2011 NCTA LUNCH
From left to right: Sharlee Merner Bradley, Juliet Viola, Christine Lemor-Drake, Matthias Steiert, and Yasmina Hadri enjoy excellent conversation and cuisine at Cha-Am, a Thai restaurant in Berkeley.
BY AFAF STEIERT
There is a strong connection between language and cuisine; both lead to understanding each other’s cultures. In the Bay Area we can consider ourselves lucky to have such diversity in restaurants, allowing us to sample the world’s fine cuisines and get a flavor of countries we may wish to visit. When I first moved to Switzerland I did not speak German, but I ate raclette, cheese fondue, fondue de chinoise and other Swiss specialties. I immersed myself in their culture and understood customs through the friendly atmosphere during meals. I had the same experience in Italy. I find that, when I experience the cuisine of foreign countries, I dream of travelling or living there, and further immersing myself in their food, customs and language. That is why I take pleasure in gathering local translators to meet for lunch.
Until we travel to the countries of our dreams, it is great fun to meet colleagues and new NCTA members at our lunch gatherings. During our lunches we speak about how to become a successful translator, proofreading versus editing, how to get more work, and subsequently make more money; we speak about our countries and exchange information about good places to visit. It is a fun and relaxing one or two hours that we enjoy treating ourselves to every now and then. You get to immerse yourself in another culture’s cuisine while talking to great people.
On September 13, we tried Bacheeso’s; recommended by German translator Andrea Bindereif for its fresh Mediterranean buffet. We will try Gecko Gecko (Thai food) in Berkeley on Tuesday January, 17 2012 at 12:30pm. In the future we will wait for your new ideas and recommendations for restaurants in the Bay Area. I am always happy to get new ideas. Stay tuned and check out our events in the coming year. Happy New Year! Wishing you all a great start to 2012. AS
