Did you catch our poster boy posing outside Taste Tibet on Saturday? I confess that we only bought those ⓹ balloons because we found out that our local paper was coming by and we thought we needed to doll the place up a bit.
The restaurant turned five last week, and the Oxford Mail got in touch to say they’d like to cover our mini milestone for an article that’s coming out in the next few days. So what started out as a low-key party idea became a bit more of a fanfare.
On Friday, we hit the Sainsbury’s gift aisle for the first time. Somehow we managed to get through the kids’ early years without ever buying one of those numbered balloons and all the plastic bits that go with: Yeshi has an aversion, and anyway he’s always found birthdays and anniversaries a strange concept.
In his corner of rural Tibet, nobody of his generation knows when they were actually born. Paperwork became mandatory in the 1980s, but whatever their identity cards might say, Tibetans have traditionally calculated their age from conception rather than birth. Then they add another year every Losar (Tibetan New Year), regardless of when their actual birthday falls. The waters are muddy.
We got our ⓹ balloon out of the packaging and didn’t know what to do with it. Thank goodness for Pema, who was born in Tibet, but grew up in India. “We had a lot of time to party over there”, she told me, blowing gently through the straw, which she had expertly worked into the the valve on the balloon’s tab.
Tibetan people outside of Tibet go big on birthdays. Yeshi thinks it’s a problem. There’s another reason that Tibetans have not traditionally marked these milestones, and it goes back to the fundamental Buddhist concept of impermanence: time is limited and a new birthday is just a reminder that another year of life has passed with a mountain of spiritual work still remaining.
Personally I think we’re all right celebrating our anniversary. These five years have been dire for our industry, but we went and did something anyway, and somehow our unique proposition hit the mark here in the back streets of east Oxford.
Thank you again to everyone who came to share momos with us on the day, brought flowers and blew kisses. A reminder that death is round the corner so there’s no time like now for getting together and enjoying good food.
We’re open all the usual hours this week, as follows:
Weds – Fri: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Saturday: 12-3 / 5-9.30pm
Sunday: 12-3 / 5-9pm
This week’s menu is up on the website – check it. We have a BRAND NEW DISH dropping and Chef is excited. Don’t miss it!
Come by for dine in, take away and a wide range of freezer food, including family-sized boxes. We’ve also got plenty of mooli pickle and sepen chilli oil in the house, as well as cookbooks, so Christmas starts now!
Finally, newsletter subscribers get all the special deals as usual this week. Have you signed up? Click here to receive weekly news and offers direct to your inbox.
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Julie and Yeshi
Opening hours this week:
Weds – Fri: 5-9.30pm
Saturday: 12-3pm 🥢 5-9.30pm
Sunday: 12-3pm 🥢 5-9pm
☏ 01865 499318
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