YELLOW GOLD

The glossy golden pineapple filling tarts ready for a bite

Tarts in the shape of a pineapple.

Bolster-shaped tarts

Nicely baked tarts to tempt your salivary glands

Roll the dough on the back of a fork for this effect

Generous mound of filling heaped on golden brown pastry

The dough with the crater for the pineapple filling

The tart mould and cutter with a preset floral design

Nenas Moris which I hunted in Johor Bharu

Lots of patience required to simmer the pineapple flesh

Caramelised pineapple fillings shaped into balls

The mould and the pair of tweezers for making the tarts

My tray of tarts ready to be presented to friends

Air and coold the tarts before keeping them in bottles

One piece is never enough for you to try mine

My Deepavali gifts for my friends

PINE FOR TARTS

My mum has a wonderful recipe for the pineapple tarts she has been making since we were young. I simply love the taste of the pastry which is not too soft and crumbly nor does it coat and stick onto your enamel when you put it into your mouth. But it is perfect for the bite that you have been longing and yearning for - something sweet and lingering to enjoy a lovely afternoon tea with. The crust should taste creamy with a slight salty taste to it. The next bite should allow the pineapple filling to be mixed with the not too sweet pastry to make your eyes roll upwards while your soul float to some far away idyllic islands. The sweet and creamy combination of the pastry and the sweetened pineapple jam which by now should be moist with the enzymes in your saliva must be relished till you are ready to push the ball of heaven down your digestive tract.

Now that mum has definitely declared that the kitchen boundary is no longer under her iron-nail regime, the task of making those delicious pineapple tarts fall on me. The first thing I had to make sure was that the tarts would taste just as good or even BETTER than what mum used to bake. Off course deep down, I know that I would never beat mum’s superb culinary and baking skills no matter how hard I try.

I swear by using only one brand of butter for the dough to maintain as close as possible the quality of tarts which mum used to bake. It’s got to be SCS salted butter for me and nothing else. We have faithfully used this brand of butter since 1960s and I would never switch for another brand for all the cookies and cakes I need to bake.

Another ingredient important for baking successful fluffy tarts is the pineapples. You need to choose the right pineapples for making the jam or the filling. Honey pineapple would be too watery. Sarawak pineapples would be too coarse in texture. We would hunt for Nenas Moris to get the perfect formula and sweetness to fill in the crater of the tart dough. It’s a tough job to remove the hard and scaly skin of the pineapples. Then you have to scour those beady eyes of the fruit before chopping and blending the flesh for the right smoothness and required consistency that you desired for.

I usually discard the core stem of the fruit. However, when we were young, my siblings would devour the core as reward for chopping the flesh of the pineapples. Some of the juice of the pineapple has to be squeezed before you add the sugar. Too much juice means that you have to boil and stir it longer. The mashed pineapple is next boil over a slow fire to caramelise it. To give the extra shine and gloss, I usually add a dollop of butter as the last ritual to making the pineapple jam.

As for the flour, my top choice brand is the Orchid brand from Australia. Its lightness and airiness usually result in very good dough. Sieve and air it in room temperature for a day or two before using it. Once the dough is ready, make it into several balls. While you roll out a ball of dough, cover the rest with a piece of wet towel to prevent them from drying up. The dough should not crack or stick on the rolling board when you flatten it with the rolling pin. With the cutter, press the floral shape of the tart and lift it up gently, making sure it does not stretch and go out of shape. At this stage the dough is very pliable and has to be handled gently.

Nowadays, the tart cutter comes with a pre-cut design, so busy housewives and career women need not use any tweezers to pinch the design around the circumference of the cut and pressed round shape of the tart dough. It’s a good idea to prepare the pineapple fillings into small balls first before you put them into the crater of the dough. This way, you would ensure that the fillings are of the same size. Bake straight away once a tray is ready for the butter in the dough may melt under room temperature and harden your pastry when it is baked.

I feel great when the glossy golden pineapple filling pops out against the rich yellow pastry for attention when I pull the baking tray out from the oven. The heavy aroma of the freshly-baked tarts would envelope the house. My sons and husband would come scrambling from their hide out for a taste of the heavenly tarts. And where were they when I needed them most in the kitchen?

IN SERVICE

Started teaching in 1977

The group of teacchers in the print advertisement

Met some friends during the photoshoot

All of us have more than 3o years of teaching service

Standing proud as a teacher

PRESS ADVERTISEMENT

Together with 60 over teachers, we were featured in a 2-full page advertisemnt in the Straits Times to commemorate Teachers’ Day this year. The advertisment was a special feature of long-service Education Officers (EOs) who have been in service for at least thirty years. Many of them have dedicated their lives to nurturing students and the MOE would want to express their heartfelt appreciation through the special feature. It was a time to celebrate the years of dedication and commitment of many of our teachers.

The advertisement also acted as an inspiration which the teaching service would like to highlight on Teachers' Day. It was also an attempt to woo the correct target audience ie. students, mid-careerists to join teaching.

Time flies. I have been in service since 1977. I love my vocation and making the connections with the young.

CHARCOAL AND SAGA

The melancholic eyes pleading for a master

I will bow to all of your requests

No I won't mess up the house nor the upholstery

The super sharp pointed ears and elfin-looking shaped face

The downcast face that invites pity and love

The saga tree with its still green pods (www.NatureLoveYou.sgu.sg)

The dry curly pods with the red saga seeds dispersed throgh the explosive method

(www.NatureLoveYou.sgu.sg)

They gave me endless hours of playing during my childhood days

The black-white feathered body

Specks of white contrast with black for the wings

Wing span stretches half of my lower arm

Saga's red round beady eyes

Dark reddish brown head and neck

The long and narrow beak

An injured leg hinders its flight to freedom



PETTY OVER PETS

4th Oct was World Pet Day. Guess what? My family ended up with two pets as a result of that event.

First, my son met a black cat at his cousin's Tampines flat. He played with it for a while. He returned to the same flat the next night and the cat was there again. It followed him wherever he went. My son had been pleading with me for him to keep a cat since he was young, but I never relented. He once owned a kitten for a few days when he was seven years old but the cat escaped when we forgot to close the wooden door. I had firmly put my feet and weight down ever since for him not to have a pet.

Defying all previous orders and warnings, my son brought the skinny, scrawny and pathetic-looking cat home last Thursday. He had enlisted extra backup from his elder brother to fetch him at Tampines and both of them sneakingly went into the house with a box in my younger son's hands. I almost jumped out of my seat when he said that they had brought a kitten home and like the cat's melancholic eyes, he pleaded with me to keep Charcoal; the name we gave her because she was as black as the night.. Charcoal’s eyes met mine. She seemed to be pleading and begging for some mercy. The momentarily meeting melted my heart. Looking at the starving and malnourished kitten, my husband and I relented. She was so pitiful and helpless - vulnerable and exposed to so many dangers in the open.

Charcoal with the elfin-looking face knows where he belongs and is trying to win me over slowly. She has already built a personal relationship with my two sons and husband. She seems to be attached with all the males in the house. Charcoal is a bit reserved with all the ladies in the house: myself, my mum and my maid. Has that got to do with gender preference?

My sons can keep Charcoal under one condition. Everything concerning looking after Charcoal comes under their job scope and responsibilities. Charcoal has not messed up the house and she goes to the litter box to do her stuff. Nobody teaches her that. She is a kitten of the 21st century learner – self-directed, independent and a concerned citizen. Wow! That's great!

What else did I end up for World Pet Day? Last night my husband and I picked up a struggling bird which tried to continue its flight but failed at the walkway. It did not move as we neared it. We scooped it up and marvelled at the beautiful black and white feathers under its body. The round deep red-beady eyes stared at us helplessly. I birth-certificated (a word I coined) him as 'Saga'. Do you still remember the scattered saga seeds we used to pick and play with long ago during our kampung days? I think the flower child of the 60s-70s would know the red saga seeds that had brought us endless hours of pleasure as our childhood game. Your partner and you need to come up with the same number of saga seeds. The handful of saga seeds are thrown on the floor and using your pointer finger you make a cross between two saga seeds. The ides is to flick and hit the saga seeds. If you succeeded, you pick up one seed as your win. You continue flicking and hitting the seeds until you stop hitting a pair.

The last standing beautiful umbrella-shaped saga tree I came across five years ago was the one opposite SOTA building, Cathay Cinileisure. When I saw the Saga tree giving shade to weary-feet tourists and locals, I relived my childhood days and went round collecting and bringing the seeds home from its burst pods. The tree disperses their seeds by literally exploding the dry pods. The hanging green pods turn brown and curl up as they dry. The sides of the pods dry up at different rates and this creates tension which causes the pods to split open, forcibly catapulting the small bright red seeds for several feet in all directions. The seeds are usually found littered under the tree. I introduced the saga-seed game to my sons and we ended up playing for hours. I don’t see the tree anymore and I think it had been axed down since.

I once went to a Chinese cemetery at Sime Road to study the graveyards to understand why some graves were sited at the higher while some ended at the lower ground. The reason I received was because of the social and economic status of the dead. If the dead had come from an influential family, the grave will be on higher elevation and vice versa. The red shiny saga seeds were all over the undulating ground. I bent down to pick a few to bring home but was cautioned by a Chinese friend not to take anything from the burial area unless I wanted the sprit of the dead to follow me home. No thanks! Horror movies already make my hair stand so I won’t need any encounter of the third kind for that spooky feeling. I immediately returned them to its original place.

Coming back to Saga, the bird – we couldn’t really identify what bird it is. Saga’s long and curved beak seems to suggest that it eats small aquatic creatures. Nevertheless, we had a neighbour who is a bird lover. He rears beautiful canary. I suggested my hubby to pay him a visit. My hubby brought Saga down to his flat. He too could not tell us the specie which Saga belongs to. We ended up with a cage from him to let Saga recuperate before we take our next course of actions.

Two pets within a week. It was a little hard to swallow. My husband and I foresee one common thing. We will be shelling out from our own pockets to buy pet food. Now, not only do I have a family to return home to, there are two pets I can pour out my feelings too.

Anyone out there knows what bird Saga is?

Latest update:

A friend of mine from Nature Society identified Saga as non-native bird of Singapore. Saga belongs to a specie known as a hooper.

BOARD AND NOT BORED GAMES

The 25 Squares Game - Don't be trapped by the barricades!

You need to solve your clues before being declared a winner for this game

Get more culturalised with our game!

Up and Down, Left and Right - Any Way To Win

Move on when you can answer a question

Chee Kiong judging the board games

Students playing the games designed for them

Oral presentation skills required to explain the game to the visitors

One of the games that needed some strategic moves

Everyone had a field day at the game booths

Motivating students to give their best shot for the judging

Differrent races come together for a common goal

Bonding with each other through designing the game

Playing with my ex-student Ravin, who now teaches with me

We learn to resolve conflicts amicably in the process of designing the game

One of the games that drew a large number of audience

Through our research we learnt a lot about the different races
Our creativity and innovativeness are put into coming up of this game

Makan Poly is about the different dishes found in Singapore

Students trying out the game on multi culturalism

Thanks for this project! It brought us closer.

Tightening the social cohesion in Singapore through playing of games

UNITY IN DIVERSITY BOARD GAME

As part of the Racial Harmony Day Commemoration, the Character Education and Pupil Welfare Department organised the Character Development Lesson (CDL) Board game demonstration. Students from Sec 3 classes together with their CDL teachers and friends had a field time playing the games designed by the students for the students.

Students had to apply creative and critical thinking skills as well as foster collaborative learning skills and Social Emotional Learning competencies in coming up with the projects.

The message behind designing the games is for students to realise the importance of preserving racial and religious harmony and through many races, religions, languages and cultures, we will pursue one destiny; for Singapore's prosperity and stability. This is also a topic they do in Sec 3 Social Studies on Bonding.

The 15 board games demonstrated were given creative names like 'Makan Poly', 'Wheel of Harmony', 'Culture Starz', Cultural Devotional Challenge', 'The 25 Squares', 'We're One S'pore', "Footprints of Singapore', 'Top Game', Racial Boo', 'Slopes and Valleys' etc.

Let's hear some comments of the participants and those present:

"I bonded closer with Jie Ming in the process of designing this game."
- Fazira (participant)

"The project allowed us to come together, work together and discover more about each other."
- Yong Sheng (participant)

"We learn about time management and why it is important to prepare early, especially for exams."
- Jia Min (participant)

"By working in group, we learnt how to manage our differences and came up with the best solutions for all."
- Denise (participant)

"We did research work on the internet and interviewed our friends from different races to know more about their culture. It was very useful."
- Cherry (participant)

"My team members had fun together in coming up with the format of the game and the interesting questions on the different customs and traditions." - Hanis (participant)

"Our level of awareness and knowledge of the different races, customs and culture has increased through designing the board game."
- Rachel (participant)

"It was fun playing the games. I learnt more about others by answering the questions posed to me."
- Hidayat (visitor)

"I enjoyed myself playing the games. Some of the games were unique and creative."
- Niresha (visitor)

The teachers also gave the thumbs up for the games demonstrated.

"The games are really interactive and I enjoyed playing them. The students were confident in their presentation skills"
- Mr Ong CK

"I played a very innovative game. The students had applied a high level of creativity into designing the game."
- Ms Amanda Wong

"There are so many good games showcased today. I am amazed."
- Ms Nur Kamilah

As for me, I felt great crafting the lesson and designing the board game requirement and coordinating such a fun-filled, hands-on, values-education activity. The colourful work of the students added colour and vibrancy to the whole atmosphere in the canteen on that Friday. The students took great pride in demonstrating their work. This platform was indeed a great effort to round up the RHD celebrations too.

The support given by the teachers and students for this project was superb!