Et in Albania Ego

Albania hasn’t always had the best image: during my childhood, it was mainly associated with civil strife and organised crime. When the Balkans became a popular backpacking destination in the 2000s, Albania was largely left out of the party. This does have some distinct advantages though – Albania may be the only European country in…

Fit for a Prince

During the 1990s, pubs started serving Thai food. The phenomenon spread quite quickly for a decade or so, before largely dying out. Yet, the decision to serve delicate Thai food in a beery, bawdy pub always struck me as a bit odd – the food that people really craved when drinking was Indian. And yet,…

The Unexpected Pleasure of Breaking One’s Phone

Two weeks ago, I may have been a little too enthusiastic in cleaning my phone. I had followed the instructions given to me by the BBC, but it may have got a bit damp inside. I am now left with a flickering screen containing the serial number and a picture of an out-of-service android. Getting…

Volta do Mar

A few weeks ago, it was All Souls’ Day. Around this time if the year, I tend to find myself wondering who I would contact on a séance, if I believed in séances. I have never had the slightest desire to speak to John Lennon, nor Gandhi. Instead, I would like to summon AA Gill…

Berenjak

Persian cuisine is amongst the world’s most subtle, fragrant and flavourful – yet it remains oddly unknown to most British people, even in cities like London that boast dozens of Iranian restaurants. There are, of course, reasons for this: London’s Iranian restaurants are concentrated in places like Hammersmith, or far flung, well-heeled pockets of North…

Neptune

Once upon a time, I was a student in Bloomsbury and used to walk by the exuberant, neo-Renaissance grandeur of the Hotel Russell every day. Its flamboyant exterior lorded it over the polite Georgian townhouses of the Bloomsbury – and averted eyes from the concrete monstrosity next door. For all the tourists knew, Russell Square…

Roux the Day?

The Landau is a peculiar restaurant: its high ceiling and broad, ovoid shape jar slightly with the faux-industrial lights and neo-art deco fittings. The overwhelming openness of the main room is probably enough to set off an attack of agoraphobia, yet it is accessed by a narrow, even pokey, little corridor from the Langham’s lobby….

XU

“Out with the pigs, in with the dogs!” This is how one of my lecturers recounted the way in which her landlady in Taiwan had explained the transition from Japanese occupation to Nationalist rule, during the 1940s. In addition to her native Hokkien, this old lady had been brought up to speak passable Japanese, but…

My Anaconda Don’t…

‘Please be aware that the fries may contain some small bits of bone.’ This is not what I had expected. Closer interrogation revealed that said fries may have also contained rather large bits of duck tongue too. But then, one doesn’t go to a Chinese restaurant in search of chips, does one? Chinese steamed buns…

The Shan State