French Landmarks, French fun learning the language, false friends and braving bed bugs

Wine Museum, France.

Paris

Often voted the world most romantic city and one of the most visited.

Well known landmarks include the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre. 

Places to visit, Disneyland for families. Pere Lachaise cemetery one of the world's most visited cemeteries and the one most visited in Paris. Thousands of graves and famous people have graves, such as French singer Edith Piaf and others who died in France such as composer Chopin and English writer and wit, Oscar Wilde.

Wine

If you are after French wine, Paris has a wine museum. 

The other big and recent wine museum is down south. 

Lost I Translation

If you want the recipe, the word is recette. However, that is not the word for receipt.

recipe is recette

receipt is recu (with a cedilla)

Bed Bug Cautions and Precautions

Any Precautions? check beds for bedbugs and put suitcases on metal leg stands, not on beds.

If you are unlucky, suggested remedies include wash clothes on highest heat, or put in freezer.

To brush up  your French online or in person, visit a French speaking Toastmasters club in Singapore, France, Belgium, Switzerland or Canada. In Singapore the new language learners club is meeting online on Sundays at 9 pm Singapore time. The club meets every Sunday and two Thursdays a month, one Thursday devoted to English language, grammar, spelling and all things educational and entertaining. Each meeting has a language theme with one or two speeches lasting 5 to 7 minutes on the language allocated. However, you can do a speech in any language, providing you provide an English translation. It is always entertaining.

Useful Websites

https://paris-tourism.com/en/museums/wine-museum/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Vin

dictionary.reverso.net/french-english

collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12619161/Travel-avoid-bedbug-infestation-luggage-Paris.html 

PS if you are visiting Singapore or holding an event,

https://allevents.in/singapore/exhibitions

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.

Hard Boiled Eggs Flavoured With Soy Sauce

I saw the eggs, with dark brown shells, and was a bit dubious, and curious. Try anything once.

I peeled off the shell. At first bite I was smitten. Delicious.

If you find hard boiled eggs dull, try these.

Certainly a novelty if you are not from Asia.

I went onto the internet to find a recipe. Some of the recipes require large numbers of ingredients which are hard to find. Then I happened on a soy sauce recipe. Surely, everybody has eggs and soy sauce in their kitchen, or can easily get these two basic ingredients on their next trip to the supermarket. I do.

I'll add photos later.

As far as I can make out, you hard boil the eggs first. Then marinade them in a strongly flavoured liquid. The inside and shell should come out a different colour.

In mine the shell was dark brown. The egg white was a creamy brown, pale coffee colour.

I ate mine in Singapore. Other places to try them include Thailand and Taiwan.

Useful Websites
You tube video on had boiled eggs with soy sauce.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqSmgXM8E1I

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

Mooncake season in Chinese restaurants and supermarkets in Singapore and Worldwide

Problem
It's moon cake season, so delicious, so diet-defiant, where can I get one? My favourite flavour is red bean. I've tried ice cream moon cakes, but ice cream is not a moon cake.

Through my email comes an offer for discounts on mooncakes from a certain bakery shop chain in Signapore, on the Passion card. Order now, for delivery in September. You can get mooncakes anywhere and everywhere in Singapore. Apparently moon cakes are cheaper in Taiwan. You can also order them online. But, let's go back to my memories of mooncakes in Singapore.

They even have pop up shops selling nothing but mooncakes. I was lured in by the advertised price but was disappointed. I found the prices misleading. The cheap special offer is the price per moon cake if you order a box of several.

Passion Card
What is a passion card? It is available when you join a Community Centre. You have to join the community centre when you attend many events, not as a visitor but as a member. For example, such as a course of lessons in Tai Chi. Sometimes a non-member can take a course but pay more. I joined an Advanced Speakers club, Braddell Heights. The Community Centres were offering a free zip up carry bag, if you joined. Seniors and students pay less. The fee is quite low, about 20 dollars, but varies from one place to another. It's no life membership, it lasts more than a year. You can get a card offering a discount on travel, or at a chain of pharmacies, and all sorts of things. The offers come and go.

They also do first aid classes, Mandarin classes, art classes, classes for juniors, adults, seniors.

Red bean mooncake. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

What is a moon cake?

If you are Chinese you know already. If not you can research it and give a speech on it. I learn it every year then forget. Something to do with a moon Goddess and seeing a full moon or eclipsed moon on a certain day or month, which varies with a lunar calendar, with a myth about a moon goddess who brings good luck.

In the old days you simply make a few sweet cakes. Now the cakes are expensive. They are small heavy highly calorie cakes, with numerous ingredients, esoteric ingredients. The cakes need, a long preparation and baking time. Elaborate patterns on the top are designed and then imprinted, made from an expensive wooden mould.

I looked into buying moulds and baking cakes. In the end I bought a second hand wooden mould from a Chinese neighbour who was having a house sale before emigrating to the USA.

Moon cake decoration. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I went to a lot of Toastmasters meetings. At many of them somebody brought along moon cakes to share. Most Toastmasters clubs in Singapore charge members more than those in the UK for the six monthly or annual membership. They have a budget for food per meeting. it could be as small as five Singapore dollars, enough to buy a bunch of bananas and a large cheap pot of noodles. A company club will often be subsidised and run a buffet dinner.

Some suburban clubs supply food made at home by the President or the President's mother, a huge curry and a huge pot of rice. Maybe some clubs just run a rota. Maybe they secretly do a whip round, minimum a dollar a person, more if you like, and can then spend 20 to 40 dollars on four mooncakes, each of which can be cut into four or more portions. This is not being mean. That's how it was done from ancient times, everybody in the family or group received a slice of the shared mooncake.

It looks like you are getting only a teeny slice. But it's a bit like eating a flavoured lump of sugar. For most people one is enough.

You will find moon cakes in Singapore, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, North America and in Chinese areas in the USA, London and worldwide.

Tips
The wikipedia article is a useful guide to the history of the mid Autumn festival as well as the ingredients of the crust and fillings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake

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

PASTA - Problem, Answer, Story, Tip, Action And Author

Problem -
In the past some of my posts have had no structure. After I read them and re-read them I find that I forgot to end with a call to action. I correct later, adding my author's credentials and ask you to like my pages and share them, read my profiles, and read about my books and read extracts, and buy my books.

Answer
From now on I shall follow the PASTA structure in my posts.

P - problem
A - answer
S - story
T - tip
A - call to action (go to websites)
A - author

Story
I gave a talk on writing books and why you should write your family history to a toastmasters International speakers' club called HOD. Sina sent me a copy of his new book. I noticed that each chapter not only ended with a story, it had the sub-heading Story.

I thought, how strange that he not only follows the system used in Toastmasters of telling a personal story to illustrate a point and make it memorable (and personal to the author, therefore always original), he shows the structure in the sub-heading.

Then I recalled one of my heroines, Mrs Beeton, household management and cookery book pioneer. For a long time I thought that she invented the system of listing ingredients then method, a time sequence, to aid shopping and laying out the ingredients and utensils on the table, finally cooking.

She did not invent the method. But she made it popular. Therefore, never mind whether Sina started the system or copied it, nor whether I have started the system or copied it. I shall stick to it to organise my posts and so you know what to expect.

If you place the call to action too early, your reader will disappear. (We are often told in Toastmasters speakers' meetings by the evaluators not to give out handouts at the start because people will start reading them and miss the beginning of your speech.) So place the call to action or name of another website at the end.

You cannot guarantee that the reader will not skip to the end. I don't know whether creatives do this more than scientific, methodical people. I often am short of time, running late. I waste time reading blogs instead of getting on with important work (getting washed and dressed, paying bills, writing books, filling in tax returns). I sometimes flip from the opening of a book to the end, naturally in a library bookshop when I already have too many books and am considering buying the book, or wanting to know the end without paying the cost of another expensive book. However, I also sometimes start at the back of the back and flip forward.

I noticed a friend in Singapore flip from the back of a book. She apologised for doing so. I explained, "I often do that - I thought it was just me!" We wondered whether anybody who was Muslim or Jewish or Chinese would start at the back of the book or the left of the page. We could not reach any conclusion.

One way to keep the readers interested is to tell them they will reach information later. But you have to stop them skipping to the end. A small number of people deliberately disobey instructions, perhaps because their early training has taught them that instructors have ulterior motives and it's safer to do the opposite. However, most readers, listeners and people will follow instructions. A hypnotist picks out people who follow instructions readily.

TIP LIST
1 Read each post, mine and other people's, methodically.
2 However, note the call to action at the end.

ACTION
Write your own documents, speeches, letters, following this formula. Call me if you wish to receive advice or help. I will give a small amount of advice (two or three sentences, five minutes, reading a sentence or something which takes no longer than five minutes to read, under 500 words) to anybody free of charge if I have time to both friends, especially those from Toastmasters, and strangers. However, if you want an hour of my time, a professional job, do not know me personally, please pay the going rate.

AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.
See my other travel posts on this blog. Read other blogs on grammar, spelling, language, speaking. Like my pages and share them. Link to me on Facebook and LinkedIn. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Watch me performing my poetry and speeches on Facebook and Toastmasters International club pages and on YouTUbe.
Author of:
Wedding Speeches and Toasts. (Ward Lock/Cassell. Several editions. In some libraries. Also second hand copies on the net.)
The Best Man. (Ward Lock/Cassell.)
Quick Quotations. (Lulu.com - or buy from me when you see me.)
Who Said What When. (Lulu.com - or buy from me and get it signed when you see me.
New copies of my books are mostly £10 / 20 Singapore dollars. One of two books which are thicker, cost me lots of postage to get delivered to my home and /or with lots of illustrations are £20. Sometimes I have an old battered copy which I will sell cheaply.

Indian Gooseberry, called Amla, makes preserve or drink

An Indian friend of mine from Toastmasters in London just messaged me on Facebook to say the fruit is an Indian gooseberry known locally as an Amla.

Now I am sure of the correct identity and Indian name I can find pictures and authentic recipes.
I googled how to cook and serve Indian gooseberry or a m l a (spaces inserted because spell checker or auto correct prefers alma) and if you do the same you will find several links to pages of half a dozen or more recipes.

Amla Preserve
One recipe for a sweet concoction, called Grated amla murabba or "amla ke chheel ka murabba, involves grating the fruit, making a sugar syrup, adding cardamom and saffron and storing in a sterile jar for up to a year.

I looked up the translation of Murabba and the result was sweet fruit preserve.

http://food.ndtv.com/lists/5-best-amla-recipes-759851

ALMA Drink
You can boil and/or liquidise it with added sugar, cumin and salt as a drink.

http://www.tarladalal.com/Amla-ka-Sharbat-31727r

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Cream Puffs From Afghan Bakery in Hendon, London

I visited a family living in Hendon and was offered a variety of cakes of which the one which stood out was the cream puffs. They have a spiral outside and a surprising soft creamy centre. Delightful. I tried several other cakes from the same source (the lady I visited) and they seemed dry and tasteless but these were absolutely wonderful.

I later looked at the outside of the box and photographed it. When I got home, to my disappointment, the name was partly missing and so was the address. I expanded the photo to full screen. I got out a magnifying glass. The end of the name was ghan. Afghan!

Using the bakery's name, address street name, postcode, and phone number, I found the baker's picture on Yell. It seems to be a normal size small shop on a corner with a clear name sign, easy to find when driving or walking past and to identify.

First, I guessed it had to be near Hendon and tried searching. No luck. Then I tried the postcode. I looked at the name ending han, and guessed it must be Afghan. I had the street name. Progress. I knew I was nearly there. Another search and I found it.

If you are in the area, take a look at the bakery. I can;t vouch for any other products. But I do recommend the cream puffs.

The lady who offered me the cakes spoke Urdu, Pashtu, Hindi and a little English. She told me, 'I make - home made.' It was pretty obvious to me that the cream puffs were a uniform size and shape and neatly stacked so I assumed must be from a commercial bakery.

 I'm trying to learn Spanish, Italian and German, after that some Japanese, Chinese, Russian. Now I'll have to add Urdu, Hindi and Pashto to my wish list of languages.

I believe the cakes came from the bakery. She didn't make them. Unless she makes them at home and sells them to the bakery. Or works in the bakery?

Anyway, next time you or I get a chance to go to the bakery, look for these cream puffs. If you are visiting a home in the area, or know anybody who is Afghan anywhere in the world, look for cream puffs.

My next investigations will be to visit the bakery, and/or another Afghan bakery and ask for cream puffs. Meanwhile I shall look up the recipe online and try reproducing it at home to see whether I can make something similar, or not as good, or even better.

Ingredients listed are: Flour, water, butter, ...g sugar (icing sugar?), puff pastry.

No calorie count. If concerned about your daily calorie intake, divide one pastry between two of you. Eat a morsel with your tea or coffee or milk or lemon tea or water for elevenses, or after lunch or at tea time.

Enjoy -

the photo! Oops - they are not called cream puffs but cream roll.

(Incidentally, if you are visiting London, you will find the high streets have many halal food shops and restaurants and sections in supermarkets as well as kosher and vegetarian. You can see Polish, Afghan and many other ethnic places providing new or familiar foods for you to try, new brands and home made food, bagels and bakeries and supermarkets such as Morrisons selling freshly made bread and cakes cooked up daily in their big ovens in the kitchens at the back.)

More Information / Visits
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/15869/cream-puffs/

Afghan Bakery, 187 Church Road, NW10 9LF
Tel: 020 8451 1212.

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

Shopping for Asian Ingredients in London and Singapore

Where do I find a cafe and car parking, and toilets and durian, rosewater and recipe cards?

China, India, London, Singapore and more - shopping, cooking, eating!
Head for the Chinatown shops for oriental recipe ingredients and Indian restaurant areas for your exotic fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices for curry ingredients and savoury dishes as well as for sweets such as gulab jamun which I mentioned in my last post. In North Harrow there's a large supermarket size grocery store near Headstone Lane station (where the London underground comes out as overground - so you see lot of bridges over the high streets). If you're driving there's parking behind. It's open from 9 am until 6 30 during the week and later at weekends.

London's Chinatown has Loon Fung, which is also in Alperton, Tottenham and Silvertown. The have a website and an online article said they sell Malaysian durians. Delicious durians, despite the fact they are called the world's smelliest fruit, like ripe banana, dead rat, what you will. Durian, the most delicious sweet taste, like banana and chestnut custard, but the worst smell, like over-ripe cheese, ripe bananas, dead rats, or to be more alliterative ripe rats.

How do you avoid the smell, and transport the goods home? Vacuum-packed durian, apparently, is what was once promised, although demand and supply might add fresh durians you can feel and smell here and in other suppliers.

Wonderful Waitrose recipes and cafes
We find lots of unusual recipes in the Waitrose supermarket Weekender newspaper and they also have large recipe cards. This week's discovery was that Vindaloo came from the Portuguese pork dish of pig's cheek, pickled in red wine vinegar, now known simply as a spicy dish, think Vindaloo, vine origin.

I must admit I feel a bit squeamish about this, especially as I am involved with catering for Christmas parties and with lots of committee meetings held in people's homes on an everybody bring something basis. Pork might not be suitable for your friends and family and colleagues and club. The extended family and friends could include Muslims eating halal, Jewish people eating kosher, liberals who simply prefer not to eat pork, Hindu or other vegetarians. Vegetarians may be vegans who won't have milk or cheese or eggs any product containing animal parts. You could try substituting chicken, meat imitations made from soya, or simply spicy vegetables.

Time for recipe writers to include alternatives to every ingredient. Until they do, I have to race off hunting for hard-to-find items for the recipes. If only Waitrose sold all the ingredients for every recipe on a quick grab and go shelf, recipe and ingredients together, like the packaged Indian meals I have seen in Morrisons, with the bread, meat, rice and warming/cooking instructions.

Waitrose Recipe Cards, Cafe and Toilets
You'll find large Waitrose stores in central London and if you are not travelling by car, it's easy to find which ones are near stations. Take a big zip up holdall or wheeled trolley in case you are tempted to indulge in extra. Some Waitrose stores have a cafe and toilets, so you wait for friends whilst doing your Christmas and holiday entertaining shopping.

Singapore Sweetmeats and Suppliers
In Singapore you can buy hard to find ingredients such as Rose water in Mustafa's. Not Mustapha, but Mustafa. I always say it's in Little India, though in fact it's slightly down the road from the MRT stop. If you don't like crowds, avoid Sundays or shop at night. It's open 24 hours.

Singapore Markets
Most big housing estates also have wet markets, usually right next to the station, so called I have always imagined because they are wet underfoot. You can't take fresh, sulphur-smelling durians on the MRT (underground-overground railway) nor in buses and taxis. (Unless you've managed to triple wrap it so well that nobody can see it nor smell it - which is the whole idea of the rule that the smell doesn't upset others. In any case, although I love durian, I don't like fresh durian, I like the chestnutty flavour in ice cream and cakes - which also have to be wrapped and sealed. Yes, you can get durian sometimes at some London restaurants, but more rarely and seasonally.

Singapore Stores
Most big Singapore stores have a food court on ground floor or basement and often another at the top or half way up. Alongside the kiosks selling savouries and vegetables ready cooked are stall where you can buy fresh fruit on sticks. And juice drinks (check if they are adding sugar syrups if you are health conscious or dieting or diabetic).

Japanese
If you want Japanese ingredients the ideal place to look is in a Japanese supermarket underneath a Japanese department store. Right in the centre of Singapore at the main crossroad under and over the Orchard crossroads and station. Two stories of underground shopping and if its raining an underground street at basement level along Orchard road linking several department stores and shopping complexes. To target one store, or go shopping-hopping, look up Japanese stores in Singapore, such as Daiso (Ion, Orchard Turn), Isetan, Katong Market, MeidiYa supermarket.  Or search by buildings such as ION and IMM, or areas such as Jurong. Lots of sushi and ready made dishes to take away are at deli counters in the front of Japanese restaurants in major shopping complexes.

Central London Chinatown Chinese Store and suburban Branches
www.loonfung.com/contactus

Your north Harrow Asian grocery supermarket:
V B and Sons Cash and Carry, 539-545 Pinner Road, North Harrow, Harrow, HA2 6EQ.
Tel: 020 8861 1000.

Singapore's Mustafa
mustafa.com.sg

Blog on Singapore stores
http://www.sassymamasg.com/where-to-buy-your-groceries-in-singapore-mama/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, blogger, speaker. Past president of a London Toastmasters International group. Private lessons and public workshops on public speaking in China, Singapore and UK. Rent-a-writer. See more about grammar, spelling, public speaking and comic poetry by Angela Lansbury on lulu.com , Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube.

Gulab Jamon, brand Royal, bought as a takeaway from Coriander restaurant in Hatch End, North London, England. That didn't last long. All gone. Must get some more. In Singapore you should be able to find two or three styles (and/or brands) and sizes (e.g. 6, 8, 12, 24) in the freezer/chill chest display sections of  Mustafa's in Little India.