From Difference to Connection
11 MINUTE READ There’s something about the Sunday Roast that feels quintessentially English. We see it advertised as a “thing” on Sundays at pubs and restaurants across England. Carveries are also still popular in some smaller, traditional towns. It is a lot of work to produce a full roast dinner with all the trimmings and... Continue Reading →
9 MINUTE READ Following on from the Belonging Across Cultures podcast with Chef Norman Musa where he talked with Author Across Cultures Yang-May Ooi about beef rendang as the iconic dish of Malaysia, Yang-May’s curiosity was piqued about the origins of this, one of her favourite dishes. How did it come to be a Malaysian... Continue Reading →
When we travel to a new country to live for a long period, maybe as a student or because of our work, most of us feel homesick at one point or another. We miss our friends and our mums - and actually, often many of us miss the comfort of familiar food from home. Is... Continue Reading →
11 MINUTE READ We followed the violent emergence of tea in Tea and Power Part 1, when we saw it become a coveted trade commodity that consolidated the reach of the British Empire. Here in Part 2 of the story, Belonging Across Cultures author Yang-May Ooi, looks at how this initially new high-end product impacted... Continue Reading →
12 MINUTE READ Belonging Across Cultures is fascinated by the connections between nations, peoples and ideas. You may be sipping a cup of tea while settling down to read this story. As you can imagine, this evergreen shrub, Camellia sinensis, used to grow in the wild. Until the Chinese discovered what it could offer us... Continue Reading →
7 MINUTE READ Author Across Cultures, Yang-May Ooi, visits Melton Mowbray, the home of the eponymous pork pies on a special pilgrimage to the original shop where this British specialty was born. Read on for some social history and culinary innovation packed into a crunchy, yummy foodie delight... Belonging and Maverick Thinking in Melton Mowbray... Continue Reading →
11 MIN READ As a companion piece to her story about the Christian tradition of preparing food for Christmas, cross-cultural author Yang-May Ooi was going to write a light piece about Jewish traditional food during Hanukkah, which is also celebrated during December. Then the Bondi Beach shooting happened, an attack on unarmed and peaceful Jewish... Continue Reading →
Bod Griffiths, founder of Vale House Kitchen, joins cross-cultural advocate and author Yang-May Ooi to talk about leaving his big city job to teach traditional ways of preparing and cooking food. Going fishing as a boy with his grandfather gave him a respect for the old ways of seeking out and tracking the food we... Continue Reading →
7 MINUTE READ Cross-cultural author, Yang-May Ooi, celebrates the things that perhaps most British people take for granted in this new occasional series on Belonging Across Cultures. When we are born into and live in a particular culture, what we see, say and do every day is unremarkable to us. But when we have come... Continue Reading →
How early should we start our Christmas preparations? In this story, we look at the British tradition of getting things ready for the festive winter season - especially making the Christmas pudding. What does all this hard work and preparation tell us about what the British value? Cross-cultural advocate and author, Yang-May Ooi, finds out. ... Continue Reading →
Friends gather for dinner at Moya, an Eastern European restaurant in Oxford, all British but from an international background. Stories flow and talk turns to favourite foods from home. Cross-cultural advocate and author, Yang-May Ooi, invites you to listen in on the conversation round that table as her friends ask her what is her favourite... Continue Reading →
Yang-May Ooi, cross-cultural advocate and author, shares another vignette from her dinner with an international mix of friends the other evening about their favourite foods from home. A menu item evokes the history of East Germany, Unification and an individual story of migration and connection to one’s roots. A Taste of East Germany -- Eight... Continue Reading →