Romanian and Russian shop Bruce Grove

I don’t think I’ve seen any exclusively Romanian shops in my world tour of London until heading up to the Tottenham area.  But I have to say that London is so huge that really for all I know there are loads of Romanian stops in parts of town that I’ve never been to.

Culture in Defiance - Continuing traditions of satire, art and the struggle for Freedom in Syria

There is currently a fantastic exhibition of 'art as cultural rebellion' from Syria being shown at Rich Mix on Bethnal Green Road until 23rd November 2013.

Key themes of the exhibition are nonviolent resistance and the power of culture.  As one of the artists states "You can actually deal with everything that is scary through laughter."

Some of the images in the exhibition were very scary and powerful.  Definitely worth checking out.

 Photos by Muzaffar Salman, a photojournalist who has worked for Reuters and the AP

 Hama 30 by Khalil Younes

Alshaab Alsori Aref Tarekh (The Syrian People know their way) - Anonymous Poster Collective of 15 Syrian artists and  activists.

By Yasmeen Fanari

By Khaled Barakeh

New Crackers

New Crackers is a rather curiously named Lebanese deli on High Street Kensington.  I thought I'd include it because it sounds a bit like a nightclub that the guys from 'The Office' might go to on a work night out...

Mex Fest

-This weekend was MexFest, a celebration of all things Mexican in London from music to food.

I went along to an exhibition at Rich Mix but I think I got there a bit too early, as I think there was supposed to be kind of soundscape later in the day.

There were a few nice photos of Mexico nevertheless so here they are.

  Cenotes, Yucatán

 Day of the Dead, Michoacán

Light from the Middle East New Photography at the V and A

No photography was allowed in the Light from the Middle East exhibition unfortunately, but it was a great exhibition of the work by 30 artists from around the Middle East.

 

More information about the artists and the exhibition can be found on the V and A website: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-light-from-the-middle-east-new-photography/about-the-exhibition/

Dolls Never Die

Dolls Never Die was an exhibition last year at the October Gallery by Benin artist Gerard Quenum. The exhibition consisted of a series of sculptures made from recycled materials and dolls.

Neapolitan Music at the British Museum

Back in May the British Museum had a Roman event in the evening.  Strangely though as well as things you might expect from a Roman themed event (such as a centurion and a Roman style street) there was also this guy playing tradition Neopolitan music from the 19th Century!  So I thought I'd blog him. Why not?

M for Moldova!

A Ukrainian Couchsurfer called Vitali let me know that there is a Romanian resturant in Leytonstone called Amurg that also serves Moldovan food!

So off we all trooped to East London to eat mamaliga and Moldovan stew.

I had some delicious Romanian white wine and more polenta than you could shake a stick at.  The service was somewhat 'traditional' (i.e. a bit slow) and I can imagine that the music would be very distressing if you had a hangover (very upbeat and high pitched).

It's definitely worth a try if you've never tasted Romanian or Moldovan food before. It brought back fond memories of the 6 weeks that I spent in Moldova, fortunately without the dodgy tummy....

New Malden

New Malden is estimated to be the most densely populated Korean area outside of South Korea and the largest Korean community in Europe.

So whilst I was there visiting my friends who just moved to the area (neither of whom are Korean by the way) I went to a Korean restaurant for some tasty Kimchee stew.