Touts

I went out in London last night with Viv and her friend, Louie, who is also Philippino, and is currently working as a nurse just outside London. We headed for Brick Lane near WhiteChapel for an Indian meal, or "a curry" as most people here would say. We were rather annoyed as we walked along with all the "touts"...guys trying to waylay us with promises of percentages off and free bottles of wine if we'd choose their restaurant. You couldn't look at a menu for even one second before being waylaid by these smooth-talkers. As we made our way down the street, we ran into a guy who came out of his sweetie-shop and told us his father was the local councilman...and that this kind of touting had been made illegal relatively recently, and that he constantly calls the police since there are still so many touts. Evidently, Brick Lane used to draw in a lot of customers, the streets would be packed he told us, but the touts have driven a lot of people away. So he gave us more than five local restaurants that had recently been in an article in the newspaper that did not use touts, and served good food at very reasonable prices. We went to one of them and discovered he was right. The food was absolutely delicious, and I think I just might go back end of May for the free-tasting night on Brick Lane that our new friend also told us about ;) I'm about to run out of time at the internet cafe, so I hope everyone is well, more later...