We are Leaving on a Jet Plane…

Last minute thoughts prior to take-off

We are on the plane now, heading first to La Habana, Varadero and then wherever else reading Lonely Planet on the plane may inspire us to do. Having planned this trip before we started making bánh mì, we passed our friends the baton to pick up and run with Bánhmì11 for a couple of weeks. When we started out, we thought it was going to be a solitary exercise. We had had it in our heads for so long that we forgot other people might be thinking the same way. But as Bánhmì11 has grown, it has taken a life of its own, drawing in people with a magnetic pull that exceed the sum of our personal charisma.

People come to Bánhmì11 and make a contribution in different ways. Some come on Wednesdays to help with the initial preparation of the meat and pate. Some come on Fridays to help with cooking in the evening and stay over to Saturday mornings to help us finish up. Some come to the stall to take pictures for the photoblog. Some help us with concept for the website and photo shoots. Everyone generously give their time, thoughts and creativity. Bánhmì11 has somehow become a voice, a quiet nudging to move beyond preparing for the next big thing in life to doing the small things that matter now, holding on to each other even when we may be stumbling every step of the way. We met a friend of friends on the train to a wedding in Wales this weekend and we started talking about bring weekly specials to Bánhmì11. We met up last night at Viet Grill for a special treat of off-menu dining and discussed a collaboration for a photo shoot, with a professional model/ actor whom we have only met twice. Almost strangers as we may be to each other, our stories were similar. Bánhmì11 envelops our conversations and gets under our skin even in our sleep. Every post we write, every photo we take, everyone debate we have over the future of Bánhmì11, is a collaborative act of self-expression, of wanting to explode the boundaries. Perhaps it is about challenging the notion of choosing between a career that makes money and one that makes a difference, where we have made a compromise but our friends are about calling out the out-dated stereotypes about a country and a people, or about pacifying an unsatiated appetite for good food and good company.

As we leave our friends the weight of keeping Bánhmì11 alive and running for the next two weeks, we are not unaware of the joys it brings and the shadows it casts on their lives. There will be times when they juggle to finish what they do at work and what they do for Bánhmì11, when they struggle to do more on less sleep, when they risk our friendship over an idea, when their hands and feet are tired and they must not sit down because then the fatigue really hits them. And hopefully, there will also be times when they smile over a problem solved, when they sigh a sigh of relief over the food that taste as it should, when they bubble with excitement over the faces that they recognize.

At the wedding this weekend, the mother of the bride made a speech that brought tears to our eyes. She asked the in-laws to take care of her daughter because she does not live in the UK, to embrace her with her flaws, to love her as part of the family. Now that we leave Bánhmì11 in the trusty hands of our friends this week, we ask you to give them the same support and guidance you have given us. Maybe they will make mistakes that we can all learn from. Maybe they will make improvements that change the direction we move in. As always though, enjoy Bánhmì11 for what it is and we will be thinking of you all, with lots of love from Cuba!

Posted on: 16.09.2009