Salmon with Sour Cream Dill Sauce

One of my fave fish is salmon.  Yes, I am common.  I never claimed to be otherwise.

I eat it not for health reason but simply because it tastes so good.  But it can be an expensive fish so I wait for when it is on the promotions or the reduced items rack. 

Loads of people turn their noses up at the reduced items but I am telling you if you are on a budget, these are life-savers and can give you fantastic meals - if you cook them fast.

Just this week I had lovely roasted parsnips and parsnip mash over two meals.  Parsnips in Singapore are ridiculously expensive and can be rather hard to find.  I think Singaporeans are unfamiliar with this root vegetable and never acquired a taste for them.  So the supermarkets stock them in limited quantities, if at all, and there they languish.  

I love parsnips though.  So, when I saw a bunch of them with a reduced label at my local Cold Storage, I snatched them up faster than you could blink. 

Obviously the supermarket reduced the price as they were getting a little old and had to be consumed by the next day.  I had no problem with that.  It was less than S$3 for 3 parsnips!  That's amazing and I scored 3 meals out of these - roasted parsnip, mashed parsnips from the leftover roasted parsnips and a parsnip and zucchini ratatouille of sorts.  You just cook them on the day itself then pack them away properly for future meals.  See how that works out?

I also scored a lovely piece of shin beef at reduced prices.  Like the parsnips, they had to consumed immediately.  Again, I had no problem with that and made a brilliant stew from it that very day.

So anyway, I'd purchased a pack of salmon fillets earlier this week which was on promotion.  Admittedly, it was not the cheapest but I really had a craving for salmon so I broke out the piggy bank.  Even then, S$4.38 for three salmon fillets is not too shabby.

I decided to cook them with loads of vegetables ... but I had to indulge my need for cream.  So I decided to do a variation of one of my classic, signature sauces.  I made a sour cream dill sauce instead of my usual creamy, dilly cheese sauce. It was yummy but I still miss my creamy dilly cheese sauce.  Maybe its time to go buy some cheese ...

Salmon with Sour Cream Dill Sauce

3 salmon fillets

1 small red onion, peeled, topped and thinly sliced

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup French beans, topped and cut into 3-inch sections

About 4 tbsp sour cream

About 2 tbsp white wine

About 1 tsp chicken stock granules

About 2 tbsp butter, cut into cubes

About 1/2 tbsp fresh dill, snipped or 3/4 tsp dried dill weed

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

1.  Season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper.

2.  Heat some butter and olive oil.  Pan fry the salmon fillets. 

If you like them a bit undone in the middle, pan fry them on high heat to sear till you see about 2mm of the base of the fillet turn opaque, before you flip them over.  It really depends on how thick your fillets are.  If you like them well carboned, cook them on medium and flip them over when half of the fillet turns opaque.

Remember to pan fry the skin side to crisp and cook the skin.

3.  Remove from pan and plate.  Keep warm but do net continue to cook or they will dry out.

4.  Saute half the onions in the remaining oil till slightly soft.  Add a bit more oil if needed.

5.  Add the cauliflower floret and saute gently.  Add a little water and chicken granules, cover and let it steam in its own juices till slightly softened.

6.  Add the French beans and continue to saute till they turn a more vivid green.  You want a bit of crunch to the vegetables to complement the silkiness of the sauce and salmon.

7.  Remove from pan and plate with the salmon.

8.  Add the rest of the onions to the pan and saute till tender.  Do not bun the buggers. 

9.  Add the white wine & dill (reserve 1/2 tsp of dill if you are using fresh dill) and bring to the boil, then turn down to heat 

10.  Add the sour cream.  If it is too liquidy, reduce it a little till it is slightly thick.

11.  Start adding the butter cubes a little at a time, whisking them in to thicken and gloss the sauce. Season to taste at this point with the chicken granules & pepper.

12.  Pour the sauce over the salmon and vegetables and sprinkle the rest of the fresh dill on top.

Here's a tip.  This sauce is incredible over rice.  I usually cook rice with it.  I know it is a little incomprehensible.  Believe me, the first time I had it over rice, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  I had always had it with pasta or bread but on rice ... holy cow ...

You can use any vegetables you like with this sauce.  I used cauliflower and French beans because I have loads which need to be consumed asap.  I've cooked it many times with mushrooms as an hor 'doeuvres (make the sauce thicker and pour over mushrooms and bake in the oven, then serve with baguettes) and I swear they disappear the instant they hit the table.

I love this sauce.  I just wish it was not so sinful.  One of these days I have to come up with a healthy variation.

Yeah right.

Apple Upside Down Tart

I have too many apples.

There must be a bumper harvest of apples because the supermarkets are flooded with them.  They are everywhere and really cheap a the moment.  So, in my recent frenzy of food shopping, I bought way too many of them.  

I wanted to bake a cake but I had given away all my baking stuff last year to a recently married girlfriend who is really into baking.  Since I was not able to cook then, I gave them all away to her.  Now I just feel bereft and slightly at a loss.  But I was still determined.  If we have to go old school, that's just what we will do.  If our grandparents could roast & bake with no fancy stuff back then, so can I.

I have no springform anything and all I have is an old fashioned aluminium cake tin.  It will have to do.  I don't even have a whisk!  OK, grab the fork.  No mixing bowl?  I will use the microwave bowl.  No rolling pin?  I will use my wine bottle.  Hic!  Alkie makes baking easy ... hic ...

Anyway, I can't bake a cake as I do not want to end up eating out of my cake tin.  Then I remembered I used to bake a pineapple upside down cake for friends even though I can't eat that myself.  Alrighty.  Oh shucks ... my mixer/blender is kaput.  Hmmm, OK, an upside down apple tart then.  I remember I had a recipe for that somewhere.

After a search, I found it.

But of course I had to modify it.

Apple Upside Down Tart

Pastry -

50g/2 oz/4tbsp butter, softened

40g/1 1/2 oz/3 tbsp caster sugar

1 egg

115g/4oz/1 cup plain flour

Pinch of salt

Here's where I modified it.  I added 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder & a pinch of pepper

Apple Filling -

75g/3oz/1/4 cup butter/softened

75g/3oz/1/2 level cup light muscovado sugar

9 red Fiji apples, peeled, cored and thickly sliced

Vanilla ice cream

1.  Cream the butter and sugar for the pastry.  I went at it with just a fork.  Yes, I have muscles on my arms.  Do I need to prove it like this?  No ... *whine* ... sigh.  Anyway, cream it till it is pale and creamy.

2.  Beat in the egg.  *Still hurting here, people ... beat, beat, beat ... with a fork!*

3.  Sift in the flour, salt, cinnamon powder and pepper and mix to a soft dough.  

I discovered I did not have a sieve so I had to painstakingly sprinkle the dry mixture over.  You do this by hitting your cup gently and continuously into the bowl.  It's a soft dough when it leaves the sides of the bowl yet feel relatively soft and moist without greasing you up.

4.  Knead it and then wrap it up in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.  Do not over-chill.  If you do, take it out to thaw so don't panic.  You want the dough to be firm but not hard.

5.  Grease a 24cm cake tin ... actually any size works.  If you have leftovers, save them for another pie.  Do not get too hung up on this stuff.  I sometimes make mini tarts, squares or cookies with the leftover dough.  Kids love them.  Place 50g/2oz/4tbsp of the butter in the tin.

6.  Place the tin on the stove and melt the butter.  Once it is melted (make sure not to clarify it), remove from the heat.

7.  Sprinkle the whole base of the tin with 50g/2oz/tbsp of the muscovado sugar. 

8.  Here is where I messed up.  I had bought rather ripe apples instead nice, slightly unripe apples or green apples.  So they were juicy.  Real juicy.  Too juicy.

Arrange the apple in layers.  I tend to do the traditional fan pattern but really, you should not get hung up on this.  As long as you cover the tin, you're good.  Just try to the last layer to be even or you will get a lopsided tart.

9.  Sprinkle with the rest of the muscovado sugar and dot with the rest of the butter.  I did not use up all the sugar as my apples are quite sweet so I deducted about 1 tbsp.

10.  Preheat the oven to 230 deg C/450 deg F.  My oven is a little lame so I have to raise the temperature to 240 deg C.

11.  Place the cake tin over the stove again over low heat for about 15 mins.  The recipe says "for 15 mins, until a light golden caramel forms on the bottom".  Er, excuse, how am I supposed to see this?

I say this because here's where I really messed up.  My apples were so juicy, they started sweating all over the caramel mix, diluting the hell out of it.  So my caramel could not set.  Which I did not realise till way later as I could not see this with all the apples on top.  And I have not baked in such a long time, my baking 6th sense is still on vacation.  Bah.

Also, I was in a rush to go to work so I ignored my intuition and removed the tin from the stove at exactly 15 mins even though something told me it wasn't time.  That's why I sometimes have trust issues with recipes.  They lie.  *Rocking back and forth on the spot*

12. Dust your working surface with some flour.  Slap that dough down and get rolling.  Roll it out to about the same size as your tin.  

13.  Pick that baby up gently and place it on top of the cake tin, on top of the apples.  I cut the leftover edges with a knife and then tuck the edges into the apples like a blankie, slightly curling downwards towards the base along the sides.  Hope that makes sense.

14.  Bake for about 25-30 mins till the pastry is golden.  I had to bake mine for about 35 mins.  

15.  Remove from heat and let stand for about 5 mins.  You have to let it stand so things have time to firm out otherwise you gonna have problems when you do the great reversi later.

16.  Place an upturned plate (come now, make it bigger, not smaller than the cake tin ... *shakes head*) on top of the cake tin.  Hold it firmly down together with a dish towel (why?  'cos it's hot and you might slip!) and FFFFLLLIPPP! Turn the thing over so that the tart falls out upside down on the plate.

Here's the travesty.  When I did this, a massive gush of caramel juice burst over the plate, all over the counter, dripping tragically onto the floor.  Darn it!  Clean up time!  On the double!  There was a mild flurry of panic as I cleaned up.  And worse, it meant I had no caramel topping!  Nooooooo!

Even worse, because the apples were so ripe, they were way too mushy and so slip slided all to one side during the Great Reversi, spoiling my beautiful fan pattern and giving me a mushy, lopsided tart.

Conk.

I had to gingerly pour out all the excess caramel juice (which I saved ... gonna make a caramel cream sauce from that later) and dry out the cake in the oven again, cooking it for another 15 mins to get it less soggy.  And even then I was not happy with it.

Especially when I realised I had forgotten a modification I had wanted to make to the recipe.  I had prepared some slivered almonds which I had planned to add to the apple filling.

Conk.  Conk.

So the tart was delish if soggy.  I ate it with some vanilla ice cream after dinner and was fairly appeased.  But now I feel a compulsion to make another and get it right.  I really have to resist as I made it to avoid wasting stuff.  If I want to make another I would have purchase more stuff.  Which will defeat the original intention.

Resist.  Resist.

Conk.

Melt in Your Mouth Beef Stew

On my return to Singapore I went a little nutso.  My fridge was so empty that I felt this compulsive urge to stock up.  This is a highly dangerous urge as it usually leads to much waste and self-recrimination when I cannot utilise all the food I had purchased.

Thus, I have been cooking up a storm to ensure I do not waste.

During my last visit to my local Cold Storage, there were a lot of items on promotion, especially the meats which had remarkably short expiration dates.  One such item was a lovely shin beef which had to be utilised the next day.  I bought that and went to work immediately on transforming this into a melt in your mouth dish.

Recently, I have been feeling nostalgic.  I blame it on Singaporean telly which has been harping on about the past in an attempt to cajole its citizen into appreciating how far the nation has come.  All the going-ons about life in the 60s and 70s made me crave my childhood comfort food.  Besides the jackfruit curry I made recently, I started hankering for a good, old-fashion, simple beef stew just like mum used to make.

The shin beef was perfect for this.  Again I am only cooking for myself so it is a small portion.

Melt in Your Mouth Beef Stew

About 200g of shin beef - cut into big chunks

1 medium-sized red onion, cut into quarters

About 1/2 handful of pearl shallots, peeled and topped

About 1/2 handful of garlic cloves, peeled, topped and crushed

1/2 medium-sized carrot, peeled and cubed

1 stalk celery, trimmed and cut into thick slices

1/2 medium-sized zucchini, topped and cut into cubes

About 1 cup mushrooms, trimmed and quartered

1 bay leaf

About 1 1/2 - 2 tsp tomato paste

Stock - I used a mixture of chicken and beef this time as I had both left over.  I typically use beef stock

About 1 - 1 1/2 tbsp dried mixed herbs

Flour 

Salt 

Pepper

Butter

Olive oil

Wine - I used white this time as I had quite a bit left over but I had to compensate by adding a little beef stock and brown sugar to the mixture.  Normally I would use either red wine, sherry, beer or ale instead but hey, you improvise

1.  Season and flour the beef cubes.  In the meantime, pre-heat your oven to about 200 deg C/about 375 deg F.

2.  Heat some olive oil and butter in an oven-proof casserole pot or dutch oven and brown the beef

3.  Remove the beef and set aside

4.  You can add a little more oil if required but let it heat a bit before adding the red onions and garlic.  Saute quickly to sweat them out a bit before adding the rest of the vegetables.

5.  Saute on medium heat till a little slightly soft.

6.  Add stock just enough to cover.  Add wine to taste.  Don't be an alkie and add too much as it makes more sense to drink with the stew than have it reduced in the stew and make it too tart (if using wine) or too more-ish (if using beer or ale).  I know it is a temptation but drink some as cooking instead.  Try not to burn yourself.

7.  Stir in the bay leaf and tomato paste. Season to taste.

8.  Stick the pot in the oven and leave to cook for 45 mins.

9.  Lower the oven temperature to 180 deg C and leave to cook for another 45 mins.

10.  You might want to check on the stew from time to time in order to gauge how much longer you need to cook it.  But after about 1 1/2 hours, take a knob of butter and stir that into the stew to thicken it and give it s nice gloss.  Sometimes I add some crushed crackers to it to thicken it further.  It really depends on my mood.

11.  Let it cook in the oven for another 30-45 mins.  You may test the meat to see if it is ready.  Poke.  Poke.  Is your fork going in smoothly like it's butter?  Then it's ready.  Is your fork rebounding back on you with a resentful pronggggg?  Leave it be to cook longer.Go have some more wine while waiting.  Try not to pass out.

12.  Serve with bread, mash anything, dumplings or even rice.

You may also choose to cook the stew with a slow cooker/crockpot.  It will taste just as yummy but the texture will be sightly different.  What's the difference?  The meat and vegetables always seem to hold their shape better when cooked in the oven yet they melt in your mouth if you cook them long enough.  You also do not really have to stir them as much when cooking them in the oven as long as you have enough liquid in your pot.

With a slow cooker, you need to stir because the distribution of heat is directly on the bottom and the sides.  Which means that with the stirring, the meat and vegetables get jostled around.  As they get tender, they tend to lose their shape with all that action, ya know?

Also, I tend to think there is a smokier, more, well, moreish taste to your stew if you are using the oven.   With the slow cooker, it has a cleaner taste, if that makes sense. 

So if you like fork tender meat and soft vegetables, use a slow cooker.  If you like a bit of texture and a smokier flavour, go for the oven.

But the most obvious difference is ... time.  Well duh.

Anyway, I'd made a trio of mashed potatoes, mashed parsnips and mashed pumpkin to accompany my stew.  I had all these leftover so I had to make use of them quickly.  I coated those babies with olive oil, roasted them in the oven, then I just mashed them with cream (yes, I used cream - yes, leftover too), salt, pepper and butter.

That was one satisfying meal and total comfort food.  I was a truly happy camper that night and I even had leftovers.  Nothing better than days-old stew.  Except for days-old curry.  Actually, I can't decide now ...

Conk.

Jackfruit & Green Papaya Curry

I have a love hate relationship with jackfruit.

We had a jackfruit tree in our garden back home.  I think the soil in our garden must have been rather dubious because most of our fruits and vegetables were just lame.  The rambutans were usually tart and tasted unripe no matter how long we left them on the branches.  The mangoes bypassed tart and went straight to sour.  Our cucumbers never grew beyond pygmy sizes and were, you guessed it, tart.  Yes, we ended up having loads of pickles.  Our starfruits were the only things that did alright.  But then again, they are supposed to be slightly tart.  The sugarcane was always slightly dry and bland no matter when we harvested them.

So, our jackfruits were funky tasting.  Worse, they were slimy.  I hated them as a kid.

I refused to eat them and the only way my grandmother could coax them into me was when they were cooked in curry.

Then, simmered in creamy coconut milk and smothered with spices, the jackfruits turned sweet and the sliminess was no longer an issue.

Thus, I associate jackfruit curry with childhood food.  I have not had any for yonks.  So when I saw a blog post by SpiceLines, on a recipe for a jackfruit curry adapted from the Amandari resort in Bali, I was intrigued.  A flood of childhood memories deluged me such that I suddenly developed a massive craving for it.

The recipe had already been fiddled around a fair bit and since it was created by a Westerner, I was rather dubious.  Reading the ingredients list raised even more worries.  I grew up on curries and the ingredients list just seem lacking.  Still, I was willing to keep an open mind.  Furthermore, SpiceLines reported that someone from Singapore had gushed over the dish so I was even more inclined to give it a try.

The recipe actually gave an option of a young jackfruit or papaya curry.  I had a some green papaya leftover so I decided to combine the two.  Hey, I was trying to clear the pantry.  I had some trouble getting young jackfruit from the market so I got the least ripe ones I could.

I was a little rushed for time that day so I went old school.  Which meant I did not measure anything and relied on the ancient art of A-Handful-Of-This-And-That-With-A-Guestimation-With-Eye.

Then to my horror, I realised my blender/mixer was kaput.  Argh, out came the mortar and pestle.  And not a good one too as I lost that in the move.  Sigh, I have a crapola, small, wooden one currently.  But I am made of resourceful, pioneer gypsy stock so I just improvised.  It worked out better this way anyway.  I prefer to go old school with my rempah since I can gauge better from smell and feel as I am pounding away when it is just right. 

Remember I am cooking for two here so portions are small.  Anyway, here goes-

You Don't Know Jack Fruit and Papaya Curry (ha!)

(adapted from SpiceLines which adapted from Gary Tyson at the Amandari, Bali)

Rempah -

Two mid-sized red onions and half a handful of red shallots - I like my rempah slightly juicy and sweet

3/4 handful of garlic cloves

About 1 1/2 inch length of garlic

1/2 handful of buah keras aka candlenut

1/2 tsp tumeric powder

About 1 1/4 tbsp of coriander powder - I really don't know as I just went with smell and texture of the rempah

About 8 chilli padis

Vegetable oil

1.  If you are using the mortar and pestle, I advise you to finely chop most of your rempah ingredients so pounding them into a paste will take less time and elbow grease.  If using the food processor, you can chop them up coarsely and let the blades do the work for you.

2.  I do it by batches so I can gauge the right texture and amount of each ingredient.  Add a little of each ingredient and start pounding.  Add the oil in parts regardless of whether you are using the mortar and pestle or food processor.  The oil helps the rempah form to a nice paste.

3.  I cannot tell you how to gauge by smell but you need to watch for a nice paste with still some texture in it.  You do not want a puree.  If you have somehow made your rempah into a soup-like puree, add some candlenuts.  If it is too dry and fibrous, add a little more oil and onion/shallots. If it is dry and fibrous yet strangely greasy, omit the oil and add more onions to soften the rempah.   If it is already too oily, add more ingredients. 

I have to state here I was rather disturbed that there was no lemongrass, cardamom or cinnamon in the rempah and instead these were only used in the curry.  Especially the lemongrass.  Also, I would have preferred galangal to ginger.  I was uncertain that the flavours would come alive.  I was right.  Next time I shall add a little of these to the rempah as well.  

Curry -

About 6 pieces of jackfruit, seeded and cubed

About a cup of green papaya, peeled, seeded and cubed

1 stalk lemongrass, trimmed of the tough outer leaves, cut to about 4-inch lengths and banged around a couple of times with my trusty pestle

About 4-5 fresh kaffir lime leaves

2 cinnamon sticks - mine were the short kind, more like cassia so I used two

About 1/4 handful cardamon pods - about 8-10 I guess

Coconut milk - I pour enough to make sure the curry sauce covers all the vegetables but does not become a soup

About 1 cup of carrot cut into coarse sticks

About 1 cut of french beans, sectioned into 3 1/2 inch sticks

About  1 cup of cauliflower florets

1. Heat some oil in your pot.  I used about 2 tbsp based on the amount of rempah I had

2.  Add the rempah and saute gently till the smell becomes so good you start drooling.  Let your nose tell you when it's ready.  You can't miss it.

3.  Add the fruits and stir gently to coat with rempah and cook for about 5 mins.

4.  Add the coconut milk, cinnamon sticks, lemongrass, lime leaves and cardamon pods.

5.  Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to simmer gently for about half an hour till everything is tender.

6.  If your curry is too thick, it could be two things.  One, you did not add enough coconut milk.  Go add more.  Two, your coconut milk is too thick.  To dilute, you can add either chicken or vegetable stock (if you want a strictly vegetarian dish) to your curry.  Do not add more coconut milk as that's the cause of your problem in the first place.

Be cognizant of the coconut milk you are using.  There are some pre-packed coconut milk which is slightly sweet that we use for desserts.  Do not use those.  If possible, use freshly squeezed coconut milk -not No. 1 or first-squeezed as you will need to dilute those. Canned or packet coconut milk  are cool too but just make sure there is no added sugar.  The fruits will give more than enough sweetness to your curry.

7.  Add the carrots, beans and cauliflower and cook for another 5-7 mins.

8.  SpiceLine's recipe asks that you remove the spices but I leave them in as curry tastes better the next day and I want my spices.  So I ignored that.  This is where I season to taste.  If it is too sweet, add more salt.  You really do not need that much pepper in this as it cannot assert itself against all the spices.  Just enough to co-mingle happily with its brethren but not for supremacy, OK?

9.  Serve with rice, all nice and hot and comforting.

Truly this dish tastes better the next day.  If it can last to the the day after, even better. The fruits and vegetables can start melting into the curry but it's still super yummy on rice.

I must admit this recipe was a disappointment.  It is what Singaporeans would call an ang-moh curry.  Which just cannot stand up to the Asian palate.  It is too weak and the spices are not balanced enough.  I also made the mistake or following the recipe and not using the amount of chilli padis I wanted.  I really should stick to my instincts more.

The most pleasing thing about this curry is its golden hue.  It is a pleasant curry but not outstanding.  In fact I think a lot of Asians might scoff at it for being weak and pale pretender.  I enjoyed it but I think my memories enjoyed it more as I kept harking back to my childhood with every golden mouthful of nostalgia.  But my taste buds reproached me as I remembered my grandmother's jackfruit curries filled with the harvest of home.

Food Fraud

I was really pissed this afternoon.  Returning to the fair isle of Singapore, around National Day, one might assume that Singaporeans would be filled with nationalistic pride and patriotic ardour to prove their worth and might as a young nation.

One might assume wrong then.

Firstly, let me caveat that I rather like Singapore on good days and constantly conk my head on my keyboard in frustrated amazement on bad. I rather think it is not the geography per say but its people.

One of the first things I heard, on returning to Singapore recently, was a vignette on telly featuring the older Singaporean celebrities waxing nostalgic about their homeland.  I am not sure who it was (might be Brian Richmond) because I heard it rather than saw it - I was listening to the telly as I was working.  This bloke was going on about how wonderful he thought Singapore was but he wished that it had a more gracious society.

That actually caught my attention. 

Because it is true.  We all wish Singapore had a more gracious society, don't we?  I hear that lament all the time.

But no one would claim responsibility for it.  And the definition of "gracious" seems really diverse.

I am no expert but I get the sense the powers that be in Singapore and the wannabes think "gracious" means a higher standard of living with champagne and caviar flowing at F1 events, luxury shopping locations and mega concerts boasting world-class celebrities.

This definition of "graciousness" is an aspiration which seems attached to Singaporeans only.  Because when you ask them what is hampering the advancement of said "graciousness" in their island in the sun, they usually point the fingers at ... The Foreigner.  Typically of the mainland Chinese and Indian ilk.

They blame these foreigners for lowering the tone of the country.  For being mannerless and uncouth.  For a whole range of problems from spitting to standing on the loo to body ordour.  I've heard it all now (I think) such that my eyebrows do not even raise that much anymore in amazement.

Ironically, if you ask foreign workers in Singapore why Singapore is not as gracious a society as it wishes, they will point their fingers at ... The Locals.  All of them.  Regardless of race, language or religion.

Well, in that sense, the national pledge is fulfilled isn't it?

Why?  Because, according to them, Singaporeans are rude and arrogant and have little appreciation for anything, what more people, being more concerned about money.

Hey, as I stated above, I am no expert.  I am just an average Joe with minuscule issues so I relate to the mundane, every day issues of the average resident of Singapore.

So I bring you a case in point. 

I decided I would bake an apple tart today as I have a shitload of apples.  So off I went to my local wet market to buy some cinnamon powder.  Now I know it is not common but there is an Indian spice shop in the wet market which would definitely have it. 

But I decided I would be egalitarian and try one of the Chinese spice shops to avoid accusations of racial profiling.  The Chinese shopkeeper was a middle-aged woman who spoke good English, which was a relief.  After looking around, I asked if they had any cinnamon powder.  She nodded and pointed at a rack.

Now I was getting worried.  I'd looked there but had seen nothing.  Am I getting blind in my old age?  Nope, no cinnamon stick or powder. I asked again and she pointed at a row of dark brown powders in transparent sachets marked with red Chinese characters.

I raised my eyebrow.  "Er, no, that's not cinnamon powder. I think that's five spice powder."

The woman had the gall to tell me it was cinnamon powder.

Look, my Chinese is bad but even I can recognise the word "five" in Chinese.  I sniffed the sachets and pointed at the word "five" and told the lady, "No it's not.  It says there that's it's five spice powder."

Now she looked surprised.  I flushed internally in pride at my level of Chinese proficiency.  Hey, the ads on telly work!  Dian deng jai na li?  I can say that!  Why do I suddenly have that Teresa Teng song in my head?

Anyway, the temerity of the woman grew as she bald-facedly lied to me.  "It's the same."

Excuse me while I conk my forehead on my keyboard.

Ouch.

"Look, lady, five spice is not the same as cinnamon powder and you know that.  One is like, you know, one spice.  The other is like, gee, five?!!!"

At this stage she knew her goose was cooked but she still maintained her belligerent expression and made no apology.  But she had that look in her eye.  The one that said, "Why the hell that one know how to read Chinese, har?"

I walked away before I lost the battle to be snarkier by telling her that even without my outstanding Chinese literacy to recognise the "five" word, I could tell by colour and smell that that was no cinnamon powder.

Why do people always assume I know shit about food?  Because I am skinny?  Hey, that Eurasian dude is a chef on telly and he's skinny too!  

But more importantly, is that the gracious behaviour that Singapore hopes to be known for?

This incident implied so many wrongs that there is no right.  Racial bias because she thought the non-Chinese person would not be able to read Chinese.  Fraud because she tried to peddle the wrong product to someone she thought was the village idiot.  Hey, I graduated from village idiocy night school last year, alright?  

And more importantly, she exhibited that she was raised by wolves and not in a good New Moon-Jacob way, with her inability to acknowledge her duplicity and make the proper amends.  An apology would be nice and admitting that she did not stock the product would have alleviated some of my ire.

Instead, I went to the Indian spice shop huffing and puffing.  As I got my cinnamon powder, I complained loudly and angrily about the Chinese shopkeeper.  Which then led to something ugly.

The Indian lady and I indulged in some racial under-dogging.  We expressed our disgust and ire that the Chinese shopkeeper could be so racially biased and basked atop our moral high horse.  We remarked that the Chinese shopkeepers were only nice and honest with their own kind and minorities could only expect the same from other minorities.

It was only as I was walking home that the shame hit me.  I was no better than that Chinese shopkeeper.  Or the finger pointers.  You wronged me because of you are such and such race and I am the other.

Why are we not a gracious society?  Let's turn the finger the other way.

I apologise.  I suck.  Eggs.  Big time.

I will try to be better and aspire to my own definition of gracious.  It does not lie in the external but the twisted and gnarly internal dialogue and interaction with my own worst enemy, aka me, myself and I.  Only then will it be expressed outwardly in a positive manner and hopefully, three of my grandmother's maxims will prove true. 

Lead by example.

Always treat people as you would wish to be treated.

A person of grace is one who always makes the people around him/ her feel comfortable and at home.

Since Singapore is my home now, I guess I just have to suck it up and accept the bad with the good with graciousness.  

So shuddup internal voice of whining and have some more apple tart of self-reflection.  While standing in a corner.