Keeping up with the Jones

09 Sep 2007, ST

By Huang Lijie

FOR anyone who has shopped in a gourmet store but been stumped when it comes to using the produce and products on offer, a trip to Jones The Grocer in Dempsey Hill might change that.

The Australian fine food purveyor is opening its first branch outside Australia and New Zealand on Wednesday.

Mr Stuart Smith, 35, director of the gourmet chain, said: 'Jones' philosophy is about pairing good food and flavours, and we are keen on helping customers realise that with our products.'

Jones, which was started in 1996 by Lindsay Jones-Evans in the affluent suburb of Woollahra, Sydney, grew a following over the years for its selection of gourmet foods.

The store opened several franchises. In 2003, the group was bought over by Senselle Foods, an importer and distributor of special food ingredients.

Today, its 10 Australian stores and one New Zealand outlet continue to stay true to the original mission of bringing good gourmet food together in an accessible manner.

Suggestions on how to mix and match its offerings are found in recipe cards, product information displays and in its cafe offerings.

A recipe card for chilli linguine on the pasta rack, for example, suggests pairing Setaro linguine ($12.20) from Naples, Italy, with its Imaginative Cuisine lemon infused olive oil from the UK ($16.90).

The handmade pasta, extruded from a bronze die, has a slightly rough surface that is supposed to be better at absorbing flavours and picking up the citrus accents in the olive oil, Mr Smith said.

Six to 10 recipe cards, free for customers to take, are available in the store at any one time. They will be changed monthly.

The store boasts a 100 sq ft walk-in cheese room stocked with 90 varieties from France, the UK, Italy and Spain, including raw-milk cheese prized among aficionados for their complex notes.

Customers will find written recommendations on which wines and complements such as dried fruit, nuts and honey go best with each cheese.

A suggested pairing: Jones' sour dried cherries from Tasmania ($6.50 for 100g) balances the richness of the triple cream cow's milk cheese from Victoria, Australia ($6.70 for 100g).

In-store cheese expert Travis Sanders, 24, who has relocated from the flagship store in Woollahra, will also be on hand to offer suggestions.

And if you believe that the test of a pudding is in its taste, place an order at the 90-seat cafe. Its menu is designed to show how various products can be brought together in a dish.

The cafe, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, tapas and desserts, offers casual cafe fare with hints of decadence, evident from the slow roasted wagyu beef rump on white bean with tomato salad and sherry vinegar ($27) and its arancini - Sicilian fried risotto balls with braised leek and gorgonzola cheese ($7). Menu items range between $3 and $27.

This 6,200 sq ft store, the largest of its 12 outlets, was scheduled to open 11/2 months ago. Delays in construction work, however, have pushed back the opening date.

It was designed by Landini Associates, the brand consultant behind Harrods' luxury food convenience store and a basement bar at Harvey Nichols.

For Jones, the firm has created a minimalist look with a touch of rustic: Six walnut wood communal cafe tables flank a central coffee bar counter with a 10-seat bar area. A see-through kitchen runs the length of one wall while the cheese room occupies the furthest left corner of the store.

As to whether Jones is feeling the heat from its Dempsey Hill neighbour Culina, a veteran local premium food retailer which opened about three weeks ago, Mr Smith said: 'I see Culina and Jones complementing each other with the range of products each offers.

'We differentiate ourselves through our exclusive in-house Jones' products which make up about 60 per cent of our offerings. These products are sourced from a network of more than 450 suppliers in Australia, New Zealand and Europe and made to our specifications.'

Jones The Grocer is at Block 9 Dempsey Hill 01-12, tel: 6475-2005
Open: 9.30am to 11pm daily

Pizza with bacon, capsicum and onions

09 Sep 2007, ST

(Makes a 20cm pizza)



INGREDIENTS

Dough

2 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1.5 cups water,
at room temperature

600g bread flour
3 Tbs olive oil
Flour for dusting


Toppings

2 Tbs tomato-based pasta sauce
5 slices back bacon
1/4 white onion, sliced
1/4 yellow capsicum, sliced
80g mozzarella cheese
5 slices salami


METHOD

1. Mix yeast, salt, sugar with water in a bowl and wait till mixture bubbles.

2. Put flour in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in it and pour in yeast mixture.

3. Mix until the flour and yeast come together in a ball.

4. Let the dough rise in a cold oven for at least one hour.

5. Dust dough with some flour.

6. Roll the dough out into a 20cm round or stretch it by tossing in the air several times. Place in a pizza pan or metal pan.

7. Spread pasta sauce evenly on the dough, and add the toppings.

8. Bake in a preheated 200 deg C oven for 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.


Verdict: This pizza looks and tastes like it was made by a professional Italian chef. The dough was light and crisp, and the lean back bacon makes the pizza a little healthier.

Tea-se Me

09 Sep 2007, ST

More tea houses are offering a wider range of unusual yummy food choices on their menus

By Huang Xueling

THE art of tea-drinking is enjoying a mini revival in Singapore. Over the last three years, about four tea houses have sprung up in town.

Wacha in Ann Siang Hill sells Japanese tea and Tea Party in Bukit Timah sells a wide variety of teas.

Tea Cosy in Plaza Singapura offers Western teas, while Cookie Museum in Esplanade Mall - formerly called V Tea Room - offers European-style beverages.

The best thing about them? They serve food that is as good as the teas.

Wacha, a cosy 18-seat tea house that opened last December, serves delicious home-style Japanese cuisine to go with its five kinds of green tea. Popular dishes include tea-flavoured rice ($12) and curry udon ($12).

Manager-chef Kayoko Arima had previously worked as an assistant in a cooking school under famed Japanese cooking teacher Doi Masaru.

What's surprising is that more than 90 per cent of Wacha's customers are Singaporeans, says Ms Arima.

'We tried advertising to the Japanese community but there are not many Japanese customers,' she says with a laugh.

In fact, Singapore's tea-drinkers are so sophisticated that many customers go there just for tea, she adds. The best-selling blend is sencha, or unground Japanese green tea leaves.

Meanwhile, Tea Party, a two-storey 54-seat tea house noted for its contemporary interior design, sells white tea, black tea, green tea and rooibos, a herbal tea that is very popular in South Africa.

Food-wise, it sells a delectable range of items like beef bolognese, mushroom prawn pasta, aglio olio and roast duck pizza. Price ranges from $7 to $12.

Co-owner Pauline Tan says she started the shop in 2004 with partner Edward Tong because they wanted to bring tea culture to Singapore.

'There are so many types of teas that people don't know about,' she says.

Half a year after opening, they began serving food as there was a demand for it.

She says: 'A lot of our regular customers told us that it was a waste to just come down for drinks. It'll be better if we could serve food as well, so we did.'

These days, she notices that customers have become more savvy and no longer need recommendations on which teas to go for.

She says: 'White tea, which is our speciality, is very popular right now because people have found out from the media that it has three times more antioxidants than green tea.'

There is also an increase in customers who want to drink tea the traditional way - served in the proper pots with all its tea leaves inside, she adds.

Ms Carrie Chen, owner of Tea Bone Zen Mind, a 13-year-old tea house in Seah Street, says she does not view this new breed of tea houses as a threat.

She says: 'Everyone's palate is different. Even the choice of location and equipment, and the aesthetics of the store make every tea experience completely different.'

She does not think tea-drinking is a fad either.

'As long as there are people who are really serious about their tea, I don't think the tea culture is going anywhere soon.'

--------------------------------

Wacha is at 14 Ann Siang Hill, tel: 6438-1553. Opens: Noon to 10pm daily except Sundays and certain public holidays.

Tea Party is at 805 Bukit Timah Road, 01-07, >tel: 6462-3563. Opens: Noon to midnight (Tue - Thu, Sun), noon to 1.30am (Fri and Sat). Closed on Mondays.

Tea Cosy is at 05-10 Plaza Singapura, tel: 6732-7356. Opens: 11am to 9pm daily.

Tea Bone Zen Mind is at 38A Seah Street, tel: 6333-5400. Opens: 11am to 7pm (Mon - Sat).

Through the virtual looking glass

09 Sep 2007, ST

By Colin Goh

ASKED the Wife, looking over my shoulder at my laptop screen: 'Who are all these people poking you?'

Now, there are contexts in which being asked such a question by one's spouse could land one in serious trouble. Thankfully, she was only referring to the list of people poking me (virtually) on Facebook.

Okay, I know that to some of my older readers (hi Mum, hi Dad!), the preceding sentence must have seemed like complete gobbledygook. And just a few weeks ago, I would have regarded it as gibberish, too.

Facebook, as probably every young person in Singapore knows, is a website where users post information about themselves such as their photos, lists of their favourite movies, upcoming events, and short sentences about what they're doing right now. They then link their page to those of their 'friends', thus creating a social network.

In some ways, Facebook heralds the decline of the blog generation. Who really cares about one's meandering opinions on current affairs? By being part social network, part online scrapbook, Facebook brings out both one's inner narcissist and inner kaypoh at the same time - the two dominant impulses of all surfers.

I'd studiously avoided joining these social networking sites for the past two years or so, whether it was LinkedIn, MySpace or any number of corporate/professional equivalents, despite constantly being invited. They just seemed too deliberate to me. I always felt like I was at some e-schmoozefest, handing out virtual namecards and making cyber small talk.

But I was forced to join Facebook recently because only then could I view some photos my cousin had uploaded. I dutifully filled out the information (I still don't know why - ever the good Singaporean, I guess) and even uploaded a photo of myself, and next thing I knew, I was a user.

And it was fascinating. Because I soon found out that there were so many people I knew who were users, too - people my age, not just teens - and who had been merrily posting selected details of their lives online. Facebook didn't seem as schmoozy as the professional networking sites, as most of the activities were informal, if not downright bizarre.

My 'friends' were transforming themselves into zombies and biting each other. I'd get notifications that so-and-so had thrown a sheep at such-and-such. Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage bought me a virtual drink (thanks, Alvin, it was virtually refreshing), while others invited me to join causes which ranged from 'Support Independent Film' to 'Bush Haters Unite'.

And, of course, there was the 'poke' function, which is like some form of virtual nudge to get another's attention. 'Poke', of course, is a term with sexual connotations, and I'm very lucky the Wife is extremely broad-minded. (I learnt from Wikipedia that some do construe the 'poke' as a sexual advance, and that there's now a Facebook group called 'Enough with the Poking, Let's Just Have Sex,' which has over 200,000 members.)

'Does being poked make someone a Pokemon?' I asked the Wife, only half in jest. Because whatever we were all doing on Facebook seemed like some sort of weird game, and the players a cutesy, wacky, cartoonish version of ourselves, from the pithy updates we'd post about what we're doing at any given point in time, to the virtual toys we'd give each other.

Of course, sometimes, real world considerations can creep in. What if that annoying jerk you've been trying to avoid since secondary school, or worse, your psycho ex-girlfriend, sends you a 'friend' request? Will you deny it? Just leave it hanging there in your sidebar to be reminded of it each time you log on?

Or will you be a better person in cyberspace than you are in real life and just accept them, letting bygones be bygones? After all, many of us are certainly pretending to be wittier, cooler, and smarter versions of ourselves online, just by judiciously editing what we choose to share or not.

I don't know. When the Web first arose, many wrote about how it would make it more difficult to hide secrets, and in some ways this is true. But it has also made it easier to fabricate stuff about ourselves too - to the point where we even inhabit whole other personas and existences, whether on our blogs or on sites like Facebook and Second Life.

I know that even in 'real' life, we're selective about what we want to project, too. But this impulse seems heightened online, and I often wonder, when we encounter each other, how much of the real person we're actually glimpsing, or if, with all the picking and choosing, all we're seeing is our very own Pikachu.

The simpler life

8 Sep 2007, ST

By Valerie Tay

SOME have wondered how my family of six manages on the single income that my husband, the sole breadwinner, brings home. Guess I could share a few tips that have been serving us well.

I'm well qualified to do so as, like some of our ministers, I handle several portfolios too. In addition to being the Minister of Home Affairs, I'm also the Minister of Education and the Minister of Finance at home. Besides juggling four kids, I also juggle the family budget and make sure I do just as good a job as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong does with the national budget, if not better.

Even if you do not find the tips I'm about to share enlightening, who knows, you might find our money-saving ways worth-a-laugh ridiculous. I know I'm still laughing at how I can put $17,000 worth of Further Tax Rebate to use since I'm not working and my spouse isn't allowed to use it.

As sure as ERP rates will keep going up, this rebate will go up in smoke too, when it expires in 2009. I'm reminded of some of the gifts I used to get during the annual office Christmas gift exchange when I was working - people do give you things you're unable to use.

Let's forget that ridiculous bit for now and focus on some really helpful tips.

First of all, the easiest thing to do is increase the size of the pie - I write freelance (and I enjoy it). It pays peanuts but, hey, it's better than nothing.

Second, we drum it into our kids that money doesn't grow on trees, nor does it pop out from the wall after pressing a few buttons. Dad has to go to work just so there's money in the bank. And besides all the new things that we buy for our kids, they also use their cousins' handed-down clothes, bikes, toys and textbooks.

Next, it helps tremendously that we've always lived on one income even when I was working and we enjoyed dual incomes in the past. We believe in living within our means by living simply. Better still, preferably slightly beneath our means, as it means that we will have a little more to put aside.

The best thing we had going for us has always been achieving zero debt - consciously and conscientiously. We drive an old car. I still remember the used-car agent's surprise when we declined a loan and wrote him a cheque for the entire sum, which wasn't much really, given that the car was a decade old.

We've entertained the idea of condo living but eventually dropped it. The thought of shouldering the burden of a long-term commitment to a new home loan put us off, and so we stayed on in contentment in an HDB flat that's fully paid for.

We use only one credit card as our brain tends to ignore the total expenditure when the figures look deceptively smaller spread out in several card statements. Our credit card bill is paid promptly by Giro. Never roll over any balance.

Another advantage of using just one credit card is in pooling the reward points earned. Always use the card instead of Nets where possible, to chalk up more points.

Direct as many bills, such as phone, Internet and newspaper subscriptions, to be paid through the card as possible.

Our no-annual-fee Maybank credit card has rewarded us with vouchers to purchase groceries at NTUC Fairprice. When shopping at Fairprice, consolidate purchases so that it hits at least S$20, at which point you earn Linkpoints which can be redeemed for Fairprice vouchers. In a year, we redeem over $100 worth of vouchers to offset our grocery bill. A family of six does eat a lot!

We don't have cable TV. Less TV means more time for kids to play imaginatively (with Lego, for example) and read voraciously.

For holidays, we travel at most twice a year to nearby destinations. We certainly can't afford to fly a family of six long-haul on one income now. In March, we drove up to Desaru for a weekend break. This December, we're heading for Krabi as we took advantage of Tiger Air's early-bird promotion. I can already smell the opportunity to make some extra bucks for the travel story that I could write on our return.

I'm not into trust funds or Reits. Being ignorant of the jargon, I just go for blue chip stocks, the ones they call dividend stocks. I can already hear the hyena-like laughter of the savvy ones out there, but who cares? I love the fact that I have pocketed thousands of dollars from dividends.

After all is said, there are always inherent risks in whatever stocks one picks (this line is to cover myself in case someone out there takes what I say seriously, only I don't put it in fine print like all those product pamphlets). Don't listen to me. I'm just a housewife - what do I know about investing?

That said, you shouldn't listen to your financial adviser or other 'experts' either. Take whatever they say with a dose of salt.

Forget about booking courts. When we feel like playing tennis or badminton, my son pops his head out to check if the public multi-purpose court across the street is being used. Often, it is available and we grab the sports bag and hightail there.

Four times a year, we make our pilgrimage to Johor Baru during the school holidays. The advantage of driving an old car like ours is that no car thief is interested.

When in JB, we eat and shop and eat, in between paying a visit to the hairdressing salon, sports shop, hardware store, pharmacy, dentist, bakery, Carrefour, mooncake shops, roadside cobbler, car workshop and, of course, the petrol station.

We had the boys' room repainted recently using paint picked up from JB. Forget about getting painters - we do the walls ourselves, one wall a time. The hubby and I do the Tom Sawyer on the kids. Heh, heh... they can't wait for their turn with the roller.

Before you run off and buy everything you see in JB, do note that not everything is cheaper over there. Arm yourself first with the knowledge of prices of stuff you need. Let's run that by again - stuff you 'need', not 'want'. There's, um, quite a difference.

Lastly, let me share with you this wonderful phrase I read in the papers, spouted by a Caucasian Zen monk (if I remember correctly): Our life is clouded by obsessions and desires. These desires distract us from the path of light. Om.

Okay, that last word didn't come from the monk. My life is a little simpler compared to some people I know. I don't have a lot of desires, so I am largely contented and happy. Still, it is not as simple as I would like it to be.

Far from it. I'm still working on fighting the little desires.

I haven't yet got to the utopia that is truly where living a simple life is. And I don't mean the place that Paris and Nicole put up at.

Though I know I'll probably never really get to that true utopia, but even if I should inch just a little closer with each passing year, I'm happy to keep on working on simplifying my life further. Wish me luck.

No, better still, why not have a go at it, too?

The writer is a full-time mother who has just started to do freelance writing.

Clearing away the cobwebs

6 Sep 2007, ST

Andrew Keen's The Cult Of The Amateur is a refreshingly brusque critique of how culture is being cannibalised in the brave new Internet world

By Ong Sor Fern, culturevulture

I HAVE never, nor will I ever, read blogs.

Yes, I am an information snob. I prefer my writing to come in published formats: newspapers, magazines and books. As someone who grew up on a hearty diet of old media, I trust these established systems of delivering information simply because there is quality control.

When I read a newspaper, I can be assured that the journalist is subject to a code of ethics, his work has been audited by editors and his sources verified. Ditto a magazine and a book.

Blogs, however, are a Wild West frontier, a welter of undifferentiated information that blends fact with opinion with merry disregard for consequences.

No doubt there are intelligent bloggers out there. But trying to find them is akin to looking for a single brainy needle in an exceedingly large and, mostly dumb, haystack.

I am no Luddite. But I do regard the current enthusiasm for Web 2.0, the so-called second generation of Web-based communities, with a jaundiced eye.

This is partly because I have seen the Web mushroom from its early days, when there was a much better signal to noise ratio, to its current state of mostly deafening white noise.

And it is also partly because as someone in the media business, I have been taught to assess information with an eagle eye, so I value the quality, not just the quantity, of information.

So it was with relish that I devoured Andrew Keen's book The Cult Of The Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture And Assaulting Our Economy.

The book is a much-needed wake-up call for all those who think that Web 2.0, where Google, YouTube and Facebook are worth billions of dollars even though they produce no content, promises a new utopia.

Keen, an Englishman based in the United States, is a self-declared apostate. He was a technopreneur during Silicon Valley's first Internet boom. So his perspective is not that of some lofty old media Cassandra perched on the outside, but a clear-eyed insider who has thought long and hard about the industry.

The book is not perfect by any means. Some parts are a bit repetitive and his tone occasionally totters dangerously close to hysteria, especially when he rails on about morality and the Web.

He is also focused solely on the US, so his book does not deal with the impact of the Web on other countries around the globe.

But the most intriguing central tenet of his argument is that Web 2.0 is killing culture creation through its celebration of the 'noble amateur'.

The idea that anyone can be a writer/artist/critic is a seductive one, as Keen concedes. But the grim reality, he points out, is closer to 19th-century evolutionary biologist T.H. Huxley's infinite monkey theorem.

The theory states that if you provide an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters, one will eventually produce a masterpiece to rival William Shakespeare.

The problem is, of course, trying to find that one talented monkey amidst the cacophony.

While Web 2.0 businesses are busy building more typewriters for more monkeys, it is also tearing down the infrastructure that used to support the William Shakespeares.

The idea of intellectual property, which Keen points out has sustained culture creation in Western civilisation for 200 years by paying people for their creative output, has been pulverised in the new information age.

Students plagiarise chunks of writing for their essays. People steal music and movies online. So-called citizen journalists do armchair reporting by cobbling together tidbits from legitimate websites.

Such disregard for intellectual property has already resulted in the collapse of the American music industry and a drastic nose-dive in circulation for American newspapers, whose readership are deserting old sources of information for the illusory 'variety' offered free online.

While Keen lambasts new media for indiscriminate destruction of old media structures, his book, in focusing so tightly on the negative aspects of new media, also seems in danger of committing the same sin of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

But it is rescued by a last chapter, in which he lists the Web ventures which manage to find an economically sustainable middle road between the technological promise of the new Web and old-fashioned products.

Of course, my love of old media could be seen as springing from vested interest. After all, I work in the print media, about as old school as you can get.

But I am not simply a producer of content. I am also a consumer of content. As such, I also have a vested interest in finding trustworthy sources of content, produced with integrity and accountability, because such content contributes to the cultural discourse of society.

I think the world will be a very much poorer place if newspapers, magazines and books were to be replaced by Web 2.0's drastically shorter and much more populist forms of writing.

Old media has to find ways of adapting to the new platform before the new media completely cannibalises the old to the detriment of everyone in the culture industry. That much everybody agrees on.

But I think that just as old media businesses need to adapt, consumers of culture need to draw a line in the sand. They have to commit to paying for legitimate content, because if there is anything Web 2.0 has proven, it is that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

In that, the brave new world of Web 2.0 looks pretty much like the old world. The new divide, it seems, will be between those who can afford to pay for the correct sort of information, and those who cannot.

----------------------------------

# Andrew Keen's The Cult Of The Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture And Assaulting Our Economy (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 228 pages, $29.40 w/o GST) is available at Kinokuniya Book Stores.

Living in hope

6 Sep 2007, ST

A young mother infected with Aids finds the courage to aim for a better life for her daughter

By Loh Keng Fatt

HER name is Ana. Infected with HIV at birth, she learns early to hide her ailment from others. But she gets to know a boy and, at 17, becomes a mother.

Her life story of standing up to tough times is recounted by Jenna Bush, daughter of United States President George W. Bush, in Ana's Story: A Journey Of Hope.

The two met when Bush, 25, was on an internship with Unicef in Latin America and the Caribbean, and came into contact with young people infected with Aids.

Here is an excerpt from the book, which zooms in on Ana's desire to do better for herself and her daughter, and the difficult decision she has to make regarding the father of her child, the Aids-infected Berto.

'Things became more and more difficult between Ana and Berto. He had left the hospital and returned to the hogar (home) but they hadn't spent much time together.

She always had to visit him because it was difficult for him to get around. She felt bad for him, sad he was in pain but she also felt lonely watching other couples walk hand in hand with their children.

She was surrounded by families but although Berto was the father of her baby, she did not feel they were a family of their own.

Ana's feelings for him were unpredictable. When she thought of the love they shared in the beginning of their relationship, she wanted to be with him forever.

When she thought of Beatriz, she wasn't sure that he could be the type of father that she wanted for her daughter.

When they were together, he seemed more interested in Ana than Beatriz; it seemed as if he wanted to be a boyfriend, not a father. Ana wanted a family for her daughter. She wanted to give her everything she hadn't had.

In many ways, he was still her best friend but she didn't have the same feelings for him that she used to. The passion, the attraction, the butterflies had flown away.

Instead, she found herself thinking of Guillermo. Berto was and would always be Beatriz's papa but Ana knew what she had to do. She didn't want to hurt Berto but she had to tell him how she felt. Her palms sweating, she dialled the number of the hogar.

'Hola, Berto,' she said nervously. 'Hola, Ana. What's up? How is Beatriz?' he asked.

'Beatriz is good; I am good too,' she said as she cleared her throat. 'Berto, there is something I need to talk with you about. I know I've been acting weird.'

'Ana, it's fine,' he said. 'I understand.'

'No, Berto, it's not okay.' Ana paused, unsure of how to say it. Then she blurted out. 'You will always be Beatriz's papa but I don't think we are working as a couple.'

There was silence on the phone line.

'I wasn't expecting this at all,' he said. 'I don't want this. I don't want Beatriz to live the life that I have lived, without a mama and a papa. I am her father.

'I would do anything to make this work, to be a family, a real one,' he said.

'Berto, you can't. You don't have a job. You still live in the hogar. You need to be there and Beatriz and I can't live there with you. How can we be a family when we can't live together?' she said. 'I'm sorry but my feelings have changed too.'

'Okay,' was all he said, then he hung up. She felt a combination of grief and relief. She didn't regret what she had done but she did regret that Berto would not be able to be the kind of father Beatriz needed.

Ana and Berto still wanted the same future - one with a loving and supportive family - but she no longer saw the two of them living that dream together.'

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# Ana's Story: A Journey Of Hope is available in major bookshops at $28.

# Books For The Soul is a weekly column that highlights books which move, comfort or inspire.

Sweet mix of bittergourd and ribs

2 Sep 2007, ST

By Thng Lay Teen

ON MY days off, I try out new food at different hawker centres. That was how I discovered Wong Hing Kitchenette at the Changi Village & Food Centre, which serves an intriguing dish: fried mee with bittergourd and pork ribs.

Bittergourd and ribs cooked with fermented black beans is normally eaten with rice. But the noodle version is new, and already one of stall-owner Wong Hing's bestsellers.

A former chef from Hong Kong who used to work in various restaurants here and abroad, Wong says the dish is quite common in Hong Kong, but not everyone can do it well.

He lists three factors that are important: The gravy must taste good, the mee must be crispy enough, and the ribs must be done right.

The 59-year-old hawker passes his own test. The brownish gravy speckled with garlic bits and finely blended fermented black beans is tasty, and fresh chilli slices give it a nice kick.



The noodles are nice and crisp. Adding more bite are pork ribs that are so tender they melt in the mouth. Served with quite a few chunks of meaty ribs, this $3.50 dish is value for money.

The chatty chef would only say that the secret to his dish is good ingredients. For example, the fermented black beans are imported from China.

Apart from noodles, customers can also have the dish with hor fun or rice.

What I like most about this dish are the thin but crunchy bittergourd slices that are done so well there is no hint of bitterness. If you're not a bittergourd fan, you can opt for other vegetables.

I had intended to eat only half of the fairly big serving, but ended up finishing everything. Unfortunately, I had no room for his bean sauce beef hor fun ($3.50), which he says is also one of his bestsellers. I may try that on my next day off.


WONG HING KITCHENETTE
01-14, Changi Village Market & Food Centre, Block 2 Changi Village Road
Opening hours: 11am to 3pm and 5 to 9pm, closed on Thursdays
Rating: ***

Heart Sell

2 Sep 2007, ST

More entrepreneurial students are learning the ropes about business first-hand

By Wee Jing Ting & Huang Xueling

IT IS the day before the submission of an important project. While her classmates are awake worrying about whether their projects are up to par, Shermeen Tan, 22, has another worry.

'Every night, I stay awake worrying that our drinks won't sell,' she confesses. The undergraduate at Singapore Management University (SMU) is one of the four bosses of Frujch, a cosy bar-cafe located at the university's School of Information Systems.

The spotlight was thrown on Frujch in January when it became the first bar - selling alcoholic cocktails and beer - to open at a local university.

Frujch is just one of seven student-run eateries that have opened in Singapore's tertiary schools over the past five years. Some, like Temasek Polytechnic's Top Table and Restaurant In The Square, were set up by the school so that their hospitality, tourism and culinary students - although not paid - could get a taste of working in a real restaurant.

Others, like Frujch and the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Munchie Monkey, were set up purely because of the students' interests and are operated as real businesses.

Miss Tan and her partners opened Frujch because they 'wanted a place to hang out in school', she says.

They invested about $15,000 in set-up costs, and now pay the university a subsidised rental fee.

Part of the charm of student-run eateries is that the food is as good as an average cafe, but prices are a lot cheaper.

For example, Munchie Monkey - which is a partnership with Itafest, the company that manages Italian restaurant chain Spageddies - offers crayfish arrabiata for about $5 cheaper than Spageddies.

While it is exciting to run your own business, says Miss Tan, it also takes a toll on your social life.

'We easily put in 30 to 50 hours a week at the bar, before school, after school and even sometimes on weekends. We basically have no lives now apart from the cafe,' says the final-year business student with a laugh.

But she is reaping plenty of rewards.

She adds: 'We didn't know anything about running a business, and had to start from zero. Suddenly you have to put all the theories that you learnt in class into application.'

Students Janice Tan, 20, and Faris Hakim, 18, both from Temasek Polytechnic (TP), the latest institution to open a restaurant, are just as grateful for their experience.

Faris, a second-year culinary student who worked at TP's Temasek Culinary Academy as a chef for a semester, believes that his stint at the restaurant will help him achieve his dream of becoming a food critic one day.

He says: 'Working in the kitchen will help me with writing later on, as I now understand the fine detail that is involved in the culinary arts.'

Mr Guy Hoh, deputy director of marketing and consultancy for Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre (Shatec), admits that customers are often sceptical about the quality of student restaurants.

But Shatec, the first institution to set up a student-run restaurant in the early 1990s and which currently has two Western restaurants - Charcoal in High Street and Rosette in Lloyd Road - aims to change this mindset through various marketing efforts and industry tie-ups.

Mr Hoh stresses: 'Customers should dine with a conscience, knowing that they not only enjoy quality food at good prices, but also that their patronage contributes to the students' learning. It's the next best thing to charity.'

Mr Chen Liang Cai, 24, who runs Munchie Monkey with four other undergraduates, says that he has not had any difficult customers yet.

He says most of their customers are usually understanding when the occasional hiccup occurs since they are students themselves.

Frujch's Tan also notes that hers is a safe business, run in school with lecturers to guide them and fellow students for customers.

She says: 'Running Frujch has definitely prepared me for when I want to set up a cafe in future.'

---------------------------------

Are you being served?

LIFESTYLE checks out some student-run eateries:


MUNCHIE MONKEY
National University of Singapore, Yusof Ishak House, Level 3, 31 Lower Kent Ridge Road
Tel: 6774-4940
Opens: 11am to 10pm, Mondays to Saturdays

A regular cafe decorated with many monkey soft toys. Sells Italian dishes, milk shakes and cakes

Price: From $2.95 for a Caesar salad to $8.95 for a baked rice



THE RESTAURANT IN THE SQUARE
The Tourism @ Academy@Sentosa, 12 Artillery Avenue, Sentosa Island
Tel: 6377-7934
Opens: 11.30am to 2.30pm; closed on weekends and school holidays

With its dark wood furniture and warm lighting, this place feels homely enough to make you forget it was once part of the World War II British barracks in Sentosa. Sells Western food.

Price: $12.50 for a daily three-course set lunch


FRUJCH
Singapore Management University's School of Information Systems, Stamford Road
Tel: 9386-7852
Opens: 11.30am to 10pm from Mondays to Thursdays; 11.30am to midnight on Fridays; closed during school holidays

The comfy sofas and beds coupled with dim lighting make for a good place to chill out after a hectic day in school. Sells beer and alcoholic cocktails along with some finger food.

Price: From $5 for a Tiger beer to $8 for an Erdinger. Grilled sandwiches for $3.90, nachos with cheese for $3.50, and salads from $3.20


TOP TABLE
Temasek Culinary Academy, Block 31, Level 3
Tel: 6780-6369
Opens: 11.30am to 2.30pm Closed on weekends and school holidays

Feels like a proper fine-dining restaurant, including the contemporary see-through glass panels that let you see everything the chefs are doing. Sells Western and Asian dishes.

Price: $10 for a three-course set lunch



ROSETTE
Shatec (Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre), 64 Lloyd Road, off Killiney Road
Tel: 6325-5669
Opens: 8am to 10pm from Mondays to Saturdays

Appears to be a very posh, fine-dining restaurant but the great service makes you feel at ease instantly. Serves Western food.

Price: Set lunch, with a choice of either pan-fried duck breast or pan-seared seabass, is $16.90. Soups start from $5.50, while main courses like grilled salmon steak start from $22

How to choose a decanter

2 Sep 2007, ST

By Jeremy Oliver

IN THIS fortnightly column, wine commentator Jeremy Oliver sheds light on the wide world of wine. He is the author of the best-selling Australian Wine Annual, and runs his website www.onwine.com.au

What should I look out for when choosing a decanter?

There are two criteria. The first relates to its design, while the second relates to the sort of wine you want to use it for.

To begin with, here are some general tips. Regardless of how expensive or stylish the glass or crystal might be, get a decanter that is easy to clean.

The shape of some decanters makes them virtually impossible to clean. And with wine, cleanliness is not so much a virtue as a prerequisite. You can tell a decanter is clean by the way it smells of absolutely nothing.

As with stemware, decanters should also be made of clear glass or crystal so you can easily see through the wine to check its condition.

Some decanters have rounded lips to pour over and they usually drip. I can't think of many things that are worse than a decanter that drips. So check to see that it has a cut lip that will prevent drips.

As you pour, a well-designed decanter will encourage the wine around its lip to spread out inside like a film. This film of wine should extend all the way inside the decanter, enabling the wine to be powerfully aerated in a very thin layer before it arrives at the bottom of the vessel.

Now, on matching decanters to wine. There are only two kinds of decanters from this perspective: those that provide a large internal surface area, and those taller kinds - similar to wine bottles - that offer a smaller area.

If you're decanting with the specific intent of aerating wine - especially reds that are young - you would need a decanter that provides a large internal surface area. This will enable the wine to continue its process of aeration and gas exchange after the decanting has finished.

But if you have an old and relatively delicate red and your main purpose for decanting is to remove it from its sediment, then a taller, narrower decanter with a small internal surface area would be better since it would help retard any excessive aeration once it is opened.

Most of the time, we decant relatively young reds that need aeration.

One of my favourite decanters for this is Zerruti's very elegant Turn Decanter.

Its ingenious design behaves like a normal ship's decanter when left upright in its stand, but whirls its way around in circles, aerating the wine if put directly on the table.

It's always fun to look at the widening eyes of those who have never seen it before, since they're almost convinced it will wander straight off the table.

Meaty alternatives

2 Sep 2007, ST

Q I often like to try new recipes, but being a vegetarian, sometimes I am stumped for choices. Are there some good substitutes for chicken, fish and prawns in recipes? I don't like using mock meats.
Pooja Chandiramani


A Speaking as an omnivore, I can't stand mock meats either.

The joy of vegetarianism, from a culinary standpoint anyway, is the enormous range of flavours, textures, colours and aromas that the vegetable world affords the curious cook.

So don't think in terms of 'substitutes for meat' - simply enjoy vegetables for their own sake.

However, if what you need is a substantial-textured main ingredient to replace meat in a recipe, explore the mushroom ranks: Eryngi (aka king oyster), abalone, pai lin, portobello, and large shiitake mushrooms all have a pleasing succulence when cut into thick slices or chunks.

For a more starchy solidity, try cubes of steamed cassava (tapioca), taro or Japanese sweet potato.

Many vegetables cook down into a pleasing denseness of texture and flavour when roasted, such as kabocha squash, zucchini, capsicums, parsnips and carrots.

For textures reminiscent of seafood, look for water-packed konnyaku pieces in Japanese supermarkets. These are sometimes shaped to resemble small prawns or pieces of squid.

These wholly vegetarian morsels, which are made from the juiced flesh of the high-fibre konnyaku yam, are springy to the bite.

Rinse them well to remove their slightly fishy odour before using. They need to be cooked only briefly and actually get firmer when simmered.

Pop culture

2 Sep 2007, ST

By Chris Tan

Q I love to make popcorn at home. Can you teach me some other method of flavouring it other than using just sugar or salt? For example, making it with chocolate or peanut would be good, or honey instead of sugar for a healthier choice.
Mabel Ho

A There are three elements to flavoured popcorn: the popped kernels, the seasoning and the binding ingredient that helps the latter coat and stick to the former.

The binder is usually butter or oil, or cooking spray for those who are calorie-conscious.

My preferred method for stovetop popped corn is to start it off in a small amount of oil that has a high smoke point (as corn gets very hot before it pops), like sunflower or canola.

Once the kernels have popped, I transfer them to a bowl and toss them with more butter or oil, and the seasoning ingredients.

If you add the seasoning to the raw corn before popping, it may scorch in the heat and taste burnt or odd.

As for flavours, you're limited only by the available variety of powdered seasoning agents - which is to say, if you spend some time browsing in a place like Mustafa Centre, not that limited.

POP STARS: (Clockwise from top left) Popcorn tossed with sesame oil, icing sugar and ground black sesame seeds; grapeseed oil and matcha powder; and olive oil and sweet paprika. -- ST PHOTOS: CHRIS TAN

For savoury flavours, look for garlic powder, onion powder, single or blended dried herbs and ground spices, and so on.

Most of these go well with a binder of olive or good butter or you could use fried-shallot oil or sesame oil.

And don't forget furikake, the Japanese mixes normally sprinkled over hot rice or dry sambal like sambal haebi (dried shrimp) or sambal lengkong.

For sweet popcorn, there are single or blended sweet spices - Mustafa has chai masala and 'milk masala' blends that should work well - cocoa powder, matcha (green tea) powder, and flavoured sugars.

Make the latter by whizzing sugar in a blender with ingredients like vanilla beans, dried lavender flowers or rosebuds, toasted coconut, grated citrus zest, instant coffee powder and so on, until everything is ground fine.

Some seasonings suit both sweet and savoury popcorn, such as ground sesame seeds and finely ground roasted nuts.

Boost their flavour by using a compatible oil as a binder like sesame oil or walnut oil.

Honey is a tricky flavour because its thick stickiness makes it hard to mix evenly with the popcorn.

Try melting it with butter, tossing the syrup with the popped kernels, then baking them briefly in a moderate oven to set the coating slightly.

Alfresco dining at Sunset

2 Sep 2007, ST

A quiet spot in Sunset Way is now abuzz with diners flocking to the nine new restaurants there

By Huang Xueling

THE word is out. Diners are flocking to nine new restaurants bringing trendy alfresco dining to the heartlands at Sunset Way, even before their official opening.

The outlets, fronted by decking that provides an outdoor eating area, are nestled in a quiet, leafy spot in a revamped Housing Board (HDB) block at the back of the Sunset Way strip.

With just one billboard advertising their presence - and that not even amid the main shops, but pointing to an HDB carpark - residents and curious foodies alike are still managing to track them down ahead of the official launch on Sept 21.

Since the soft launch of the F&B outlets at Block 106 on Clementi Street 12 two or three weeks ago, business has been surprisingly good so far, say most owners.

Mr Desmond Lim, director of Japanese steamboat buffet restaurant Fortune Cuisine, said: 'We're running full-house practically every night on weekends. Even on weekdays, it's 60 to 70 per cent full.'

Similarly, Mr Roth Pay, consultant for steakhouse Grill-Out!, said: 'It's so crowded that we have had to turn people away on weekends because we don't want customers to wait so long.'

Diners have a range of cuisines to chose from, including Thai, Japanese, New Zealand and Italian courtesy of Rocky's pizzas (see other story).

The outlets are in what used to be shops selling fruit, vegetables and the like and were revamped under the HDB's Restructuring Programme for Shops implemented two years ago.

When LifeStyle visited on Thursday, determined diners were seated alfresco although it was drizzling.

Mr Victor Koh, master tenant of the block, assures that awnings will be installed at a later stage.

Ms Daphne Chua, 20, who had dinner at Megumi Japanese Restaurant with her friends, said: 'My auntie told me about this new place I should check out. I didn't expect to find such a variety of restaurants, including a bar, here.'

She added: 'I like the idea of dining alfresco in an HDB area. I can just pop by in a T-shirt and shorts.'

With the area's popularity growing fast, people have already started touting Sunset Way as the new Holland Village or Rochester.

However, that is not quite the label the owners want.

Grill-Out!'s Mr Pay said: 'We don't want to be the next Holland V, we want an identity of our own.

'Firstly, we have quite a good mix of restaurants, both Asian and Western here, and secondly, we have a lot more greenery.' A quiet spot in Sunset Way is now abuzz with diners flocking to the nine new restaurants there
By Huang Xueling
THE word is out. Diners are flocking to nine new restaurants bringing trendy alfresco dining to the heartlands at Sunset Way, even before their official opening.

The outlets, fronted by decking that provides an outdoor eating area, are nestled in a quiet, leafy spot in a revamped Housing Board (HDB) block at the back of the Sunset Way strip.

With just one billboard advertising their presence - and that not even amid the main shops, but pointing to an HDB carpark - residents and curious foodies alike are still managing to track them down ahead of the official launch on Sept 21.

Since the soft launch of the F&B outlets at Block 106 on Clementi Street 12 two or three weeks ago, business has been surprisingly good so far, say most owners.

Mr Desmond Lim, director of Japanese steamboat buffet restaurant Fortune Cuisine, said: 'We're running full-house practically every night on weekends. Even on weekdays, it's 60 to 70 per cent full.'

Similarly, Mr Roth Pay, consultant for steakhouse Grill-Out!, said: 'It's so crowded that we have had to turn people away on weekends because we don't want customers to wait so long.'

Diners have a range of cuisines to chose from, including Thai, Japanese, New Zealand and Italian courtesy of Rocky's pizzas (see other story).

The outlets are in what used to be shops selling fruit, vegetables and the like and were revamped under the HDB's Restructuring Programme for Shops implemented two years ago.

When LifeStyle visited on Thursday, determined diners were seated alfresco although it was drizzling.

Mr Victor Koh, master tenant of the block, assures that awnings will be installed at a later stage.

Ms Daphne Chua, 20, who had dinner at Megumi Japanese Restaurant with her friends, said: 'My auntie told me about this new place I should check out. I didn't expect to find such a variety of restaurants, including a bar, here.'

She added: 'I like the idea of dining alfresco in an HDB area. I can just pop by in a T-shirt and shorts.'

With the area's popularity growing fast, people have already started touting Sunset Way as the new Holland Village or Rochester.

However, that is not quite the label the owners want.

Grill-Out!'s Mr Pay said: 'We don't want to be the next Holland V, we want an identity of our own.

'Firstly, we have quite a good mix of restaurants, both Asian and Western here, and secondly, we have a lot more greenery.'

---------------------------------

Way to go

The New Holland V?: Diners can opt for Thai, Japanese, New Zealand or even Italian food.



1. Megumi Japanese Restaurant
01-38A, tel: 6779-1411

Open: 11.30am to 2.30pm and 6 to 10.30pm daily
Specialities: UFO Maki ($12) and shabu-shabu ($17.80)


2. Fortune Cuisine
01-40/42, tel: 6777-8622

Open: 11.30am to 2.30pm and 6 to 10.30pm daily
Specialities: Steamboat is served in two kinds of soup, Sichuan or regular, $19.80 per person on weekdays and $22.80 per person on weekends.


3. Yum Yum Thai
01-44, tel: 6777-1025

Open: 11am to 3pm and 6 to 10pm daily
Specialities: Garoupa with dried chilli ($24), tom yum soup ($8) and mango salad ($8).


4. Absolutely New Zealand
01-46, tel: 6777-4628

Open: Noon to 9pm daily
Specialities: L&P lemon-flavoured fizzy spring water ($5.90 for 1.5 litres) Deep South ice cream ($13.90 for 2-litre tub), and other produce from New Zealand.


5. Grill-Out!
01-38E, tel: 6774-7001

Open: 6 to 11.30pm daily except Mondays
Specialities: US Kobe ribeye ($65 for 220g) and Black Angus striploin ($30 for 220g)


6. Peaberry & Pretzel
01-52, tel: 6777-3477

Open: Noon to 10pm daily
Specialities: German pork knuckle ($35) and mussels in white wine sauce ($35).


7. Sunset Tavern
01-54/56, tel: 6777-8938

Open: 4pm to midnight daily
Specialities: Beef or chicken kebabs ($12.90) and a wide range of liquers. Happy Hours are from 4 to 8pm.


8. Rocky's Pizza
01-60, tel: 6468-9188

Open: 11am to 10.30pm daily
Specialities: Boston Special ($23.80), lasagna ($10.70) and deep-fried chicken wings ($7.60 for four)


9. Cafe d'Orient
01-38L, tel: 6777-4680

Open: 11am to 11pm daily
Specialities: Hong Kong favourites like baked rice with six sauces, including Portuguese, black pepper and Hong Kong curry ($8.90 to $14.90)

A reality cheque from my son

2 Sep 2007, ST

By Mathew Pereira

BEFORE my eldest son Shaun was enlisted in the army, he spent four months doing relief teaching in a secondary school.

His salary worked out to about $1,200 a month.

One day, he strolled in and announced that he was a rich man - he had got his first pay cheque.

I stuck my hand out and asked him for his monthly contribution to us - his parents.

His reaction was: 'Wahlau! But I earn so little.'

I told him: 'You should give your parents money every month from the time you start working.'

He asked how much he should be giving us.

I said: $50.

Why $50? I don't know. For me, it had to be an amount that was not so small as to make the whole exercise meaningless, and it had to be something that would make Shaun feel some pain.

Like him, the first time I earned a salary was when I was about 17, stacking cans of food at a Cold Storage supermarket during my December school break.

When I was given my first pay packet - $180 in cash inside a white envelope - I gave the whole packet to Mum, our treasurer at home.

I remember her giving me a hard time that night because I had left the envelope of cash on the dining table and had run off to play football.

'This is your first salary. After all these years of toiling and bringing you up, you didn't even have the courtesy to hand the money to me in person,' she said.

I was called 'ingrate' and a couple of other names. (Giving can be so painful.)

During my national service days, my whole NS allowance went to Mum and she in turn gave me an allowance. (And it wasn't as if my NS allowance then was a large sum.)

I told all this to Shaun.

My point? Supporting your parents should be a responsibility, not an option, when you are earning. My parents made it clear to me and I was now making it clear to him, I said.

I told him that he should continue the practice with his kids, too, when he gets married and has his own family.

If my children want examples of this being done, there are plenty.

My Mum not only gets a monthly sum from me (but no longer my whole pay packet) but also lives with me. My wife's parents live with one of her siblings, and they, too, get monthly sums from their children.

Do our parents need the money? Not really.

Everything from food to medical bills to their holidays abroad are taken care of by the children.

Some might consider my stance on this old-fashioned. I know more than a handful of friends who do not expect their children to do so.

Their reasons: They don't need the money because they have stashed away enough; poor kids, life is already difficult enough for them; our parents brought with them values from China, India or wherever else, and while they were good for the 1940s and 1950s, they have no place in society today.

The way I see it, when parents think that way, kids pick up that message. That is why I am sometimes not surprised when old folk complain about being left to their own devices by their successful children.

The onus is on parents to teach their kids - not the school, not the Government.

I grew up in a home where my parents reminded my siblings and me constantly about how they were counting on us and placing their hopes on us. We never forgot that they were on the sidelines waiting for us to start working and contributing.

But parents today do not like to tell their kids this. Instead, they hold what I tend to think is a very Western view of parenting - I brought you into this world so I am responsible for you, and not the other way round.

Regardless of changes to the Central Provident Fund scheme, children should be taught to look after their parents.

Because giving money to our old folk is not only about survival and making sure they have enough to live, but also about loving and honouring them.

Shaun will not be the only one whom I expect a monthly allowance from. My two other children are expected to do likewise.

If I don't need the money, I could give all they had given back to them when they get married, or something, but I will continue to remind them about the need to support their parents.

My son drew a salary of $400 or so the first few months he was in the army and the sum has increased somewhat since.

He continues to give, and I will continue to expect.

Of course, if one day he decides that he is not going to anymore, that's also fine.

That's his choice. I will not force him to do so.

But I can at least say that I had taught him the right thing to do.

Giving old age teeth

2 Sep 2007, ST

While my life is not predictable, at least, my retirement is purposefully planned, thanks to changes in the CPF

By Cheong Suk-Wai

A CHINWAG with my mother over the phone last Monday revealed that she had developed a bad toothache.

'Better book a slot with your dentist,' I said. 'Toothache is no joke, you know.'

'Ya, I know,' said my Mum, refraining as I did from saying out loud what we both recalled: that her sister-in-law had died suddenly a few Chinese New Years ago from a heart ailment brought on by a toothache she had ignored.

But far be it for my Mum to dwell on a dental dilemma. 'I think I didn't drink enough water yesterday, lah,' said the woman who usually downs 12 cups of water a day.

She added lightly: 'I think once your Dad massages the toe that governs the teeth area, the pain should go away.'

Suspicious of this suspect reflexology, I harangued her into promising she would head for the dentist pronto if all that water-chugging and toe-massaging didn't help.

It's not the dentist she dreads, but the elaborate operation triggered by having to prepare my weakened Dad for a trip to, and from, Penang where the good dentists are.

Don't think I don't feel a heel for having her and my father get along on their own these days, what with my sister being in Kuala Lumpur and me here. Sure, there are good friends and kind relatives on hand to help, but some privations are best kept within the family, for dignity's sake.

Still, life is about making the best of things.

'Eh, after talking to you, the toothache has gone away, lah,' she said by way of a parting shot.

But I went to bed with a sinking feeling, because that chat brought home all too clearly how delicately balanced our lives are, day after day.

My parents and I toodle along on the hopeful assumption that my father, God bless him, will pass on before my mother.

If it was to be the reverse, I would have to drop everything and return to Malaysia for good to take care of him, no questions asked.

What a blessing it is, then, that amid that ever-present uncertainty, my retirement, at least, has been planned purposefully via the Central Provident Fund (CPF), to say nothing of the iron-clad guarantee that my CPF savings will always be parked where they are, thanks to the Government's track record and reputation, and not frittered away or embezzled as sometimes happens in shabbier governments.

And, remembering my mother's anecdotes of greed and excess, I also appreciate some measure of prudent control over my eventual withdrawals, such as having to maintain a minimum sum in my CPF account, rather than frolic like Nero while his country burnt because, let's not forget, there are going to be two hulking casinos here soon, and gamblers aren't usually the best savers.

Of course, the CPF minimum sum in my circumstances means having to tighten the belt consistently on the easier living that one assumes one should enjoy after decades of slog.

But then, isn't being able to live simply the ultimate sophistication?

I REMEMBER years of tea and toast when I began carving out my career 12 years ago, freed from the cossetted comforts of student life.

Already certain from that get-go that I would be working - and loving it - till the day I die (especially with paltry interest rates on cash savings these days), I cheered even more to hear Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announce on Aug 12 that the retirement age would now be 67, with new adjustments to CPF withdrawals to take this into account.

Five years ago, I caught up with a peer who worked in Malaysia for a while after graduating from a university overseas, but then found Singapore irresistible pay-wise.

But when I asked him for advice as to how to stretch my CPF kitty, he said: 'You still looking to withdraw your CPF at 55? I've resigned myself to never seeing a cent of it.'

Then, as now, I thought that was a bit much. Nobody can take your CPF away from you, I pointed out, without breaking the law.

He shrugged all this off with a smirk, and said: 'Well, I don't know about you, but I'm looking to pull out of Singapore as soon as possible. Laws can always change, you know.'

'Why chain yourself to a pressure cooker?' he demanded, referring to the competitive climate here.

Last I heard, he is still working here. Perhaps he's seen the flip side of the coin.

As to the proposed compulsory annuity - which would nick a bit off my CPF minimum sum so I can continue to be protected financially after turning 85 - I certainly would prefer that to paying prohibitive taxes now to support the elderly, as is the case in many Western countries.

Still, the CPF changes have augmented new uncertainties for me - and my mother, whom I want to live with me in her dotage.

While the Government would consider me employable if I am still able and competent at 67, it just wouldn't do to allow employers to keep weeding out those over 35 from those under 35, as most do now.

Sure, experience is important, some employers tell me, when I ask them about age discrimination. But what's experience compared to our savings from hiring dime-a-dozen greenhorns?

You could tell them till you are blue in the face things like 'haven't you heard? Sixty is the new 30', but most see elderly workers as wrinkly, set in their ways and a magnet for ailments (never mind if most head honchos of companies can often be described like so - think Jack Welch, Warren Buffett and Li Ka-Shing).

And, as to living past 85, I think I am in a growing majority facing the uphill battle to stay young and fit, even as the continuing spikes in work and life stresses in this speed-silly world take their toll on one and all.

How, then, do we as a society, guarantee for ourselves a better future beyond just a prudent and enabling CPF scheme?

Won't corporate social responsibility - that darling management buzzword - include more compassionate workplace practices, to take the edge off fickle markets and focusing on bottomlines all the time?

Just my two cents' worth, please, and that's the tooth, I mean truth, as I see it.

My grandfather has bile-duct cancer

2 Sep 2007, ST

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) experts answer your queries in this fortnightly column. Remember, you should not self-medicate. Always consult a practitioner.

My grandfather is 70 and has been diagnosed with stage-three bile-duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma). Can TCM help him?

Cholangiocarcinomas (bile-duct cancer) are tumours that arise from the bile-duct epithelium, which is the internal tissue of the bile duct. The cause is unknown but they are more likely to occur in people born with abnormalities of the bile duct like choledochal cysts.

Stage-three bile-duct cancer occurs when cancer cells affect the main blood vessels that take blood to and from the liver. It may also occur when these cells spread to the small or large intestines, the stomach or the abdominal wall, or affect lymph nodes in the abdomen.

In TCM, bile-duct cancer is likely due to a deficiency in the functions of the spleen, liver and kidney, a stagnation of qi and blood, 'heat? and 'dampness', as well as insufficient yin of the kidney and liver.

Chinese medicine, acupuncture and moxibustion can help improve your grandfather's condition by strengthening his immune and digestive systems so that recovery time is shorter in the event that he needs to undergo surgery. They can also help reduce the side effects of chemotherapy such as fatigue and weight loss.

He should avoid smoking, alcohol and spicy food to reduce 'heat' and 'dampness' in the organs.

Information provided by Ms Lim Lay Beng, a TCM physician at YS Healthcare TCM Clinic in The Adelphi...

Hit those weights

2 Sep 2007, ST

Want to shave off those excess kilos and stay lean? Then strength training is important, experts say

ATLANTA - Amy Jones used to think of a strenuous workout as a long run on the treadmill. Then she joined her husband at a gym he belongs to that stresses Olympic-style weightlifting and other strength moves over cardio.

Within a few sessions, she was hooked. 'I'm more toned, I have more energy and more endurance,' she said. 'I've turned fat into muscle, and my clothes fit better.'

Almost 40 years after Dr Kenneth Cooper coined the term 'aerobics', a concept that would later spawn a generation of spandex-clad cardio junkies, some trainers are steering their clients away from traditional cardio-intensive workouts and towards mostly strength moves.

The reasons: Many exercises that are good for the heart are hard on the joints. And cardio training without muscle conditioning leads to loss of muscle and bone density as well as fat, experts say.

Even Dr Cooper now believes strength training is important.

Some people - those fighting ageing and those with injuries - benefit from more time on muscle conditioning than cardiovascular exercise, he said in an interview from his Texas clinic.

He cites Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, a one-time cardio king who shifted to more intense weight training. (Aikman said through a spokesman he does not think cardio is overrated, but he cut back on his daily 6km runs because he didn't want to further tax his body. He said he dropped body fat when he made the change.)

Dr Cooper does not believe cardio is a bad habit to be kicked. 'If you go strictly muscular-skeletal conditioning, it's a major mistake,' he said. 'You'll wear out.'

But Jim Karas, author of The Cardio-Free Diet, believes cardio workouts overstress the body and work against those trying to lose weight.

Karas, who helped newscaster Diane Sawyer get svelte, experienced a revelation in the 1980s when he was an aerobics instructor. He saw shocking amounts of excess flesh, even on those who came to class religiously.

Then he looked in the sparsely populated weight room. 'Everyone was so lean,' he said in an interview from his Chicago studio.

He changed his approach and found he and his clients could keep weight off more easily with strength training rather than aerobics.

Karas walks most everywhere - a form of cardiovascular exercise, he acknowledged, adding that he encourages clients to take the stairs instead of lifts and park further away to build activity into daily life.

'My whole goal is I just want people to stop pounding their bodies,' he said. 'When people hear 'exercise', I want them to think of strength training.'

NYT

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Finding the right balance

CARDIO and strength training each has its place in a fit lifestyle. Experts disagree on just how much of each a person needs.

J. Andrew Doyle, an associate professor of kinesiology and health at Georgia State University, says flexibility is a third component of a balanced workout.

Here?s what Dr Kenneth Cooper, the Texas doctor who coined the term 'aerobics' in the late 1960s, advises.

When you're in your 30s: 80 per cent aerobics/20 per cent muscular conditioning.

When you're in your 40s: 70 per cent aerobics/30 per cent muscular conditioning.

When you're in your 50s: 60 per cent aerobics/40 per cent muscular conditioning.

When you're in your 60s: 55 per cent aerobics/45 per cent muscular conditioning Dr Cooper, 76, suggests that some younger athletes need to shift away from cardio because of injuries. 'If your body starts breaking down, listen to it.'

NYT

Malaysian rapper threatened with punishment on 'terrorist' video

2 Sep 2007, ST

By Reme Ahmad

FOUR masked men have appeared in a YouTube video clip warning a Malaysian rapper who had been accused of insulting Islam and the Malays that he would 'receive punishment' if he were to return home.

The clip echoes the video threats made by Middle Eastern terrorists.

Speaking in Malay, one of the men read from a statement: 'We would like to give a warning to Namewee that if you were to return to Tanah Melayu you will receive punishment for insulting Islam.' Namewee is the nickname used by the 24-year-old Wee Meng Chee, an undergraduate based in Taiwan.

Tanah Melayu literally means Malay Land.

The 18-second video ended with the four men chanting 'God is Great'.



Last month, Mr Wee parodied the national athem in a rap video that was also posted on YouTube. The clip infuriated many and is now the subject of a government probe into possible sedition.

Amid the uproar, Mr Wee posted a second clip in which he rapped about the discrimination against the Chinese, corrupt cops and indolent civil servants, most of whom are Malay. He also poked fun at Muslim morning prayers broadcast from mosques, saying they acted as his alarm clock.

The video again triggered a flood of abusive responses from Malays, and also expressions of support from ethnic Chinese in Malaysia.

The masked-men video clip became widely known after Malaysia's top blogger and an opposition politician, Mr Jeff Ooi, posted a link to it, asking: 'That's how Malaysians use YouTube?'

The four men who appeared in the clip, which has been watched about 7,000 times, wore black ski masks with only their eyes visible. They stood in front of a brick wall.

They wore black T-shirts, with two of them also wearing what looked like military fatigues.

One of them carried what looked like a sheathed dagger.

The comments posted under the video were not supportive of the scare tactics.

'This is really stupid...do not shame the Malays further,' said one posting which called the four men 'terrorist wannabees'.

Another added: 'I believe that the majority of the Malays in Malaysia are moderate and tolerant Muslims who will not agree to such stupid act as shown by the 'terrorists' in the video.'

Does napping after a meal cause weight gain?

1 Sep 2007, ST

WEIGHT change is a relatively slow process over long periods. It depends on many factors and sleep itself does not cause weight gain. The key is balancing energy intake and energy use over time.

Energy input comes from food and drinks and is usually measured in kilocalories (kcal). The United States Department of Agriculture assigns calorie levels based on an individual's sex, age and activity level.

The intake quantities range from 3,000 kcal for active males aged 19 and 20 to 2,000 kcal for sedentary men aged 76 and up. It is 2,400 kcal for active females aged 19 and 20 and 1,600 kcal for sedentary women aged 76 and up.

When energy intake exceeds use, the body stores the excess as fat.

Energy expenditure consists of resting metabolic rate, or energy the body uses to maintain normal functions; diet induced thermogenesis, or energy needed to digest, absorb, transport, metabolise and store food and drink; and physical activity.

Our bodies expend energy all the time. Even when sleeping, the body needs energy to fuel the multitude of complex functions that keep us alive.

Since 0.45kg of body fat is equivalent to about 3,500 kcal of energy, the energy balance equation suggests that an increase in food intake or a decrease in energy expenditure equal to 3,500 kcal will result in a weight gain of 0.45kg.

But there are other significant individual differences to account for when predicting either weight gain or loss.

It is true to say though, that if someone went for a brisk walk rather than take a nap after eating, he would have used more energy during the walk.

And recent studies indicate that individuals who suffer from sleep deprivation could be more susceptible to weight gain. It appears that a lack of sleep leads to decreased release of the hormone leptin, which usually makes a person feel full.

Sleep loss also increases levels of the hormone grehlin, which makes people feel more hungry.

Answer provided by Dr Li Changming, head of Bioengineering, School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, at the Nanyang Technological University.

'When I look at my backside, I find it is divided into two parts'

1 Sep 2007, ST

CANBERRA - IN THE world of international diplomacy, the best-chosen words or phrases can leave an audience laughing, bewildered or simply lost in translation, an insider has revealed.

Undiplomatic Activities, a yet-to-be-launched book by Mr Richard Woolcott, who ran Australia's foreign service for four years, points to the pitfalls of translating thoughts into different languages.

Take the Australian diplomat in France who tried to tell his audience that as he looked back on his career, it was divided in two parts, with dull postings before life in Paris.

'When I look at my backside, I find it is divided into two parts,' Mr Woolcott quoted the diplomat as telling his highly amused audience.

Ex-Australian prime minister Bob Hawke left his Japanese audience bewildered when he used the Australian colloquial phrase 'I am not here to play funny buggers' to dismiss a trivial and pesky question from lawmakers.

The Japanese interpreters 'went into a huddle to consult on the best way to render 'funny buggers' into Japanese', he wrote.

Their translation: 'I am not here to play laughing homosexuals with you.'

Australia's Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd is regarded as a master of Mandarin. But his language skills were far from perfect when, as a diplomat in 1984, he interpreted his ambassador's speech on the close relationship Australia and China enjoyed.

'Australia and China are enjoying simultaneous orgasms in their relationship,' he apparently told the audience in Mandarin.

Mr Woolcott said the best interpretations sometimes involved no translation at all, like what happened when an Asian minister told a long joke at a banquet in Seoul.

'The Korean interpreter was lost, but did not show it. He uttered a few sentences and the audience laughed and applauded,' he wrote.

After being complimented on his translation skills, the interpreter confessed: 'Frankly, minister, I did not understand your joke, so I said in Korean that the minister has told his obligatory joke, would you all please laugh heartily and applaud.'

REUTERS