Welcome to my website. I am the author of ‘Vietnamese – Simple Vietnamese Food To Cook At Home’. I am a photographer and film maker. You can book into my supper club, Vietnamese cooking classes, buy my book, check out my photography and lots more here.
Please follow me on instagram @loveleluu – Thank you so much for visiting x
Best Food Photographer in London
The supper club is held in my home in London Fields, Hackney. It is like a dinner party in the tradition of a Vietnamese feast with homemade Vietnamese food.
Vietnamese food is about the balance of flavours, of sweet, salty and sour – there is no measuring device that can ever match your own taste buds.
If I can sit anywhere on the bus, I would sit at the top with the window on my left, in the middle by the stairs. According to Dr Tom Fawcett of Salford University, where you sit on the bus determines a lot about who you are as a person. Sitting at the top in the front, makes you “forward minded” and at the back “rebellious”. So that makes me and the woman in front of me “independent- minded.”
Out of the blue, the woman in front draws a heart with her finger onto the misty window and looks behind her shoulder at me as if she has just been caught red handed, with a cheeky grin on her face. I remember these feelings of being in love…
She went on to fill the heart in with some zig zags. Her happiness, made me feel all warm inside despite the cold.
Beside me, two young women in their early twenties starts a conversation about fashion and where they like to shop.
“I really love H&M,” she announces with great pride, “they are such good value for money and their designs are fantastic!”
“Yeah,” her companion agrees in a glee, “there is no point paying more than £20 for something when they do such great clothes. Whats the point of going anywhere else – Top Shop has everything – for next to nothing.”
My heart sank, and it sank deep. What has our society formulated to? Am I now realising the death of the boutiques? Is there a common consensus that independent and small businesses like mine – Love Leluu- is “so cool” yet believed to be unaffordable?
I ride through Oxford Street every day and I see with my eyes open that this Independent Mind is actually stranded on a desert island of bleak where “the sense of individualism most people strive to convey is becoming meaningless.” (@Grumblypuss )
Mass production for cheap throw away goods is a recent trend that has trapped us, erasing our ethical standards. It feels so good to buy a piece of clothing for £2 (or less) because its £2 and it looks alright – even if it doesn’t, it was only £2 and if it gets lost in the wardrobe, it was only £2 – lets just throw it away in a month.
We have all seen the TV documentaries and have informed ourselves about how these cheap things are made and at what cost. But yet, we don’t seem to be active about changing it to any large extent. We just seem to be really sad when our favourite indie shop disappears.
I remember a phrase about 7 years ago when “handmade” products were such an “in” thing. My boutique in Earlham Street thrived because it was all handmade as it still is now – but the only difference is – so is the garment in Primark – it only costs £2.
This got me thinking about the term “organic” – is it the same as “handmade” but in the food world? And the term “credit crunch”. Are we just like sheep after all, no matter where we sit on the bus, we are just lead by a trend society itself has created.
Small businesses like Love Leluu are closing down every where you look. Our tea shop also closed before Christmas. And we had to close our Newburgh Street boutique. The trend is sadly, for the big cats.
You can view where Love Leluu clothes are made, who makes them and where by clicking on the link below:
http://www.leluu.com/g/28496/about-where-our-clothes-come-from.html
