World Breakfast Tour

I am finally getting to post these photos from my recent outing with my tandem partner Sandra at the All Nations Festival. This cool festival is hosted by the foreign embassies of Berlin. Basically one day every year a number of the embassies volunteer to open their doors to the public. This year's theme was 'Fruehstuck' or 'Breakfast', which meant that each of the participating embassies were to showcase, among other things, their traditional breakfast.

The host embassies open this year included Nepal, Malta, Jamaica, Myanmar (which we presumed would be empty because of protesters like us) Afghanistan and Lesotho. It was all very well organised. We just presented ourselves at the embassy of our choice and were given a cute mock passport which we got stamped at each embassy we visited. Myself and Sandra started off at the Indian embassy, where we, as women, were given a bindi as we walked in. Eric and our friend Joydeep also went along but at a different time (so unfortunately there are no photos of their visit) and they were given a tilaka.

We were also given a chance to try on a sari. I have to say that I loved my sari and didn't want to give it up at the end. They also had this questionnaire to fill out, which if you got all the questions right you won a prize. Unfortunately myself and Sandra were too embarrassed to hand in ours as we could hardly answer any of them. (Here were some of the questions: What is the other official name (as per the Constitution) of India? a) Hindoostan b) Hindia c) Bharat and d) Industan. Which of the following is India's national animal? a) Lion b) Tiger c) Elephant d) Snowleopard. Answers below.)

And if you are wondering what they eat in India for breakfast, see above photo. Yes, that's right - as Eric exclaimed, "they eat Indian food for breakfast!" There was all different types of curry which smelt delicious but was a bit too early in the morning for me.

Next we went to the South African embassy, mainly because it was just next door. However, they didn't allow any photographs. (Boo!) So the only one I could take was of the (free) breakfast they provided. We got a free sample of boerewors, which is a type of sausage (VERY strong taste) eaten with a tomato puree and sticky mushy rice. It didn't do much for me but Eric said he liked his.

Then it was on to the Malaysian embassy. This place was packed with people. They had a table showcasing traditional Malay cuisine, which looks like a blend of Indian, Chinese food and South East Asian food, reflecting the cultural mix in the country. Myself and Sandra only got to taste some deep-fried banana balls, which were super sweet and oily, and a deep-fried pastry, very like a samosa. I would have really like to have tasted some of the bigger dishes but the queues were too long.

This was a man at the Malaysian embassy in traditional tribal dress.

Lastly we ended up at the embassy which houses the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. At first we weren't too sure where in the building to go, but then we heard this stream of music, the sound of foot-stomping and hand-clapping, which we duly followed and the above photo is what we found. A veritable fiesta of singing and dancing and general carrying on. Great fun. And that was our final stop on our World Breakfast Tour, from India to South Africa, Malaysia, Central America and then back to Berlin again.

Answers to quiz questions: c) Bharat and d) Tiger.