Durian, chilli crab and lucky cats: our Far East trip, April 2008.

Sunday April 20^th.

Up at 5am to drive to Manchester Airport for our 10:00 flight.

All went according to plan and the ensuing 13 hour flight passed as pleasantly as possible with the good food, great choice of films, audio books etc and exemplary service on Singapore Airlines. How do the crew manage to look so beautiful and continue to smile so sweetly on such long flights??

Monday April 21^st.

Arrived in the clean, welcoming and bird song filled Changi Airport where we were met by our transfer, kindly arranged by International Business Wales.

The hotel was half an hour away and looked amazing on first sight, filled with birdsong (this was to be a recurring theme) and smiling and helpful staff.

We were given a lovely room and were able to check in straight away for a nap before starting work at 11.30.

Food from Britain had laid on a minibus and guide from UKTI who took us around some supermarkets and introduced us to the buyers.

Feeling completely shell-shocked we took notes on the range and price of sea salts and picked up a few things to take home- green tea scented wipes, a beautifully ornate tin of ‘magic seasoning’ for an MSG phobic cousin, and some fresh ‘ocean water’.

The heat and humidity was extraordinary, like walking about in a baked potato oven.

Following the trip we were delivered to the British High Commission where we successfully fought the urge to fall into a deep sleep and listened, more or less attentively, to a series of market presentations.

After a quick trip to the hotel, we changed and headed back to the British High Commission for a light supper, drinks and meeting with the other exhibitors and invited guests. We met up with people last seen in Hong Kong and feasted on an eclectic mix of dim sum, salads and shepherd’s pie!

Tuesday April 22^nd.

Rob had kindly fetched our passes for us so all we needed to do was get on the bus, thoughtfully provided by the hotel for transferring us to the exhibition centre, and put the finishing touches to our stand. Errol had done his usual fine job of building and setting up the stand and had even brought shells to merchandise our display.

We met potential customers from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Maldives, USA, UK and even Rumania. Halen Môn was greeted with cries of joy by people who had used it before and who were delighted to think it would be available to use in Asia, and with immense enthusiasm by people who hadn’t seen it but who loved the idea of using it.

After the show we decided to meet in the Long Bar at Raffles for the ubiquitous Singapore Sling. David put on his linen suit and Panama hat to really look the part. After just the one cocktail- they were quite pricey- we decided to walk to the Chinese restaurant that Rob had kindly booked for us. On paper it looked quite straightforward but took all our powers of navigation plus a few requests for help from passers-by and the cold beer tasted very good when we eventually arrived. The highlight of the meal was chilli crab, a Singapore speciality which we were to taste again throughout the week.

Singapore is known for its cleanliness and lack of chewing gum but we weren’t expecting it also to be so friendly and safe. We fearlessly went through underpasses that you would have gone some way to avoid in the UK. Inside were groups of youngsters dancing, chatting and just hanging out, all totally non threatening. There were works of art on the walls, complex and intricate structures with notices asking you not to touch- and no one did.

Wednesday, April 23^rd.

Today at the show we had pre booked appointments with potential buyers and press. We knew we were on the same wavelength with one man, Stephane Hervé, as he carefully smelt and tasted each salt and asked intelligent questions, and we arranged to meet up with him later in the week.

We also met a charming chef, Michael Han, who had used our Halen Môn in The Fat Duck where he trained.

Michael had an amazing introduction to cooking when he was studying at Bristol University to be a lawyer. After eating at The Fat Duck he decided that this was the life he wanted and having worked for Heston amongst others, he is just about to open his own restaurant (Fifty Three) as part of the Les Amis group in his home town of Singapore. He very kindly offered to take us out for a meal later on in the week.

We also met Galvin Lim of Au Jardin, also part of Les Amis and situated next door to the Botanic Gardens.

David and I left the show early to visit the Executive Chef, Thomas Meyr, of Les Amis who graciously gave us some time to talk him through our range.

Amongst other people we also met chefs from Sri Lanka, UAE, Australia and India.

After a quick swim in the hotel’s pool we met up with friends from Ty Nant and had a fabulous meal at Indo-Chine and went back by bicycle rickshaw.

Thursday, April 24^th.

Today was even more interesting and included a meeting with an Italian who takes an unhealthily close interest in our products and pays us the dubious compliment of copying our recipes, wording and pack design but who always comes to see us at shows to shake our hands in a friendly fashion.

We also took the details of, amongst others, a chocolate wedding favour maker from Malaysia, a fish sauce and icecream manufacturer from Vietnam and the Editor of Silverkris, the in-flight magazine of Singapore Airlines.

Settling into a routine of a swim and shower then dinner, we struck out on our own and went to a Chinese seafood restaurant where we had prawns, Chinese tea, beer and fresh mango.

Friday, April 25^th.

The last day of the show.

David came in later as he had appointments to see the buyer from Cold Storage, the General Manager of The Fullerton, and needed to drop a gift off for the Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank who had helped us so much with contacts.

Today was eccentrics day, from the man in California whose name (Mr Bleything) was a corruption of Bleddyn, to the two young men with sharp haircuts and tremendous enthusiasm (Funky Chefs).

At the end of the show we packed up all the samples of Halen Môn we had and put them with the graphics boards ready for our meeting with Stephane. It wasn’t as formal as we had expected as he was rushing around buying equipment from stands that were being broken down and we followed him round the halls carrying various bits of kit and discussing how to take things forward.

He kindly gave us a lift back to our hotel and we had our usual swim and congratulated ourselves on having an extra night to recover before the next leg of the journey.

Michael and his girlfriend were at the hotel to pick us up and take us out for a truly memorable dinner.

We had read about Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant known for its signature Crab Bee Hoon dish as praised by Anthony Bourdain and Kevin Gould- the former being one of my heroes met at Abergavenny Food Festival, the latter a food writer, cook and friend, and Michael kindly took us there.

It is the sort of place we would have gone to in a taxi and got the driver to turn round again. The staff were unprepossessing and the menu impossible for a non Singaporean to understand. However, with Michael as host, all things were possible and we feasted on sea snails, stir fried greens, steamed parrot fish, stir fried frogs- chosen from a bucket- and the signature Crab Bee Hoon.

The frogs were especially fascinating, being presented in quarters rather than the more usual legs and having chicken essence poured over them. Chicken essence features highly in the Singapore diet and is advertised heavily by bright looking school children who have come top in their exams, presumably because their mothers have bought the correct brand.

We left the restaurant to find dessert and had another gastronomic adventure when we stopped by a roadside stall selling durian. The whole process of grading, choosing, preparing and serving the fruit was fascinating. David did rather better than me actually eating it; it wasn’t the smell that put me off as much as the texture which was incredibly rich and creamy. After the first mouthful I stuck to a young drinking coconut.

Michael has a great vision for his restaurant which will serve mainly European foods and we expect to be kept busy finding new and exciting ingredients for him to try.

Saturday, April 26^th.

Our first appointment today was with Stephane in his shop, to look round and to finalise negotiations and plans for the future.

We took a taxi and were welcomed with coffee and wild blueberry juice. Stephane was preparing for a reception with one of his wine makers meeting the customers so we didn’t stay long.

We decided to go to the Botanic Gardens as it has an orchid collection as well as a rain forest walk.

It was immensely hot but immensely beautiful as well so we strolled through the grounds and ended up for lunch in the café surrounded by tropical foliage. The highlights of that meal were the tropical fruits and the spiced iced coffee.

We walked back through the frangipani grove and really felt as if we were on holiday, even if it was just for one day.

From there we took a taxi to Little India which was exactly what it says it was, full of shops and cafes and busy with people buying spices and clothes and garlands of flowers.

After all that excitement we went back to the hotel, packed and swam, and went out for our last meal in Singapore- to the Indo Chine again, but this time outside by the river, and had a wonderful meal with wine.

Sunday, April 27^th.

Our flight was at 10:00 to Shanghai so we left the hotel, very reluctantly, at around 7:30. The taxi driver was one of many who entertained and looked after us during our stay. This one asked us if we were sure we had our passports as he had had customers who had left them in the safe. Previous ones had regaled us with bad puns or risqué jokes about the British Royal Family, who, together with Tony Blair, seemed to amuse them very much.

The flight went well and we arrived in Shanghai on time. Thanks to Sarah from FFB I was able to be better prepared than on my last visit and knew a) not to go off with any strange men at the airport (after all, I had my own strange man) and b) what we should be paying to get into the city.

In fact the whole thing seemed much better organised and there was an official looking man shepherding the mass of people to a taxi queue and the taxi, despite its windows being held together with sellotape, had a working meter which also gave receipts.

Thanks also to Nicki we had a printout of the hotel in English and Chinese which was invaluable for this and subsequent taxi drivers.

We checked into the hotel and emailed Doris, our interpreter, and Melissa, our friend to say we had arrived.

We have known Melissa since she was born, having lived next door to her parents in Anglesey. Melissa has a job teaching English in Shanghai and speaks pretty good Mandarin so we left the ordering in the restaurant that night to her.

After a sumptuous dinner of tofu, greens, prawns and beef we went for a walk on the Bund, to show David the amazing lights and to prove that I hadn’t been drunk when I saw boats chugging up and down with video screens showing adverts on my last visit. Capitalism in action as we were besieged with sellers of gadgets, and 10 baby kites for £1 was as much as we went for, only to be told that yellow ones fly better for half the price.

With our reunion with Doris at 8:45 the following morning and a full day of meetings we had to be on the ball, so we said goodbye to Melissa and got an earlyish night.

Monday, April 28^th.

We had clearly been spoilt with breakfasts in Singapore: birdsong, fresh fruit, Bircher muesli and all, as the breakfast here was almost inedible. The final straw was the milk on the table which had ceased to be milk and transmutated into yoghurt some time previously.

No matter, we were off to meet potential distributors!

Doris was there in the lobby, delighted to see me again and to meet David, and bearing a gift of green tea. I had bought her a novel to help improve her English.

Our first meeting was with a seasoning company situated half an hour or more out of Shanghai. The factory smelt strongly of cloves and reminded us oddly of Tunisian architecture, being built around a courtyard where the staff lived with lots of cool tiles and open rooms.

Despite them having no English and us, beyond being able to say ‘thank you’, having no Chinese, we got on famously. We drank tea and talked about salt and spices, HACCP and ISO9000. They gave us packets of spices they produce for instant noodles and we gave them samples of Halen Môn they will never use in those mixes. After regretfully refusing their offers of lunch- we had lots more appointments to keep- we got back in the taxi that Doris had sensibly kept and drove to Cheese and Fizz, our one Chinese customer.

Cherry, the Marketing and Sales Manager, was delighted to see us and was pleased with the samples of the new salts and the recipe cards that we were able to leave her.

She recommended a nearby restaurant for us to have lunch and we took Doris for a set ‘business lunch’ of dim sum, including an extraordinary coconut and mango dumpling served with a cream of walnut soup for pudding.

The next meeting was back in our hotel with Ms Peng Chen, another lady with no English but a strong interest in ‘foreign’ foods. She dealt mainly with Chinese hotels and was unsure how the Chinese chefs would react to using such specialised ingredients but took some samples to have a go. Doris promised to keep in touch and to translate the product and price lists for her.

The final meeting with Doris in tow was Shanghai Yes Foods, another fiendishly difficult place to find, situated as it was in a gated community in the suburbs of Shanghai.

The owner had good English and was already importing European foods. He entertained us with excellent espressos.

I had asked Doris where we could buy some water and snacks and a ‘lucky cat’. This latter is often seen sitting on cash registers or on taxi dashboards and I felt it would help us in our Chinese business dealings. Alas, we found the water and snacks, including chicken’s feet in various cooking styles, but no cat.

We said goodbye to Doris and went back to our room for a short rest before the final meeting of the day at 8pm.

As we were resting there was a message on the phone- we had a parcel to collect from the Business Centre. We knew David had left his jacket behind in Singapore but surely it couldn’t have caught up with us that quickly?

David went to fetch it; a large box which when opened revealed…. a lucky cat! Doris had kindly gone out and bought us one, an enormous china version with its own red cushion. It now has pride of place in our office.

The last meeting was with a company importing Spanish wines and German rubbish compactors.

After that we had a short walk around the nearest shopping mall and shared, I am ashamed to say, a Kentucky Fried Chicken meal, before going to bed.

Tuesday, April 29^th.

Having cleverly booked a taxi the night before, we left the hotel breakfast-less at 5:45.

The journey was fine and although it had been great to see Doris and Melissa again I didn’t feel too sad at leaving smoggy Shanghai behind.

The terminal for the Hong Kong flight had opened that day so there was a definite new carpet smell and air of excitement which made up for the disorganisation in certain areas. All the shop staff had been trained to greet you with ‘good morning, welcome’ but there weren’t any pens to sign the credit card slips. However, we did manage to buy 2 more lucky cats, one for Nicki and one for Jess.

The flight was great with a welcome breakfast of stirfried noodles and the chance for a little doze.

We arrived safely at Hong Kong and were struck by the cleanliness and efficiency. Why doesn’t British immigration greet you with sweets like they do in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong? Why isn’t there a friendly lady to direct you to the right taxi queue and advise you how much the fare is likely to be?

There wasn’t enough time to drop off our bags at the hotel so we had to take them with us to our lunch appointment with the CEO of Café Deco. We hauled our suitcases up the stairs to the consternation of the staff, but they kindly put them in their office.

We both fell on the salads in the buffet lunch having missed our usual portions of lettuce and other green stuff as we talked our way through the salts and what we were trying to achieve on our visit to Hong Kong.

Martin was so helpful and charming anyway, but when he told us that he was personal friends with the MD of our preferred distribution partner and would give him a call and see if he could meet with us, we were totally overwhelmed.

His staff courteously put us and our luggage in the service lift and dragged our cases to the taxi rank for us to make our way to our hotel.

Our hotel- thank you Nicki and the staff at UKTI Hong Kong- was lovely and we were lucky to be able to check in before our second meeting of the day which was a short taxi ride away in a shopping mall.

The reception was filled with shoes and hides but the man we were to meet was again, delightful, and explained that he traded in many things, including foodstuffs, mainly in China. We parted cordially and he said he would ring us the next day to invite us out to dinner.

The final meeting of the day was at our hotel with a company which already distributes for one other Welsh company. Again the man was delightful, friendly and knowledgeable.

A quick shower and change of clothes and we took a taxi to our customer in Hong Kong, the Amber Restaurant at the Landmark Oriental. Richard Ekkebus came out to meet us for a chat, to collect his salt order, and to advise us on what we should choose on the menu.

We had a fantastic meal- beetroot and goat’s cheese salad and langoustine with pork belly for me and crab and scallops for David. The food was faultless as was the service and we had a fabulous evening. Thank you Richard for making it so perfect.

 
Wednesday, April 30^th.

A full on day but first, possibly the best breakfast I have ever had in any hotel anywhere in the world. An enormous array of fresh fruits, juices, pastries, cold meats and cheeses, pancakes, waffles and omelettes cooked to order, dim sum, stir fried vegetables, meats and fish, eggs Benedict, bacon and sausages and Bircher muesli. I only wished that our middle son, Jake, an oarsman who could eat for Britain, was with us.

We met with a company in the New Territories bringing in foods from all over the world, with a company specialising in organic foods whose aim was to deliver high quality at a lower price, and finally, with the kind man who had been talked into fitting us in to a packed schedule. He even recommended us to eat in a nearby restaurant which we would never have found on our own, situated as it was on a ferry terminal. We ate outside and had the reasonably priced tasting menu with paired wines and it was delicious.

 
Thursday, May 1^st.

As this was to be a marathon of travelling we asked for a late checkout and paced ourselves in the morning, doing a little shopping (yes, I was allowed some time in Shanghai Tang!), dropping off samples for a chef whom Richard had recommended and watching the protesters march against the Beijing Olympics.

We lunched at the Café Deco in the airport, out of loyalty but it really was very good, and then caught the plane back to Singapore.

We had a four hour wait before our flight to Manchester but the Hong Kong one came in late so the time passed pleasantly enough buying orchids for our parents, biscuits for the staff and having a cold beer (me) and a flight of fruity white wines (David).

The flight home was full but the jolly Australian, who had held onto her Bolton accent through the 40 years since she’d left, was good company.

David bravely drove home through the waves of jet lag and general fatigue and we spent the rest of the day stopping each other from falling asleep, aided by the boisterous welcome the dogs gave us.
It was a fantastic trip; it’s too early to say how much business it will have brought us but we are confident it will at least have paid its way. We learnt a lot, ate a lot - including more chillies than we have in the last 10 years- and made a lot of fantastic contacts.

We would like to thank International Business Wales and Nicki Hughes, as without them this trip would not have been possible.

Bircher Muesli (look! No salt, not even Halen Môn!)

 

INGREDIENTS 2 cups Rolled Oats Fruit juice: 2 lemons, or the equivalent in orange or apple juice. 1 cup Water- or less if you want to use more juice. 2 Granny Smith Apples 2 cups Plain Yoghurt 6 tablespoons Honey Fresh or poached fruit to serve 4 tablespoons Roasted Hazelnuts (Skinned And Crushed To Serve)

Method Mix the oats, juice and water together, cover and soak overnight. In the morning, add the yoghurt to the oats, along with the honey and freshly grated apple. Keep the mixture quite wet. Serve into 4 bowls and top with the fruit and hazelnuts.