The recipe I have I got from Alvin of Caffe Cafe at Plaza Singapura (when it was still there in 1996), which was probably the first or one of the first cafes in Singapore to serve tiramisu the way they do in Italy - pudding style, not as cake, not as ice-cream.

The original recipe uses Amaretto Disaronno, an Italian almond liqueur, but you may replace with rum, brandy or kahlua. Many, I find, prefer the rum version of the dessert, and the more rum the merrier, thank you very much. The difference in the versions go a bit like this:

Rum - Good with the ladies, especially those with a sweet tooth
Brandy - Good for the alcoholics, but may go overboard on the taste of alcohol
Kahlua - If you want to emphasize the taste of coffee in the tiramisu
Amaretto - The original. Potentially lethal as the alcoholic taste of the liqueur is often masked by the almond flavour in the cream. I've known of cases where people take huge mouthfuls, complain there's "no alcohol" in the tiramisu, and promptly fall over 5 minutes later with a big grin on their faces.

Quick tip: Make in a good mood and in small quantities (nothing over serves of 1000g of cheese at a go, unless you like discovering new muscles when you fold in cheese) Tiramisu has the interesting nickname of "pick me up" in Italy, and a taste of this sinful dessert quickly tells you why.

(Serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

500g mascarpone cheese
5 eggs
5 tablespoons castor sugar
7 tablespoons amaretto liqueur
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
5 shots espresso (cooled)
375g pack of lady's fingers sponge biscuits
Cocoa powder, for dusting

Method:

1. Prepare the espresso first. Make 5 shots of espresso and leave to cool.
2. When cooled, add 2 tablespoons of amaretto liqueur to the coffee and stir in.
3. Separate egg yolks for 5 eggs. Retain the egg yolks and discard egg whites (or leave it for your hair).
4. Combine (in this order) sugar, vanilla essence and the rest of the amaretto with the eggs. Whisk until mixture is light and fluffy.
5. Fold in 500g of mascarpone cheese, taking care to ensure that the egg-cheese mixture is smooth and there are no "bubbles" or "lumps" in the mixture. The smooth consistency of the mixture is what distinguishes a good tiramisu from a bad one.
6. Soak lady's fingers biscuits with cold espresso mixture and line the base of a pudding/cake dish with the soaked lady's fingers biscuits.
7. Top with the egg-cheese mixture until the biscuits are fully covered.
8. Repeat the process with another layer of lady's fingers biscuits and cheese mixture.
9. Leave to set in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
10. To serve, dust with a layer of cocoa powder and serve chilled immediately.

I make this dessert as a gift during Christmas and Valentine's Day and it's usually a big hit with friends and family, although I don't eat too much of it myself. Fondest memories of the tiramisu was an army of classmates from college who marched towards me as I emerged from the kitchen, armed with spoons. That particular tiramisu was unfortunate and lasted less than 15 minutes in the face of a ravenous horde.

Money-Saving Household Tip #1: Costly Hand Soap?

I don't know in other parts of the world, but where I currently live, there are whole series of soaps that are dedicated hand-wash, and come in small 250ml or 375ml dispenser bottles costing (at the least) $2.00 if you buy the generic types.

Call me a miser, but that's expensive for what is essentially... just soap. I can never figure out what the real difference is between hand soap, and soap for the rest of your body. Except that you need plenty of hand soap, and they come in tiny sized bottles! Hands get washed at least 10 times a day...in the kitchen after handling meats, in the bathroom every time you walk in, whenever you need to tell the kids to scrub before a meal... so I find myself wondering if there ever was a cost-effective, bulk sized bottle of hand soap that I can use around the house.

An answer came when a visiting aunt passed me a large litre sized bottle of body foam (generic brand too!) and asked me, "Can you find a way to get rid of this?" The lightbulb turned on when one day, I ran out of environmentally friendly hand soap refill packs from Carrefour, and my eyes came to rest on the get-rid-of-this bottle of body foam. Lo and behold, the body foam had too large a spout, no dispenser, smelled like hand soap, felt like hand soap... eventually became my hand soap and I had a cost effective, bulk sized bottle of what is now my hand soap to use around the house!

Here's a quick comparison.

Hand Soap:
Brand: Generic
Standard Serve Size: 250ml
Cost Per Serve: $2.00 - $2.50
Cost Per 100ml: $0.80

Body Foam:
Brand: Generic
Standard Serve Size: 1000ml
Cost Per Serve: $3.00 - $3.50
Cost Per 100ml: $0.30

Savings: $0.50 per 100ml

Believe me, when you use roughly about 250ml per person every month or so, it starts adding up pretty fast!

Tip: So next time you want a good alternative to hand soap around the house, and don't mind generic brands (Tesco, mind, not Bath and Body Works), try considering getting a big bottle version of the body foam instead. Chances are, the exact same ingredients are used in both, and by bottling and selling them in larger quantities, the company is able to cut costs with economies of scale.

Lunch at Leeuwin Estate

Crispy Skin Duck Confit
Originally uploaded by metaphoric.

This duck confit was from lunch at Leeuwin Estate, Margaret River in Western Australia when I went for lunch on Christmas Eve.

The duck was fabulous! In a rare moment, it was prepared without citrus (usually orange and duck go together like socks and feet) and to substitute, there was artichoke. The sharpness of the artichoke's vinegared preservative was used to give the duck a savoury taste, and oh, I think it also softened the meat up even more. The overall effect was the confit felt like it was stewed for ages and melted in the mouth.

Melissa by Any Other Name...

And no, just for the record, my real name is not Melissa. :-) The very interesting fact was just (very nicely) pointed out to me that le miel was honey in French (yes, I know) which translated into Greek was a rather common girl's name - Melissa.

So for the record, in case you were wondering, no my real name is not Melissa. No, I didn't translate my name from Greek to French in an attempt to veil my identity. In the first place, my real name (interestingly enough) is already in French, and has Greek roots (haha) so if I were to translate it's meaning, it would approximate more la lumiere than le miel. That said, I love the word miel. Another story to tell another time on how I got this nickname.

New Year Wishes

Received a few new year greetings this year for 2006 and as they came and went, I didn't know what to think. 2006 seems awash with changes already, most of them spilling over from 2005, and it doesn't really feel like a whole new year has started. Do we use different calendars? I'm still on the current fiscal year. Do we see life from new lenses? I still feel the same, I'm still doing the same things as I used to do. With how blaise I am about this whole thing, many greetings passed me by as routine like a clock chiming the same tunes.

But one greeting did stand out in my mind. It said, have a meaningful new year!

And that got me thinking.

I've been speaking to a few of my close friends and we're all coming up with the same thing. After a few years of working in a 9-5 job it starts to hit you to wonder why we wake up each morning, to reassess where we we are in comparison to where we wanted to be when we first graduated, bright-eyed and hopeful, waiting to unleash ourselves into the world. We all came up with the same thing: that this, whatever we were doing, was not what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives. We envy the people around us who seem to be following the road less traveled – we wish we had the courage to start charities, or to be in London enjoying the trials of a second degree, or in Sierra Leone, saving the world as it were.

I woke up into the world with a single driving force – to make a difference. I wanted to know that what I did meant something at all, that it made a difference in people’s lives, and hopefully in a positive way. I wanted to feel that every day, there was meaning to what I did, that you could see the impact it had, that it changed lives, or at least pushed aside a little bit the mountain load of obstacles that stand in Life’s way.

And it seems that along the way, each of us got waylaid in that noble goal in some way or other.

Which comes back full circle to me – after writing numerous Christmas and New Year cards which I didn’t mean, I wanted to wish everyone a happy new year greeting that I did mean. And my apologies for plagiarizing to some extent, but I wish for everyone a very meaningful new year.

May the coming year bring you something new that you have not experienced before
A new hope, a lesson learnt, a love in your life, a warmth, a friendship, an old flame, a memory
May you travel far and wide in pursuit of your heart to distant shore
And as you return come back to waiting arms and pleasant dreams
May friends connect from distant places,
May you find everywhere new friendly faces,
And each day bring you closer to where you looked forward to.
Let this year live for longer than the one we left behind,
That we might wake each day full knowing what we have,
Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Have a wonderful new year, everyone. Let this year be different from the one we left behind.