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Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/121360
:meals with memories Meals with memories by Amanda Ellis Deputy Secretary International Development Group at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Memorable meals for me tend to involve unusual circumstances, something surprising – be it good or bad – and a strong sense of both place and the people I shared the meal with. Despite being a terrible cook, I love food so much I couldn't possibly choose just one wonderful meal based on food alone... My most memorable positive food experience was breakfast on the banks of the Serengeti in Kenya, in the company of Masai warriors and about 20 wallowing hippos. I had been working on an assignment for the Minister of Trade with a World Bank colleague who was a keen photographer and he arranged a safari weekend to see some of Kenya's spectacular wild life in the Rift Valley. As we returned from a breath taking game drive in the early morning, my colleague Mark surprised me by asking the driver to stop, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I was pretty nervous getting out of the vehicle but we walked through a forest track to a river where around 20 hippos were performing their morning ablutions - and surprise, there was a small table set up on the banks. Wow! Two tall Masai warriors dressed in classic red tunics strode out from behind a tree, their spears slung casually over their shoulders, to serve us a classic English breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast with grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. It still seems surreal and left me with such a vivid impression of a completely different world. At the other end of the scale was a stupendous lunch in Saudi Arabia. I was so mortified at the time I can't remember anything about how the food tasted, just how embarrassed I felt dressed in track pants and t-shirt amidst Dior and Prada clad Saudi Arabian women! How did I manage to be so out of place you may well ask? I'd been attending an event called the Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh as part of my role managing the World Bank President's Global Private Sector CEO Leaders Forum. What I hadn't bargained on was the audience being completely segregated, with a separate security entrance, seating and dining areas complete with high walls to ensure no glimpses of the opposite sex were possible. All women, including foreigners like me, had to be dressed in the abaya, the full length black gown and head covering that leaves 80 | www.h e rma gaz i n e . c o. n z rmagaz only part of the face visible. It's hard to describe how it feels to be surrounded by a sea of black where I found it impossible to discern any differentiating traits and how restricted it feels, legally unable to move about alone in public places and banned from even using hotel facilities like the gym or pool . What's worse, each morning the hotel staff would tell me how sorry they were not to be able to let me join the bus to the conference close by, given I was a women alone without a male relative to escort me in public. Therefore, they had to reserve a special hotel car to drive me one block, for the flat fee of US$50! By the third and final morning, I was really chafing at the restrictions of segregation and resolved to rebel in my own small way. No suit, no high heels, no makeup that day given the abaya covered all; instead I left on my yoga pants, t-shirt and gym shoes and decided to refuse the hotel car, calculating I could make it to the conference in a quick sprint before the religious police picked me up for breaking the law. Somewhat dishevelled in the 40 degrees heat as I raced up the road doing a great impersonation of a large black bat, I made it! My smug satisfaction soon turned to dismay when some of the Saudi women I'd begun to befriend during the conference invited me home for a sumptuous lunch and the abayas gave way to extravagant Dior and Prada outfits of the kind I'd only ever seen in Vogue magazines. I can't remember anything about how the food tasted, just how out of place I felt! I am so glad to see the Saudi King championing reform for women - let's hope women will soon be allowed to drive and to vote.