][1]There is a thought-provoking piece in today’s Telegraph about the growing trend for Chinese people to be tattooed with English phrases or letters.
Apparently, the Chinese see them as being more exotic, mysterious and also more private than using Chinese symbols. Inevitably, this has led to some grammatical gaffes such as ‘I belong to the god and it bless me’.
While that may make you wince, it is not as bad as the Westerner who, instead of the symbol for ‘spirit’, had the symbol for ‘gas’ tattooed on his arm.
It made me wonder if there will ever be a point when British food is viewed as being exotic and enticingly mysterious?
Love him or loathe him, Gordon Ramsay has done much over the last few years to rehabilitate the rep of British cooking on the world stage but I suspect that it will still be a very long time before British restaurants become mainstream on the high streets of other countries in the same way that Italian, Indian and Chinese restaurants are hugely popular in the UK.
Obviously, there are British pubs and restaurants abroad. In some parts of Spain and Greece, it sometimes seem as if there is nothing else. However, theme pubs and ex-pat/tourist restaurants aren’t quite the same thing as British restaurants which are popular with the locals.
Perhaps immigration patterns need to change. If there was a large emigration of Brits to the Far East over the next thirty years then do you think that fish ‘n chips could become popular in Singapore? Would the Chinese take to roast beef and Yorkshire puddings in the same way that the Brits have taken to sweet ‘n’ sour pork?
If you were to open a Brit restaurant in, say, Vietnam, what Brit dish would you make the focal point of the menu?