A New Start

FT: Survival of the Fattest; The Taste of War

 

Survival of the Fattest; The Taste of War

Review by Andrew Roberts

Published: January 14 2011 22:04 | Last updated: January 14 2011 22:04

The Taste of War: World War Two and the Battle for Food, by Lizzie Collingham, Allen Lane, RRP£30, 656 pages

There have been plenty of histories of the second world war that have sought to explain its outcome by concentrating on the part played by weaponry, economics, ideology, grand strategy and so on, but this is the first to view the struggle entirely through the prism of food. It argues that the side that somehow managed to continue consuming acceptable amounts of protein, carbohydrates, but above all fats, won. This fascinating calorie-centric history of the greatest conflict in world history is scholarly and well-written but, above all, wholly convincing. In a curious inversion of neo-Darwinist Nazi philosophy, the second world war was a case of the survival of the fattest.

Lizzie Collingham, a former research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge, estimates that 20m people died from starvation and malnutrition during the war, slightly more than the 19.5m military deaths. In a total war, controlling access to food is power so, as Collingham says: “Food was the fundamental basis for every wartime economy”. The Germans well remembered the first world war experience, when the Royal Navy’s blockade broke morale, and were determined to ensure that, in Hitler’s phrase: “If anyone has to go hungry, it shall not be the Germans but other peoples.”

EDITOR’S CHOICE

David E Hoffman’s ‘The Dead Hand’ - Jan-14

John Szwed’s ‘The Man Who Recorded the World’ - Jan-14

Karen Armstrong’s ‘Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life’ - Jan-07

Mark Stevenson’s ‘An Optimist’s Tour of the Future’ - Jan-07

Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending’s ‘The 10,000 Year Explosion’ - Jan-07

Fruitlands - Jan-10

In the course of her research, Collingham has uncovered a new Nazi monster whose name will not be as familiar as those of Goebbels, Himmler and Goering, but who was just as evil. Herbert Backe was an agronomist who in early 1941 devised the “Hunger Plan” that concentrated on using the Soviet Union to solve the problem of Germany’s food shortages by “diverting food from the towns of the Soviet Union, which was estimated would result in the death by starvation of 30m Soviets”. Food production and consumption had always been the primary consideration behind Hitler’s plans for seizing Lebensraum (Living Space) in the east, and Backe’s plan would solve two of the Fuhrer’s problems simultaneously: it would annihilate the right number of Russians while feeding the right number of Germans. Hitler appointed Backe as his acting minister of food and agriculture in May 1942.

Backe argued that German agriculture alone could never produce the 3,000 calories per man per day needed by an active Wehrmacht, which at its peak numbered 9.5m men, a staggering one-seventh of the German population. Germany had already been forced to cut its bread ration by 600g in July 1940 and a further 400g the following June, and by early 1943 the Wehrmacht was consuming 62 per cent of all the meat in the Reich and 40 per cent of its grain. To close “the meat and fat gap” for the civilian population, Backe told Hitler and Goering that “the war can only be continued if the entire Wehrmacht is fed from Russia”. The campaign to exterminate “useless eaters”, as the Nazis termed them, such as the Polish Jews, can in part be traced to these calculations, and Backe’s obsession with gaining what he called, in a Nazi euphemism, the Reich’s “nutritional freedom”. In fact, the Allies, by careful management of resources, managed to keep fats in their soldiers’ and civilians’ diets, whereas the Axis often failed to; Collingham estimates that an astonishing 60 per cent, or 1m of the total Japanese military deaths of 1.47m, were caused by starvation or the diseases associated with malnutrition. By contrast, no Allied armies starved to death.

Meanwhile, Britain introduced butter, sugar and bacon rationing in January 1940. That March it was extended to meat, a ration that was set at 14oz a week the following year. The US introduced meat rationing at 28oz per week in March 1943, extending it to canned goods, fats and cheese the following month, but meat rationing was lifted by May 1944 and thenceforth the sheer abundance of American food can be seen as an index of its coming global hegemony. The US ended all food rationing the very day after Japan surrendered, whereas Britain was actually forced to introduce it for bread and potatoes in July 1946, and all food rationing did not end until July 1954.

A second world war poster, issued by the Ministry of Food

Although Britain made heroic efforts to increase food production, by November 1942 the Ministry of Food began to panic when in that month alone 860,000 tonnes of merchant shipping was lost to submarines, aircraft and mines. Without imports of flour, meat, sugar and fats, it warned the cabinet and US food officials, Britain could only hold out for four to six months. By March 1943 the ministry was forced to halve that figure. It is fair to say that food riots were high on the list of threats that Churchill feared could lose Britain the war, which explains his postwar statement that the U-boat threat during the battle of the Atlantic had been the only thing that had ever kept him awake at night.

It is in that light, and of course the military threat that Japan posed to India, that one should judge Churchill’s reluctance to divert military and other resources to alleviate the devastating Bengal famine of 1943, which claimed up to 3m lives. Collingham rightly spreads the blame far more widely than some modern revisionist historians, who try to explain the famine in terms of the prime minister’s supposed hatred of Indians. “In June 1943, when the famine was at its height,” Collingham tells us, “Sir Chhotu Ram, the revenue minister of Punjab, instructed his farmers not to sell their grain to the government under a certain price,” and “the provincial government of Bengal was in Indian hands at the time, and while British district officers might have been incompetent in responding to the developing crisis, the old structures of welfare and charity among the Indian wealthy had also broken down.”

Starvation was used as a military tactic in the far east; the callous requisitioning policies employed by the Japanese were responsible for killing 2m Vietnamese in the district of Tonkin alone in 1943-44, and between 2m and 3m in Hunan, China. Countless Chinese prisoners of war were deliberately starved to death by their Japanese captors who, by their surrender in 1945, could only find 56 alive to release.

The story is horrific but, after this book, no historian will be able to write a comprehensive history of the second world war without putting the multifarious issues of food production and consumption centre stage. It also provides a salutary antidote to anyone who genuinely thinks we are presently living in an “age of austerity”.

Andrew Roberts is author of ‘The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War’ (Penguin)

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.

FT: Belgian Beers and Whisky in Japan

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New Belgian beers gaining market share

By Rachel Hall in Brussels

Published: December 30 2010 22:52 | Last updated: December 31 2010 00:00

Belgium’s beers have continued to grow, even through the recession

 

If any place in the world epitomises the David and Goliath battle that is upending the global beer industry it is Belgium, home to both the world’s largest brewer,  Anheuser-Busch InBev, and arguably the famous small-scale “craft” beers, the trappist ales made and distributed by monks. 

EDITOR’S CHOICE

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Belgian elections show rise in separatism - Jun-14

Belgium separatists look set for poll boost - Jun-11

For AB InBev, maker of the Budweiser and Stella Artois brands, the trends have been less than favourable. Beer drinkers in western Europe and North America have been consuming less for years and sales volumes in both regions have been dropping.

Last year, the brewer, based in the Flemish town of Leuven just outside Brussels, saw its volumes drop 4.9 per cent in Europe and 2 per cent in North America, according to Bank Degroof.

At the same time, Belgium’s smaller brewers have begun to benefit from the shift of western tastes towards richer, more complex beers by capitalising on a brand that has become hot in the beer-drinking world: Belgium itself.

“The cachet of Belgian beer is similar to French and Italian wines in the postwar era,” says Tim Webb, author of Good Beer Guide Belgium. “If you put the word Belgian on the label, you’re implying that it’s good quality.”

Five years ago, more beer was exported from Belgium than consumed there for the first time in Belgium’s storied beer-making history, and last year the amount sent overseas topped 57 per cent, according to the Belgian Brewers Association.

Yvan De Baets can testify to the newly found cachet. Seven years ago, he and business partner Bernard LeBoucq founded Brasserie de la Senne, only the second brewery now based in Brussels – and the first to be set up in the capital in more than a century. 

After only two years in business, Mr De Baets says that the company could no longer keep up with exporters’ demand and began to look for a larger facility near the centre of town.

It now sells 20 per cent of its beers overseas, but Mr De Baets says that he expects it will soon account for half of all production.

“It’s easy for us to sell beer because we’re based in Belgium,” Mr De Baets says, sitting in his cavernous new facility in Brussels’ scruffy western neighbourhoods. “Consumers want to be a bit special, but nobody can be special while drinking Stella, because you can find it everywhere.” 

Not so long ago Belgium’s speciality beer industry was expected to fade into oblivion; beer consumption in the country has fallen by 20 per cent over the past decade. By the 1970s, breweries were being shuttered and some of Belgium’s most distinctive recipes disappeared from drink lists.

The rediscovery of Belgian beers began almost 20 years ago, as food writers such as Briton Michael Jackson began spreading their gospel in books and articles.

Even through the ongoing recession, they have continued to grow, gaining market share from the larger, global brands.

“As consumers grow richer, they want to differentiate themselves from the masses. So they move away from the lager everyone knows,” says Gerard Rijk, a food and beverage analyst at ING.

“They are trying new beers, which increases consumer sophistication,” he continues

But Goliath is not taking the challenge lying down. In the 1980s, InBev acquired two highly regarded Belgian brews, Hoegaarden and Leffe.

But in recent years, it has used its global distribution system – made significantly larger when it acquired the US’s Anheuser-Busch two years ago – to get the brands in front of the same discriminating drinkers who have been imbibing independent beers.

Although AB InBev does not break out sales by brand, the company says Leffe, which can trace its lineage back to the 13th century, had its “best year ever” in 2009, while Hoegaarden is described as one of the company’s “fastest growing brands”.

Both are rated among the top three beers by Belgian consumers and are exported to more than 60 countries worldwide.

“Leffe and Hoegaarden are two great speciality beers in our portfolio that reach far back in history,” says Andreas Hilger, AB InBev’s vice-president of marketing for western Europe.

“Due to the fact that they are traditional specialities, they have a lot of appeal in markets even outside Belgium.”

Japan toasts rebranding of whisky

By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Published: December 22 2010 05:55 | Last updated: December 22 2010 18:26

That’s the spirit: drinkers at a whisky tasting event in Japan, where demand is forecast to increase by 20 per cent

One evening this month, a group of women dining at Whisky Voice, a restaurant in Tokyo, made the somewhat unconventional choice of whisky and soda “highballs” to accompany their meal.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

All Japan wants for Christmas is Kentucky Fried Chicken - Dec-19

Profits rise as emerging markets hit the bottle - Dec-07

Japan woos foreign groups with tax breaks - Dec-16

Beginners’ Guide: Consumer rights - Dec-17

Japanese growth data fails to alleviate gloom - Dec-15

Japanese business sentiment drops - Dec-15

“It was the first time for them to drink a highball, but they kept ordering it through the evening,” says Kazuharu Ishikawa, manager of Whisky Voice.

Their choice underscored the comeback that whisky is enjoying. After two decades of fading popularity, the tipple is back on the menu in Japan, where it was long overshadowed by beer, wine, sake and shochu – an alcoholic drink distilled from potatoes, barley or rice.

After peaking in 1983, when more than 381 kilolitres of whisky were consumed, demand for the drink had shrunk to 74 kilolitres by 2008, according to Japan’s Tax Agency.

But last year, the relentless slide in consumption was reversed, with shipments rising 10 per cent. Demand for whisky is expected to be even stronger this year, up an estimated 20 per cent, says Suntory, the country’s oldest and largest whisky producer.

Strong whisky sales drove a 48 per cent boost in Suntory’s operating profits for the first six months of the year, to a half-year record of Y41bn ($489m).

Competitors have also benefited, with Asahi’s Black Nikka Clear Blend whisky notching up 27 per cent growth in the first 10 months of this year.

“Sales of all whisky brands are showing very robust levels of increased demand,” says Rob Remnant, president of Moët Hennessy Diageo in Japan.

While the improved sales can be attributed in part to the group’s reconfigured portfolio, Mr Remnant says, “there is no doubt also that there has been a resurgence of consumer interest in whiskies which . . . is properly attributed to the increased popularity of the highball”.

Japan’s rediscovery of whisky owes much to the efforts of Suntory, which has about 60 per cent of the market. The privately held company, which also owns Orangina, the European drinks group, launched a concerted effort two years ago to revive demand for the product, recently winning several international awards.

The problem was largely one of image, says Tetsu Mizutani, an executive officer of Suntory who is credited with helping spark the latest whisky craze. Whisky has long been seen as a drink to have at the bar after dinner, but young people in Japan do not go for that after-dinner round any more, explains Mr Mizutani.

And many young Japanese considered whisky a drink for old people.

Another issue was that young Japanese were drinking less and choosing drinks with low alcoholic content, says Takuya Kano, president of Sakebunka Institute, an alcoholic beverage think-tank in Tokyo.

Overall alcohol consumption has also declined 8 per cent since peaking in 1999, according to the Tax Agency.

Suntory decided to broaden the market by highlighting more opportunities to enjoy the drink, particularly for young people who had never tried whisky before.

The company launched an advertising blitz to improve the image of whisky, and aggressively marketed the highball to restaurants and izakaya, casual Japanese eateries.

Suntory even developed a highball tap to make it easier for restaurant staff to serve and to ensure the consistency of the drink, and a canned version to encourage consumption at home.

“Suntory educated restaurants on how to serve whisky,” says Mr Kano.

The company says the highball also gained popularity because of the tough economy, as it is generally cheaper than a similarly sized beer, and its low alcohol content makes it easy drinking with meals. Still, the whisky boom has taken even Suntory by surprise.

“I thought it would take five years to reignite demand for whisky,” says Mr Mizutani. “I didn’t think it would happen so quickly.”

While whisky is resurgent in Japan, campaigns to bring the drink to China have not been quite as successful.

In China, massive advertising campaigns by brands such as Chivas led to rapid growth in whisky consumption over the past decade, but it has not developed the kind of hard-core aficionados found in places such as Japan and Taiwan.

“Despite the amazing efforts of whisky companies to sell their product in China the results appear to be quite disappointing, especially when you consider the margin companies are earning on each bottle,” according to Paul French, chief China analyst at Access Asia, an independent research company.

International executives in charge of whisky sales in China lament the fact that gains in their market share appear to last only as long as their ubiquitous advertising campaigns and as soon as they reduce promotions their sales tend to fall off.

While Chinese investors have been avid speculators in red wine, especially the much sought after Château Lafite, in recent years there has been little sign of wealthy Chinese flying to Scotland to buy single malts by the barrel.

At the same time, the resurgence in popularity of traditional Chinese white spirits, which still dominate the domestic liquor market, have prompted large international companies such as Diageo to make their own investments in Chinese white spirit distilleries.

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FT: All Japan wants for Christmas is Kentucky Fried Chicken

 

All Japan wants for Christmas is Kentucky Fried Chicken

By Lindsay Whipp in Tokyo

Published: December 19 2010 21:33 | Last updated: December 19 2010 21:33

Colonel Sanders statue outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Akihabara

 

KFC for that special Christmas meal, anyone? In Japan, the answer is a resounding yes.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Japan woos foreign groups with tax breaks - Dec-16

Analysis: Consumer products - Dec-07

Japanese business sentiment drops - Dec-15

Japanese growth data fails to alleviate gloom - Dec-15

Profits rise as emerging markets hit the bottle - Dec-07

Marubeni to take on big five crop traders - Nov-28

So popular is Kentucky Fried Chicken over the festive season that the fast-food chain’s Christmas Party Barrels can be ordered up to two months in advance in Japan.

“I entered the company in around 1980 and at the time it was pretty tough because there would be these long queues outside the stores,” said Ichiro Takatsuki, a company spokesman. “Because of that over the past decade we’ve been taking orders. We started in November, but people would call and ask if we were taking orders yet, so we started earlier.”

Through one of the most successful advertising campaigns, which started in 1974, KFC Japan has made eating its chicken meals at Christmas a national custom. This happens on December 23, 24 and 25, but particularly Christmas eve. Sales for the three days are equal to half normal monthly sales, the company says.

Japan is well known for taking foreign products and ideas and adapting them to suit domestic taste, and Christmas is no exception. A highly commercialised and non-religious affair, lots of money is spent annually on decorations, dinners and gifts. KFC is arguably the biggest contributor, thanks in part to its advertising campaign.

“One of the reasons the campaign lasted so long is that the message is always the same: at Christmas you eat chicken,” said Yasuyuki Katagi, executive director at Ogilvy and Mather Japan, the advertising agency.

Lining up without an advance order, particularly on December 24, is possible but risky as the chicken is freshly fried and thus volume is limited.

On a visit to a KFC in the busy central Tokyo district of Shinjuku, staff members said that the queue will snake around the side of the building to a sushi restaurant located halfway down the next street for people to pick up their orders. In this KFC, orders are stronger than last year, and staff are expecting to produce about 7,000 chicken pieces on December 24.

Overall demand is also stronger than last year, KFC Japan says, adding that it is not possible to give specific numbers for their 1,240 restaurants.

Other fast food joints, such as Japan’s Mos Burger also try to cash in on the custom. Traditionally a burger chain, the company is currently advertising chicken for Christmas. However, people mostly seem to opt for KFC.

Yoshiaki Hirose, a Tokyo businessman, ordered his Party Barrel a couple of weeks ago. “It’s like a Christmas standard,” he said. “KFC holds a premium position [over other fast food chains], so it’s nicer for celebrating, without being overly expensive. You want to have a party with your family, save your wife from having to cook, and you can pick it up from your local shopping street on your way home from work.”

It all started in the early 1970s when KFC was new to the market, Japan’s economy was in its fast-growth stage and was absorbing and adapting appealing areas of western culture fast. It turned out to be perfect timing for KFC. According to the company, a representative of a Christian mission school had ordered chicken at a Tokyo KFC as they could not get hold of any turkey. A bright employee suggested the situation could be made into an ad campaign.

“If we’re in Tokyo [for Christmas] we definitely need to buy chicken,” Mr Katagi said.

“My daughters expect this.”

 

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ST: Wonton Praise

 her favourite phrase is 'wan hoi gin yuet meng'. The Cantonese proverb preaches patience and forbearance; it means 'the clouds will part to reveal a shining moon'.

 

==

 

Nov 6, 2010

Wonton praise

Madam Leong Yuet Meng used to run the wonton mee stall next to the old National Library

By my life story wong kim hoh senior writer V

WHAT LIFE HAS TAUGHT ME

'Be practical and be grounded. And be optimistic. There's no problem that time will not solve. You'll be a lot happier if you learn to look on the bright side'

Madam Leong Yuet Meng

Now 81, Madam Leong Yuet Meng is still putting in 10-hour days to sell her famous wonton noodles at her Far East Square stall. -- ST PHOTO: NURIA LING

Very politely but firmly, Madam Leong Yuet Meng waves away my protests. The interview, she says, can wait.

She beckons over one of the helpers at her Nam Seng Noodles and Fried Rice eatery at Far East Square.

'Make this gentleman here a bowl of wonton noodles. Make sure that it's good,' she instructs in Cantonese.

As the middle-aged assistant ambles off with a big smile, the 81-year-old says: 'She's new, this one, but she's learnt very fast and is pretty good. Do give me your feedback, though.'

I've not tasted wonton (dumpling) noodles made by the matriarch herself but the version I get is pretty darn tasty - firm noodles in a simple but delectable sauce garnished with lean char siew and blanched choi sum, with a side serving of scrumptious silken wontons. The sauce, I'm told, is her own concoction, and the noodles come from a supplier she has known for more than 50 years.

Madam Leong is proud of her wonton mee, and justifiably so. For more than 40 years until 1995 when the Government reclaimed the premises, she held court at a shed next to the old National Library in Stamford Road, serving up that dish as well as fried rice, hor fun (rice noodles) and other offerings. For thousands of Singaporeans, she was an institution.

The lament of foodies rang loud and clear when her outlet had to close. Many feared that this taste of Singapore had disappeared forever.

But to the relief of food-lovers desperate for this fix of yesteryear hawker fare, Madame Leong and her noodles resurfaced 10 years ago at Far East Square, where they have been satisfying hungry diners ever since.

'Many of my customers have been with me for years. Some ate my noodles when they were students, now they are grandparents,' she says, her aged but winsome face breaking into a gentle smile. 'I've been so lucky and so blessed,' she says simply.

Hard work and dogged survival in tumultuous times have played their part, too, in the success story behind the delicious noodles that I made clean work of in less than five minutes.

Madam Leong is the adopted daughter of a domestic helper who came to Singapore from Guangdong province in China in the late 1920s.

'My mother came here after she was widowed. She adopted me and raised me as her own. I have an adoptive elder sister who lives in Hong Kong,' says the kindly octogenarian who does not know who her real parents were.

She grew up in Chinatown and went to school for a few years but the Japanese Occupation put paid to her studies. But it instilled in her a love for Chinese literary classics which explains her melodiously Cantonese, often littered with piquant proverbs and truisms.

She had, she says, a sheltered upbringing. 'My mother loved me a lot and doted on me. She didn't allow me to work although I wanted to,' she recalls.

When she was about 20, an aunt matchmade her with a relative who worked as a clerk. They tied the knot in the late 1940s after courting for a year.

Three sons came in quick succession. They are now aged between 55 and 58 and work as a pharmaceutical sales executive, construction supervisor and civil servant.

Madam Leong set up her famous wonton noodle stall next to the old National Library in 1958.

'I had a cousin who sold wonton noodles in Kreta Ayer. It looked like something I could do and I had long wanted to start a little business. So I just got her to teach me how to do it,' she says.

Her husband, the late Mr Tang Leng Choon, was her financier. He died at 82 from lung cancer about 10 years ago.

'I paid $200 to take over the stall from a Hainanese man and spent another few hundred on equipment,' she says.

She hired an additional cook and two dishwashers, and plunged straight into business. The name Nam Seng was contributed by her mother-in-law in the hope that the business would 'thrive and grow in Nanyang'.

'Things were cheap then. I paid the cook $2.50 a day,' she reminisces. 'A bowl of wonton noodles cost just 30 cents and a plate of char siew rice 50 cents.'

It was tough going in the beginning.

'It was like walking up a flight of stairs, you go one step at a time. But I was determined to make it work. Without determination, there can be no success.'

And she made it work.

'I would wake up at 5am daily and my husband would drive me to the wet market because I liked to choose the ingredients myself,' says Madam Leong.

'I needed at least 15kg of pork a day to make char siew (barbecued pork),' she recalls.

Her dishes, especially her wonton mee with its al dente noodles and silky meat dumplings, won a huge following.

'On weekends, there were long queues and I could easily sell more than 500 plates a day,' she says.

An enterprising soul, she branched out into 'tingkat' catering, supplying lunches with 'rice, two dishes, one soup' in tiffin carriers to scores of residents in the area. 'I charged 75 cents for the meal, and every day, a trishaw man would help me deliver them. They were very popular,' she says.

Her mother-in-law helped to mind her children when they were young.

'When they started going to school, I'd get a taxi to fetch them after school to the stall where they would have their lunch.

'After that, they went for tuition nearby. I always told them their studies were very important. They are very filial,' says Madam Leong who now lives with her second son in Toa Payoh. She has three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She had to close her stall in 1995 when the Government repossessed the land.

'I had no choice. The Government wanted the land back. Many people came to say goodbye and gave me a lot of presents - from little mementoes to jewellery. I was so touched,' she says.

After closing the shop, she and her husband took a trip to China, visiting the counties of Sansui and Shunde in Guangdong province to trace their roots.

Retirement did not sit well with her, and Madam Leong soon started operating a little stall out of a coffee shop in Joo Chiat.

However, she did not count on the resilience of Mr Chia Boon Pin, president of Far East Food Concepts.

A fan of her wonton noodles since his student days, he tracked her down in 1999 and persuaded her to move to Far East Square where she now operates out of a corner-shop unit.

Although she has five workers whom she graciously refers to as colleagues, Madam Leong still puts in 10-hour days. Her second son still drives her to the wet market every day to do the day's purchases.

'I open the shop myself, I'm here before any of my colleagues arrive at 8am,' she says. Throughout the day, she oversees the operations, takes orders and occasionally rolls up her sleeves to make her famous noodles.

'Some of my customers want me to do it personally. They have been with me for so long, how could I refuse them?' says Madam Leong, adding that her fame has spread to Hong Kong.

'A lot of Hong Kong tourists come armed with their guide books, asking to take photographs with me.'

That she has earned the affection of many of her customers is obvious. Several well-dressed Shenton Way types cheerily greet and ask after Ah Por (grandmother) in the course of our two-hour chat.

'Life is not all about making money. You have to have good relationships with people and treat them well,' says Madam Leong who has trained many 'disciples' over the years. One of them, Ah Chan, is a grandmother who started working with her before she got married.

'I've been very lucky with people, especially customers. Every festive season, I get inundated with gifts and goodies from my old customers,' she says, adding that many of them take their children and grandchildren to her stall.

An optimistic soul who enjoys watching Hong Kong drama serials and playing mahjong with friends in her free time, her favourite phrase is 'wan hoi gin yuet meng'. The Cantonese proverb preaches patience and forbearance; it means 'the clouds will part to reveal a shining moon'.

She has, she says, lived a great life. Her only wish is to see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up, and for her second son to take over the business.

'He's a good cook and he will be retiring soon from the construction business. And a lot of people have told me that it'd be a shame if the business is not passed on.'

[email protected]

ST: More hotels go halal

Lifestyle

Home > Lifestyle > Taste > Story

Nov 7, 2010

More hotels go halal

Halal-certified kitchens are to tap into the growing Muslim market, including tourists

By Rebecca Lynne Tan

 

More hotels are having their kitchens halal-certified in a bid to woo more guests.

The latest two to join the list of halal-certified hotel kitchens are Fairmont Singapore in Bras Basah Road and Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel in Marine Parade.

The Fairmont's hotel kitchen and restaurant, Asian Market Cafe (Plaza Market Cafe previously) were granted certification on Oct 6 and Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel's kitchen became halal on Sept 30.

It took them between four and six months to obtain the certification from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis).

Other hotels that have opted for halal kitchens in the past two years include integrated resort Marina Bay Sands, which has two halal kitchens, Concorde Hotel Singapore in Orchard Road, whose banquet kitchen received its certification last year, and Furama City Centre, whose Tiffany Cafe and Restaurant became halal in 2008.

Hotels say they opted for halal-certified kitchens because they saw potential in catering to Muslim diners, in addition to their non-Muslim patrons.

Indeed, more than 2.5 million visitors from Muslim-majority countries including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran, Brunei and Malaysia, arrived in Singapore from January to September this year.

The number of tourists from each of these countries saw an increase of between 12 and 57 per cent, compared to the same period last year.

Hotels with halal kitchens say they have seen a five to 10 per cent increase in business since becoming halal-certified.

On why Fairmont Singapore decided to embark on the halal-certification process for its kitchen and restaurant, Mr Burhan Culculoglu, its food and beverage director, says it was responding to a demand for facilities which could cater to the needs of a special group of business and leisure travellers from Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Middle East.

The hotel has a halal-certified banquet kitchen, and is also able to provide halal-certified in-room dining, and food at the Asian Market Cafe.

A spokesman for Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel says it saw 'a huge potential in the halal market', adding that multiple requests for halal food provided the impetus to become halal-certified.

Obtaining it cost Grand Mercure about $20,000.

Some of the processes involved include ensuring all food supplies come from halal-certified bodies, and making sure halal items are stored separately from non-halal ones to avoid 'cross contamination'.

Muis also stipulates that all production lines, crockery, kitchen utensils and equipment, cooking areas and so on, must be ritually cleansed by Muis-approved personnel. (For more information, log on to www.muis.gov.sg).

While some places choose to have existing crockery and utensils cleansed to begin their operations as a halal-certified outlet, others simply buy new equipment.

Both Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel and Fairmont Singapore bought new equipment.

Hotels that do not have halal-certified kitchens often engage Muis to conduct a ritual cleansing of their kitchen when the need arises.

These hotels include The Regent Singapore, The Ritz-Carlton Millenia, Singapore, Singapore Marriott Hotel, Shangri-la Hotel Singapore and Marina Mandarin Singapore.

The cost of the ritual cleansing is usually borne by the customer, and is between $150 and $500 for a one- to two-hour service.

Though the requests for halal food for events at these hotels have increased about 10 per cent over the years, hotels LifeStyle spoke to say they have no plans to make any of their kitchens halal on a permanent basis.

Area executive chef of The Shangri-la Hotel Singapore Paul Lenz says: 'At the moment, we do not have any specific plans to do so. However, if the demand justifies such an initiative, this is something that is worth considering.'

In any case, more halal-certified hotel kitchens in Singapore is certainly good news for Muslim patrons.

Says sales supervisor Selina Abu Bakar, 24, who is planning to get married in the next couple of years: 'I am glad to hear that there are more halal-certified kitchens in town. There are not many hotels that serve halal food and with these new ones, it gives us peace of mind and more options for banquets and events.'

[email protected]

FT: Mooncakes

China boxes clever on mooncakes

By Mina Hanbury-Tenison

Published: September 16 2010 23:29 | Last updated: September 16 2010 23:29

At a branch of Xing Hua Lou, a famous traditional bakery chain in Shanghai, the evidence of the upcoming Autumn Moon Festival is visible. Thousands of boxes of mooncakes are stacked high inside the store and the staff can barely move.

Outside the store, meanwhile, touts try to entice customers in with laminated pamphlets offering up to 25 per cent off the listed price.

The Autumn Moon Festival – which this year falls on September 22 – is a traditional Chinese holiday. It is feted by the consumption of mooncakes, the roundness of the sweet pastry symbolising the union of family members.

According to the Shanghai Confectionery Industry Association, 21,000 tonnes of mooncakes were sold in the city in 2009 – worth Rmb1.85bn ($275m). Sales for the whole of China were estimated at Rmb11bn according to China Reports Hall, a market research firm based in Xiamen.

“It’s the time of the year for businesses to show gratitude to their business partners, to the government officials and to their own employees,” says Shaun Rein, the managing director of China Market Research (CMR) Group in Shanghai. “It’s a vital way of building relationships.”

However, in recent years the gifting of mooncakes has taken on a new significance in China, where a show of purchasing power and price-indexed gratitude has become more important. “As people get richer, they need more expensive gifts,” says Mr Rein.

Food retailers have cashed in on this opportunity with zeal. At Xing Hua Lou, single mooncakes, which typically cost about Rmb5 each, are repackaged in gift tins. The lowest price for a basic boxed set of eight goes for Rmb78, while for those seeking luxury there is a Rmb780 version filled with abalone fins.

Western retailers such as Starbucks and Häagen-Dazs have also embraced the seasonal retail opportunity. Häagen-Dazs, whose mooncake vouchers are one of the most circulated in China, offers boxed sets that range in price from Rmb268 to Rmb988 – a steep price tag for many Chinese workers.

Kris Kaminsky, the food and beverage manager at the Portman Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai, says the hotel expects to sell about 20,000 of its boxes this year. The value is often not in the mooncakes, he says, but in the presentation. “We’ve created a very nice red box that looks like a jewellery box. It’s a box to be kept after the mooncakes are eaten.”

Mooncakes are also the most re-gifted item in China. “Many people give their mooncakes to someone else,” says Shen Hongfei, a well-known food writer. “Not because people don’t want to eat them but because some receive so many gift boxes that they want to offer them as presents. It’s a sign of respect and gives face.”

Byron Kan, the general manager of the Shanghai Centre, which houses the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel, has chosen to give Häagen-Dazs gift certificates this year to his corporate clients.

“[Mooncakes] are indeed vital, must-do corporate gifts,” he says. “But when companies started giving more and more extravagant mooncake gifts, to the point that the packaging and the gifts inside cost more than the mooncakes [themselves], the government decided to step in a few years ago and put a limit on the price.”

Now you can no longer buy a mooncake box with a watch as a gift inside or with solid-gold packaging.”

Many vouchers are returned for cash, allowing touts and middlemen to make a healthy profit margin. But as with any paper asset with an expiration date, the window for such buy and sell activity is limited. “The value of these mooncake vouchers go up and down according to how close one gets to the final date,” says Mr Rein of CMR.

Paul Smith, the president of Costa Coffee China, which expects to sell 8,000 boxes from its 70 outlets this year, offers his own solution. “We honour the vouchers for up to one year after the date,” he says.

“So if they don’t get to collect for this year, they can do it next year.”

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FT: Chinese acquire taste for French wine

Chinese acquire taste for French wine

By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai

Published: September 16 2010 20:31 | Last updated: September 16 2010 20:31

Bordeaux vineyards are popular in Beijing

China has overtaken the UK and Germany to become the top export market for Bordeaux wines in value for the first time this year – and the Chinese are increasingly learning how to savour good wine, not just how to buy it, according to the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux.

Sales of Bordeaux wines in China have doubled every year for the past five years but, in the first half of this year, China and Hong Kong surpassed the UK to take top position for exports of Bordeaux wine by volume – and by value, now totalling €90m ($118m), according to Thomas Jullien, Asia marketing director of the CIVB, which promotes wines from the Bordeaux region.

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Germany was relegated to second place, in terms of volume, and the UK to second place in terms of value. China and Hong Kong – where many sales are also destined for the mainland – were fourth in terms of volume last year.

But wine consumption habits in China are becoming more sophisticated, says Mr Jullien.

“Five or six years ago, importers did not even want to taste the wines, they just wanted to look at the price list,” he says.

“Now when you go to a wine fair, people are tasting the wines, and they realise wine is not just about brand and price.”

Bordeaux winemakers recently published a recipe book pairing various Bordeaux wines with traditional Chinese dishes, including such perhaps unlikely combinations such as pigs’ feet with Saint-Emilion and duck tongues with Margaux.

Shaun Rein, head of China Market Research in Shanghai, says many Chinese people are still unfamiliar with the traditional conventions of red wine consumption. “They either put ice cubes in it, or they drink it in shots,” he says.

“I’ve seen people drink $1,000-plus bottles as shots.”

But Rupert Hoogewerf, publisher of the China Rich List, says such habits may not last long.

“The speed of refinement, whether it is understanding watches, or private jets, or private cars, has taken the market by surprise each time and I don’t expect it to be any different for red wine,” Mr Hoogewerf says. He expects demand will continue to grow – and not just for consumption.

“Over the past five or six years, the Chinese entrepreneur has moved his residence from an apartment into a villa,” he adds – and with villas come wine cellars. “People are just in the process of building themselves a cellar and that is another driver for red wine”.

Even hosts at Chinese official banquets – including at Zhongnanhai, the compound where China’s top leaders work and dine – are increasingly serving red wine instead of baijiu, the traditional Chinese liquor so famous for rendering banqueting businessmen senseless in China.
● More than $15m-worth of first-growth Bordeaux and Burgundies will go under the hammer as the wine auction season kicks off in Hong Kong, Reuters writes.

New York-based Zachys began the auction season in Hong Kong last week and sold a 1990 La Tache Domaine de la Romanée Conti for $50,262, and cases of 1989, 1990 and 1995 Chateau Petrus, which fetched $40,837, $40,837 and $23,560 respectively.

On Friday and Saturday Acker Merrall & Condit will auction a six-pack of magnums of 1971 Romanée Conti for about $185,000 and three cases of 1982 Chateau Petrus, which each could sell for $72,000.

Christie’s offers 300 lots in Hong Kong on Saturday, including 80 cases of Lafite-Rothschild, with estimates of between $11,000 and $24,500 a case.

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Food trends?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6d6b0688-7a60-11df-9cd7-00144feabdc0.html

 

"

What does he think is behind the brand’s popularity? Just like the John Lewis chain of department stores, middle England can’t seem to get enough of Waitrose. Wherever a new store opens, the shoppers come. It is a case of supply nowhere near meeting demand (Waitrose’s footprint in the UK is a flea on an elephant’s back when compared with its bigger rivals) but it also reflects, thinks Price, the shift towards a more ethical kind of consumption.

Waitrose has made a big thing about paying fair prices to farmers – recent figures from industry bible The Grocer show that it pays farmers more for milk than its rivals do – while the Waitrose Foundation, founded in South Africa in 2005, ensures that a cut of profits made on foods such as mangoes and avocados is paid directly to farm workers to spend on anything from HIV projects to football coaching. The foundation is now being rolled out in Ghana and Kenya.

“The politicisation of food is one of the major issues going forward,” Price says, finishing off his asparagus spears and taking a sip of perfectly chilled Albariño. “Waitrose has been historically well-positioned to reassure customers that these things are really important to us – we own a farm and the foundation in Africa – and we are not doing it for short-term benefits but because it is the right thing to do. I think our customers are aware ... that Waitrose cares for those things.”

 

Springwise: Kit Kat

http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/kitkat/

26 March 2010 Published on 26 March 2010 in Food & Beverage

Taking a local approach to candy bars, Nestlé recently launched 19 new Kit Kat flavours in Japan that reflect food specialities of specific districts. Each flavour is sold exclusively in the region for which it was created, making the limited edition Kit Kats popular souvenirs for travellers.

The uniquely Japanese Kit Kat varieties include yubari melon and baked corn from Hokkaido island; strawberry cheesecake from Yokohama; cherries from Yamagata Prefecture; and sweet potato, blueberry and soybean from the Kanto region. Other varieties include wasabi, green tea, apple, green beans, chilli and miso. Tapping in to the Japanese tradition of sending students good luck wishes before their exams, Nestlé also launched a marketing campaign with Japan's postal service to create "Kit Kat Mail," a postcard-like product sold only at the post office.

Developing an intimate understanding of the local market and targeting it creatively has earned Kit Kat the position of number one confectionery brand in Japan. How else could your brand zero in on local specialties and traditions to drive deeper brand loyalty? (Related: Manchester sells holiday gift wrap designed for the city.)

Website: www.breaktown.com

Spotted by: Judy McRae

FT: Not So Dumb Waiter

Obtrusive waiting staff

By Nicholas Lander

Published: September 12 2009 02:47 | Last updated: September 12 2009 02:47

My heart began to sink as I listened to the waitress at Spruce in San Francisco go through a two-minute, slice-by-slice description of the charcuterie plate she had just set before me. My wife and I were there to catch up with an American friend we hadn’t seen for several years. Why, I wondered, couldn’t she just deliver the food and let us get on with our conversation?

The rest of the meal was punctuated by similar intrusions, to such an extent that, as we walked out on to the windy pavement after the meal, our guest felt he had to apologise.

Waiting staff in the US have always believed that they have to put on an act, because they know only too well that their tips depend on their performance. “But I do think that this habit has got worse since the recession,” our friend told us. “They are trying harder, to compensate for the fact that their customers may leave less than they used to.”

The practice may be at its worst in the US but it has, sadly, spread. The most ridiculous, invasive, over the top – and, therefore, unforgettable for all the wrong reasons – service we ever suffered was at an overly ambitious restaurant in a small village in the Lake District, in the north of England.

Yet, when I asked restaurateurs on both sides of the Atlantic to tell me what a waiter should say when delivering a plate of food they all say “as little as possible”. Unobtrusiveness is a positive attribute. As Gavin Rankin at Bellamy’s in Mayfair, says: “A waiter’s job is to answer questions not to pose them. They should never say ‘Bon appétit,’ or ‘Enjoy.’ And they should never ask if everything is alright, as we are going to find out soon enough anyway if it isn’t.”

Chris Corbin of the Wolseley in London and the Monkey Bar in New York elaborates on the principles he teaches his waiting staff. These include saying “Good morning,” or “Good evening,” before the initial greeting; and restricting the description of each main course as it is presented to just a couple of words – “the fillet steak”, for example. The waiter can then return to the table for the vital “check back”, which just requires the phrase: “Is there anything else I can get you?” This is a sensitive approach that minimises the need for further interruptions.

But if such successful restaurateurs have adopted this non-intrusive attitude, why are so many staff still so long-winded?

There are several reasons, the first of which is that few customers appreciate quite how “upfront and personal” waiting staff have to be. Few other professions bring complete strangers into such close physical proximity, and the verbal intimacy can be an extension of this. During a three-course meal, any waiter could come into close contact with a customer on 15 occasions, from the initial greeting to the processing of the bill and the goodbye.

Secondly, as chefs have expanded their culinary horizons, menus have become more intricate, and this increases the potential for waiters to be similarly expansive. In addition, many top restaurants now offer a tasting menu alongside the à la carte. These menus increase the number of times a waiter returns to your table, plus the aim of the multi-course tasting menu is for the kitchen to show what it is capable of, and the chef wants to communicate – via the waiter – the origins of every ingredient and the pleasure each will generate.

Louis Smeby, a highly experienced waiter at the Modern in New York, tells me how he deals with the differences between à la carte and tasting menus: “When I am delivering a dish from our à la carte menu, I usually mention the three main ingredients about 95 per cent of the time. The only reasons I may not are because of a strong language barrier or because I can see from the spreadsheets spread across the table that this is a business lunch and just finding space for the plates is a challenge.

“Multi-course tasting menus are different,” he adds. “Customers come to be dazzled and they present the waiting staff with the opportunity to present a more personalised service.”

In less professional hands, however, the practice of saying too much has spilled over into too many waiters’ automatic and, therefore, insincere vocabulary at every meal. But there are times when we, the customers, need to watch our own behaviour. Waiters respond to cues and when time-pressed diners eat in haste, too many forget to say even the occasional “thank you” when a dish is served.

As well as being rude, failing to say, “Thank you,” denies the waiter the opportunity to respond with the eminently appropriate, “My pleasure,” and to leave the customers to enjoy the meal.

nicholas [email protected]
More columns at www.ft.com/lander

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