Plural Identities

Burma

It's been 22 years since I visited Burma.  I had a wonderful and extraordinary time there but even in my 18 year old naivete I could not help noticing (as well as being told about it by various Burmese) the oppression since the 1960s.  I am signing everything I can, wearing red and keeping my fingers crossed.  Seems rather pathetic though.  I felt I didn't engage enough in 1989 (I'm referring to Eastern Europe rather than what happened in Burma in 1988) and now in 2007 I am not sure what can be done, other than add my voice cyberly.

Blunch 6

Met with a hungover Marcus (formerly?) from Harry's Place for a much needed Katsu Kare Raisu  (breaded pork cutlet on rice with a curry sauce) at E-kagen, a mom and pop Japanese cafe above Yum Yum, an Asian supermarket on Sydney Street, Brighton.  Reassuringly 'home' cooking of a Japanese cultural hybrid classic (pork cutlet and curry sauce which has been mutating in Japan since the late19thc apparently) with the necessary bright red ginger pickle trimmings, I am sure it is responsible for my slow recovery from a nasty head cold.  Marcus had a yaki soba (egg noodles fried with veg and meat) which seemed to perk him up in time for some rather dull sounding meetings.
Marcus remarked on how most people in the cafe were Japanese, and not just of the student variety.  I've noticed before that a lot of couples where the man is British and the woman Japanese seem to choose Brighton as their home, for bringing up kids.  The church on Church Street in Hove has a regular Japanese family meeting I believe, and a fair once a year.  If I was Japanese (and I sort of am in my heart) I would choose Brighton too.  Hat tip to The Travelling Hungryboy for the photo.

Blunch 5

I wandered down Preston Street, Brighton's ever changing restaurant strip, to forage for lunch today.  Sapporo has closed - rather suddenly judging by the chef's whites draped over a railing and the cutlery and napkins piled up.  I can't say I'm surprised or saddened.  The one and only time I went there for lunch all the staff seemed to be from countries other than Japan and that showed in the food.  Sushi Garden is now the resident Japanese restaurant on the street, but was closed, despite claiming to be open every day from 11:30am.  The sign up in the window looking for waiting staff may have been a clue.

So I ended up in China China, which had a large number of Chinese eating there - always a good sign.  I read somewhere that Brighton has the biggest Chinese population in the UK after London and Manchester- not sure if that's true, but we certainly have some sizable and popular Chinese restaurants around Preston Street, near the Chinese association on Western Road.

The menu was a bit too long and no lunch specials, so I took too much time for the affable Chinese waiter's taste to decide.  I ended up ordering the king prawns with black bean sauce and crispy noodles (£5) as a bit of a test, as I've ordered crispy noodles before and then couldn't find anything crisp.  It arrived very promptly in a huge plastic plate and the noodles were crispy, there were plenty of big king prawns and the black bean sauce had not been watered down.  The veg were in big chunks, which I understand from Sour Sweet is a sign of adjusting to Western tastes.  I did wonder if the Chinese were being put in the larger room and the gweilo in the smaller room, and maybe being served something different but as I left, a Chinese couple were put in the smaller room.  I bet though, as with Chinese restaurants in London's Chinatown, that the real pros order off the menu.  There was some nice looking duck and chinese cabbage hanging from hooks in the kitchen, so I think next time I'll be a bit more adventurous, or bring the family and go for dim sum.

Blunch 4

Unithai again, this time green curry with fried tofu. Lots of fresh basil, authentic white aubergine and bamboo shoots.  Yum yum.  Another customer was having Pad Thai which looked good too - one for next time.  My curry was served with a spoon and fork, just like it would be in Thailand, in my experience.  Someone on another table huffily asked for chopsticks.

Blunch 3

Another stunning day, and having despatched my Sasha dolls to various Ebayers (made over £300 on my old dolls, gotta love the internet), cycled back to Unithai on Church Road.  The cafe was very busy again, but a perfect table for two was empty for me.  The table next door were four necklace-wearing white middle aged men, the majority with hippy facial hair and veteran stoner eyes.  I got the impression they were working together, didn't all come from Brighton and were in the music business.  One of them had a copy of this book, Waking the Tiger.  (from one of the reviews on Amazon "...healing fundamentally requires the reintegration, re-owning, of our animal selves. This has profound implications, on many levels,not least that of planetary healing, which affects all of us.") They kept talking about their time in Phuket.  A very "large handed" older Thai (wo)man on one of the other tables glared at them and then left.

I ordered the fish cake and noodle soup that I saw a regular order last time (and, mystifyingly, leave half of).  Yum yum, particularly the dregs which had all sorts of crunchy bits of garlic, peanuts and, I think, the pickle that Japanese colleagues always used to order in Chinese restaurants, I forget the name.  Again, with a pot of jasmine tea at 85p, another £5.75 bill and a very happy customer.

Blunch 2

After a housewife superstar morning running errands in record time, and then meeting my Ethiopian refugee mentee for an hour at Jubilee library computer room (where we found online the Oromo radio broadcasts she used to listen to in Nairobi - the smile that lit up her face was worth the pain of her trying to master a computer mouse), I stopped off at Pompoko for lunch.  I've been there a couple of times before and thought it was OK - it doesn't pretend to be anything other than Japanese (ish) home cooking.  This time I went for the daily special, pork and kimchi on rice.  It was quite tasty but the rice clearly isn't Japanese, lacking the consistency that would have brought on a true nostalgic moment for me.  Also, it is a bit too popular, and I ended up having some language school student's arse stuck in my face while they queued near my table, as well as having to overhear various web developers moan about their jobs.  I might try upstairs next time, but I suspect there might not be a table for one up there.  The iced mugicha tea is nice, but at over a quid for a rather small cup, brings the total to nearer £10 than I would have liked.

Blunch (Brighton & Hove lunch) 1

Unfortunately, I got a puncture in my bicycle almost as soon as I set off.  I wheeled it down to Unithai Oriental Market on Church Road, Hove.  I'd noticed from a while back that there is a tiny Thai cafe tucked at the back.  It turns out quite a few other people had also noticed, as the five or so tables were full the whole time I was there.  I decided on the special, noodles with long green beans at £4.95.  It was absolutely delicious, spicy but delicately flavoured, cooked to order with some authentic looking greens, the only minus point being a couple of burnt strands of noodles.  With a whole pot of Jasmine tea for 85p, I kept to my resolution that the lunch should be nearer £5 than £10.  The friendly older Thai lady, given to gentle pats on the elbow, handed me a Saga magazine to keep me company.  I tried not to be offended. 
I will be back and am determined to work my way through the shortish menu.

I then discovered that Brighton & Hove buses do not take bikes.  I had forgotten to bring my mobile phone with me, and a sympathetic young woman at the bus stop lent me hers, even though the battery was about to run out, so I could call for a taxi.  Thank you, nice Brighton and Hove people.

A lady who lunches

I have decided to go out for lunch, on my bicycle, on days when I am working at home.  The theory is that this will help me lose weight, as it will be exercise and also that there will be restaurant imposed portion control, rather than a fridge full of lunch food to munch my way through.

I don't know how long this will last when I am faced with rainy cold November days, but at the moment in this gorgeous weather, it is a huge pleasure. 

No, not much direct relevance to identity and cultural themes, but possibly tangentially, as most of the restaurants I will be going to are not English, and I will get to earwig on Brighton & Hove's cosmopolitan lunch goers. I am going to try blogging about the results here.

Icons or values

The Economist looks at a survey conducted by Alan Manning and Sanchari Roy of the London School of Economics where they reworked data from the Labour Force Survey to show that immigrants from "problem" countries are more likely to describe themselves as British than those from Western European and North American countries.  Partly this is because they may have to take on British citizenship in order to remain in the UK.  But a more profound point brought out by YouGov interviews is that most ethnic minorities see Britishness as identified by values (fair play, rule of law etc) than by the icons that white Britons choose to define Britishness (fish and chips, Winston Churchill etc).

 
I have noticed a tendency for white Britons, particularly from the intellectual classes, to reject defining Britishness by values, because they say that these values are not particular to the UK.  If you come from a mature democracy, this may be true, but those immigrants who don't, have experienced the fact that such values are not universal.  Actually, this can be the case even with immigrants from mature democracy - many years ago I had a German neighbour when I lived in the East End of London who said he felt the British were much more tolerant of diversity than the Germans.

Hostile in general, hospitable in particular

The Financial Times is running a Muslims in Europe series at the moment and have commissioned a poll across Germany, Spain, France, Italy, US and the UK which shows further evidence for the British tendency to be hostile in general to (in this case Muslim) immigrants but actually quite tolerant or friendly in particular.  The British were most likely to predict a major terrorist attack in their country in the next 12 months, consider Muslims a threat to national security and believe Muslims have too much political power.  However on more personal measures of integration - having Muslim friends or accepting the marriage of their child to a Muslim, Britons were more enthusiastic than some other countries (well actually only Germany and the US as far as I can work out from the article). 

France was most at ease with its Muslim population.  Patrick Weil, a political scientist at the Sorbonne summed it up nicely: "In France we are very good at cultural integration.  We are very bad in fighting discrimination, especially in high-level jobs. In the UK it is the opposite."

In France and to a lesser extent Britain, religion is seen as a private affair, with less than 25% supporting the idea of faith schools and also many having misgivings about religious attire at work or in public places.  Spain is more enthusiastic about faith schools and Italy more accepting of religious attire.