In the week of the Spring Budget, the BBC have been in to the restaurant to chat to us about tax, profit margins and the cost-of-living crisis (if you want to see us on the telly, tune in to South Today tomorrow morning).
This is ironic as words like tax and profit margin still don’t trip off the tongue. We’ve learned about business by doing business. It’s been a crash course, a real-life MBA.
Maybe you remember that my old day job was in dictionaries. This was a solitary profession involving lots of words but very few numbers. It didn’t set me up well for the job of maître d, let alone that of bookkeeper.
As for Yeshi, when he was growing up in Tibet money wasn’t even a topic of conversation. His family had little use for it as there were no shops in the village. Walnuts and peaches were their currency: they traded the fruit and vegetables they grew in the valley for varieties harvested elsewhere. As nomads, they spent a lot of time milking their yaks and making butter and cheese. Some of this valuable yield was also swapped for other local products.
Cash was hard to spend. Sometimes his parents splashed out on tea or rice in town – luxury foodstuffs from far away. But mostly Yeshi remembers money just sitting around the house, and in particular one bundle that was used to fill the gap in a beam above the hearth. That was about as useful as it got.
Maybe a little financial illiteracy during a cost-of-living crisis is actually helpful. Mostly though – and this is the gist of what was discussed in tomorrow’s interview with BBC South Today – I think we survive because we’re plate-spinners. We’re a restaurant but we’re also a line of freezer meals. We’re a takeaway and market stall. We’re recipe writers and festival food floggers. We’re bloggers. If you’re going to pull through in the current climate you’ve got to run a circus. You’ve got to be nomadic – here, there and everywhere. A bit of this and a lot of that.
Speaking of which, we’ve just added Deliveroo into our operations. Our riders are ferrying hot food and freezer food and they cover a wide area – search us out on the app!
We’re open all the usual hours this week, including Mothering Sunday. Come to us for dine in or take away, or order the momos in for mum through Deliveroo. Here are our opening hours for the week:
Wednesday – Friday: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Saturday and Sunday: 12-3 (lunch) / 5-9.30pm (dinner)
Our menu is on the website now – check it!
Looking forward to seeing everyone soon,
Julie and Yeshi
Opening hours this week:
Weds – Fri: 5-9.30pm
Sat / Sun: 12-3pm 🥢 5-9.30pm
☏ 01865 499318
Do you love the Taste Tibet cookbook? Please leave us an Amazon review! 🙏🏽
