Venezuelan Christmas Bazaar

Being a huge fan of both food and all things Venezuelan, I couldn't refuse the Venezuelan Christmas Bazaar today at the Irish Cultural Institute (Bolivar Hall being booked already) and a chance to try the traditional Venezuelan Christmas dish.

Firstly, I was distracted by the lollicakes, particularly the reindeer on the right....

... then I was distracted by awesome piñatas...

...but eventually I made it to the plato navideño, the typical Venezuelan Christmas dish. The thing on top is the starter, pan de jamón, or ham bread, a sweet, brioche type bread stuffed with ham and raisins. Then the main dish is hallaca, a maize dough pocket stuffed with pork, capers, pepper, raisins, and probably a whole lot more, all wrapped up in a banana leaf and boiled. I added a dash of chilli sauce to mine in the corner. The traditional Christmas plate also includes pernil, boiled ham, and ensalada de gallina, chicken salad. However, there was a huge queue for the full plates and this was big enough for me to contend with anyway!

If you're feeling less adventurous, there's always the classic Venezuelan dish of arepas, flat bread (a bit like pitta), stuffed with whatever you want - in my Dad's case, refried beans, cheese and pulled pork.

Guasacaca sell these tasty treats in markets around London every weekend. Find out more on their Facebook page or tweet @GuasacacaLondon.

Read more about it from Russell Maddicks at Venezuelan Food and Drink.

English Language Centre Social Programme: Week 4

This week was full of goodbyes and plenty of tears, as many of our students left us to go back home. Apparently university in China and Japan starts again this week - unlike us lazy British who are off for almost a month more still!

To end on a real British stereotype, we had a tea-party. There were no cucumber sandwiches or scones, and the setting was nowhere near formal enough, but it still felt like a fitting ending.

Talking of tea, this week I've been busy learning about the cultures and traditions of some of our students, starting with Turkish tea. One of the students sent us a video about the importance of tea in Turkish culture, which is also a nice introduction to many facets of Turkey.

He also taught us about a lovely Turkish custom as one of the students left. When someone goes on a journey, you pour water behind them, because water always knows how to find its way home.

Students leaving also means lots of gifts. Most of them are very nice things like fans, bookmarks, drawings and origami paper.

Some, however, are a little more unusual. One of them was a fan featuring Hannya, a grotesque demon representing a woman driven to rage by jealously. While freaking us out, this did at least give us an opportunity to learn more about Noh theatre. Apparently the mask can be either frightening or sorrowful depending on the angle. A white mask, like the one on the fan, represents an aristocratic woman while a red mask is a lower class woman. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the fan before someone snaffled it, but the image on it was a bit like this:

A wide array of edible goods have also appeared in the office, from chocolates and cookies to rice crackers, meaning we are constantly snacking at the moment. One of our favourite finds has been the self-proclaimed Strange Taste Horse Beans. We're not sure if they would taste any better if we didn't know what they're called, but they're a great example of the mis-use English in Chinese marketing.

If any students are reading this, please do bring us more artefacts or foods from your home countries, we love learning about them!