Postcards from Tibet

Funny how different cultures have wildly different superstitions around dates and numbers. The fear of Friday 13th is arguably the most widely-held superstition in the

Surely all Tibetans are vegan. Isn’t that just the Buddhist way? At the start of World Vegan Month, we’re addressing one of the many misconceptions

In the western world, where the clocks still go backwards and forwards, time is seen as a fixed resource, a commodity that we spend, save

This is a personal, immigrant’s perspective on Saturday’s unity marches and rallies against the far right. When Yeshi arrived in the UK on a fiancé

Where were you when you and your significant other shared your first kiss? Because Yeshi and I were on his bed. But the bed, you

Controversial, but momo is a Tibetan dish. It’s not Nepalese. And while we’re at it, Tibet is distinct from Nepal – they are not one

Tibetan people enjoy three hearty meals a day, but it’s rare to meet an oversized Tibetan. So what’s the secret? How do Tibetans manage to

When Yeshi and I first met he told me he was 32. The next day he said he was 28. I had him down as

In 1980s Tibet, the closest Yeshi ever got to a game of sports was the turnip patch. Turnips were good value: you could bat them

This is the first picture I ever took of Yeshi. He didn’t know I was taking it, but I wasn’t entirely stalking him either. We

For a Tibetan chef, the greatest fear is the food running out. Much of this is cultural. In Tibet, as elsewhere in Asia, the practice

How did Taste Tibet get to be Tilda Swinton’s top food pick at Glastonbury? In the week that the festival usually kicks off (it’s not

You’re a great cook, just so that you know. Everyone can cook. It’s just a question of practice and confidence – much like everything else.

Just 18 months ago, Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to make Britain the best place in the world for entrepreneurs to “scale up and stay.” But

For eight long years Yeshi never had any contact with family members inside Tibet. They didn’t have a telephone, there was no internet, and any

Lots of us fancy the idea of a nomadic lifestyle. Slow travel and remote working is all the rage these days. But nomadism is not

Did you know that Tibet is massive – the same size as western Europe? Historically, it was comprised of three major regions. There were geographical

How well do we ever really know our parents? For the children of immigrants especially, there can be lots of gaps. This week, over at

Running a restaurant has got to be one of the most Buddhist things that you can do. Buddhism doesn’t tell you to go out and

When Yeshi first told his brother Nyima that he was dating an Englishwoman, he replied that it would never work. “She won’t be able to

When you’re a husband-and-wife team and you run your own business, who looks after the kids? We’re through the baby years now, so the Easter

This week we’ve been reflecting on exactly six years since the first Covid lockdown and five and a half since we opened the restaurant on

Many people start their working life in hospitality before moving into sectors that offer a better work-life balance, higher pay, or more consistent hours. Very

It’s that time of the year again: the one everyone else gets excited about. Blossom is is bloom, the magnolias are magnificent, the scent of

The perfect antidote to a busy night at the restaurant is a high intensity gym class the morning after. I started dragging Yeshi along to

This strapping young man was a tiny baby just yesterday. Yeshi had only been in the UK three months before he was born. He’d arrived

How is it that the supermarkets can stock the same set of vegetables all the year round? In the UK, most of us never stop

The highlight of the Taste Tibet travelling roadshow is surely the annual curry and quiz night at our children’s school. How better to celebrate the

Yeshi had been living outside of Tibet for over a decade when our paths crossed on a mountain road in northern India 2009. He’d landed

It’s surprising how much Yeshi enjoys The Traitors when you understand that cynicism, posturing and backhanded behaviour are actually quite alien to him. Yeshi would

Yeshi’s mother died last Thursday evening in Tibet. He was at the restaurant and received the news from a cousin in India, rather than from

We’re hoping to go back to Tibet again this year. We made the trek to central London last week to hand our passports in to

Happy new year, everyone! Taste Tibet is reopening TODAY, Wednesday, after a short Christmas break. Hopefully you have missed us a lot and will come

We overindulged on Saturday night. Our neighbourhood bookshop, the fabulous Caper, had a Christmas party in their back room, a space that you actually access

Why is it that there are so few Tibetan restaurants? In the UK you can count them on just the one hand. In part it’s

Christmas is not a traditional Tibetan holiday. Yeshi’s family have never heard of it, and Yeshi himself still needs convincing. For most restaurants, everything kicks

We spend a lot of time celebrating the positives of village life in Tibet. In Yeshi’s home, four generations live together and provide for one

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

Sometimes we get so stuck in the day-to-day that we can forget where we’ve come from. The journalist Etain O’Carroll may be right in saying

Oxford can feel small sometimes – this was one of those weeks. Our friends (they’re Chinese and French) got married at the Hackney Town Hall