Thursday, July 19, 2012

A Baking Blast into the Past



I had the privilege to meet an elderly woman who learned to bake and cook since she was little from a Dutch lady living in Singapore in the 1950's. She showed me her recipe scrap book with its yellow tinge and brown spots. I was intrigued to see recipes that were type-written! How many of us have seen a typewriter much less use one? 

Funnily enough, just when I thought I would be spending the afternoon with her learning about how cakes were baked "the old school way", this amazing lady whipped out her iPhone and started telling me about a killer app called ScanPro which she highly recommends for scanning recipes. She says with a big smile, Now, I have my recipes everywhere I go. I don't need to carry this book with me anymore. 

She had three such recipe collection books but her daughter threw away two. Ignorant fool. I would have loved to inherit such a precious book. 

Old World Charm with New World Convenience

Look at the dates of her newspaper clippings. Where were you in 1974? Were you even born yet?


I flipped over some of her clippings. Look! Jurong Drive-in Cinema showing The Daring Dobermans. How I miss the drive-ins which form a big part of my childhood memories.


Petticoat Junction - oh, too cute!


What a blast into the past for me.

6 comments:

  1. I have such a book after my Grand Mother-I just love reading it althouh I tried only a few things from this book
    this is a treasure!


    Blog about life and travelling
    Blog about cooking

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  2. It is a treasure indeed! My Aunt will be giving me her recipe scrap books too (besides the claypots) which contain recipes from my grandaunties. Am I lucky or what?

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    Replies
    1. Doubly blessed, and make sure you share it in your blog, madam!

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  3. For people who cherish cooking & recipe collection, this is gold for us! Yes, I'm pretty sure that we are in the same boat! I haven't born in 1974, haha! Looking forward to see you using some of these recipes!

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  4. Those 'old' treasure should be pass on through generation to generation. But sometimes the new generation do not really appreciate the things that we have pass over to them. Such a pity. The old newspaper already turn yellow but such a treasure, isn't it? Sometimes when we ransack our old things, it just bring back such good old sweet memories back to us.

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