Pineapples, Pineapple Decorations and Pineapple Tarts for New Year

Pineapple pastries are sold all year but are especially popular at festivals including Chinese New Year, the Hindu Diwali and Muslim Hari Raya. You will find them in Malaysia, where pineapples were introduced from South America by the Portuguese traders, in Singapore which broke away from Malaya to form two countries, modern Malaysia and Singapore, plus Indonesia, which shares a language with Malaysia, Taiwan, and other places around the world.

The pastry is corn starch enriched with butter. The filling can be a jam of fresh pineapple boiled up with sugar and added flavourings such as cinnamon and cloves. The shapes can be flat open top tarts, tarts with a lattice of pastry, small bite size rolls with open ends, or spheres.

Pineapple tart picture from wikipedia article

The name which sounds like fung lee also means prosperity and good luck. Pineapples tarts are delicious. Sweet. Fruit preserved in pastry. Tasty. Filling. Fattening.  

However, they look bite size. But one bite is a lot of calories. 

You can most often find them in the form of a small pastry cup. 

Or a ball covered with pastry with the sweet filling. The top of the ball is a shiny colour from a brush of egg white or yolk or sugar glaze.

My friends on Facebook have been sharing pictures of their first efforts or latest efforts to make pineapple tarts.

I am on a diet. Maybe I should stick to admiring the pineapple decorations

Photo of Chinese New Year paper pineapple decoration in Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Useful Websites

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

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Memory aids for simple Portuguese words: letter, newspaper, pineapple

LETTER NEWSPAPER PINEAPPLE

Write a letter to a Portuguese newspaper about pineapple

Problem
Some Portuguese words are 'false friends' which sound like other words. How do I remember them?

Answer
LETTER
Carta sound and looks like card, but means letter. My memory aid is: Don't send me a card - send me a letter.

Carta means letter.
Carta=letter.
Carta - letter.

NEWSPAPER
Jornal looks like the English word journal, old word for a diary. in romance languages, it means daily.

So my memory aid is, I read the Portuguese Jornal daily. I hope my journal is published in a newspaper.

Jornal means newspaper.
Jornal=newspaper.
Jornal - newspaper.

PINEAPPLE
Abaxi means pineapple. I forgot this. So I tried to devise a memory aid. I look at the x. It reminds me of the spiky green top to a pineapple.

Spiky green top of a pineapple. Abaxi in Portuguese. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Now I can recognise the Portuguese word. But how do I remember it when I want to ask for one in a supermarket?  a - baxi. Don't bring that spiky thing near me. Take a back seat in a taxi with that abaxi.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of languages. I have several posts on Portuguese and other languages. If you need a talk on languages in England or Singapore please write to me. If you have a request for a memory aid, contact me here or through facebook. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Get by Translating With Photos When Travelling

POINT TO THESE PICTURES IN A RESTAURANT. STORIES AND INSTRUCTIONS BELOW

(Pictures in this post: Menu; coffee; olives; fruit/pineapple; red wine; baed beans; baked beans on toast; white wine; four pâtés; sandwich with crisps and green garnish; mustard orange juice; bottled water; white wine, glass of water, rosé wine; petits fours; chicken soup with noodles and ravioli; fat pancake or thin hot scone with butter; breakfast or Sunday brunch grill with sausage and egg and chips (Americans call them French fries); fancy carrot cake with icing and nuts on top;  Chinese  moon cake for autumn festival (very sweet, filling, to eat at party, as gift or souvenir).

Problem
How do you translate what you want to somebody who doesn't speak your language?
Most Chinese and Japanese Restaurants have photos outside or on a menu. What if they don't?

Story
When I first went to China I started off in a grand conference hotel with my husband. All the restaurants had English menus. However, you had to ask, because a Chinese person who speaks no English does not know whether you don't understand staff or the menu because you are English speaking.

The first time I struggled, letting the head of a group order for everybody. I ended up faced with lobsters and similar shellfish which I can't eat because I am allergic to them. I then had to get chicken, which came up later so I was out of sync with everybody else.

On our day off, my husband insisted that we did not eat in another international restaurant in a hotel, but tried a 'local' restaurant. The trouble was, only locals ate there, they had no English menu and we had trouble making ourselves understood.

I tried drawing a chicken. I soon had three members of staff and guests from other tables surrounding me, all arguing with each other. I had drawn what could have been anything from a pheasant to a cow. Even if they understood chicken, they didn't know whether I wanted soup, a sandwich, lemon chicken, or chicken with cashew nuts.

You could be Russian, as most visitors to Shanghai who look Western will be Russian. You could be French or German.

Would you be able to tell apart somebody who spoke Chinese (mandarin), Cantonese, Korean, Thai. Even if the restaurant manager is ultra smart and has initiative, the waiter may be timid and rushed off their feet. They have no idea whether you speak other languages. They don't know whether you speak French or Mandarin. Their guests may speak other 'dialects' but understand the Chinese writing which is common to Chinese and Japanese, a bit like a non smoking sign.

Given the speed with which restaurants change hands, and waiters change jobs, the waiter may well not know where the other menus are kept and will have to ask.

Answers
1 Choose a restaurant with English translations or photos.
2 If recommended a restaurant with no translations or photos, or taken into one by your Asian host who assures you the food is wonderful you have several options.

1 Put a dictionary in your pocket.
2 Photograph a menu with translations from another restaurant or hotel.
a) Copy that photo the menu to the end of your photo list each day so so it is quick to find.
b) Email yourself a copy of the translated menu before leaving for the restaurant so your email is most recent and easy to find.
c) Print a copy of your photo of the translated menu.

You may have to ask for the English menu. Just because Remember the waiter is not trying to be difficult.

Make a collection of pictures of your favourite foods. Photograph what you like from one restaurant to how the next. Or photograph what you like in your hotel restaurant to order the same, or photograph it and draw a black felt tip cross through it and shake your head to ensure you are trying something different the next day.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and languages. Please bookmark this post for yourself and come back to this page or share links to your favourite posts with family, friends and colleagues. 

Learning Spanish from place names such as Costa Rica (and growing pineapple tops)

Problems
Spanish is handy, widely spoken, and a second language or first language of many people in the USA, tn there territory of the island of Puerto Rico, as well as central America (Costa Rica) and several countries in south America. Over in Europe, Spanish is spoken in Spain and popular islands such as Mayorco, Minorca and Tenerife. How do I remember place names? How do I pick up a few words of Spanish quickly?

Answers
Translate a few place names from Spanish into English. I learned one today. Costa Rica means rich coast. What could be easier!

Spanish - English
Costa - coast
Costa Rica - rich coast
Rica - rich

English - Spanish
coast - costa
rich - rica
rich coast - C o s t a  R i c a

It seems obvious, but only after you know it. My first guess was that Costa meant cost. No - coast.

Notice that in English the adjective is before the noun. But in Spanish the adjective comes after the noun.

One account says that Christopher Columbus named the area rich coast. With water on both sides, and a volcano in the middle, and green and red birds, and gold, the words rich and coast are apt.

I found another place name, Cocos Island. In Spanish Isla de cocos.  Coconuts Island.

Spanish - English
coco(s) - coconuts
isla(s) - island (s)

English - Spanish
coconut(s) - coco(s)
Island(s) - isla(s)

I was just writing the above when I looked down at the wast paper bin and decided to empty it. At the bottom was a label. I looked at it and it said Pineapple from Costa Rica.

My goodness, it travelled a long way. The label says that pineapple is called ananas in almost every language except for English.

Spanish - English
anana(s) - pineapple(s)

English - Spanish
Pineapple(s) - anana(s)

Wikipedia reminded me that pina is also pine, or pineapple, as in pina colada.

The piña colada (/ˌpiːnjə koʊˈlɑːdə, -nə-, -kə-/;^[1][2] Spanish: piña [ˈpiɲa], "pineapple," and colada [koˈlaða], "strained") is a sweet cocktail made with rum, coconut cream or coconut milk, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice.

Spanish - English
pina - pine
colada - strained

English - Spanish
pine - pina
strained - colada

Apparently, if you cut the top off a pineapple, you can grow it.You suspend it over water so it grows roots. When you see the roots, you bury the roots in compost in a pot in a conservatory. Keep it watered and within a couple of years time you will probably have another pineapple.

Photo of pineapple by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Pineapple

You can pull out the top or cut it off.

The base you have cut off should be fixed by a horizontal cross of toothpicks and the underside should touch the water. 

(An alternative is to dry it and then bury it.)

What about Puerto Rico?

Wiki says:

Puerto Rico^[a] (Spanish for "Rich Port"),

Spanish - English

Puerto - port

rico - rich

Puerto Rico (literally rich port)

Notice the adjective after the noun in Spanish.

English Spanish

port - puerto

rich - rico (o matching a masculine noun)

Spanish - English

adios - goodbye 

LANGUAGE TIPS  Learning Tips

Spanish is widely spoken in the USA, Equitorial Guinea (on old maps Spanish Guinea), Andorra, Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile and Guatemala. Cuban Spanish is more usual in Florida, Puerto Rican Spanish in New York.

(Brazil is the country which speaks Portuguese, but people who speak Portuguese can mostly understand Spanish.

To learn the Spanish language decide whether you want to speak Spanish as in Spain, Europe, or Spanish  as spoken in Mexico and South America.

Duo lingo.com - free internet teaching of Spanish

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

https://www.thoughtco.com/varieties-of-spanish-3078185

https://www.thoughtco.com/ways-spanish-english-verb-tenses-differ-3079929

TRAVEL TIPS

Mexico

www.visitmexico.com (beta - meaning website in the planning and testing stage)

Puerto Rico 

Tourist information

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

Spanish Tourist Board

6th Floor, 64 Noter Row

London W1K 7DE

Tel: +44 0207 3172011

6th floor, 64 North Row

London W1K 7DE   

www.spain.info/en_GB/

Costa Rica tourist information:

essentialcostarica.com

www.visitcostarica.com

Also see wikitravel and TripAdvisor.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I have several more posts on learning languages and visiting sights. Please share my posts.

Cellar Gascon Wine Bar and Restaurant

Cellar Gasgon is part of a group of three restaurants.

This one is corridor style with seating along the windows and a bar on the other long side. Toilets are downstairs.

I am not a fan of bar stools, but I preferred them to the window banquettes which sloped forward, were too short for my legs, and they looked shiny and I kept sliding off. Long legged male diners either perched on the edge or used their long legs to brace and anchor themselves. 

Tables were so close together I was in danger of sweeping the four to six glasses per setting onto the floor as I passed. It happened when I tried to go in, then when I tried to get out to the toilet. When I came back I did not want to stress myself and everybody else again.   I transferred to the bar stool type chair.

We parked our coats, bags and rucksacks on the narrow window ledge behind.  A few seats of the same design as the bar stools but low enough for you to put your feet on the ground are at the far end and by the entrance door. I must remember to request one of these tables, although I think these tables are for four.

The set menu was four courses and four glasses of wine for about £40 per person. Many central London restaurants offer set lunches of two or three courses with a glass of wine for about £20. But £40 for dinner, four courses, including wine, is good value. This is especially good value for a speciality gourmet restaurant in central London.

Small pieces of brown bread were elegantly served on small squares of slate. The butter was served in the centre of another straight sided piece of slate. A change from curves, though I prefer cured crockery, I suppose square and oblong is easier to stack on a straight sided shelf.

I've looked into buying slate for home. I've check in supermarkets such as Waitrose. It's not cheap. 

The slate pieces are dark, so you can't see if they are clean, but also rough if you want to run your fingers over to check. The small ones look mean, but the large ones are heavy to carry. Slate is fine, amusing as a change and a treat - in a restaurant.

The starter was squid. I'm allergic to shellfish. I am OK with eel. We debated whether squid was a risk. I decided against it. There was no alternative menu, no choice. I ate around the squid.

The second course was the high point of the four dishes. Foie gras. Like many people, I have been influenced by the campaign against it. I think I've had it before and not been impressed that it was worth either the extra expense or the possible suffering of the animal, or bird. However, I do like chicken liver and this was grilled on the outside, like a soft chicken liver, with the most delightful extra flavours in the sauce. 

The sauce was so nice that I broke off bits of brown bread to scrape the last tasty morsels off the plate. British diners don't wipe their plates with bread. But the French do. Gascon is an area of France. (The Gascons or Basques are also in Spain. Not in the capital city. More rural, practical.) I sneaked a peek. Nobody was watching me disapprovingly. In fact, everybody else was doing the same.

The main course was lamb casserole with beans and barley. Lamb a bit gristly and fatty, but all in all very good.

Here's dessert, pineapple with ice cream and a few specks of crumble. 

After four glasses of wine and delicious food I had forgotten my initial problems with the seats and seating close to others. Tables so near others enable you to chat more easily to couples either side. Would we go back? Definitely.

www.cellargascon.com

More pictures and story tomorrow.

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

Cellar Gascon Wine Bar and Restaurant

www.cellargascon.com

See next post for ore pictures and story about the squid, foie gras, casserole and pineapple.

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

Shopping For Food For Dinner & Dinner Parties In London

Dinner party with napkins depicting grapes. Paper napkins bought from one of the vineyards and museum shops in the Rioja region of Spain.

Dinner Party Checklist

I recently attended a family and friends dinner party. First find recipes you like using seasonal foods. Some people think red wine is warming in winter. It certainly is, in colour, although for years I served only white wine because I was allergic to tannins and wanted to save my white tablecloths from stains.  

Our starter was salmon en croute, home made. We used salmon bought from Waitrose supermarket and readymade roll out fill pastry but added the butter sauce between the salmon and cooked the salmon and sauce in the pastry fresh for the dinner party. Make sure you buy plain salmon, not lightly smoked.

Use dill butter. Add lemon zest (from a fresh lemon) in the dill mayonnaise sauce. Mayonnaise is only egg yolk and vegetable or olive oil. You can make garlic mayonnaise with fresh garlic. A short cut if you are short of time - use bottled dill mayonnaise.

We served the salmon with three dips, wholegrain mustard, mayonnaise.

On the subject of meat vendors, our chef/cook, call the host what you will, says the rack of lamb was from The Ginger Pig. This amazing shop is in Moxon Street, Marylebone, near Baker Street station, which is conveniently on the Metropolitan, Circle, Jubilee and Bakerloo lines. (The pig breeds are on the Ginger Pig shop website.) 

Herbs included rosemary from the garden. Rosemary is a shrub which grows all year. 

It's very easy to grow. You just pick off a bit from a plant and stick it in the ground and water it. We've had so much rain in England that unless you plant your cutting in a hot, dry summer spell, you hardly need to look at it again. But then, I probably would go out watching anxiously over my cutting for a week to check it still looked all right. And I'd plant half a dozen cuttings. Then if one failed, or only one succeeded, I'd be certain of gaining at least one new plant. 

If you live near me and know me, just ask, and I'll let you take a cutting. Better still, I'll cut off a piece, I will feel generous, you will feel favoured, and I will put it in a plastic bag for you to take home.

In addition to rosemary, the family bought fresh basil and thyme from Waitrose. I'm not sure it added anything to the flavour of the food. But it does give aroma to the kitchen and home to welcome guests.

The Suffolk Charlotte potatoes, carrots, Italian grapes and cheeses (Petit Taupiniere and not Brie de Meaux but Brie de Melun) were from La Fromagerie next door to the Ginger Pig, in Moxon St.

We ran into a problem with our dessert of hot pineapple in syrup contrasting with cold vanilla ice cream. One of the guests was allergic to pineapple. So the cook quickly put an apple in the oven to bake.

We forgot that you have to make a horizontal cut around the middle of the apple to stop it bursting. So we hid the fact that the apple had burst by hiding it in a large bulbous cup. Bulbous meaning a large round shape cut which looks as though the top is cut off, so just the top of the apple shows.

You put sultanas and a sweetener in the middle. Our traditional family recipe required you to cut chunks out of the middle of the cored apple. You can mix in chopped nuts, flaked nuts, almonds (not if your sensitive guests are allergic to nuts - best to ask first. For sweetness, honey, marmalade, best of all your own syrup made from brown sugar dissolved in hot water with added flavours such as cloves or star anise. You could add juice from tinned fruit. Purists add chunks or puree from any other fruit.

On this occasion we served a gritty chocolate. The smoothest, milkiest chocolate we've found is Lindt. Green & Black's do lots of bars of dark chocolate with fruit flavours and spices.

The chocolate brand we used on this occasion was Dolceria Bonajuto which our cook buys at Gelupo, Archer St.  They do a great affogato too!

For more about ice cream see next post.

Angela Lansbury is a travel, food and wine writer, author of 20 books (10 by traditional publishers, 10 self-published). You can watch Angela talking about table etiquette on YouTube. (Angela Lansbury the actress is likely to pop up first, so type in Angela Lansbury author or Angela Lansbury poet or Angela Lansbury speaker Toastmasters.) You can read posts by Angela on her other blogs, also on Facebook and LinkedIn.