World Press Photography contest 11

I'm not sure what I thought about the World Press Photography contest 11 exhibition.  On the one hand it is important that journalists cover incidents that we might find hard to read about and look at: war, natural disasters, famine etc.  

On the other hand I found one or two of the photographs a bit disrespectful to the people portrayed in them.  People are murdered each year in the UK and I would hope that even a paper like the Daily Mail would have enough respect to their families to not show a person's head or any other body parts lying around on the ground.  So why is it ok if the victim is Mexican?  He'e still someone's son/uncle/brother etc.

Apart from that niggling issue at the back of my mind, there were some brilliant photos taken from around the world. A few are below:

Bolivian wrestling women

 

Orchestra member practising the cello in Kinshasa, DR Congo

Hungarian food at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

I love the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.  It's got a strange 'German's doing a British version of Germans' vibe to it.

As you might imagine there are bratwurst and gluwein a-plenty.  What I didn't expect to see was 2 stalls selling Hungarian food.

 

Kurtos Kalacs, traditional chimney cakes

Stall from the Hungarian Delicatessen in Chingford. Website is here www.magyarokboltja.co.uk

Finnish Christmas market again

I knew that the Finnish Christmas Market at the Finnish church in Rotherhithe would have exactly the type of gloggi that I'd been to Lidl and the Swedish Christmas Market to find, to no avail.

I popped in after work this evening, and I was very pleased with myself for picking an evening to go rather than a weekend as the market was so quiet.  It was bliss! I could go round and look at everything without constantly bumping into people. And pick up what I wanted whilst listening to some Finnish music.

There was a £1 entrance price, though the folks on the door did say that you don't have to pay it, it's a donation.  I think it was worth £1 just to see the range of Moomin products they had on sale.

Moomin biscuits!

Swiss fondu

St Moritz on Wardour Street appears to be London's only Swiss restaurant so I've been meaning to visit it since I found out about it.  You can't miss it because there is a big Swiss flag outside.

There is a range of food on the menu but the only real choice we had to make was had make was 'which kind of fondu are we having? (served with bread and potatoes)'

Lupita

My friends Jessica and Kartik chose Lupita on Villiers Street for an informal leaving dinner before they head back to the US.

I was the first to arrive so had chance to practice my Spanish with the waiters.

We had guacemole and tortilla chips as a starter and our waiter came to the table to make it in front of us.

Cochinita Pibul tacos (slow roasted pork)

Swedish Christmas Market

It's been just over a year since my daydreams about Scandinavian food inspired to me creating this blog.  I'm pleased that I've not abandoned it and have enjoyed my world travels in London so far.

What's more I finally got to visit the Swedish Christmas market in the Swedish church near Edgware Road.

There were stalls selling bread and cakes, sweets, crafts, textiles, cards, homeware, books, Christmas decorations, mulled wine and more!

Big light in the church

Beautiful Happy Things

These cute homeware products from Swedish brand Isak at the Design Museum caught my eye because I have a half Swedish colleague called Isaak! (who inspired me to write this blog actually). 

Design @ Rocket

There is currently an exhibition of Post-War Domestic Dutch Furniture until 27th November at Rocket Gallery near Liverpool Street.

 Tweezitsprogramma bench by Friso Kramer

Shelves by Tomado

Krenit bowls, orginially designed by a Danish mechanical engineering researcher in 1953.

Two pieces by the Danish designer Jens Risom

I feel sLOVEnia

A Slovenian event took place at the Union pub in Paddington this week. There was a band playing, tourist board flyers, cakes and lots and lots of happy, singing, dancing, drinking Slovenians.

I'm not entirely sure what the event was about and as I hadn't been invited I didn't want to draw attention to myself but it was great to see so many people having a good time in a completely different way to the regular suit crowd.

Film Africa 2011

Film Africa 2011 is a 10 day film festival featuring both long and short films from film makers throughout Africa.

I went to see 4 short films at Rich Mix in Shoreditch:
- Lobi, an experimental film from DRC
- Square Stories, a video installation about the main public square in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia.
- Phyllis and The Deliverance of Comfort, two films exploring themes and images used in Nollywood films.

Afterwards there was a QA session with Zina Saro-Wiwa the film maker of Phyllis and The Deliverance of Comfort.  It was really interesting to hear her explain the issues she was exploring through her films.

She said that Nollywood films were a mix of conservatism (single women almost always have a hard time and get punished) and at the same time quite 'out there' film making (I forget exactly what word she used). For example she said she's seen Nollywood films which would switch genres halfway through. It has made me want to see a Nollywood film now, having never watched one before. 

More information and the programme can be found here: www.filmafrica.org.uk

Who do we love the most?

As I work my way through the world in London there are some countries whose food we seem to have fallen in love with as a nation.  As a result some countries have been very easy to find to add to my blog.

- Italy
- India
- China
- Thailand
- Japan

And there are a lot of different communities living in London:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,1398066,00.html

Some countries I think are going to be a bit of a struggle to find in London. I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to visit them via an artifact at the British Museum.  Some examples:

Burundi
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Sao Tome and Principe
Tuvalu

If you are based in London and you know of something for a country I haven't visited yet, feel free to leave me a comment.  After all there's only 266 days to go!

A pot of churros = a happy belly

The Espresso Bar at 98 Euston Road serves pots of churros for £1.90. I had some with a hot chocolate and by the end I was a very contented greasy fingered little camper! There's a small amount of indoor seating as well an outdoor area by the British Library. 

Although churros are a dougnut-like Spanish snack, the Espresso Bar is actually run by Peyton and Byrne, which I wasn't expecting.  My Spanish teacher told me about this place so I assumed it was going to be a Spanish cafe.  Since it's so close to Kings Cross this could be an ideal place to grab a coffee at the start of a long journey up North.

Brazilian BBQ

I had a very tasty Brazilian dining experience at Rodizio Rico in Islington!

Rodizio means to rotate which is exactly what happens in this restaurant. When we arrived the waiter explained how it all works:

- You get a little beer mat sized sign that says 'Yes Please/ Sim Por Favor' on one side and 'No Thanks/Nao Obrigado' on the other (with an accent on the Nao that I'm not sure how to get on here).

- You can help yourself to a variety of hot and cold items at the buffet and then you take a seat at your table.

- When you get back to your seat you can turn your sign to 'Yes Please.' A parade of waiters circulate the restaurant and they will keep coming to your table to offer you tasty cuts of meat.

- If you don't want them to stop at your table you simply turn your label to 'No Thanks.'