Where to try and make Noah's Pudding - An Old New Fruit Porridge Dessert Dish From Turkey

 

 When I visited Sofra Turkish restaurant in Singapore in July 2012 I was momentarily disappointed to see that Noah's pudding, one of many intriguing dishes on their extensive menu, was not available. I had known about Noah's pudding for a long time. I came across it when writing a post on the various places in the world where you could see reproductions of Noah's Ark, buy Noah's Ark toys, and see mountain tops where the ark was claimed to have landed.

After we returned home from the restaurant, I discussed the recipe with the family. I looked up recipes online for one we could make at home, supervised by my husband, who is the cook in our family and made comments on the ingredients. 

Noah's pudding is essentially an elaboration on fruit salad. You could copy it Noah style by making from leftovers. 

We compared several recipes. The fruits vary. They seem to float on top of a liquid, which is thickened with additions such as beans, barley or chickpeas. 

Beans, barley or chickpeas! That sounds like a savoury dish. Is it a savoury dish? 

No. The addition of rose water makes it a dessert. However, it is different to and superior your usual fruit salad as an after dinner dessert or breakfast.

We devised a recover from cancer diet with breakfast starting with fruits and nuts in yogurt and milk with the bulky sustaining cereal of porridge , or muesli made from soaked oats. When in a hurry to travel we occasionally add a naughty, hasty half a Weetabix (which spoils our virtuous supposedly all natural breakfast by being factory made and adding a fearsome list of ingredients.

the fruit already contained a sugar called fructose, fruit sugar. We try not to add any more. Anything from a packet is scanned by our suspicious eyes. We check for our taboo, sugar. (I had to cut out sugar in fruit salad for five years, cooking for my widowed late father had late onset diabetes.

More recently, all this year and most of last year, I have been on a diet to lose weight because I was overweight at the start of 2020. being overweight is a vulnerability factor in Covid-19 times. I can't change my age, but I can change and check my diet.

Rose water? Rose water syrup?  We cannot be over-generous with the rose water. Nonetheless, we plan to make a version of home made Noah's pudding soon and will show you the photos.

We visited Sofra before the recent shut down of indoor dining in Singapore. Maybe one day we will go back to Sofra to try their Noah's pudding.

Noah's pudding from the Bible, has reached Christians and Muslims as a festival dish and one to be shared with neighbours of all religions and none.

Turkish Muslims make it in the tenth month. Christian Armenians make it for Christmas or New Year. If you cannot find a recipe you like under the words Noah's pudding, keep searching under the words Ashura meaning tenth, or Asure from the Persian for mixing.

It is also served by Greeks at funerals and as a pre-Lent dish like the UK's pancake day.

The mixture can be thickened so that it sets. Using cornstarch or another starch.

You start by boiling up the grains the night before, or at least 6 hours ahead.

You can add flavourings such as cinnamon. Or ginger.

After the mixture has been boiled up, and left to set for a while, you add the topping. A favourite topping is the red pomegranate seeds which counteract any sugariness. The red of the pomegrante seeds can contrast with the green of chopped pistaccios which makes a nice stripe in an individual portion in a small bowl if you are making lots of individual pots. This is visually appealing.  However, I prefer to have the toppings all mixed up for the flavouring.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashure

http://balkon3.com/en/the-istanbullu-greek-asure-an-example-of-cultural-exchange/

https://deliveroo.com.sg/

https://ozlemsturkishtable.com/2010/12/asure-noahs-dessert/

You tube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZDYVUfqvFs

About the Author 

Almonds, Marzipan, Stollen and Costa Almond Slice, for home and away on a trip

Almond Centre Stollen
We packed marzipan centred Stollen from Waitrose for an overseas trip. Marzipan is a mixture of ground almonds and sugar. We packed it in a cool box which was checked in so that it went into the hold - no chance of upsetting anybody in the cabin with our nuts.

Stollen has a wonderful, sweet, almond paste centre. Cheers you up for breakfast or elevenses to accompany your wake-up coffee on arrival at a hotel bedroom, hotel suite, second home or home.

Costa Almond Slice
A cheap alternative is almond slices from Costa. You might be lucky and get them at the airport. The slices are so full of almonds - and sugar. My favourites. Very calorific.

Not what I want - too much candied and coloured peel, real nuts, not ground nuts, no centre, no paste. But you might like it. 

Where will you find Stollen? Probably near the Christmas puddings in a British supermarket.

I see some tempting offers. Christmas cake for us, or visitors in the UK or overseas. 

Waitrose stollen bites. This is good portion control. Stops somebody taking a huge slice. Enables you to ensure each guest gets one. Or dole them out for elevenses and / or tea time for a whole weak. However, we found the smaller slices might go dry - if you keep them longer than two minutes after opening the box!

DIY stollen using a kit. Photo by Angela Lansbury

Here's a home made kit we bought one year from Tesco. It was interesting to learn how a stollen was made.  All the currants, sultanas and peel and so on in a pack. Mix them in. Roll up the pastry. Cook, just the right time.

Tesco discontinued that the following year. Frankly, less effort and better result to buy it ready made.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Update 2021 Dec About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Nuts On Planes - Is Banning Possible, Practical?

Problems
The problem for the mother is that her child is allergic to nuts. She asks an airline to desist from selling or supplying nuts and to announce that passengers should refrain from eating nuts.

The problems for the airline is that they cannot guarantee a nut-free plane and don't want to risk inconveniencing passengers, a medical emergency, a diverted flight costing passengers and airline money and risking the nut allergy sufferer's life.

The problem for other passengers is that they cannot eat nuts which sustain them, especially if they have diabetes. Alternative snacks do not proved calories in a fast sustaining way and nuts are natural but crisps are reputedly bad for health. They may have only nuts in their pocket and not want to buy alternative foods (especially if they are vegan). The nuts in their pocket may already be opened, forgotten, or pockets may have crumbs.

Nuts are in many other foods, such as chocolate bars, peanut butter sandwiches (technically peanuts are not nuts but it seems they may contain nuts or items affecting allergies), cereals.

On land a medical emergency can be dealt with by calling an ambulance fast. In flight medical help is not a v a i l a b l e.

Costs
An airline might not want to carry a mother who is l i t i g i o u s (included to go to law). The airline might want to avoid conflict between a nut allergy mother and a diabetic or drunk.

Passengers speaking minority languages might not understand the announcements. Older and/or hard of hearing passengers might not her announcements.

An ongoing or quick return flight might not be cleaned and people on previous flights might have left sweet wrappers.

A quick stopover without cleaning or a quick stopover with cleaning means some parts of the aircraft may contain sweet wrappers.

By the time the announcement is made some pope may already be eating nuts or have nuts in pockets. They might quickly finish their nuts, hide or throw away the wrapper, and wash their hands leaving
t r a c e s of nuts on the toilet taps.

Answers
The mother(s) say(s) that:
They carry an e p i p e n  and doctor's letter. (Spaces to prevent spell checker changing words.)

Some airlines make an announcement asking passengers not to eat nuts.

The mothers can book flights on a ferry and sit on top deck breathing fresh air far from people eating food.

The airline could ban nuts in one section of the plane, make an area or a class (such as economy or business or first class) banning nuts. (But the problem is that the air circulates the traces.)

A notice could be placed on both all airline advertising and the airline ticket saying that the flight may contain nuts and nut allergy passengers must inform the airline, fly at their own risk, and are responsible for any costs incurred by themselves or others.

The passengers should take a course of treatment to cure allergies.

Conclusion
Passenger Safety
It seems to me that if a passenger cannot survive without being near medical attention involving a diversion of a flight, they could / should take alternative transport.

If pregnant women in late term are banned, people with other conditions can or should be banned.

A person requesting an announcement needs to have it translated in numerous languages.

Announcements could / should end with a request to remain silent during announcements made in other languages.

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

Prices and purchases in Greece - off the beaten track - nuts about Vin Doux from Samos

Off the beaten track in Greece prices and purchases are much cheaper - but with limited choice and simple living.

Fly to the south west, the raggedy round lump slightly nearer to London than Athens. Hire a Hertz car.

A four star hotel in Olympia (with half board!) under £100.

Cheap wine. Delicious giant tomatoes and melons more flavourful than those in supermarkets in London.

Nuts. Did I mention nuts? Almonds and walnuts.

At the breakfast buffet the hotel at Olympia had a big bowl of nuts. Soft nuts. Almonds. Maybe the ones from UK are dried - you fear they will crack your teeth. The nuts at the hotel buffet were delicious, 'cracked open in your mouth like popcorn'.

It was a mistake not to have brought back some nuts as stocks and souvenirs and gifts. But we brought back Greek wines at lower prices than in the overseas supermarkets.

Airport Shopping
The little local airport, Kalamata, is relatively small and not the supermarket size shops you get at airports in a capital city.

What about the Greek equivalent of the brand name which has become a generic terms in England, Turkish Delight? We used to buy it from the Greek Cyprus shops. Known as Loukoume. So here's a list for the next trip, what to try, buy and/or bring back:

Photo by Angela Lansbury

Wines
What we did buy was wine. Wine, such as Vin Doux, small berried Muscat from Samos. The island of Samos is the only place outside France allowed to use certain terms. Vin Doux is French for sweet wine.

Vin doux naturel which you would see in France is a fairly common label wording. But in this wine from Greece extra alcohol is added to stop the fermentation leaving residual unconverted sugar making a sweet wine.

Yeast can't survive in high alcohol so adding alcohol stops the fermentation. So this bottle is labelled Vin de Liqueur. That would have been low alcohol but because you have added alcohol, it's high alcohol; the bottle says15%!

You can buy a half bottle in the UK. My family bought a full size bottle  from Kalamata airport duty free.

Car hire
A Hertz hire car for a week cost 175 euros, about £20 a day.

"The Greeks are so friendly," recalls one of the group. A smiling brolly dolly rushed out from the Hertz office with a giant umbrella to check the mileage on return of the hire car and waited while everything was unloaded. "It was like being in a five star hotel, like the Ritz."

Read my earlier post on learning the Greek alphabet.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Planning a trip to a restaurant? How to check menus, prices and deli

You can check prices of menus at a restaurant and before your visit. For example, I have a birthday meal planned. I can go online to check the restaurant menu.

Food Checks
Check the dishes online.  Make a quicker decision when I reach the restaurant. Check alternatives if I have an allergy.

Translation of Menu Dishes
What is sourdough bread?

What are chips and crisps in the UK?
Chips - known in the USA as French fries. Usually long oblongs of potato like the ones you get with burgers in fast food outlets.
Crisps - usually deep fried wafer thin potato slices, served cold.

Translation of Menu Wines
What is a 'garage wine'? Good or bad/ Cheap or dear?

What is a 'grand cru classé'?
A 'luxury cuvée'?
A 'premier cru'?

What is vintage port?

Wine Checks
Then check the wines offered. See what matches my food choice.

Price Checks
Check the supermarket price for the wine. Even buy a bottle in advance and try it out. Decide if the wine by the glass is a bargain or overpriced.

Corks and Transporting Leftover wine
See if the wine is sure cap or corked. If I am driving, or the host is driving, and you have to order a bottle, take my own cork in case the restraint throw it away. Take something for transporting the half full bottle home.

Website Updates
Phone the restaurant to find out if the online menu is the same or if it has been updated. Are there any daily specials?

Stools and Chairs
Am I going to be perched on a high stool? (If so, don't wear tight skirt. Wear Stretch skirt.) Can I request a table with upright dining chairs instead of a stool?

Early Arrival Waiting
If they don't open until 6 pm and you plan arriving earlier, is there a pub or coffee bar nearby? Is there a coffee bar at the station where you can meet other members of the party who are likely to get lost or need help (especially those with walking sticks who won't want to double their journey by taking the wrong route.)

Coffee or Tea Locations Afterwards
After the meal, does the restaurant offer the decaffeinated tor other coffee you want, or the herb tea, or is there a nearby coffee bar, nearer the station?

DIY Nibbles and Nosh
Take my own nuts or olives if I am likely to be waiting a long time for others, or chocolates to go with any coffee. Very discreetly.

Leftovers Bags
Take a plastic bag to cover takeaway leftovers or opened bottles of wine carried home. Take insulated bag for leftovers, or food shopping done in their deli which has to be kept fresh during a two hour meal and one hour travel home.

GLOSSARY
Bearnaise - (Info from Wikipedia)
Bearnaise or Béarnaise sauce (/bɚrˈneɪz/, French: [be.aʁ.nɛz]) is a saucemade of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks and white wine vinegar and flavored with herbs. It is considered to be a "child" of the mother Hollandaise sauce, one of the five sauces in the French haute cuisine mother saucerepertoire.^[1] The difference is only in the flavoring: Béarnaise uses shallot, chervil, peppercorn, and tarragon, while Hollandaise uses lemon juice or white wine. Its name is related to the province of Béarn, France.^[2]
Châteaux (French plural, the hat represent a missing letter s reminding you that the word is similar to root word castle or in German Cassel, fine houses or castles)
chorizo - Pork sausage coloured with pepper, from Portugal or Spain, strong flavour, uncooked and in my opinion fatty and unhealthy
cuvée - pronounced in French coo - day
garage wine - limited production, new producers, not aged, yet high price because of novelty, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garagistes
Gressingham duck - has more breast meat - for more information see
http://www.gressinghamduck.co.uk/products/fresh-duck
Premier Cru - premier is first, as in a French word used in English for the first showing of a film (in the USA movie) premiére; premier in French is pronounced prem-ee-ay. The French don't pronounce the last letter/consonant of words.
Saint - saint - in French pronounced Sant, whereas in English pronounced say-nt

Websites
http://www.bordeaux.com/us/vineyard/appellations
Google wine searcher.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, 

Fruits In Chocolate From America, found in Singapore

One of the chocolate concoctions I tried at the recent food and wine show at Expo in Singapore April 2016 (see previous post) was samples of prune in dark chocolate and cherry in dark chocolate. I eventually folded back the wrapper and discovered their website, www.fruitsincocolate.com.

The website shows three varieties of fruit, prune in dark chocolate, cherry in dark chocolate,  and cranberry. They also do apricots, wild berries and tropical fruit. I must admit that when I picked them up at the show I was very surprised. I have had nuts in chocolate, which works very well, and assortments of mixed your covered nuts and raisins.

From a nutritional point of view, adding chocolate to fruit is reducing their health image of the fruit. On the other hand, adding fruit to chocolate, is increasing the health quality of the chocolate.

My family greeted the fruitsinchocolate with enthusiasm.

I have rushed them back to the fridge. I recall how the history of Hershey's chocolate revealed that a new type of chocolate was needed when American troops went to hot countries. the long-term gain for Americans was their highly successful chocolate, which is a huge success in America and known worldwide.

In the UK I buy fruit and nut chocolate bars because eating a plain bar gives me an overdose of sugar and I like to get the protein in the nuts.

As a chocolate addict, and a health conscious person, anything which adds fruit to chocolate is good for me.

According to the FruitsinChocolate website they are based in New York which is where the manufacturing takes place. They started recently in 2013. Their fruits in chocolate are delivered in heat protection packaging.

More Information from:
Food Show - next one in Singapore 2018
wwwfoodnhotelasia.com

Fruits In Chocolate
www.fruitsinchocolate.com
https://www.facebook.com/FruitsInChocolateWeb

They run a mail order service in the USA and a Facebook page with seasonal offers of discounts on large orders.

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

Assistance with luggage on trains

You don't have to be in a wheelchair to get help moving around or carrying a suitcase on the British rail system. I took a trip from Paddington in NW London to Fishguard in Wales and pre-booked on line assistance with my two pull-along suitcases.

I was amazed how well the system worked. I was told to find an official at each station and inform them that I had arrived and needed help.

At Paddington I was helped up from the underground to the overground. We proceeded along the underground corridor, my assistant taking the larger case whilst I pulled along the smaller one on four wheels.

I was accompanied by a character busy on his walkie talkie. We had just reached the ground level and light and bustling Paddington station when a siren and announcement told everybody to leave the station immediately. I was very glad to be having help because I could foresee a longer walk out of the station and back and I was very anxious about being able to reach my train in time.

Fortunately, just after we left the station and gathered in the road leading towards it, the Tannoy told us we could return.

On Paddington station I was taken to an office where other people with wheelchairs and sticks were waiting. The office had a screen showing the times of trains and whether they were on time and the platforms. Best of all, the office had a disabled toilet. I had been wondering how I would manage to negotiate a public toilet with two pieces of luggage, getting through the barrier without leaving behind a suitcase, and then getting into a cubicle.

Outside on the concourse the public disabled toilets have a key or radar recognition system. Who has time for all that?

I was so relieved (literally) to see the disabled toilet. I was also saved the anxiety of letting go of my two suitcases, handbag and umbrella, whilst hunting for coins to operate a toilet barrier.

Finally, along comes a man on an electric cart, the sort you see at airports and conference hotels with golf courses.

The electric cart took my luggage and sped us along. Not only did it carry the luggage. The driver knew which platform had my train. (You can be confused at a big station at any age.)

The electric cart not only went fast, it had a bleeper so that people moved aside to let us speed along. Finally, it had a system for opening barriers so we rushed along the platform to the far end of the train. The driver knew which carriage. (Otherwise on some long trains, you might easily by boarding one end of the train, anxious not to miss the train, struggling along with two suitcases past everybody else.

The only worry left was that my booked seat was the far end of the carriage, but my suitcase was left in the luggage rack by the door. The rack by the door is three levels and takes a maximum of nine big suitcases. I had two, the large one and the smaller one with what I needed for the journey, reading matter and food. If you have a computer, or camera, or anything else valuable, you might want to keep it in a smaller bag which can go with you and be put in the overhead rack above your seat. The train to Wales was very full, so I kept to my assigned seat.

We had lots of stops - lots of opportunity for somebody to grab a suitcase which was not theirs and race off. It's not just an idle worry. I saw a newspaper article only a few days before my journey showing the CCTV of a person wanted for taking somebody else's luggage. The CCTV showed them getting on the train without any luggage, then getting off with a suitcase. (The suitcase belonged to somebody who later reported it missing.) Another risk is that somebody with similar luggage, suddenly arriving at their station, will grab your similar black or red bag, and only realise they have the wrong bag as they land on the platform and the train runs off.

Nine spaces for large luggage is not many on a train with 50 or more seats. Fortunately on the way home, the train was relatively empty. I sat by the door, and watched my luggage all the way, especially when the train stopped, to reassure myself my luggage was there - and remind myself to collect my second case as I left.

At another point when I changed trains (at Cardiff) I had only to change from one side of the platform to the other. By then I was quite ready to summon to my aid any passer by. I've found that people of both sexes and any age are willing to help in the UK. A young woman or old man travelling are as willing to help as a young man or station employee.

I discovered by accident that if you stop and hesitate in a doorway of a train, holding up a dozen people behind you, somebody kind person, or impatient traveler, will quickly jump forward to assist you.

So if you need help, or have an elderly relative, somebody with lots of luggage who is easily confused, or anybody with a leg in plaster, or a pregnant woman, a blind person, anybody who needs help, you don't have to actually be in a wheelchair to register for help.

At Carmarthen the station staff carried one of my suitcases for me to the waiting room. (I pulled the smaller suitcase which was a spinner case on four wheels.)

He came back and collected me when the train came in and got me to the door of the carriage with my seat. I took the easy way out and just sat in the nearest seat where I could watch my luggage. If the train had been full, I would eventually have moved to my assigned seat. But the seat I sat in was not allocated, and it was under a notice saying that people in need had priority.

On my return to Paddington I was speeded on the electric cart over to the lift.
A successful journey, far less stressful than I had feared.

What do I need for next time? Locks on luggage - as it may go out of sight. Maybe an old phone or computer switched on so you can find it with the find my phone/laptop ap. Finally, a blow-up pillow to sleep on the table on a long intercity journey.

TIPS FOR DISABLED TRAVELLERS
Checklist:
1 Suitcase lock and key.
2 Travel pillow.
3 Water bottle, sandwich and nuts/chocolate/biscuit.
4 Book a seat and register online for assistance.
5 Tickets in a specific handy pocket (such as top or lower right if right-handed).
6 Duplicate/photocopy of all tickets one one sheet in order, with a pen to strike through part of the journey completed, so you can check your destination and seat numbers without risking dropping the actual tickets. (I had six tickets for my journey. Two tickets because I changed trains. Plus two tickets for seat reservations on the longer journeys.)

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

Please label buffet dinner dishes to help those with diets and allergies

I am looking forward to attending a buffet dinner but will it contain things I should not eat? Many people need to know, anybody who is vegetarian, seeking kosher or halal food. Also anybody likely to get stressed mentally by certain foods, such as sheep's eyeballs, frog's legs, horsemeat, brains, testicles, haggis, dog, monkey! 

Others have intolerance (feel nauseous) or a full blown allergy (ranging from a rash to trouble breathing and fainting) to dairy food, tannin in red wine, gluten, nuts, strawberries and shellfish.

I'm sure your food will be delicious so I hope to taste as much variety as possible.

But I have previously ended up in hospital after a bad experience eating what I thought was pink salmon but it turned out to be crab.

I can happily eat smoked salmon, whitefish such as trout and cod and plaice, but if I accidentally eat shellfish I am likely to develop a rash like chickenpox. My face swells up. I have trouble breathing. I vomit for 24 hours - I want to prevent this!

If you are running a restaurant, hotel or club buffet, including a pot luck dinner in a private home, please could you label any dish containing shellfish, crustaceans (crawling things with shells), molluscs (things with wavy arms): eg crab, Pacific prawns, shrimps, oysters, octopus. 

I am allergic to crustaceans and shellfish.

I can recognise a large crab and a plate of pacific prawns.

But I don't want to eat: rice containing hidden prawns/shrimps; nor meat in oyster/fish sauce. Other worries are unidentifed contents of sushi; surf and turf; prawn crackers; canapes and vol au vents with white sauce which looks like mushrooms but contains shellfish, crab sticks.

It will save your serving staff a lot of time if they don't have to keep dashing to the kitchen to ask the chefs what's in the food.

Shellfish is the most common allergy so in a large group I will not be the only one.

If your main dishes are normally decorated with shellfish, it would be an advantage to some of your guests to have another plate without the garnish. 

Many thanks. I hope to give your hotel, restaurant or club dinner a glowing report on the internet.

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