What's kosher, where? Breakfast, brunch, Bagels and kosher food at SoYo restaurant, Golders Green. Compared and contrast with halal

 We were looking for a restaurant near Brent Cross Shopping centre for a meeting with friends in the near future. One of the group wanted a kosher restaurant. 

What do kosher and halal food have in common? No pork. Why? Because they both follow a rule from the book of Leviticus (Latin for laws) in the bible. Jews refer to the bible. Christians added the New Testament about the life of Jesus, and called the original bible, which Jesus followed, the Old Testament. 

Why no Pork?

The rules about eating kosher, not eating pork, were dropped by the ardent follower of Jesus, Paul, when preaching to non-Jews about the messages of Jesus and the Resurrection. 

Moslems came along. They followed Mohamad.  (His name is spelled in English various ways, depending on how you translate the Arabic letters into the Roman alphabet. Nowadays you might conform or to be different the different countries with different pronunciations.) The Moslems kept the old, traditional, rule about not eating pork. Some people say the Christianity is Judaism made easy, whilst Islam is Judaism made difficult. (One month of fasting for Ramadan, whereas the Jews have just one day at the Day of Atonement. Christians give up one food for lent. Jews give up all kinds of food for the period including and surrounding the seder.

On the other hand, in some ways Judaism has stricter or more extensive food restrictions. No shellfish. No milk eating at the same meal as when meat is served. This is either the word of God, or a humanitarian rule that you must not kill a milk feeding calf in front of its mother, using the milk to cook the calf. (Calf cooked in milk is a classic and popular dish in Jordan, still, nowadays, in many places in the Middle East, as I discovered to my amazement, on a press trip to Jordan on a Rolls Royce car rally. 

This rule accounts for the fact that SoYo restaurant has two branches side by side in Golders Green. One serves meat. The other serves only fish, eggs, and milk based dishes. 

How do kosher and halal differ in supermarkets? Both have no pork. The Jewish section has no shellfish. As I am allergic to shellfish, crustaceans and molluscs, this suits me very well. 

Where Are Kosher Restaurants?

You will find both kosher and halal food sections in supermarkets all over London but particularly in the East End of London and North west London. For kosher sections in supermarkets, bagels in supermarkets, and Jewish style or kosher food in delicatessens and restaurants you could look at (alphabetically) Edgware, the Finchley Road, Golders Green, Hendon, Stanmore, Temple Fortune. 

A relative suggested several places in the area. We vetoed a family favourite, the cafe in the Hendon park by Hendon Central station. Great for a sunny day in the park. 

We wanted something more formal, more exciting and filling, with a chance to sit and talk to friends at leisure. But not as luxurious and expensive as a Michelin restaurant, and the upmarket Chinese Kosher restaurants.

B & K

Our favourite for a big meal in an informal setting is B&K, Hatch End, and Edgware, is a salt beef, deli, take away and restaurant.

Bagels in Brick Lane

How about a bagel? London has two famous bagel shops in the East End, in Brick Lane. At least one of them is open very late, possibly all night. Before going anywhere, check the times. 

Sabbath and Sunset

Strictly kosher restaurants have to close dusk to dawn on the Jewish sabbath, which in the UK means dark falls early evening on Friday in winter. So the restaurants won't be open Friday evening, in winter.  However, they will be open Saturday. 

In summer, the sunset time is different. You can find out by a diary, the newspaper, or your watch, or mobile phone, or computer or kitchen or oven clock (or rather, when you can see three stars).

Bagels - Why The Hole?

I started researching bagels when I turned my family history into a novel (still yet to be printed and published - next job!) I was looking at the lifetime of an ancestor on my father's side who came to the UK from Ukraine, from Lemberg, as it was then called in the 1880s. At that time or earlier Bagels come from Poland, Ukraine which was at different times under different rulers and languages, and Western Europe. 

One story goes that bagel sellers would put bread on a stick and make a hole in the middle of the bread to thread bread onto the stick. 

Another story is that the hole was for the benefit of the buyer. Why? Going back a few centuries, houses did not have a cooking range or oven, which would have been a fire risk and required fuel. Every house head food buyer or cook went to the baker with their dough.  Or, if travelling, bought ready made food. 

Another theory goes that when the householders were shopping, housewives, men if women were not allowed out of the house, workers, or travellers, would buy bread to take home or eat later. The buyer would thread the bread on a string around their neck in order to leave their hands free and keep the bulky bread handy (or hidden?!).

So there you have the story to entertain yourself or tell your friend next time you eat a bagel or kosher food or halal food.

Two options in northwest London.

So Yo restaurant

They have more than one branch. You can book a table by phone.

Useful Websites

For both the Golders Green and Edgware branches:

https://soyo.co.uk/

Update on my visit in the next post.

American English - British English

take out - take away

Savoury Birthday Cakes: from Singapore Chicken Rice Birthday Cakes, or Pork cakes in Thailand

Pick Pork cafe, Thailand. Pork cake from their Facebook page. 

 

Here's a blessing, brought to you by covid-19 and an inventive Singapore marketing man. 

William Soh is credited with rescuing a business with the idea of a chicken rice birthday cake.

When non-essential birthday cakes and bakeries were banned, and only essential food shops were open, up came an entrepreneurial adviser who invented the chicken rice birthday cake. Chicken rice is the national dish of Singapore.

Two things happened. To attract the customers looking for birthday cakes, shops not allowed to sell sweet ones made savoury ones. The rice is made into a mound topped with boiled or fried chicken and vegetables. 

Have seen those lunch boxes designed for picky children by inventive and creative mothers making faces and animals out of slices of tomato? Then you know that miniature tomatoes on sticks and all sorts of sliced vegetables and whole peppers can be arranged decoratively. 

Add Happy birthday, or Happy Mother's Day, or Happy Anniversary or any other message on top. Instant birthday cake.

We already have discussions about too much sugar and cake in our family. I want cakes featuring fruit and flowers. My husband and son are not keen on birthday cakes, which mean too much over-eating for themselves and everybody.

If you are looking for a dessert with less sugar, or more fruit, consider cheesecake, carrot cake, banana cake, apple strudel.

For low carb, gluten free, and no sugar, options are available. From locaba.sg

Also look for fresh rose cakes.

Useful Websites

https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/singapore-cake-shop-offers-chicken-rice-and-zi-char-dishes-shaped-cakes-your-next

https://www.todayonline.com/8days/eatanddrink/newsandopening/hilton-chef-turned-hawker-sells-birthday-cakes-made-chicken-rice

https://locaba.sg/bakery/blueberry-yogurt-cake/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_substitute

https://jajabakes.com/korean-fried-chicken-cake/

http://www.celebrate-with-cake.com/2013/12/chicken-rice.html

https://www.facebook.com/pickporkcafe/

https://thewhiteombre.com/bakery/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=201

https://www.foodline.sg/cakes/shops/Twenty-Grammes/14100-Cakes-N-Desserts/AlaCarteOrderP/62990-Single-Rose-Cake/

Edible cupcake toppers (won't ship to UK)

https://www.amazon.sg/Cupcake-Toppers-Wedding-Birthday-Decoration/

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/business-connect-collaboration-innovation-lab-tickets-268315507907

Kosher Food If You Are Allergic To Shellfish, Pork, or Milk products

 What do you not get at a kosher restaurant?

Kosher food follows the laws in Leviticus (which is Latin for laws) in the Hebrew bible (which was later translated into Greek, then Latin and English). 

The rules are

No pork products.

No shellfish.

No mixing of milk and meat. That means that kosher restaurants either serve meat and imitation milk, such as soya milk for coffee and dessert. Or they are milk restaurants and serve no meat.

If you don't eat meat, only fish, then your option would be a milk restaurant. 

If you are vegan, to avoid meat, you could go to a milk-only restaurant, but be careful to ask and make it clear that you want milk-free dishes.

If you are allergic to milk products, or cannot tolerate them, like about ten per cent of the Chinese and Asian populations, then 

Free Of Shellfish!

It suits me. I am allergic to shellfish. When I was a child, my school friend's parents gave me crab paste from a pot, which had no ill affects. In the Sixties prawn cocktail was the thing. Prawns would often appear as a garnish on white fish, in salads, in sandwiches.

However, later in life I was very ill after eating crab sandwiches, by mistake. I saw the pink and pointed, thinking they were salmon. 

I had another bad experience, after a king prawn. After I vomited, I continued retching all night, over the bath. I had swollen eyes and a swollen mouth. 

I kept scratching. I had a rash like chicken pox all over my face. The hair on my head felt like I was on fire.  I had a rash all down my body.  

Prawns are a feature of Asian food, a constant worry to me when eating out in Asia. Prawns also pop up as garnish everywhere. In Asia you can find prawns in rice and soups, even after the Chinese staff and bystanders acting as interpreters assure you there is no shellfish.

 In Korea we had a guide cum interpreter who spoke to staff and assured me, 'no shellfish'. I took a spoonful of the soup, which tasted sour, and asked her to check again. She assured me no shellfish. I took a second mouthful and my mouth started to zing. I dug around through the mush at the bottom of the bowl and produced a prawn! 

I rushed off to rinse out my mouth and make myself vomit up what I had eaten. Interpreters in Singapore and other countries have often assured me no shellfish. Lots of people don't understand what shellfish are.  I now avoid all kinds of prawns and shellfish. So, for me, a kosher supplier guaranteeing no surprise shellfish is great. 

In north-west London you will find lots of kosher food in supermarkets as well as restaurants and delicatessens.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Other spring rolls

 

Gỏi cuốn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Gỏi cuốn / cold roll

Gỏi cuốn wrapped in Vietnamese bánh tráng
Alternative names	Nem cuốn, fresh spring roll, summer roll, salad roll, cold roll, rice paper roll
Course	Hors d'oeuvre
Place of origin	Vietnam
Region or state	Southeast Asia
Serving temperature	Room temperature
Main ingredients	Pork, prawns, vegetables, bún, and bánh tráng
Cookbook: Gỏi cuốn / cold roll   Media: Gỏi cuốn / cold roll

Gỏi cuốn, Vietnamese spring roll, summer roll, fresh spring roll, spring roll, or rice paper roll, is a Vietnamese dish traditionally consisting of pork, prawn, vegetables, bún (rice vermicelli), and other ingredients wrapped in Vietnamese bánh tráng (commonly known as rice paper or cold roll). Unlike other spring roll dishes which are believed to be originated from China, Vietnamese gỏi cuốn is the country's creation using rice paper ^]

Gỏi cuốn are served fresh while others are served fried, like the Vietnamese chả giò. They are served at room temperature (or cooled) and are not deep-fried or cooked on the outside. These rolls are considered to be a very popular appetizer with customers in Vietnamese restaurants.

Preparation

Gỏi cuốn with accompaniments: dipping sauce and fresh chili

Video demonstration of summer rolls preparation

A plate of Gỏi cuốn

The bánh tráng (rice paper) is dipped in water, then laid flat on a plate with the desired amount of ingredients placed on top. The fresh gỏi cuốn is then rolled up and ready to be eaten. Gỏi cuốn can be served with tương xào (also known as hoisin sauce), which consists of ground tương (tương đen or tương xay) and mixed coconut water (or broth), before being stir-fried with garlic and some sugar and then sprinkled with chili powder and ground peanuts. Alternatively, gỏi cuốn can be served with peanut sauce or other Vietnamese dipping sauces, such as nước chấm, a condiment based on fish sauce.^[2]

In Vietnam and in various parts of Southeast Asia, Vietnamese can be seen hand-making bánh tráng (rice paper) and placing them on the rectangular bamboo trays around their houses. Traditionally, gỏi cuốn are eaten with a large group of people at a home setting.

Regional[edit]

In southern Vietnam, these rolls are called gỏi cuốn, meaning salad rolls, while in northern Vietnam, these rolls are called nem cuốn, meaning nem rolls. In central Vietnam, they are simply called "rice paper" rolls. In the West, these rolls are called by several different English names, including "salad roll", "spring roll" and "summer roll." Sometimes the word "Vietnamese" is added at the beginning of these words; for example, in Hong Kong, they are called "Vietnamese rolls", and in Australia and the United States they may be called "Vietnamese spring rolls" (although specifically in Australia they may sometimes be referred to as "cold rolls"). Some Asian restaurants in the United States also refer to them as "crystal rolls", "soft rolls" or "salad rolls". The name "summer roll" was popularized by some Vietnamese American restaurants for easier marketing and as a seasonal play on the term "spring roll". But many Vietnamese American restaurants still use "spring roll" as the English translation.

I have extracted the vital sections from Wikipedia.

To sum up, the essential differences are

1 That other spring rolls are fried. The Vietnamese ones contain what I call glass noodles. They are see-through.

2 The Vietnamese rolls contain noodles which are not made from flour but from rice. 

3 The spring roles are eaten cold instead of hot.

4 The outsides may be green, which at first strikes you as odd, but when you bite into them and find lots of salad they soon seem to represent healthy greenery and are refreshing. I think of them as salad rolls.

Useful Websites

Ice Carving And Harmony In Harbin, Northeastern China at Chinese New Year

Ice sculpture, Flute, by Dayou_X in Wikimedia Commons.

Harbin, nicknamed the ice city, in northeastern China is the place to be in the cold season of January to March especially at Chinese New Year. I was reminded of this by Chinese girl who I met in Singapore. She said, "Any travel agent in Singapore will be able to organize a trip for you, because Harbin's Ice Festival is very popular".

Ice And Snow World sculpture park, Harbin, China.
Photo by Lin Yang in Wikimedia.

The major attractions are the giant sculptures in the two parks, one on Sun Island, by the river where workers carve out the ice blocks. The ice sculptures are not those little table top ones you see at some upmarket winter weddings, but full size, like the ice hotels. You get ice bridges you can walk across. One of the venues has ice sculptures floodlit at night with glowing colours. These are paid for attractions in large fields. Hundreds of workers have toiled with heavy machinery, and great skill, for days, working days. 

Entrance. Photo by Dayou_X in Wikimedia.

On investigation, I realise that the temperature of minus thirty is not a place where I would like to spend January. Minus fifteen in a South Korean ski resort did not suit me. I spent the first day, Saturday, of my weekend away at Korea's nine dragons (nine mountains) ski resort, shopping for a warmer hat to insulate my neck and cover for my nose, as well as a second layer of gloves. My time and money was spent on shopping for clothes I might never need again.

Where would you stay? Harbin has large international five-star hotels. Indoors you might warm up on winter food. What kind of food is unique to Harbin? A red sausage. Sweet and sour pork, deep fried.

Where to Go - After the ice?

South of an adjoining sister city is an ancient 11th century walled city. An excursion for those more into culture than sport.

Summer Celebrations In Sunny Weather

The good news is that Harbin has summer alternative cultural attractions. Reading about the previous years with the world record for the number of pianos playing - more than 600 simultaneously, I knew the festival would be fun. The music mentioned included the Radestsky March, one of my all-time favourites, jolly upbeat music, rather than dismal dirges, made my eyes open and my mouth widen in a smile.

The music festival is held in alternate years, the even years, 2, 4, 6. 8, 10, so the next one is 2020. That gives me and you  plenty of time to learn to write and read and speak Mandarin Chinese. Rather than relying on the tedious method of using Google translate with taxi drivers, I can practise my conversations using Earworms, and FutureLearn.

Two new underground railway lines will be finished, we hope, by 2012. The underground will have bilingual signs. Elsewhere, much is in Chinese. Now would be a good time to start cultivating some Chinese friends, penfriends and Facebook friends. They could be mentors in learning Chinese, translators, and enthusiastic travelling companions. Remember the winegrowers' saying, the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now.

Harbin Railway station, photo by Prince Roy from Flickr used in Wikimedia. 

As you can see, major signs are in Chinese. If I had not been told this was a railway station, I would have thought it was a department store. Would the clock have been a hint that it was a railway station? Yes. But other buildings also have clocks.

Tasty Summertime Food

In Singapore my new Chinese friend's father grew up in Harbin and she has family there. In summer, she recalled, "In Harbin you eat watermelon, sweet melon, honeydew melon, corn, apricots, fresh peaches - much tastier than the ones we get in Singapore." Watermelon sounds refreshing for hot weather.

Harbin's summertime cultural attraction is the music festival held every two years in the 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 years, so the next event is the year after next in 2020.

Worldwide - Ice Is Nice!

This place, Harbin, has been on my winter wish list for years, along with the ice hotels of the USA and Canada and Scandinavia.

If you don't have the time and money to travel to China this winter-spring and would like a winter ice resort nearer your base elsewhere, alternatives are winter celebrations in Quebec City, Canada. Alternatively, over in Europe, go north to Norway.

Meanwhile, back in Harbin:

Confucius Temple, Harbin, China. Photo from Wikimedia, article on Harbin.

See and Do Top Ten Checklist
1 Ice Festival - 2 locations
2 Chinese New Year
3 Summer Music Festival
4 Russian St Sophia Cathedral (and synagogue and Jewish area)
5 Confucian Chinese Temple
6 Siberian Tiger Park
7 Organic Winery
8 War Museum (Chinese victims of Japanese)
9 Harbin sausage
10 Side trip to 11th century walled city

Another excellent photo by Lin Yang. St Sophia Cathedral. From wikimedia. The picture of the Baroque Eastern cathedral with its green domes, gold spires, and ornate windows has been 

photobombed by the birds. I believe they are pigeons.

Siberian Tigers Watching and Waiting in the Siberian Tiger Park. Photo by Carla.Antonini in Wikimedia.

Accommodation
Major hotels such as Shangri La. Budget places include a hostel in a former synagogue. That's a novelty. See Tripadvisor for photos of the hostel and reviews.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Harbin

https://www.bh.org.il/jews-harbin/

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to remember some simple Portuguese words for food, plurals

Portugal

Portuguese flag

Brazil

Problem
The Portuguese is similar to English - but different. How do I remember?

Answer
Note the differecet or similarity. Practise noticing the difference or similarity. You only need to say it or see it about three times for it to stick. The exercises in Duolingo will usually show you each word three times.

English - Portuguese
meat - carne (as in the English words carnivore and carnivorous)
pepper - pimenta (almost pimento, but ends in the sound a which is similar to the end of pepper)
pork - porco
potato - batata
rice - arroz (think of a round of rice, double r, o for a circle, when the rice is served in a mound) ice and oz sound similar, s-z
salad - salada (letter a three times, like three tomatoes)
sandwich - sanduiche
soup - sopa
strawberry - o morango
tomato - tomate

the strawberry - o morango (o is masculine the) the word looks like orange. A strawberry is orange shape. The M at the start is like the W in strawberry turned upside down. Repeat the o from the beginning of the word at the end. o morango.

Portuguese - English
arroz - rice
batata - potato
carne - meat
o morango - the strawberry (for the plural add an s like in English: os morangos)
pimenta - pepper
porco - pork
salada - salad
sanduiche - sandwich
sopa - soup
tomate - tomato

So now you can look at a menu and find a snack of a sandwich and salad including tomato, check if it is meat or pork, ask for soup, meat and potatoes, or rice, and finish with strawberries.


Useful Websites
Free internet learning for Portuguese and other languages
https://www.duolingo.com

A disc I bought from Earworms to play in the car. You can also download it onto a laptop. I bought volume 1 and then volume 2.

http://www.earwormslearning.com

Travel websites
https://www.visitportugal.com/en

http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

visitbrasil.com (NB They spell it with an s!)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several other posts on learning Portuguese and other languages, and sites to visit. Please save and share links to your favourite posts.

How do you eat a Shanghai dumpling at Dim sum or snacks? Advice from Singaporean Chinese

Problem
How do you eat a Shanghai Dumpling?
What is a Shanghai dumpling?

Answers
In Singapore at a hawker centre I was treated to Shanghai dumplings. They are served in what looks like a circular steamer or basket carried to the table with a lid to keep the contents warm.

The dumplings are made of a pasta pinched together at the top. Inside is minced pork in a soup or clear gravy.

If you puncture or pierce the dumpling making a hole the delicious soup will spill onto the table making a mess and you will lose the soup and maybe even the contents if the dumpling disintegrates in mid-air.

It is not just a politeness to lift the dumpling carefully by the top and not pierce it. It is in your own interests not to lose the succulence and the juice.

Use your chopstick to lift out the dumpling and place it on your small plate. On the way to the plate, dip the dumpling in ginger-flavoured dark brown soy sauce in a tiny dish.

The Chinese name for Shanghai dumplings is 'dragon ....'.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

You can see the Dumpling photos on the internet. My photos will be added later.)

What Is Or Isn't Kosher. What About Vegetarians, Vegans, Other Diets?

Kosher McDonald's, Argentina

English: kosher McDonald's restaurant in Abasto shopping, Buenos Aires, Argentina Español: McDonald's, kosher, en el Abasto Shopping, Buenos Aires, Argentina Deutsch: koscheres McDonald's-Restaurant, im Abasto Shopping, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date	9 February 2011
Source	Own work
Author	Geogast

Kosher
Kosher food laws followed the laws in the bible. The book of laws, translated from Hebrew into Greek is called Leviticus (then translated into Latin and finally into English).

The food laws include, but are not limited to the following:

No pork.
No shellfish.
No meat mixed with milk.

Food must be either prepared by somebody Jewish (so they know about all the above) or be supervised by a learned Jewish person such as a rabbi or shochet. (I remember reading that at the turn of the 1900s a wealthy orthodox man - I think there was one in Singapore - employed his own shochet to kill the meat and prepare it, when at home or when travelling, having first inspected the animal to see it was not diseased. )

Observing The Sabbath
The Hatch End branch of B & K, according to their website is now kosher. I had a chat with them once about this. They said as far as they are concerned, they service kosher food, like your mother does. But they can't get a Kosher license from the London Beth Din (or Manchester or any other UK city), which is an advantage because they don't have to pay for the inspection. The reason was that to comply with the Beth Din, they would have to close on the Sabbath, sunset to sundown, varying in the UK with the season (like restaurants and shops in Golders Green and North West London.

Kosher - if you care, or care to know
However, since the supermarkets such as Tesco are selling kosher food in a chiller cabinet, and kosher wines, in a shop which is open on Saturday employing non-Jewish staff (who by Jewish laws, according to one law must be allowed to rest on the Jewish Sabbath, but that presumes they are in your employ and work on Sunday, or are allowed to work on the Sabbath like the kosher goy who can light your fire. (Elvis Presley was the one who lit the oven for the Jewish lady who lived upstairs.)

So, assuming it is OK for Tesco and other supermarkets to sell kosher food on Saturday, it should be OK. (It is rather like your Jewish mother or granny, if she is frum - meaning orthodox, serving food on Sabbath. How can she do that? She can say, 'this is one I prepared earlier'. In my view, logically, it would also be OK to be served by non-Jews who have a different day of rest.  Then it must be OK for the owners, who are not Jewish, or not necessarily Jewish. The same must apply to their staff who for a day of rest get Monday off.

Unfortunately, recently I have seen supermarkets cover their Jewish section on Jewish holidays, which is a real nuisance if you are on your way to an event and urgently need a bottle of kosher wine, whether it is to serve to Jewish people or be props when you give a talk to a mixed audience about the Jewish holidays.

Other kosher foods may be distributed around a supermarket, such as chocolates which are marked as kosher, in case Jewish people want to buy them, but are generally bought by any passer-by who happens to want a cake or biscuit.

In practice, I expect somebody could tell Tesco or another supermarket to cover their kosher section during a religious holiday or the Sabbath. 

However, large numbers of kosher items, packaged goods with the words kosher in tiny 10 point type, find themselves all over huge supermarkets. Matzos are often found in two places. In the kosher section. Again in the bread sections. The same goes for cakes, biscuits, chocolates, halva, wine. 

I am not an authority. This is just to give you a pointer as to what to check on.

Stories

Barmitzvah At An Italian Restaurant in London, England

What could go wrong?

1 To economize and for convenience, a non-Orthodox family holds their son's bar mitzvah party, not in a kosher restaurant, not at a synagogue hall or banqueting hall with a kosher caterer, but in a nearby smaller Italian restaurant. To please their more Orthodox Jewish friends the family has asked for a meal with no pork, opting for a fish meal so they can have milky coffee and desserts contained milk and milky white sauce on the fish. 

It is all very grand and appealing. We start with smoked salmon. However, the restaurant serves the starter decorated with prawns! 

Oops. Prawns are shellfish. Not allowed. What to do? 

Send all starters back? Chuck them all in the bin?

Surreptitiously remove prawns from the ones served to the first table? Or leave prawns as leftovers for the family and staff. Manage to serve the rest of the food without the prawns. Provide a fruit alternative to those ultra-fussy people who now suspect that the chef has simply removed prawns and sent back the contaminated smoked salmon.

Who will pay for the mistake? What about the delay waiting for food? The embarrassment. The stress.

The restaurant and staff are no longer there. This event was in the nineteen-nineties at an Italian restaurant in Hatch End which closed down and changed name and ownership and food nationality several times. The boy is now an adult. But we often talk about it. 

"Do you remember the time when the restaurant served prawns at a bar mitzvah!" 

"Oh, yes!"

2 You would think that the simple solution would be to stick to a vegetarian diet for everybody. Who could mind? What could go wrong.

Your Jewish friends are happy. Their Moslem guests knowing there's no pork will be happy. (Although one said you should not mix eggs and fish.)

3 What about your other international guests with assorted diets?

Some 'vegetarians' avoid meat but will eat fish.

Story

INDIAN DIET

We went out with Indian friends to Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Two married couples, English and Indian. We had a buffet, shared the food platters which included at least one meat meal.

A couple of weeks later, I invited my new girlfriend for lunch. I suggested an Indian restaurant. She vetoed it. She was eating vegetarian. I was puzzled.

"Why?" I asked. I thought you ate meat at Raffles?"

"Yes," she said, "But today is devoted to a different God, and I have to be vegetarian."

We went to a vegetarian restaurant. It took me a day or two to feel relaxed about this idea. I had grown up in England, at that time surrounded by people following two of the world's one God religions, speaking English. I went to a local Church of England secondary school, but the day's of the week in English are named after pagan or Norse gods. Monday is moon day. Thursday is Thor's day. I reasoned that the days of the week are named after different Gods.  

Christians change their diet. Catholics used to give up meat and eat fish on Fridays. Out of deference to the Catholic girl pupils and staff, my Church of England girls' grammar school on Friday served fried fish or a quiche containing eggs and cheese but no meat.

During Lent, Christians give up certain foods. Each household has a different diet normally. So each person can choose what to give up. (No point in giving up meat if you don't normally eat it.)

Jews give up leavened bread for Pesach (Passover). According to a Discovery programme, this might go all the way back to a rainy spring in Pharaoh's time. The moisture from one year's wet weather caused the stored grain to grow mould. It led to what used to be called St Vitus's Dance. The eldest boy child would be five years older than the next. The firstborn would get a double helping of food at late night dinner time, in the year of contaminated harvest a double portion of the contaminated food. Hence the death of the firstborn who were all found dead, slain by an invisible force in the night. 

To prevent last year's crop infecting the new spring harvest, all the old flour was finished off with spring cleaning. The mould situation was so serious that every year you had everything cleared out. Stored foods had no 'use by' nor 'sell by' dates in those days. Besides, the majority of ordinary people could not read.

Story

I went to visit Jewish friend whose daughter had married an ultra-Orthodox boy. I played safe and took them a pot plant. They said they would have to keep the pot plant in the garage during Pesach, in case it had any insects which would contaminate the house.

Vegans

The vegans are stricter than vegetarians who won't eat meat, and the no meat and fish eaters. Vegans won't eat anything taken from an animal. They won't have eggs, milk, milk products such as butter, cream, yogurt and cheese.

Ok, so we've cut out meat, fish, cheese, eggs, milk, butter, what else could go wrong?

The Jains only eat food from above the ground, so no potatoes. 

No fish and chips then.

Let's look at it another way. Who can we invite?

Let's invite the Chinese over for a Chinese meal. It is said that the Chinese eat anything (with four legs) except the table!

Oh, but what about allergies? One in four Asians has an intolerance to milk. The Asians are therefore not big on cheese. The Japanese don't like spicy food.

A Chinese friend of mine has one daughter who eats and drinks everything, another girl can't tolerate milk products.

My other good friend who is Chinese is married to a man who developed or discovered late in life that he had a gluten intolerance. She started a gluten free food business in Singapore. Her husband can't eat bread. Biscuits. Gluten is in everything. Or might be. As my husband once said of me, when I expressed lukewarm enthusiasm for accompanying him hiking up Everest with a Sherpa who would be carrying and cooking vegan rations, except for Yak food.) "Don't come with us, dearest. Even you enjoyed yourself, nobody else would!" 

Gosh - everybody's got a problem with something.  Those who don't have a problem today could develop an allergy tomorrow. So could I.

I think I'll just sit on my own and eat a grape and drink water. But I can plan my next restaurant meal. Let the other diners and the restaurant manager sort things out for themselves.   

Sometimes it seems as if the world's problems and difficulties are multiplying since I was a child, multiplying every day. But that's what happens when you travel and others travel to you. A constant discovery of new products and new ideas.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Fab food at Fulham Wine Rooms

Problem
What to eat at Fulham Wine Rooms?

We started in a back room with a Rioja tasting organised for a private group by Trevor of Grape Deal. We had more people than expected, about 19, so we had enough money in the kitty to order plates of cold meats and cheese from the restaurant.

The food was presented with brown bread, and bowls of oil with crackers. The brown bread was absolutely wonderful, full of crunchy grains.

Super Service
We had flagons of still and sparkling water. When I went to ask for more water and more side plates, they arrived quickly.

Selecting Starters
Afterwards we ordered dinner in the restaurant, a large table for about ten of us. We had already had the cheese plate and the cold meal plates.

I was allergic to shellfish.

We chose to share a plate of asparagus and egg. Another couple also ordered a starter plate to share, so we did not feel we were the odd one out in doing so.

The photos above show: chicken; salmon; chips ; steak.
Chicken or Chips?
My main course was chicken, which came up with one vegetable. Very filling - but I would have liked potato and or a second vegetable. At over £10 I thought two vegetables and potato would have been provided at my local restaurants in Hatch End. Fortunately I was able to share potatoes, a generous portion, on somebody else's plate of pork.

I asked what the pork eater thought of their portion. They said, "Beautifully cooked with crispy outside".

Another dish came up with chips. So, chicken, or chips?

You could order a side plate of mashed potato, but I felt that should not be necessary with main dishes costing more than £15.

Nearly all of my fellow guests were happy. One person who had to catch a train home asked for the dishes to be served up when each one was ready instead of all at once, but all the dishes appeared moments later.

Nineteen of us, all very happy.

Wines By The Glass
We had plenty of food. We could have ordered wines by the glass from the E n o m a t i c machines. All in all, a great evening out for a group.

Fulham Wine Rooms
871-873 Fulham Rd, Fulham, London SW6 5HP
England
UK

Hours: Open 12pm–12am
Phone: (+44) (0)20 7042 9440.
Nearest railway station: Parsons Green.
http://winerooms.london/fulham/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share posts.

Language Help Worldwide and Symbols In Japan

How do you get by as a tourist when you don't speak many foreign languages?
If you speak English, your tourist trip is easier in these countries:
England
Wales
Scotland
Ireland
The Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey)
The Isle of Man
The USA
Canada
New Zealand
Australia
South Africa

If you speak any foreign language, probably more countries than you imagine will speak that language, and give you a chance to revive your knowledge.

You could start learning a few words and some grammar. (See my previous posts on Duolingo, as well as my posts on Italian, German and Malay.)

Problem
What about languages which are totally unfamiliar, Greek, Russian, Chinese and Japanese?

Answers
For Greek and Russian, start learning on Duolingo.


Japanese
Symbols used in Japan include a smiling pig in a bowl for those who want to eat pork - or not eat pork. Pork is very popular for the Chinese (who reputedly eat anything with four legs except the table), as well as people from the Czech Republic and Italy, but not for those observing kosher or halal diets.

Tips
Information on Japanese symbols being introduced in far away places see the BBC news report:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-38920795
You could also copy these symbols for your use when asking questions.

Another BBC news report covers the use of an ap for a mobile phone which translates station announcements from Japanese into other languages.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-36976211

Article from Asahi Shimbun on phone app for translation
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201608040055.html

Apparently, what prompted a plan for translation is that the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 are expected to attract 20 million people. That is a lot of people, not just me, or you, but 20 million!
As far as I can tell, experiments are already taking place with iPhones, and more tests will be taking place from now until August 2018.

I suspect that once the Japanese start doing this, other countries will follow. Meanwhile, try

Duolingo.com


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, English teacher and teacher of languages. I have more posts and blogs on language, travel, etiquette. You will find posts, profiles and books about me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and elsewhere on the net such as YouTube. Please like, follow and share my posts.