As an intriguing contribution to BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent Stephen Evans spoke of how he makes a habit of eating in works canteens which, by serving the food that the locals actually eat, give you a much better sense of the country than the fare available in commercial restaurants. Berlin was the focus for this piece.
Although the idea sounds very attractive I must say the prospect of Baltic lobscouse does not appeal. A version of Chatsworth Smodge ( potatoes mashed with corned beef tomato & onion), but with beetroot, roll mop herring & fried eggs – yuck!
In many parts of the world canteens are, as in Berlin, totally open to the general public; not, I think, something which has ever generally been the case in this country.
in my student days the BBC World Service canteen at Bush House in The Aldwych used to be an exception – though I expect this may have changed after the IRA bombing campaigns began. It made a change from the college canteen – they served exotic things like quiche – but a bit expensive for the student pocket.
There were some, among the large number of foreign students, who were able to earn a little from contributing occasionally to the overseas service - £1 a minute I believe, for a script, more if you read it yourself. It was one such (a Ghanaian) who gave me my first sight of the inside of a BBC studio; we went to see a continuity announcer, whose ability to talk for exactly the number of seconds remaining after the end of a programme, ending on a full stop just as the first of the Greenwich pips chipped in, impressed me so mightily.
