Within a couple of weeks, I read two related US stories about ordering food from an insanely far destination, like hand-made frozen pizza from Napoli, Italia, or like one startup called Goldbelly ships frozen food made by some restaurants nationwide. (With a motto of Whatever [food] they dream of, wherever they are.) While I am not consistent in consuming non-local food and drinks, like my mass orderings of Italian wines and Darjeeling teas, and while I’d love to get a new taste of Toukoul’s Ethiopian dishes, a creamy sepia risotto from Da Franz, an okonomiyaki from any street stall in Osaka, and many many other dishes from all over the World, it sounds to me rather debatable to have a special single meal prepared on the other side of the World and delivered immediately to one’s table… Furthermore, one of the perks of dining at fine restaurants is exactly to dine at fine restaurants, not in one’s own room, and having starred chefs’ dishes ending up in reheated frozen plastic containers is certainly killing a major share of the experience.
Archive for ethiopian food
Insane craving for food
Posted in pictures, Travel, Wines with tags bagels, blonde, Brussels, Darjeeling tea, Edinburgh, ethiopian food, food, Napoli, okonomiyaki, Osaka, restaurant, risotto, sepia, The New Yorker, Toukoul, Venezia on August 18, 2020 by xi'anNeurIPS without visa
Posted in pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Addis Abeba, Africa, Canada, conferences, Ethiopia, ethiopian food, Human Rights, LGBT rights, lottery, NeurIPS, Synced, USA, Vancouver, visa on September 22, 2019 by xi'an
I came by chance upon this 2018 entry in Synced that NeurIPS now takes place in Canada between Montréal and Vancouver primarily because visas to Canada are easier to get than visas to the USA, even though some researchers still get difficulties in securing theirs. Especially researchers from some African countries, which is exposed in the article as one of the reasons the next ICLR takes place in Addis Ababa. Which I wish I could attend! In the meanwhile, I will be taking part in an ABC workshop in Vancouver, December 08, prior to NeurIPS 2019, before visiting the Department of Statistics at UBC the day after. (My previous visit there was in 1990, I believe!) Incidentally but interestingly, the lottery entries for NeurIPS 2019 are open till September 25, to the public (those not contributing to the conference or any of its affiliated groups). This is certainly better than having bots buying all entries within 12 minutes of the opening time!
More globally, this entry makes me wonder how learned societies could invest in ensuring locations for their (international) meetings allow for a maximum inclusion in terms of these visa difficulties, but also ensuring freedom and safety for all members. Which may prove a de facto impossibility. For instance, Ethiopia has a rather poor record in terms of human rights and, in particular, homosexuality is criminalised there. An alternative would be to hold the conferences in parallel locations chosen to multiply the chances for this inclusion, but this could prove counter-productive [for inclusion] by creating groups that would never ever meet. An insolvable conundrum?
Toukoul, Brussels
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags Belgium, berbere, Brussels, Ethiopia, ethiopian food, injera, mitmita, restaurant review, Toukoul, WoT on June 10, 2018 by xi'an
While in Brussels this week, I realised I was staying near a well-rated Ethiopian restaurant called Toukoul (from the name of a, Ethiopian hut) and went there early enough to secure a table before it got full. For plenty of good reasons as the food is terrific, with enough spice for the taste
to linger in the mouth long after the dish is gone. (Contrary to the few other Ethiopian restaurants I tested and tasted in the past months.) And plenty of injera available on the table. And a highly friendly service. A place to remember for future trips to Brussels. Definitely! 
Washington snapshots [day 4]
Posted in Travel with tags Dukem, ethiopian food, Guinness, taxi on August 5, 2009 by xi'anIt is most often a fairly interesting experience to take a taxi in the US, at least in cities, because one almost invariably meets taxi-drivers with incredible stories from all over the World. I remember the Somali taxi-driver that took me to the airport in Philadelphia, telling me of a trip back to Somalia with his sons where they had been so shocked by the poverty there that they left all their spare clothes and shoes when they came back. Here in Washington many taxi-drivers are from Ethiopia and they have interesting stories as well. They tipped us on the good Ethiopian restaurants around and we ended up eating at Dukem, in Washington’s “Little Ethiopia”, where I liked very much the spicy—too spicy for the rest of the party—food served on thick pancakes called injera that reminded me of the saracen wheat pancakes of Brittany. The taxi back was from Nigeria, instead, and after talking about his trip to Ireland, the taxi-driver told us that Nigeria was still brewing the original Guinness, according to the “true” recipe. Which brought us back to Statistics via “Student” Gosset’s employer…
