The restaurant isn’t open every day. Right now we can only be open as many days as Yeshi is able to work, and everyone – even superman here – needs downtime. We’ve been lucky this week that the days off have coincided with some beautiful weather. We’ve done some walking, cycling, exploring.
When Yeshi first moved to the UK he spent all of his days like this. His visa didn’t allow him to work initially – paid or unpaid – and I was out at the office all day, so there was little else to do.
This proved to be less fun than it sounds. Without gainful employment, Yeshi quickly discovered that other people found it hard to make conversation with him. They couldn’t place him. He lacked an identity.
The first of many culture shocks. In rural Tibet nobody talks about what they do for a living. Conversations cover the stuff of life, much of which is shared experience. Rich or poor, most people live out their days in more or less the same way, and wealth itself is not a determiner of status or relevance (or it wasn’t – everything changes, of course).
Tibetans admire most those people who dedicate their life to the benefit of others: the monks and nuns of the monasteries and nunneries, as well as the everyday people who consider the rights and welfare of others before themselves.
Here in the West we revere worldly success and individualism above all. Often our measurable achievements – and not our actions – come to define us.
Yeshi struggles to accept this difference between our cultures, and now our restaurant lies at the heart of this challenge. Taste Tibet has won plenty of acclaim, but for Yeshi, his driving purpose is to provide something good for the benefit of all, and as we become successful this end goal becomes harder to achieve: there’s a conflict between the needs of the business he’s built and what he’s motivated to provide.
For Yeshi, the customer experience was and always will be paramount. On busy nights especially we can struggle to be our best vision of ourselves. Our restaurant can feel cramped, our service overstretched. We welcome your feedback – this helps us to ensure that we remain on track. Thank you!
Taste Tibet is open all the usual hours this week, as follows:
Wednesday: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Thursday – Saturday: 12-3 (lunch) / 5-9.30pm (dinner)
Our menu is out now – check the website for full details. Come by for dine in, hot food takeaway or a wide range of dishes from our freezers – individual portions as well as family packs.
We look forward to seeing you soon,
Julie and Yeshi
Opening hours this week:
Weds: 5-9.30pm
Thurs – Sat: 12-3pm 🥢 5-9.30pm
☏ 01865 499318
Are you loving the Taste Tibet cookbook? Please leave us a review if so! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
