Artbox free riverside stalls

Art Box is very popular amd very crowded although it is largely food and drink specialities from all over Asia but as far away as so called mead in three flavours from London England.
I tried curry biscuits, Japanese seaweed, durian cake, wine from France and the USA from Cellaraid
. Several stalls sold silver jewellery as wee as wooden novelties and birthday cards.
When it gets too hot and crowded you can it by the river and watch the parade of people, cyclists and pretty dogs.

Artbox is on over Easter and next weekend. My favourite stall and the best price was caricatures from 6 Singapore dollars for the smallest size.
MRT Bayfront nearby. Just cross the road and a car park and you are there. If it's too crowded, take a few steps out to the riverside.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Guess What These Place Names mean: Bury St Edmunds; Beaume de Venise, France.

I always try to check place names because it helps me to remember them, draws my attention to the spelling and points to places to visit, landmarks in the area. You might consider whether studying geography and history from books and the internet is a distraction from real life and work, a welcome entertainment, or a vital part of understanding the world.

Bury St Edmunds
Here are this week;s delightful discoveries. First I found in the Sunday Times (the British one, not one in Singapore) that the Place Bury St Edmund's is the burial place of Englands king Edmund, who was later made a saint, which brought the area huge amounts of medieval tourism.

Beaume de Venise
The second delightful discovery was when I ordered a glass of sweet muscat wine, Beaune de Venise. I knew muscat was a grape. That muscat wine is always sweet. But what did the name Beaune de Venise mean? De is French for of. I sent my sleuth's looking. I have a family member who is studying wine for an exam on wines of the world, level 4, examined by the Wines and Spirits Education Trust.

(I am toddling along behind. I passed level one, equivalent to an NVQ and requiring alone about 20 hours study and answering multiple choice questions after each chapter in a large booklet, following by a day of lectures, tasting and a final multiple choice exam, about 30 questions.)

My sleuth found out all sorts of history, going back through blogs on wine, getting academic permissions to read university articles not available to the public, and encyclopaedias on wine and history, including Jewish history. We read about the Italian popes in Southern France. The Jews in the area. The taxes paid.

The motto is q u e ben be u r a ... d i e u  v e i r a

I translate that at first glance as: who(ever) drinks well will see god.

The summary of the story of the origin of the word: Beame - an old word for cave. V e n i se was from the Latin, meaning a P r o  V I N C E, of Rome.  In Roman times. The word Provence means province of Rome.

So Beaume de Venise is the cave of the province.

I shall also always remember not just the wine but the meaning of the word Provence, a region of France, near the Italian border.  I envisage the Italians marching over the border to their province and having a nice glass of sweet wine from Beaume de Venise, the cave of the province.

Sweet wine has less alcohol converted into sugar. I thought that if you are a Roman soldier you deserve a drink, but you don't want to drink spirits and water it down or get over intoxicated. Tomorrow you have work to do. But tonight you can have a glass of sweet wine with your dinner, Beaume de Venise.

However, looking at the label, I am shocked to see that it is 15%, which to me is very high alcohol. No wonder you normally get a small portion of sweet wine at the end of a meal with your dessert. I thought it was because you had already had enough to drink or because the wine was expensive and the restaurant wants to give you less and they can get away with it because you are already full.

Misleadingly, the French words Vin Doux n a t u r e l do not mean wine which is soft or sweet and natural, nothing added. On the contrary, it means fortified wine, wine with added alcohol bringing it up to 15%.

Most wine I drink which is sweet is only 13%, sometimes 12 and a half per cent. Oo-er! Good thing I wasn't driving home.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, researcher, author, speaker.

From Madame Tussauds to Marylebone Shops For Wine Tasting

Outside Baker Street station is the statue of Sherlock Holmes to welcome you. Cross the road and continue south down Baker Street for a trip past Bistrot de Luxe for a top grade lunch, and window shop at the chess and bridge shop - or take today's alternative route a block or two west to Marylebone for French wine, French cheese, English meat and chocolates.

   We went for a wine tasting at French wine shop Nicholas. Being French, Nicholas does not pronounce the s on his name but calls himself 'Nicola' which sounds like a girl's name to English speakers. Here he is in a French beret.

If you get on his mailing list you will be invited to free wine tasting from three or four bottles of wine. Unlike other places which charge and tell you weeks in advance, Nicholas often gives you only 24 or 48 hours notice, but if you are in the area, or have free time and are prepared to make a special trip to London, it's a bit of fun and an opportunity to try a new wine and meet somebody who can tell you about the wine.

 I am interested because a) I am taking a wine exam, just level one run by WSET.  The initial letters stand for Wine and Spirit Education Trust - a proper government recognised body which runs courses and exams leading to certification for exams recognised by the government - taken by people in the business, wine shop staff and sommeliers in restaurants and hotels.  

My next post is on the other shops in Marylebone High Street, Wairose and the White Shop, and in Moxon Street, The Ginger Pig and La Fromagerie for coffee and cake.