Over the last 10-15 years multinational corporations have
subconsciously controlled our choice of deodorants or perfumes, phone,
jeans or other accessories and of course the choice of our taste buds as well. “Organized
crime” is a term used widely for crime that is a result of pre-determined
motives from a group of people. “Organized robbery” or “Organized looting” is
what multinational corporations do to the society making us individuals
devoid of local choices. The chains of McDonalds, Subways, Pizza Express,
Burger King and others rule the palates of at least a quarter if not half of
the world’s population at this time. We identify city landmarks with reference
to the Subway or McDonald nearby. In light of this “organized disillusionment” to
select a local restaurant of your choice, you are at times caught fumbling to
think of names you can recommend to your friends, family or colleagues. The
dwindling numbers of such local restaurants are a result of the buying power of
multinational corporations with their food chains.
One of the places where i have had a very sumptuous meal in
England is a local restaurant called “Poppins”.
Poppins claims to be a coffee house and restaurant and it is exactly
opposite the Worcester Foregate train station in Worcestershire. From the
outside and also from the inside, the restaurant decor gives you a feeling of being a very old
restaurant which was just about making money to pay the bills and making a wafer thin profit margin on top. Though it has been maintained well, it has
still grown old over the years and definitely has the old style seating arrangements,
chairs and furniture. The people who serve you also make you feel you are in
the 1980’s or 1990’s. I don’t know if its by design or by accident. 
I happened to be in Worcester with a colleague for an
official meeting in that city. We had taken a train from London down to
Worcester early in the morning. Since it was too early a start, we hadn’t had
breakfast and Poppins is where we had our first meal of the day – around 10 –
11`ish on a Thursday morning. Poppins was still full of customers settling down
and enjoying their cuppa tea and late breakfasts. The feeling i got seeing a
lot of old people was that this was a joint for them for years together now.
Many of them would probably be friends who would have met in the same
restaurant for the first time in the 80’s and continued their daily visit to
Poppins over the years – growing older with their lives, but not bored of “Poppins”.
Kudos to the owners of Poppins as well to keep it as it was and give good
quality food. I had an egg omlette with bread and chips. Also had some tea and freshly made orange juice. Quality of food for the price was very very good.
Poppins definitely reminded me of “Chandraprabha” Chinese
center around Mulund (a suburb in Mumbai) or any of the Udupi hotels
/ Iranian cafe’s in Mumbai which are old from outside and inside – with chipped
tables and chairs – but still serve good food. These establishments have stood
the “test of time” against multi brand food chains and our continued patronage
to these will help us to get nice change to taste good quality local food
across the world!
If you want to try a slice of life from an era gone by, please stop by at Poppins and enjoy your no frills meal!
1 comment:
Great read!! Well written!
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