DOC HUMOUR

One night a man and a woman are both at a bar knocking back a few beers. They start talking and come to realize that they're both doctors. After about an hour, the man says to the woman, "Hey. How about if we sleep together tonight. No strings attached. It'll just be one night of fun." The woman doctor agrees to it.

So they go back to her place and he goes in the bedroom. She goes in the bathroom and starts scrubbing up like she's about to go into the operating room. She scrubs for a good 10 minutes. Finally she goes in the bedroom and they have sex for an hour or so.

Afterwards, the man says to the woman, "You're a surgeon, aren't you?" "Yeah, how did you know?" The man says, "I could tell by the way you scrubbed up before we started." "Oh, that makes sense", says the woman. " You're an anesthesiologist aren't you?" "Yeah", says the man , a bit surprised. "How did you know?" The woman answers, "Because I didn't feel a thing."

Thanks Margaret. Apparently she is a doctor. So it's good to know that you guys can laugh at yourselves once in a while. But I do hope you a lot more than tell each other jokes and bang one another at those medical conferences.

Missus Singapore out!

Missus Singapore or Miss Us Singapore (at your own peril) - A married woman on the loose

Link to full article

The History and Origins of Yu Sheng: An Editorial

It's true that the press likes to sensationalize things.  And there is no better way of getting readers to buy papers then to have headings like "Let's yee sang for another round of food fight" (1)  and then following it up with "Cyberwar of words over dish" (2).  But just who is waging the war?  I have cousins living in Malaysia and when this "war" erupted, I simply called one of them, wished him a Happy Chinese New Year and had a nice, albeit lively debate with him about the origins of Yu Sheng.  I am sure that many of us cross the border to meet up with relatives over Chinese New Year so you can just imagine discussing this topic over a game of Mahjong, can't you?  It's hardly a war and I just want to make it very clear from the start, that I am writing this article simply because I am interested to piece together how Yu Sheng became the cultural icon of our generation.

First of all, let me define just what I think the debate is about.  When we talk about the origin of Yu Sheng, we are essentially trying to understand how the ubiquitous 7 Colour Yu Sheng (photo above) and the culture of everyone standing around the table tossing it while uttering auspicious phrases came to be the popular culture of today.  It is useful to think about this based on the concept of  "The Tipping Point"(3) where a series of factors come together to bring ideas, products, messages and behaviors to suddenly spread like viruses.  This is essentially what happened with Yu Sheng.  This dish has been a traditional dish of the Cantonese people (which include the Teochews who are also from Canton province) that is eaten on the 7th day of the Chinese New Year to celebrate Ren Ri (The day god created humans in Chinese mythology).  Our migrant forefathers had then brought the practice over to Malaya at the turn of the century and Lo Yu Sheng has been practiced by people from both Malaysia and Singapore since before the War.  But a series of events in the early sixties propelled the whole concept of the tossing of Yu Sheng past the Tipping Point to become, in our modern day venacular, "Viral".   We shall discuss this a little bit more later. 

But let's start by looking at how our concept of eating raw fish originated from the people living in Canton.  And what better way to discover this than to actually go to the Jiangmen region of Canton to see how they eat Yu Sheng today. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to actually go there, but I discovered that the good people of Mediacorp had already made a program about it.  So in the following video we will follow Mediacorp artiste, Ann Kok, as she traces the history of Yu Sheng from when it first arrived in Singapore in the 1920's, to 1933 where it was served at the Loong Yik Kee Restaurant.  With that background, she then took the cameras to Jiangmen and Shunde to show us what Yu Sheng is like back in its country of origin.

Food Hometown: Yu Sheng episode (4)

From this video, we can establish a few important facts.  Firstly, the form of Yu Sheng that was brought over by our forefathers was quite different from the popular version that we have today.  The fish itself is different.  They use Grass Carp in China whereas locally the Wolf Herring (Parang fish, Sai Toh Her) was traditionally used.  The ingredients were also much simpler and most noticeably, there was no use of the plum sauce which very much characterizes the modern form of Yu Sheng.

The other fact that  can be establish from the video is that the Cantonese in Singapore were already eating Yu Sheng at the restaurants in the 30's.  It is important to bear in mind that Singapore was the major port in those days and most of the migrants from China came first to Singapore before traveling overland to Malaysia.  So the Cantonese in both Malaysia and Singapore are essentially the same stock.   So it comes as no surprise that Lo Yu Sheng was also practiced in Malaysia in the 30's as claimed by some Malaysian newspapers recently.  Therefore, articles like the one that appeared in the Sin Chew Daily (5) arguing for the existence of Yu Sheng in Malaysia in the 40's and 50's as well as the one in New Straits Times (6) claiming Seremban as the place of origin in 1947 are quite redundant, since we know that people are already serving it in restaurants here in the 30's.

But I am afraid the Malaysian press have really shot themselves in the foot with arguments like "The custom of eating yee sang during Chinese New Year belongs to the Cantonese and given that people of this dialect are mostly from Kuala Lumpur, it must have originated from here,".  (7).  I am sure you will agree that Singapore has a sizeable population of Cantonese who exert a great influence on our culture.  The same paper also followed it up with another article headlined "My uncle created Yusheng"  (8) where a 77 year old lady claims that she remembers eating Yu Sheng as a child and that it was invented by her uncle, Tham Mui Kai in the 1920's or 30's.  Incidentally, Chef Tham is one of the Four Heavenly Kings who introduced the modern Yu Sheng in the Chinese New Year of 1964 in his then newly opened Lai Wah Restaurant.  Such claims are easily debunked because Chef Hooi who was 13 years old when he joined Cathay Restaurant in 1950 remembers Chef Tham as a young man in his teens then.  According to Chef Hooi, Chef Tham could not be more than 10 years older then he is.  The other fact we can establish is that Chef Tham died in 1996 in his seventies.  So by doing a few simple calculations, Chef Tham would have been at most 23 years old in 1950, (Chef Tham could not be more than 10 years older then Chef Hooi) making his birth-year 1926 at the earliest.  By the end of the 1930's he was at most 13 years old.  How could he have possibly invented Yu Sheng in the 20's or 30's?

Yu Sheng: Not Singaporean Creation (9)

Other papers like the Sin Chew article (9) above claimed that Yu Sheng was already popular in Malaysia in the 1950's and re-created the dish to show what it was like then.   I think this is consistent with what we have already established earlier that a traditional form of Yu Sheng was already eaten in Singapore by the 1930's.  From this article we can see that the form of Yu Sheng in the 50's was very different from the popular 7 Colour Yu Sheng that is now popular in Singapore as well as Malaysia.  It is important to notice that the amount of shredded vegetables were much less than the current version as this is one of the important factors that contributed to Yu Sheng's Tipping Point, as we shall see later.

One very intriquing theory of how Yu Sheng was popularized in Malaysia was put forth by Nadge Ariffin.(10)  In this article, she claimed that it was in the February of 1952 that Yu Sheng was popularized by the newly formed UMNO and MCA Alliance who had just won the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council election.  According to the article, the alliance partners celebrated with a dish of Yu Sheng as Chinese New Year was "just around the corner".  While it might sound plausible, a simple internet search would have revealed that Lunar New Year in 1952 fell on January 27th wheras the elections were held sometime after Feb 10 which puts it past the 15 days of Chinese New Year celebrations.  With no solid evidence backing this theory, I feel that this can only be regarded as an urban legend.  However, the article has already been used as a reference in Wikipedia and will undoubtedly be a source of reference for future articles.  I have written to the friedchillies.com seeking evidence for their claim but have not gotten an answer as yet.

So far we have established that Yu Sheng started in China and was a traditional dish eaten during Chinese New Year in both Singapore and Malaysia prior to the sixties.  The form of Yu Sheng existing before the 60's was different from what it is now but we still don't know Yu Sheng became as popular as it is today. 

So what happened in the 60's that propelled it into popular culture?

Today article: Jan 29 2011 (11)

This is where the Four Heavenly Kings of Cantonese Cuisine come into the picture.  Their story has been well documented in the past (12) but so far no one has offered an explanation of what happened  that began to change the way people ate Yu Sheng.

Rather than recounting the whole story again, I will just point you to the excellent article published by Today (11) last year as well as the following video where the chefs talk about how they came to create the modern version of Yu Sheng.  I will use these references as the basis for my analysis on the factors that brought Yu Sheng to the Tipping Point.


Four Heavenly Kings discuss the origins of Yu Sheng (13)

In case you don't already know, the Four Heavenly Kings are the stuff of legend in Singapore.  They started working as apprentices at the Cathay Restaurant in 1950 under Hong Kong Masterchef Luo Chen whose vision was to introduce Cantonese cuisine to the world. When the master died in 1960, the Four Heavenly Kings spread out to teach and open their own restaurants but remained blood brothers for the rest of their lives.  They met frequently to discuss new culinary ideas and openly shared recipes with each other.  It was during a few of those meetings that the concept of the modern Yu Sheng was developed.

At the time, the Chefs noticed that the way that Yu Sheng was served was unhygienic as the fish were often left hanging out in the open where they could get dusty (you can get a glimpse of this in the first video).  So one of the things they did was to served the fish already sliced.  The other thing they did was to standardize the sauce.  Chris Hooi, the son of Chef Hooi who currently runs Dragon Phoenix restaurant explained to me that the standardization of the sauce was very important.  In the past, the dish would have been served with vinegar, sugar and sesame oil which the customers would have to mix it themselves.  By pre-mixing the sauce and carefully portioning it with the salad, they managed to create a dish which is consistently reproduced each time it was served.  This was important in giving the dish its identity.


Ready... set.... Huat ah!

Aside from the sauce, the other significant thing the chefs did was to add the colourful condiments to make the dish more festive, as well as to introduce the mound of three different coloured shredded vegetables in the middle.  When the chefs did this, they did not envisage people standing up to toss the salad together and uttering Chinese New Year blessings.  That came about serendipitously over the years.  But have you ever notice how difficult it is to mix the salad?  That is because the thinly shredded vegetables sort of get entangled easily and this was very different from from the salad in the past.  This meant that it took longer for the salad to be tossed properly and this was, in my opinion, one of the significant reasons why Yu Sheng evolved to be such a communal activity.  Since it is more difficult and took longer to toss, everyone around the table started to pitch in and got involved.  And the size of the banquet table made it impossible for one to toss the salad sitting down.  So, very soon, everyone was standing up together to help disentangle that darn ball of of shredded veggies!

We know that the mound of thinly shredded vegetables was quite an innovation in those days. In order to get the vegetables the way they wanted, they needed to think out of the box. Chef Hooi recalls that they used to shred the veggies using a conventional shredder before they finally managed to source a Japanese vegetable turner/shredder from C.K.Tangs which enabled them to produce thinner and longer shreds.  The drying of the veggies after they were shredded was also something that required innovation.  Initially, it was done by using a table cloth with the veggies folded in the middle and  two persons on each end twisting the cloth to wring out the water.  Later on, they discovered that they could do it with the drying cycle of a washing machine!  The lack of technology and know how to do all these things point to the fact that Yu Sheng was not popular enough in those days for commercial equipment to be readily available.

The other significant factor in bringing the dish to its Tipping Point was the way it was introduced to customers starting in 1964.  At the time, Yu Sheng was only eaten during the 7th day of the Chinese New Year to celebrate Ren Ri. In 1963, Chef Hooi opened Dragon Phoenix in April, followed by Chef Tham and Chef Lau with Lai Wah in September.   All these Chefs introduced the dish in their respective restaurants on the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year the following year.  The reason for selling it on the 2nd day instead of the just the 7th day was simply because they wanted to sell the dish for 14 days instead of one.

The initial response from the general public was cold.  People couldn't understand what the dish was about because they were used to the old way of eating Yu Sheng.  So the Chefs made it the appetizer dish in their Chinese New Year set menu.  These two factors helped expose the dish to more people.  It still took quite a few years before people started warming up to the idea.  The final straw dropped on the camel's back in 1970, when Dragon Phoenix moved to Outram Park and expanded its capacity to 1000.  In the same year All four chefs combined to open Ruby Restaurant which was another 1000 seater.  Chef Sin Leong, who opened his first restaurant in 1968 in Macpherson, expanded with its Serangoon branch in 1971 which could also seat 1000.  In 1972, all four chefs again combined to open Red Star (Ruby had to close the following year after its 3 year lease) which is another 1000 seater.  All these large capacity restaurants meant that instead of a non-standardized dish experienced by hundreds in a couple of restaurants, the same recognizable Yu Sheng dish could now be experienced by thousands every Chinese New year and this is what I believe brought Yu Sheng to its Tipping Point to become the culinary culture that it is today!

Conclusion

In this article, I have tried to piece together the evolution of Yu Sheng from the traditional dish that our Cantonese (including the Teochews) migrant forefathers brought from their homeland to what it is today.  In this article, I have analyzed the existing resources and combined it with new evidence that was not previously found on the internet.  Based on the existing evidence, I believe that it was the Four Heavenly Kings who managed to tweak the dish and set forth the conditions which brought the Yu Sheng to the Tipping Point where it subsequently became a cultural icon. 

Did they invent Yu Sheng?  No, of course not.  But I think you can draw an allegory from Steve Jobs and the IPad.  Did Steve Jobs invent the tablet PC?  Of course not.  But what he did was to tweak it and through a series of events made it the popular device it is today.  In the same way, the Four Heavenly Kings tweaked the Yu Sheng recipe and because of some opportune factors, made Yu Sheng what it is today.

My goal is not to debate about which country owns the rights to Yu Sheng, but simply to write an article for people who are interested to research the history and origins of Yu Sheng.  The theory of the Tipping Point of Yu Sheng was something I have put forth as a way of explaining how the dish came to become as widely accepted as it is today.  If you disagree with any points presented here, you are more than welcome to present your arguments and I would be very glad to update the article as new evidence become available.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Chef Hooi of Dragon Phoenix Restaurant for assisting with the article

Dragon Phoenix Restaurant
177A River Valley Road
#06-00 Novotel Clarke Quay Singapore (Liang Court)
Singapore 179031
6339 3368
Special Promo: 50% off  Dim Sum Menu till end of April 2012

1.  Let's Yee Sang for another round of food fight, thestaronline, 30 Jan 2012
2.  Cyberwar of words over dish, thestaronline, 31 Jan 2012
3.  The Tipping Point: How little things can make such a big difference, Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown 2000
4.  Food Hometown, Yu Sheng episode, Wawa Pictures, 2008
5.  Call for Unesco's recognition of Singapore's Yusheng sparks debate.  Translated by Dominic Low, Sin Chew Daily, 30 Jan 2012
6.  Seremban popularised Yusheng: Datuk Loh, New Straits Times, 11 Feb 2012
7.  Singapore's claim on yusheng got tossed out by Malaysians, The Star, ANN, 31 Jan 2012
8.  My uncle created Yu Sheng, The Star, Ann, 1 Feb 2012
9.  Yu Sheng: Not a Singaporean creation:  Sin Chew Daily, 31 Jan 2012
10. The origins of Yu Sang:  Nadge Ariffin, friedchillies.com 7 Feb 2011
11.  A dish called Yu Sheng, Teo Xuan Wei, Today, 29 Jan 2011
12.  Yu Sheng, Bonny Tan, National Library Board 13 Feb 1999
13.  Essence of a Festival, Part 1 Yu Sheng

Link to full article

HOW LOVE-LY!

Thanks James Bond for this interesting take on how the heart symbol came about. Now, I do love the female form too but I just wish you guys would start sending me some male butt for a change! I need some eye candy too!

I hope you guys had a great Valentine's Day and do send me some hot steamy stories of what you were up to.

Missus Singapore out!

Missus Singapore or Miss Us Singapore (at your own peril) - A married woman on the loose

Link to full article

Moral Glass Houses

What's that they say? Those that live in glass houses should learn not to throw stones. National Development Minister, Mr Khaw "$8" Boon Wan reported "reminded voters to consider a person's character when they go to the polls, adding that there is no difference between a person's personal and professional life once he or she enters politics..."


Well, nobody is perfect, and nobody can know a person perfectly. Often not even the person whom he/she shares a bed with every night knows each other perfectly, no matter what Valentiners would have your believe. Dare Mr Khaw claim that he and/or the PAP knows all its elected MPs all that well? Mr Khaw's remarks called to mind the tragic case of Mr Teh Cheang Wan, coincidentally also the National Development Minister in MM Lee's cabinet in the early 1980s. Teh had been highly rated by MM then, and he was fast-tracked into the Cabinet. Unfortunately, he managed to fool MM and his government. He was on the take, and when confronted with this, he committed suicide. Perhaps Mr Khaw was too young to remember this (nah...can't be, he's easily older than me), or, more likely, he has a case of selective amnesia.


This present situation is a sad one. But I think the WP did right to claim the moral high ground even though it knew that the people in the PAP, and maybe others, will ridicule them and say all manner of ill about them as if these same stone-throwers are angels sent from God.


Mr Khaw also reportedly said that it (the sacking of Mr Yaw) "was a sad development to learn that an MP’s character was deemed insufficient by his own party". Yes, it is indeed tragic, but the PAP would have done no less to its own, and did no less in the past. So Mr Khaw should stop being holier-than-thou. It can happen to you or me. People whom we may have trusted for a long time may turn out very different. 


Get this right. There is nothing wrong about being the "cheatee". It is the cheater who is wrong.  

Link to full article

Dilmah School of Tea Part III: How to brew that Perfect Cup of Tea!

Advertorial


Brewing a Perfect Cup of Tea might not be everyone's Cup of Tea.... yet.   But I hope that after reading this next post, you will find yourself brewing that perfect cuppa in your own home.  The great thing about it is that it is much easier to brew a cup of tea than a cup of coffee!  Unlike coffee, you don't need to have a grinder and a machine that creates pressurized steam!  All you need is a few simple equipment and more importantly, a few things to keep in mind and you are on your way to drinking a great cup of tea!

1.  The Tea

It goes without saying that you are not going to get that great cup of tea by using lousy tea leaves.  That's not to say that it has to be expensive.  You can make an enjoyable cup of tea using pretty affordable tea.  But the thing to keep in mind is that your tea must be fresh and it has to be stored properly so that it is kept fresh.

I have experienced this myself.  I have in my cupboard, some teabags which I have kept in a container for a few months with some other herbal teas.  I made some tea with these teabags and compared it with a pack of the same tea which I have just bought from the supermarket.  The taste and aroma was markedly different!  Not only does tea lose its aroma if not stored properly, it absorbs whatever other flavours it is stored with.  So, one of the most basic tips is to buy only small amounts of tea, keep them in airtight containers away from light and finish using them as quickly as possible.

The other thing about the tea is the quality and freshness of the tea that you buy.  I have already written about the process of manufacturing tea in my first post.  Whether your tea is manufactured by the orthodox or the CTC process will make a difference in the flavour and aroma of the tea.  That is not to say that one process is better than the other.  If you are after body and colour, which is what you need when making Teh Tarik, then CTC is fine.  But if you are after tea that has flavour and aroma like the Seasonal Flush, then your tea really needs to be made with the orthodox method.


Watte Series

As consumers, we do have some means to obtain fresher teas if we bother to do read the labels. Freshness refers to the length of time between the picking of the tea leaves to the time that they are processed and packed.  Nowadays, many teas are a blended product using tea leaves from around the world.  As tea ages in ships and warehouses, they lose freshness, absorb moisture, develop various bacteria and lose flavour and antioxidants.  This is why one of the key commitments that Dilmah makes is that they only sell Single Origin Tea.  By buying Single Origin Tea, you are assured that your black tea comes from a single source ie Sri Lanka and not mixed with teas from other parts of the world.  This usually means that the time between the picking of the tea leaves to the packing is shortened, resulting in what Merril J Fernando, the founder of Dilmah likes to say is "Garden Fresh" tea.

In order to showcase regional differences in tea, Dilmah also introduced their Watte series which highlights the "Terroir" nature of tea.  Just like wine, the nature of tea depends on regional factors such as altitude, geology, soil depth and type and general climate.  The Watte series is a range of four teas that are sourced from 18 tea gardens in Sri Lanka which best showcases the characteristics of teas produced at different locations across Sri Lanka.

 
From left, Ran Watte (6000ft), Uda Watte (5000ft), Meda Watte (3000ft), Yata Watte (1000ft)

In general, high grown teas, like the Ran Watte which are made from teas grown at 6000 feet above sea level are more delicate, mellow with subtle in character, akin to a fine Champagne.  Yata Watte on the other hand are made from teas grown between sea level to 1000 feet.  These teas are heavy, robust and intense, more like a Carbernet Sauvignon.  Whereas the Ran Watte are drunk without milk and are best paired with light food such has steamed dim sum, the Yata Watte is best enjoyed with milk and sugar and pairs very well with sweet pastries.

The Watte Series is not yet available in Singapore, but is available at the Dilmah online store.  We are planning a High Tea makan session soon to showcase the Watte series where we pair the different teas to different foods. So do keep an eye out for it!

2.  Water

Water quality is another important factor in making tea.  Various contaminants in water like calcium, flouride or chlorine can affect the quality of the tea.  That said, I must admit that I usually make my everyday cup of tea using normal tap water.  However, when I need to make that extra special cup of tea to "wow" my friends, I would use filtered water or natural mineral water to make sure that I get everything right. 

The other thing about water is that you should always use water that has been freshly drawn instead of reboiling water that has cooled down.  When water comes to the boil, the air inside the water is released and if you reboil it and use it to brew tea, you will end up with a lifeless brew which might sometimes taste a little metallic.  So remember to always use freshly boiled water.

3.  Temperature

You should know that by now that different teas need to be brewed at different temperatures.  In general, fully oxidized black teas need to be steeped at 100 degrees whereas a more delicate green tea needs water that has been cooled to 80 degrees or the brew would become bitter.

So how do you tell if your water is at 100 degrees celcius?  I guess many might simply answer that the water needs to be boiling hot.   But water starts to bubble by around 80 degrees and only gets to 100 degrees celcius when it hits a vigorous boil for a period of time.  If you use a electric kettle, you might notice that the water bubbles vigorously for quite a while before it cuts off.  Well, even when it is on a vigorous boil, the temperature of the water is still climbing gradually from 95 to 100 degrees, so you do need it to boil for a while to hit 100.  So if you boil water from a pot, do make sure that the water comes to a vigorous boil and hold the heat for at least a good 10 seconds before turning it off.  In case you are interested in being able to tell the temperature of water just by looking at it, do check out this very interesting article which talks about the relation between the temperature of water and the size of the bubbles.

I have a thermometer at home, so it is pretty easy for me to tell the temperature of water when I brew tea.  For black tea, it is quite simple as all you need is boiling water.  However, if you have some green tea, I found that a good rule of thumb is to bring a full kettle of water (1.7L) to the boil and then wait for the temperature to drop.  For a 1.7L kettle in Singapore,, the water temperature drops by 10 degrees to 90 degrees in the first 5 mins, then to 85 degrees in the next 5 mins and 80 degrees in the next 5 mintutes.  Therefore, you need to wait approx 10-15 mins if you wish to brew green tea.

4. Tea Pot

For black tea, a porcelain teapot is usually recommended.  The thing to remember about your teapot is that you should always using boiling water to rinse it before brewing your tea because you don't want the water temperature to drop too much when you add water to the tea leaves.  The second thing is never to use detergent to wash your teapot as it may leave some nasty fragrance to the pot. (So if you use lemon scented detergent, your next pot of tea might taste like Earl Grey!) And thirdly, you should always make sure your teapot does not have any tea stains as they would make your tea bitter. To get rid of tea stains, add boiling water and 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda to the teapot and leave it for 2 to 3 hours to get rid of the tea stains.

5 Timing

Different teas will need different steeping times.  In general, the lighter green teas will require shorter steeping times then the more robust black teas.  Black teas will usually need at least 3 mins to brew.  You might notice that after one minute or so, the colour may be already quite dark, but it would be a mistake to remove the teabag then, because you would have a tea with colour but not flavour.  The flavour only really gets released by 3 mins.  If you prefer your tea weak, then dilute it with water after a 3 minute brew.  The other mistake you might make is to leave the tea bag in the pot/cup for too long.  The tea will get too astringent and bitter.  So the best way to brew your pot of tea is to use a tea sock and remove the tea after 3-5 mins instead of leaving the tea leaves in the pot and pouring it out using a tea sieve as you gradually nibble on your scones!

Conclusion

I have been a convert to the Dilmah brand ever since I came back from visiting their tea gardens.  Not only have I learnt of their passion in making teas and preserving tea culture, but I am very impressed by their efforts to use their profits to help the people of Sri Lanka. From my conversations with Merrill J Fernando and his son Dilhan, I sense their passion not only for Tea, but also for the people of Sri Lanka.  Dilhan shared with me that he spends his weekends with his own family visiting the various charity projects that Dilmah is involved with.   These range from environmental projects like their elephant orphanages which look after elephants affected by the civil war to the various creches and medical centres that are supported by the MJF foundation.  Another of their more recent projects is the Makanda project where they empower an isolated community from the Udawalawe region by enabling them to produce terracotta art pieces. All these projects demonstrate Dilmah's commitment "to make business a matter of human service" and it is good to know that when you drink your cup of tea, you are helping instead of exploiting the people who work hard to produce the tea.

My other posts on Dilmah Tea can be found here.
Read about the MJF foundation's various social enterprises here.

Link to full article

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

To all my readers, happy Valentine's Day and I hope you have a special day. Just don't be corny and avoid following the crowds. I had to post this video sent by from Debbie from Texas. It brought quite a laugh. Thanks.

Missus Singapore out!

Missus Singapore or Miss Us Singapore (at your own peril) - A married woman on the loose

Link to full article

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Here is a great video sent in by a long-time follower of Missus Singapore. Thank you so much for this Vandalin! Now if only we can find such a place like this. Have a great week ahead!

Missus Singapore out!

Missus Singapore or Miss Us Singapore (at your own peril) - A married woman on the loose

Link to full article