Ten years from now, I will retire and move to St. Kitts and Nevis, a friend once told me. This week, I browsed the country’s foods to see what he might eat there. The list of typically Caribbean – some surf, others turf – dishes all looked toothsome, but my eye was drawn to the … Continue reading Giant’s Salad Bowl
Who will be Meghan and Harry’s page boys and bridesmaids? Will William dash off to Wembley, present the FA Cup finals trophy and return to his best man’s duties at Windsor? Will Baby Louis make an appearance? Such are the questions that remain tantalisingly unanswered a week before the royal wedding, as excitement mounts on … Continue reading Perfume Isles
On Monday morning, I boarded my tube, found a comfortable standing spot and started browsing my Metro newspaper. A few pages in, a photograph caught my eye. Two people were seated outside a café, having a drink. They were clad entirely in black, in an inky ensemble of Maleficent horns, trench coat, boots, laces, belt … Continue reading Nadia’s Theme
Louis Vuitton’s 2017 spring-summer men’s collection featured designs inspired by Basotho blankets. Worn by the people of Lesotho, the blankets are more than just a bit of warm clothing. Each one is a story of its wearer’s class, age and gender. Blankets are worn differently by men and women, royalty and commoners, young and old. … Continue reading Highest lowest point
The fourteenth season of MasterChef UK has concluded, the winner has been crowned, but it was an also-ran that the season will be most remembered for. Zaleha Olpin presented the judges with a plate of nasi lemak and chicken rendang, both much loved dishes in Southeast Asia. The judges declared the rendang not crispy and … Continue reading Pelangi FM
Mansplain was included in the OED’s list of new words for 2018, another landmark in the neologism’s dizzying lexical ascent. Imitations have sprouted, looking to cash in on the formula. Take a topic, suffix it with a -splain, and call the resulting portmanteau the act of describing the topic in a condescending manner. Recently, I … Continue reading The Good Soldier Švejk
In 1775, the French working class was in mutiny. The wheat market had been deregulated; the price of bread had shot through the roof. The government quelled the riots and placed controls on supply, but the problems were far from over. In the following years, the masses were whipsawed by unpredictable crops and fluctuating prices. … Continue reading Copperbelt Province
