Which Hotels, Community Clubs And Toastmasters Clubs Provide Free Water and Fruit?

Singapore is tropical, hot all year. Even if you are in air-conditioning, a few minutes sitting outdoors or walking to the nearest train station of bus station makes you perspire and feel hot and in need of refreshing water. 'I'ts only ten minutes walk, and the bus won't be here for another ten minutes: said Mr Lim as we were on our way to a speech contest. I told myself it was good for my health to walk.

By the time I arrived I was thirsty. It's only now, days later, looking back, that I realise why. Walking around in the heat dehydrates you. In the USA water is provided free in many places. In Singapore you have to look for it and ask for it. You visit an office and they have a free water dispenser in their kitchen. But they don't tell you. Besides, after giving up your passport or identity card at the security gate, and you don't feel you don't feel you can wander about and help yourself to water in the ktichen without being invited to do so.

When I was a speaker and language evaluator at a Toastmasters Club meeting - speaking three times to announce the word of the day, then give a speech, finally give a language evaluation, I appreciated the free water. This was at Kampong Kembangan Community Club, four MRT train stops away from Changi airport.

I made a request in advance for water and fruit. I got the water. Many Community Clubs provide free bottled water at meetings.

I should have asked what kind of refreshments would be provided. I am now making myself a list.



Many groups in Singapore supply buns or green pandan cake. One member told me he though that pandan cake was a relatively healthy option because it contained pandan leaves. Hm. A piece of dry sponge cake? I must admit I later had a moist pandan cake and it was lovely.

'Fake' Carrot Cake?
Watch out for the so-called carrot cake in Singapore. It is not the Western style of cake which tries to be a bit healthier by including moist shredded carrot. It is a kind of white rubbery mini brick.

I always believed in trying everything three times. I have tried it three times and liked it less and less each time. It isn't even orange, but white, with what looks like a fried brown outside. If you are with me at an event, you are welcome to my share of the carrot cake.

Surprises
Of course, some venues change the food and drink at every meeting depending on the size of event and budget, the person ordering, and the caterer. Nonetheless, a few places consistently provide fruit as policy. Others don't. Here's my list:

The star rating is my rating for the supply of fruit and water. Items in brackets not necessarily at every meeting.

Sheraton Hotel - Toastmasters Club of Singapore *****
First, second and third Monday evenings of most months except for public holidays such as Xmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Easter, Singapore National Day.
Fruit provided. Fee of $20 for visitors includes the fruit, other food, water, usually lemon slices for  you to add to hot water to make your warm lemon tea or cold lemon water, and coffee.

Sheraton Towers Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Sheraton Towers Hotel viewed from gallery where you eat outside the conference room before the meeting and during the interval.

Bukit Timah Toastmasters Club *****
In Bukit Timah Community Club, organizer Jonathan, a previous President of the club, makes a point of providing healthy food, fruit (and nuts), different every time. Make sure he is attending the meeting.

Focus Toastmasters Club *****
Meets in Waterloo Street - allow time to find it and use Bencoolen MRT. Best fruit ever, supplied by Bernice.

Kampong Kembangan *
Free water. Chocolate biscuits. Nut chocolates.

Gemalto Toastmasters Club *
Free water next door to the meeting room in the vending machine area.  I was test speaker and only found out about the water after asking. Pineapple in the pizza.

Koufu, One North MRT
My excursion was redeemed on the way back. Stop for fruit on the way there or on the way home at the Koufu hawker centre (food court) in the basement next to the entrance to the MRT station One North. You can buy assorted fruits for a dollar or less. Not much flavour in the papaya, but so juicy!

Useful Websites
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2122064-you-should-be-eating-10-pieces-of-fruit-or-veg-every-day-not-5/
visitsingapore.com
singaporeair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on hotels, Community clubs, and Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Carrot Cake - Singapore Style

Problem
It's not carrot and it's not cake. What is it?

Answer
The so-called carrot cake I was served in Singapore, is made from radish which is known as white carrot in the Chinese dialect called Teochew. Kway means cake.

You could get served this any time of day, breakfast time, as a side dish, or as a late night snack, at a hawker centre kiosk in a shopping centre or a fine restaurant.

It comes as a block cut into cubes, or a jumble of cubes, with a dark sauce. The sauce is a sweetened soy sauce, possible ingredients being savoury, garlic, or fish sauce, or molasses (dark brown sugar syrup).

You might be offered it or see it on the menu in Singapore, Malaysia, or Taiwan. If you are with people who speak English, they will probably call it carrot cake. If not, look on the menu or sign board for the name Chai tow kway. If you are ever asked if you like Teochew cuisine, you can respond brightly, "I love Chai tow kway!"

How can I remember the name Chai tow kway? I remember the three words visually by the letters. Chai is tea. Tow is the letters for two jumbled up. Kway means cake and sounds like cake k(w)ay (k).
Would you like tea for two? Ok - cake. Chai tow kway. Chai tow kway. Chai tow kway.

Useful Websites
visitsingapore.com
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai_tow_kway

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.

My favourite foods at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick

Photos by Angela Lansbury.

In previous years my favourite food was the Bakewell tart. In Bakewell you get Bakewell pudding. I missed not having Bakewell Tart in 2017. (See later post.)

This year we had several excellent desserts. A carrot cake had slices of orange as decoration. The gluten free cake was delicious. The chocolate cake was moist and chocolatey.

Cream was in large jugs, and in abundance.

 I even liked the banana blancmange or mouse - hard to define what it was. Looked a bit like solid custard. Tasted creamy and full of banana flavour.

http://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury. See previous posts on The Hayes; Bakewell tart. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Wetherspoon Pub, and Pubs Around Britain: a meal for two, £20 including drinks

The flower-bedecked front of Wetherspoon Pub, Hatch End. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
Where to get two meals and drinks for under £20?
What to eat and drink in a pub?

Answer
You can eat two main courses and a drink and share one dessert, or maybe two, for twenty pounds in a Wetherspoons pub.  That's good for budgeting if you are short of cash, counting the pounds, or the drinks, and don't want to run up a big bill. It's also great for counting calories. They don't add twelve and a half per cent service to the bill, or even ten per cent like some restaurants.

You don't even have to go to the bar to order, nor leave your drinks with strangers when you go to pay. Instead you can order and pay in advance by phone from your table!

The price is great for a date, no risk of running up a huge bill. And ladies, if you are in any trouble on a date, you can go into the ladies toilet and read the advice and then inform the staff.

Plus a large choice of drinks. I could order a Prosecco, a zinfandel, red or white wine by the glass, beers, teas and coffees and soft drinks, much bigger choice than many.

The branch we tried was one I knew well in Hatch End Broadway on the Uxbridge Road, a long linking road around the north like the M25 and the North Circular road. Three generations of my family have lived nearby in different eras and we and other Londoners often pass through on the way to Edgware, Harrow, Hendon, Kenton, Northwood, Northwood Hills, Harrow and Wealdstone, Pinner, Stanmore or Uxbridge.

The Hatch End branch has a garden at the back. We opted for the garden. However, first we saw smokers, so we moved further into the garden, then it started to rain so we went back inside.

The pub is called the Moon and Sixpence. The menu explains that several pubs use the name moon inspired by the fictional place, The Moon Under Water described by George Orwell in the Evening Standard newspaper as the perfect pub.

Food We Ordered
My dining companion (son, aged over 21) wanted coke (with no ice) because he was driving.  The coke offered was Pepsi. I was delighted to find a rose wine, Zinfandel, included in the drinks included deal.

The menu was so long it took us ten minutes to read it all. I ordered chicken with jacket potato.

Chicken with jacket potato, peas. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Sunday brunch at Wetherspoons pub. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Our other order was the Sunday brunch. It was just like the picture, a hearty British breakfast, two eggs, sausage, tomato.  What made it a brunch rather than a breakfast? The late time, I suppose. Plus the addition of chips.

I was disappointed not to see the traditional Sunday lunch of turkey and roast potatoes. On the other hand, we managed to order 'lunch' at gone 4 pm!

Tips
Water was help yourself at the bar. Grab it on your way to the table, so you don't need to stand up again nor send anybody else to get it.

You might want to order at the bar to pay cash.  While there you can check on the menu choices, or have a quick chat. Make sure you know your table number because when the food is ready they will bring it to your table.

I asked for apple crumble, then saw carrot cake at fewer calories and changed my order. The person taking my order asked me if I wanted the dessert with the main courses or afterwards as a dessert, and I said afterwards.

The carrot cake was a little dry but still very good. I supposed the thick creamy icing helps keep cake moist and protected from the air and offsets any dryness. The best part was the nuts. From a health point of view, I do like some vegetable and nuts. Carrots are sweet.

Carrot cake. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Accommodations and Pubs All Over Britain
The Weatherspoon pub magazine is worth a read. I learned that some of the pubs have accommodation at very reasonable prices. Plus of course you can buy good breakfasts, coffee and snacks all day, lunches, and dinners until late.

Quirky Pubs
Weatherspoon pubs are individual and feature people and places of local interest.

ZULU
For example, have you seen the film Zulu, and the other film from the same period, featuring the battle of Rorke's Drift in South Africa? The film features Michael Caine, in the first major role which made him famous. The film was made in 1964.

When was it set? January 1879, at the time of declining and ageing PM Benjamin Disraeli back in Britain. The blame for the loss killed him. He died in April 1881.

Anyway, a Wetherspoon pub is named after another person who got the blame for that military disaster; his descendants are fighting to have him exonerated.

More information from:
www.jdwetherspoon.com

Getting there:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/ (for driving, walking, landmarks etc)
http://www.londonbusroutes.net (buses, tourist routes etc)
https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/ (train routes, times, ticket prices, weekly cards, discounts etc)
http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/sightseeing/sightseeing-tours/top-london-tours
https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/ (trips, tours, offers: London; England, Scotland, Wales)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on Hatch End, and restaurants worldwide. Please bookmark your favourite posts and share links to my posts with your family and friends.

Getting your Ten Vegetables and Fruits At Home and Overseas

Tea time fruit and yogurt. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
How do you achieve five vegetables a day, seven or ten, at home or travelling?

Answer
At home this is easy:
Ten pieces of fruit and vegetables, not difficult if you are vegetarian and cutting out sugar. Even if you aren't:

Breakfast:
Three pieces of fruit mixed into yogurt or muesli including apple and sultanas and one more fruit in season. If no fruit is in season, add tinned prunes. Plus freshly made orange juice, that's four for breakfast.

Some people prefer to make up a mixed fruit or mixed votable juice. You can make it up in bulk and eat or drink a little every day.

You could also have a banana milkshake for breakfast or your eleven o'clock break. Or mix yogurt and milk with mango to make a mango lassi.

Elevenses
Add an apple for elevenses, five. You are half way there, and two meals and a snack to go.

Lunch
For lunch: two or three vegetables such as tomatoes and carrots and lettuce for lunch; that's three, plus apple tart or pear tart, or fruit fool or puree, that easily another four so you have reached nine.

Tea
If you had either an apple or fruit juice for tea that's ten.

Dinner
However, if you have not had four of those items, have vegetable soup, meat or quiche or pizza and two vegetables with dinner, such as broccoli and peas. For dessert, follow by strawberries and cream.

Fruit and vegetables are not so expensive if you have a garden and grow apple trees. We should all go back to growing apples in gardens, allotments for those in flats, tomatoes in window boxes, mushrooms in dark cupboards.

Stories
I started serving fruit salad for dessert when my late father was suffering from late onset diabetes.

Later, another close family member had cancer treatment and we read health articles all day every day for weeks. We looked at the cancer websites, the World Health websites, the NHS guidelines. We went back to their sources: respectable sites with academic studies of large numbers of people, over years, and shorter studies, with control groups. I read about comparisons of migrating populations such as Japanese women going from Japan to the USA and getting different diseases showing that it was not inherited but to do with lifestyle or diet.

Prunes
At first we were not keen on prunes but needed them for some reason. (Was it that chemo made you constipated?) Within a few weeks, we had found that they provided interesting contrast in colour and a touch of sweetness.

(We also cheated on the 'fresh' idea by adding ginger in syrup or maple syrup.

In Singapore we have not managed to find tinned prunes. We have added a carton of apple juice to dried prunes but it comes out at three times the price.

Travelling
The simplest way to stick to your edit is to carry a Tupperware or similar box containing two pieces of fruit for a snack or to add to lunch. I find an apple and a banana are the most convenient. I sometimes cut the apple in half and remove the core and slice it into segments like an orange. Other good fruits for travelling are seedless grapes, and red and green grapes. You can have them all at once, or sneak the odd one or two into your mouth as a pick me up.

Speaking of citrus fruit, oranges are heavy and messy, but tangerines have easy peel skin, weigh less, and make less mess.

Hotel and Restaurant Breakfasts
Opt for half a grapefruit. Add prunes. Orange juice.

Hotel or Restaurant Lunch
Lunch time, again look for a fruit starter such as melon, melon and ham, avocado pear, tricolore (Italian for three colours) which is the three colours of the Italian flag, white cheese, red tomatoes, green avocado. Try meal and two vegetables, a vegetarian option. Two of you can share one meat and vegetable dish and one vegetarian dish. Pizza? Try a pizza with tomatoes and / or pineapple (often called Hawaiian).

Ask for a fruit dessert. If none, pop out to the local supermarket.

Cakes and biscuits
If you must have tarts and cakes, the French apple tart (tarte Tatin) with an apricot marmalade glaze; pancakes with jam and fresh fruit, apple tart, apple crumble, durian cake, "Jaffa" cake with orange spread. You can simply take any three fruits or vegetables and look at recipe websites for ideas from around the world. Other favourites are carrot cake and blueberry muffins.

Cakes, Biscuits and Tarts List
Apple Crumble
Apple and Blackberry crumble
Apple pie
blueberry muffin
Carrot Cake
Fruit fool
Fruit Pavlova
Mincemeat pies / tart
Plum pudding (Christmas pudding)
Stuffed Dates
Summer Pudding
Tarte Tatin

Fruit
Fresh pineapple is cheap in the UK. In the UK in summer you can often find summer pudding in supermarkets or on restaurant menus. Summer pudding contains two or more red fruits, such as red currants.

Another British favourite is apple crumble, or apple and blackberry crumble. For a change, you might like apricot crumble.

Here's a list of fruit you might find in your nearest shop, either fresh or tinned, or frozen.

FRUIT
apples
apricots
bananas
blackberries
black currants
blueberry
cherries
dates
durian
figs
gooseberry
grapefruit
grapes
greengages
guava
kiwi fruit
lemon
lime
mango
melon
orange
passion fruit
peach
pears
plums
prunes
pumpkin
quince
raspberries
red currants
satsumas
star fruit
tangerine
watermelon

Also add herbs such as mint.

Drinks:
Banana Milkshake, mint tea, black currant cordial, lemon tea, mixed juice (two to four fruits such as apple, orange, pineapple, star fruit watermelon) watermelon.

VEGETABLES / Herbs for flavouring
artichoke
avocado
beans
bean sprouts
cabbage
carrot
cauliflower
chives
courgettes
green beans
lettuce
Mange tout
mint
mustard and cress
olives
onions
parsley
peas
peppers (green, red, yellow)
pickled cucumber (gherkin)
snow peas
spinach
spring onions
squash
string beans
tomato
watercress

Fancy fruits
You might also try fancy fruits, exotic fruits, when travelling. Mangoes. Durians. Guava. Passion fruit.

Decoration
Use mint, individual small fruits such as sliced strawberries, mint, edible flowers such as rose petals.

Tips
Look at the reduced price sections of supermarkets in the UK and Singapore for bargains, sometimes all day, sometimes evenings.
Look for the cheapest fruits. For example, in Singapore bananas are very cheap.

The Chinese in Singapore eat green vegetables such as Pak Choy. Fruit and vegetables are likely to be cheaper and more unusual varieties will be available in Little India or the wet markets on the edge of the island near the HDB (state housing). Fair price supermarket is cheaper than HillV2 and Jasons.

Tinned prunes can be bought cheaply in supermarkets in London and carried to Singapore.
More information from:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit

Angela Lansbury, travel writer.

Second Cup coffee shop in Harrow, Middlesex

Second Cup coffee shop is to the right of St Ann's shopping mall. You can sit outside if you want to smoke, or inside in the warm. Signs say more seating upstairs.

Here's the counter. Festive lights and a tree - raising funds for a a charity.

Second cup, alas, does not mean that you get a second cup for free. (Check my earlier post or on the net to find which places offer a second cup of coffee free. I think one of the pub chains does so at breakfast time.) The name second cup means they want to evoke an image of a cup of coffee so delicious that you want a second cup. A piece of smart marketing.

Ask for the loyalty card if you intend returning. They punch a hole in your card each time you order a coffee so eventually you get a free cupful of coffee. Interesting and initially baffling that I nearly said a free cup but had to change it. A free cup is not the same as a free cupful of coffee. The 'cup' stands for the contents.

Coffees
We ordered double espresso with cream. Fine. The website is really good. It shows all kinds of teas and coffees and gives calorie counts. You might want to read it and make your choice before you go there.

Teas
A wide selection of teas was shown on a chart on the counter top.

Cakes
I liked the look of the triple deck chocolate cake - with sparkle. Then I saw the carrot cake.

The red velvet cake was appealing. What was it? They said it was beetroot.

The New York style baked cheesecake looked both moist and solid. However, it was nearly lunch time, so I opted for something more sensible.

Sandwiches
I hesitated between the chicken sandwich, which had something green, lettuce I think, and the smoked salmon and cream cheese. I had chicken at home so, despite feeling I ought to have some vegetable, I opted for the salmon and cream cheese. It was good, filled me up, tasty with pepper or poppy seeds or both.

I checked their website and found that the company started in Canada and they have franchises.
More information from:
www:secondcup.com

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 2016.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Fellini Restaurant - always open for coffee, cake, sandwiches and snacks between meal

Fellini is easy to find and always open, all day, every day of the week, and almost every day of the year. (Open Xmas Day if you want to pre-book Xmas dinner - and two sittings on New Year's Eve last year).

So, popping out for a late lunch or tea, two of us stopped for a sandwich and cake and coffee.

The cakes and drinks are on one menu, the savoury snacks and sandwiches on another. We opted for the goat's cheese and dried tomato. About £4.50.

Baguette - not toasted.

What's inside?

Carrot cake.

The sandwich was not in the sort of bread I was expecting. We were offered a choice of baguette or something else and chose the baguette.

My friend decided to have her bread toasted. My bread was untoasted, although the filling was warm.

For cakes, we went up to look at the deli counter. I dithered over the cheesecake with fruit topping. Was it the baked sort? I asked for all the cakes to be turned around so I could see the cut part and insect the insides. Anything with nuts? Yes. The one which used to be my favourite, Tarta della nonna (granny's tart, exclaims my friend, who speaks Spanish). But it looked too much like a custard tart. My friend opted for carrot cake, so I tried the  same.

We both ordered cappuccino, which came up fast, first.

The tables are small enough for you to sit eyeball close, which I like. Cosy.

I seem to have gone off bought cakes, which seem either too sugary or too dry. I should have had the pear tart which looked nice and moist. Next time.

Except that:
a) I am on a diet.
b) It always seems to me that it's better value to have a whole meal for not much more money than a snack, and you get the glamour, too. But if you are in a hurry, a snack is the thing. We had a white cloth table, just for coffee and snacks, which was rather nice.

The cappuccino just disappeared fast. That's the way I like it. Usually when I notice coffee it's because the taste is bitter.

Service was friendly and fast. I particularly liked the welcome. "This is your table!" As if we'd reserved it, or it had been saved for us.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, 

BUY OR DIY Xmas party food and cakes from Waitrose, with snowman carrot nose

The big surprise was that the snowman's nose is made with a real carrot, a Chantenay carrot, small and conical. The carrot nose inspired me to think of making a carrot cake with a snowman face on top with a carrot nose. (I sometimes have carrot cake from the cafe in Waitrose.)

In your nearest branch of Waitrose supermarket, pick up a copy of the Entertaining Christmas Food made to order. At the back it shows you how to decorate a plain undecorated top iced cake. (The cake can be fruit cake to serve 3-35 costing £26, or chocolate, or sponge, to serve 20-30, at £16.)
If your order comes to £60 you get free delivery.

Their other brochure which is full of recipes shows you how to make mince tarts. You can make them any size you like, using ready-made shortcrust pastry and a jar of mincemeat, or make everything yourself. 

Waitrose Online 0800 022 4051.