Not having a chance to feel the “spicy breezes” of Ceylon? Maskee, try Singapore – a country that is also full of diversity and spicy food. Four official languages: English, Malay, Tamil, and Chinese are recognized in Singapore. The Chinese communities constitute 74.1% of the total population in Singapore. Many them arrived in Singapore as …
Before tea became the main industry of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), it was that attraction of spices that drove the Portuguese and Dutch to occupy the island. In 1505, a Portuguese fleet led by Lourenço de Almeida paid a visit to Colombo, they realized the richness of spices – cinnamon, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, etc. …
In 2017, milk tea was declared as an item of “intangible cultural heritage” of Hong Kong. Hong Kong-style milk tea (港式奶茶 gong2 sik1 naai5 caa4) is a tea drink originated in restaurants called bing sutt (冰室 Cantonese: bing1 sat1) and cha chaan teng (茶餐廳 Cantonese: caa4 caan1 teng1) where local people like to go to …
Tea has become one of the popular beverages in Europe since the 17th century. Even coffee houses sold tea from China. The trade card above was produced by the English and Scottish Joint C.W.S. Tea. It showed first newspaper advertisement of tea which appeared in September 1658 in Mercurius Politicus. The advertisement as shown above …
The English East India Company (EIC), also known as the “Governor and Company of Merchants in London, trading into the East Indies,” was founded on 31 December 1600. The company was granted a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth which enabled it to have monopoly on trade with the East Indies. Historically, the term East Indies …
The postcard above was sent in 1907 from Singapore to the Custom House of Shanghai via Hong Kong. The Custom House, called 江海北關 in Chinese, in operation at that time was a red-brick building facing the Huangpu River. Completed in 1893 and located at the Bund (外灘), the centre of European powers, this western architecture …
The featured envelope above was sent by someone on active service, in other words, someone who participated in military action as a member of the armed forces. The cancellation was dated in August 1946, nearly one year after the end of the Second World War. Although the letter was missing, the message must be urgent, …
When a foreign word takes root in new soil, the life of the word takes its course and continues to evolve in the new environment. The word chop is a good example. Etymologically related to Hindi and Malay, chop as used in Chinese Pidgin English not only shows traces of its sources but also expands …
Kopi is a popular beverage in Singapore and Malaysia. On menus of restaurants, you will find that it can be mixed with other ingredients like milk, sugar, teh ‘tea’, and peng ‘ice’ in different ways. One way to drink kopi is shown in the featured coffee sachet above – “Kopi-O” Kosong. Kopi is the Malay word …
Before taking a vacation to explore a different culture, one thing we do is check the exchange rates between the local and foreign currencies. Today, it takes seconds to know the best rates with an application or on the internet. But do you know how this information was disseminated one hundred years ago? One way …