Somali butchers visit

The World in One City

When is a kebab shop not a kebab shop?

Whilst sat observing the interactions and characters in a Turkish kebab shop I had the pleasure this encounter that occurred. During the two hours I spent in the restaurant I bore witness to the owner running through the steps of a traditional Turkish dance to an enquiring customer, he motioned through all of the hand movement required to complete the dance and upon completion gave a full demonstration. This humanistic attitude and willingness to invest in customers is a prime example of one of the traits I have been scouring for, the photos above illustrate the occurrence, blurred but non the less they communicate perfectly the moment. Upon witnessing this event I felt excited and moved but inspired more than anything, when do moments like this ever happen?

Turk/Cypriot Interview 1

During my visit to the community centre I held a number of interviews for the World in One City site, each with the intention of revealing anecdotes, stories and histories of a culture through their cuisine and its presence within the city. 

Frascuelo is a Turkish/Cypriot restauranteur who I has the pleasure of interviewing. Brimming with passion for the food industry, it was practically impossible to get away, although I must confess his accent was mildly problematic, sounding at times like he had a mouth packed full of feathers.

We careered straight into his history within the culinary/fashion business, with numerous Turkish/Cypriot ventures under his belt I felt fortunate to have the privilege. We discussed his businesses family orientation and the adaption of certain menu items in order to cater to his western clienteles palates. One such item being the now omnipresent kofte kebab, which he passionately informed me the Brits could not quite come to terms with, with the shape being the primary protagonist, pressed minced, seasoned lamb on a skewer was far too unfamiliar to comprehend, so with a little squashing and molding into a more recognisable form, the Kofte kebab mutated into the burger with which Brits were more familiar. Sales consequently increased ten fold.

The interview and audio will be featuring on the site.

Turkish Cypriot community centre/ restaurant visit

Turkish Cypriots were next on the list for the World in One city site and I will provide a brief synopsis of the day below. 

The idea behind the site is to facilitate cultural understanding through the food cultures consume and the rituals surrounding them and due to Turkish cuisines omnipresence within the city; whether a Turkish kebab house, grocery store or tea shop. My curiosity revolves around the characters behind the food and their families, I aim not to add to the plethora of reviews that inform peoples opinions/perspectives, I wish to open windows and splay light on the people, their stories, histories in order to richly document their communications about their food and culture, the everyday rituals, the crux of the cultural fabric, the make up, the essence, the personality, the qualities that radiate when one has evacuated the archaic image of the kebab shop from their mind.

Questioning people in cafes and telephoning grocery stories, through much trial and error I have slowly but surely uncovered the most efficient method of infiltration into the cuisines of a designated ethnic group, and it is to target community centres to approach with patience and sincerity. 

After extensive net trawling, I identified a Turkish Cypriot community centre situated on Green Lanes by Turnpike Lane tube station, the home of one of the largest Turkish/Cypriot communities in the capital for a day of filming. 

This centre sprung out immediately from a list of many others due to culturally sensitive restaurant that comprised part of the complex. Boasting two separate menus, one geared towards the 1st generation immigrants whilst the the other caters for the westernised Turk/Cypriots, the 2nd generation. I was excited at the prospect of being able to bare witness to two versions of the same cuisine, identifying first hand influences the west has imparted.

I was particularly lucky to have been communicating through he wonderful receptionist Bahar who managed to arrange my day filming in the kitchen and in the community centre itself, there will be more images to follow. The session included filming in the kitchen, the community centre and a series of interviews.

Somali food walk: 1

Many thanks to Abdikarin for putting me in contact with Erasto on Gleneagle road for the fantastic excursion around the area. Erasto, a chef based on Gleneagle road kindly agreed to take me on a guided walk of the area in an attempt to educate, inform me of  how Somalis shop, where in act they do so and what dishes are usually created. The weather was gloriously in our favor and it was a marvelous and insightful afternoon into the cuisine of his native Mogadishu and how it is executed in this country. Ersato complemented our tour with beautiful anecdotes of his childhood back in Mogadishu, that included insightful contrasts with that of city life here. Thank you very much, I'm indebted.

Again, the story of the day and the wonderful anecdotes will be available on the map and site.

Somali cooking session: 1

I had not anticipated the fruition of this encounter at all, but I could not have been more wrong. Abdikarin had kindly informed the lovely Somalian lady Aziza, also from the centre to run me through the Somalia national dish in her cosy little flat just off Lansdowne way, Lambeth although not too keen on having her photo taken, I still managed to take a few pics of the session. The break down of the session and the recipes will be on the website.

These are the encounters that I am aiming to pepper the map with, it was wonderful to witness the spices that were used, to be given a break down of the recipe, the traditions of recipe handing down from mother to daughter and the translations. It was a brief session but I had absorbed elements of the cuisine, of the history that may not have been attainable in any other way. This portraits although simple are a window into their culture.

Visit to the Somali Community centre: Lambeth

Somalia culture and Somali cuisine has been next on my hit list to add to the World in One City map of London. To reiterate the purpose of the map is to create a multifaceted, rich image of the cities incredible ethnic diversity through the food that they each individually consume through the stories they impart in order to promote understanding, awareness and encourage exploration of the teemingly life that exists but a bus ride a way. 

Restaurants offering 'authentic' experiences are countless, delineating faint lines of the culture that exist behind it's authentic showcase. It is my aim to reveal the actuality of these cultures through the food that they consume for the inhabitants and visitors to the city, where it is consumed and why, I hate to refer back to the old adage but people literally are what they eat, a poignant and beautiful metaphor and I am mesmersed that it is actually possible to sample the globe in one city.

The time remaining to execute this map situates me in a position of being able to choose but a small selection of the cultures identified, Somalia though, has made it in due to a pervading air of uncertainty that masks their presence and culture in the city. 

Having identified Somali clusters within the city I biked to the Somali community centre which is situated in Lambeth for a chat with the curator about my projects interests in their culture and location in the city. 

My reception upon arrival was somewhat reserved, an air of scepticism clearly directed towards the intentions of the project, which I understood. With the cold air failing to warm up I delved into the aims of the project which is a delineation of the Somalia culture as it exists within the city with notable attention to be paid to the food that is consumed both in the home and outside publicly, in order to paint a rich, detailed picture as relatively little material exists. Abdikarims lips remained somewhat pursed with the silence beginning to grow quite painfully uncomfortable, in an attempt to pierce it, I removed the photo's that I had taken in a Caribbean restaurant the week before, that illustrated the nature of what it is I want to capture. Finally, an understanding smile gradually began to emerge and he finally agreed to put me in contact with a Somali restaurant owner and one of the ladies who usually works at the centre. 

(I had read an article in the Guardian describing the impenetrability of the Somali community, and had begun to sympathise although this community defense mechanism has developed justly in accordance to a history of discrimination received within the city).

Eggs and homemade bread on la Balcon

Hello Broccoli, how do you do?

It's that time again, well... I'm slightly late!

The seeds have been sown! Mother Richardson has provided the goods, now it is time to geminate. Living in a flat with a tincey wincey balcony is not going to halt our green fingered desires, although it was somewhat contradictory walking up through Forest Hill with bag of organic compost slung over one shoulder, Sainsbury's wares over the other, anyway we are good to go. Heirloom Alicante  and Roma tomatoes, Calabrese sprouting broccoli and Boltardy beets will be starting starting their lives in the bottom of Sir Simcocks kindly donated egg box!

The World in One City: Gozleme, Stoke Newington

The World in One City: Gozleme, Stoke Newington from Michael Richardson on Vimeo.


The World in One City: Fresh Soba Noodles: Brick Lane from Michael Richardson on Vimeo.


The World in One City: Turkish Pizza (Lahmacun), Brick Lane from Michael Richardson on Vimeo.

Here are a series of example videos that will be featuring on the 'The World in One City' website. The videos that feature on the site will be more people centric as opposed to those orienting in a 'review' capacity.

The man who ate everything: BBC

Thoughts so far...

I am beginning to realise my projects full potential and am now aware that it is seemingly more intrinsically linked to my context report than I had previously imagined. In the report I stated that I intended to consider designing interventions to improve the diets and the relationships that people have with food due to the chronic fragmentation that has accumulated over the last 70 years. I had anticipated a physical design outcome, linked to the growing, and production of food within urban environments.

I held workshops within schools in an attempt to investigate the diets of those within dense housing estates, so not only did I rummage through their bins but also I provided the participants with cameras and food diaries to document their diets accordingly. I had considered mobile food units whose aim was to educate and impart basic cookery skills.

The centre of my focus has been those typically exposed and vulnerable to the perils of fast and convenient food. Deliberating over possible interventions, I next moved onto to looking at enterprising ways in which food manufacture may be used on a local level as an alleviating tool for those in socially and economically malnourished environments. I began researching London’s existing boroughs and mapped what food products could be created by inhabitants from dense areas, which led to the concept of a ‘culinary geographies’ map, which highlighted the fact that a large percentage of London’s boroughs, despite being multi-cultural have a unique culinary identity. I thought about using this concept as the driving force behind an idea that used London as a culinary product umbrella, under which it’s various culinary boroughs could be clearly identified and products manufactured by inhabitants accordingly. The idea being that each distinct area would boast a series of products directly reflecting the producing ethnicities involved, thus creating a not-for-profit organization that sought to create enterprise through hands on education and acquired business acumen.

In the case of the above idea I had significantly jumped the gun, taking a concept and leaping to outcome omitting any natural evolution that would have transpired within. An idea that I would like to pursue at some point but development is still required.

During a tutorial my tutor then in fact proceeded to highlight the feasibility of the idea, but the suggested the outcome be discarded. More positively he commented on the informal food dispensers that I had identified, such as the Bombay mix vendor and suggested that I create a service, a series of tours that take people of journeys of these key, unreported areas, but I had no intention of catering for a tourist market so a explosion of the idea was required.

What I have decided to create as a result of my research consequently is a map, a culinary map of London that identifies the main hubs of its 60+ non-indigenous communities. Each of these communities has it’s own culinary identity, its own traditions, it’s own shops, it’s own eating practices, it’s own restaurants. What I aim to create is a map that charts these places through the mouths and the experiences of its inhabitants, through their eyes, not a reviewers, not a food critics but from the mouths that inhabit the area. I want them to create a rich portrait of where it is they live through the food that that eat and the experiences that are intrinsically entwined, stories, videos, recipes, menus, environments will be all linked and mapped into an easily digestible and accessible format.

The map/platform aims to be:

- An educationally tool, a window into the eating traditions and environments of its ethnic communities

- A tool that creates social/community cohesion

- A tool to stimulate interest in the city and create awareness and understanding

- That promotes cultural identity within the city in a genuine format as to an ‘authentic’ one

- To encourage tourism outside of the common areas

- To be an accessible platform that comprehensively illustrates the capitals ethnic diversity

- A way for members of certain ethnic groups to contact others of the same ethnicity

- Self-promotion

- Something for a range of users from communities, tourists, schools, Londoners, foodies, the list could go on

Website Sketch

Eat London

Quite an impressive map of the city created from a range of edible delights. This was created for an outdoor theatre festival in london, the map of London is entirely edible and was digested in Trafalgar square by a keen public. It's mightily impressive to say the least and I would be keen to find out if the areas unique culinary identities are reflected through the choice of ingredients that have been used to construct them, I would hope so!

http://thomasmatthews.com/index.php/portfolio/installation/eat-london

Extruding, extracting curiosity

Here are a few idea's we extruded last night for a few visual elements that could potentially feature in the show. They revolve around the concept of our positioning within a basement (in Brick Lane), under ground, under the city. The metaphorically represent our pulling, our extruding, extracting curiosities from the surface, the world above and into our 'curious' territory for investigation.

Curious Space...

We paid a visit to the newly decorated degree show space up on Brick Lane today, aka the car park. Photo's, sketching and concept generation was the aim of the game, with the posed question: how can the space be designed to reflect the nature of our design course? 'Curious' is the title we are collectively attributing to the degree show to mirror how we as designers approach life: Curiously, anyway, here are pics.

Memory Marathon: Brick Lane Exhibition

Culinary Geography Logo/website sketches