Uberfrug: Overdoing it?

I read with interest the excerpts from the book Men In White: The Untold Stories of Singapore’s Ruling Political Party that appeared in the Straits Times. What struck me was the part about Goh Keng Swee’s legendary “thriftiness” – which I would classify as lokekness.

Apparently, after a hard day of campaigning on a sweltering day, Dr Goh stopped by a sugar cane stall, gulped down his drink and then told the rank-and-file who had clustered expectantly around the stall – and who I presume had been working to get him elected - “I have paid for my drink. If you want to have a drink, go ahead” before walking away.

One of the cadres who went thirsty that day hails the attitude as being good for Singapore. “He wasn't squeezing us. He just didn't want to squander money. Every cent counted,” Chan Chee Seng said. “We were lucky we had ministers like Dr Goh. That's why Singapore could save a lot of money and become one of the most affluent countries in the world.”

I prefer to laud Dr Goh’s savvy of buying of gold in 1968, as recounted in Ngiam Tong Dow’s book, A Mandarin in the Making. Now, 100 tons of gold at US$40 an oz sounds like a much better way of becoming affluent than pinching pennies. I’m also glad that Singapore pitched in to help tsunami victims. Though it cost us, it was a neighbourly and humane thing to do.

Mind you, I’m aware of every cent that I spend, and try not to spend any of it in a careless way. One friend laughed at me the other night - benignly, of course - when we were in Fairprice and got some stuff. Since his tally wasn’t quite $10, I passed him some of my things, and a spare bag, so he could get the ten-cent bring-your-own-bag rebate, which kicks in on purchases above $10.

I’m careful, but I also pay for the drinks and meals sometimes when I go out with friends. On the practical level, I doubt I’ll have too many friends if I only sponge on them all the time, and on the personal level, I’d feel quite ashamed of myself if I became a parasite. On the spiritual level, the Bible tells me to “Withhold not good from whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it” (Proverbs 3: 27). It also warns that “there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” (Proverbs 11: 24)

Well, Dr Goh isn’t poor, so maybe he stayed just within the bounds of withholding what was meet (ie proper).

Still, I think he could have done things better. For instance, he would bring soap flakes on trips to use to wash his underwear in the hotel bathroom. Fair enough – some of us still do it, to economize on hotel laundry, which can be really expensive. But get this: “Former diplomat Maurice Baker visited Goh in his hotel room during a trip one day and saw him drying his one and only piece of underwear on the heater.” (page 164)

I’m sure he was decent. The point is – how much underwear? Having just one piece of underwear would be justifiable if underwear never wore out. One could argue that two pieces was 100 percent more than what was absolutely necessary.

Since it does wear out, I don’t see why Dr Goh didn’t make his life easier by getting two, or even three pieces of unmentionables. This would save him great discomfort if the stuff wasn’t properly dry when he needed to use it again – think of what it must be like putting on damp underwear. If he had three pieces, he could even afford a change in the middle of a sweaty day.

But then, that might make too great a dent on his soap flakes...

Famous Frug: Jeff Smith

Long before “Frugal Gourmet” made it to our small screens as a segment in Primetime Morning, the moniker belonged to Jeff Smith.

The original Frugal Gourmet was a TV cooking programme that ran for 14 years, from 1983 to 1997, predating Martha Stewart. Smith, the “Frug”, was called "the most visible gourmet" of the 1980s by Time magazine. He was part of a movement to get Americans shop for, prepare and appreciate food. More specifically, low budget cookery.

He also wrote 12 books, which is how I got introduced to him - at the bargain bin of Borders. The 12 books he wrote sold more than 7 million copies, and his first two books occupied the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the New York Times best-seller list simultaneously, and by 1992 he had sold more cookbooks than any other author.

While the Frug hit great heights, his career skidded to a halt over claims that he had sexually assaulted young men. Three civil suits were filed in 1997 by eight men. One was dismissed, while Smith settled the other cases before they went to trial. He always protested his innocence, but his career was over, hence the bargain bin.

Whether or not the allegations were true is still debatable, with one man’s word against another, and nothing said before Smith attained fame and fortune. One thing is sure though – he wrote good books, and the persona behind the writing was generous, and frugal. This is not a contradiction.

Smith’s generosity came across in his readiness to acknowledge the sources of his recipes. In the acknowledgements section of one book, he says he notes that “the list is long, but each name is important.”

He gave little introductions to each recipe, in which he mentioned restaurants, magazines, and individuals, from which he picked up the dish, sometimes giving the method verbatim from the grandmother, say, who passed him the recipe.

In these introductions, he passed on little nuggets of information about the culture that gave rise to the food. In introducing Scottish eggs, for example, he declares: “I do not like the remark about the Scots being cheap. They are not cheap, they are frugal. They waste nothing, a trait that Americans should certainly admire.”

It was only in Smith’s books that recipes would include the admonition to “save the poaching liquids for another use.” Compare that with the usual “drain after poaching” from other, less frugal, books.

Smith passed away in 2004, but he still has his fans – one website, http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbook.php?bookid=34702&ls=o&pg=3 posts his recipes, and has drawn responses. Some of his programmes are even available for loan from our National Library.

Check them out some time.