Jimma, Ethiopia, New Year 2007 (11th September 2014)

New Year in Ethiopia and it’s a public holiday. Jimma is a regional town of around 120,000 people in the south west of the country. A generally poor town with unfinished buildings, unpaved streets and many people living in shacks. It nevertheless has a bustling local economy and a vibrant social life.

The Central Hotel is the prime accommodation and venue in the town, and the only Jimma location listed on TripAdvisor. It is a walled compound with a block of accommodation overlooking a junction of two busy main roads and the main bus station. On the far side of the compound are guest lodges (4 to a block), a swimming pool, small children’s play area and a poolside café / restaurant.

Its 4.00pm and there is a large middle class crowd in for the New Year. Children are at play in the pool. From the dress styles you would guess it is mainly a Christian crowd, although the town is roughly a 50/50 Christian / Muslim split. There are groups of men drinking. Families sit together, men drinking beer or wine, women mostly have soft drinks. The beer is mostly local (Bedele, Meta, St George) the soft drinks Sprite, Coke, Mirinda, etc.  Plenty of local food. People are dressed up, especially young women and girls in a mixture of traditional and western clothes. Many smartphones on display. There is loud Ethiopian music being pumped out and the DJ is setting up, although the hectic music sits at odds with the laid back crowd. Later some young women start dancing. As the event draws to a close young men with plenty of alcohol dominate the dance floor as the families drift away.

This is a secure space isolated from the life of the majority of residents going on around it. It’s a hybrid scene of Ethiopia  (dress, food, music) and western influence (dress, drink) and aspiration. A symbolic event of a country in the process of change, although this change in Jimma at least is limited to a small percentage of the population.

Central Cafe

Facing out onto the street opposite the bus station is the Central Café, a semi restricted space where people with apparently lower disposable income enjoy a similar New Year event. Many more children in their best clothes milling around. Different food, no DJ or pool, but still a desirable place to be for Jimma residents.

Take a Break Cafe

Local cafe in West London selling the usual breakfasts and fried lunches. Sometimes this is all you want. Clean, bright, friendly and relaxing. Regulars dropping in for random chats, passing trade reading the paper, txting, chatting on the phone, or just hanging out for a bit. Cheap, cheerful community resources in its own way. It is my local lunch stop on route to the football on a Saturday, and has become part of that ritualised experience.

The USP is the far too many to count cheap reproduction of film stars photos, which gives the place a cosmopolitan feel that is surprising given its very mediocre suburban location.

University Café, Glasgow

The University Café is located  in the ‘trendy’ West End of Glasgow, and as you might expect near to the University. This is mainly student / tourist / young professional land, with the more traditional working class areas not too far away. Increasingly, the area is being taken over by coffee shops and more upmarket eateries. You get a sense that the University Cafe is hanging on in there.  

Perhaps the elderly working class cliental and the younger hippier types are sharing the same space and eating the same food, but experiencing very different cultural messages in the process: a venue that is both traditional and retro cool at the same time.

Established in in 1918 by the Verrecchia family, the business still reflects (like many city cafes) the Italian origin of its founders.  A modern mix of the old: long thin booths in the 'Sitting Room’, lots of mirrors and dark wood, flock wallpaper (Indian restaurant style circa 1975). On the walls are numerous paintings and photographs. Many of these are of the University Cafe itself. A great exercise in self referencing.

The food includes home made soups and ice cream, traditional Scottish fried food, with the odd flourish. For example Oak Smoked Haddock, Rice Peas, Sweet Corn and Béchamel Sauce. Also they serve the apparently common Cheese Beano, which I must admit was new to me. Not a place for the healthy option though.

The University Café  has allusions to a grander past but it is just sort of cheap but not really that cheerful. To be fair, to some people it is a Glasgow institution. Byers Road would be a lesser place without it.

There are a range of reviews on Tripadvisor. My favourite  review sums it up: 

Take a trip back in time for this quirky cafe. Try the Mac and cheese you can almost feel your arteries harden with it but it sorts out a hangover, love this place very nostalgic feeling and great service

Breakfast and Cafes

Breakfast; always a good idea. It's been a photo trope of note ever since Stephen Shore went on his American Surfaces road trip. There are lots of motifs to play with here: plates of food, the arrangement of condiments, cafe art, clientele and so on. We are going to start exploring breakfasts and the their associate, cafes. To get this going we are going to explore a range of local cafes in Glasgow, sometimes with the breakfast option, sometimes not.

Stephen Shore - American breakfast

Psychogeography, the study of how our environment and culture affect behaviour and feeling and one of our research methods, is also interested in breakfast with several web sites exploring the nature of a 'good' breakfast. In the UK part of this is nostalgia for the old greasy spoon cafe and a past that is being replaced by multinational fast food outlets. 

There are people who spend their weekends seeking out new breakfast places, in the same way foodies seek out Michelin Star restaurants. One of the recent trends is for up-market reinventions of the traditional caff. In London the S & M chain fit the bill for those who want the bacon and egg in posh bread with a quiet ambiance, gingham tablecloths and Woolworth retro art - of course at a price. You can have much the same at Morrisons supermarket for a quarter of the price, but then it isn't the same in important (non food) ways.

S & M London