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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-20/shaun-christie-david-restaurant-giving-away-half-a-million-meals/103771986>
"Shaun Christie-David can still picture the bin where he used to ditch his dhal
sandwiches, the furtive act of a teenage boy of migrant parents desperate to
fit in.
He loved dhal at home. The aromatic combination of lentils, tempered mustard
seeds, spices and fried onions made by his Sri Lankan-born mother, or amma,
Shiranie, was his favourite meal.
But at school, he’d be teased about his weird-looking, pungent lunch, buffeted
by taunts of, “Shit man, your lunch stinks”.
So, the sandwiches stayed in his schoolbag all day before being dumped in that
bin next to the ticket machine at the train station in south-west Sydney where
Shiranie was waiting to take him home.
Today, that dhal, Amma’s Dhal, takes pride of place on the menu of Colombo
Social, the first of Shaun Christie-David’s string of Sydney-based restaurants
and social enterprises that celebrate multiculturalism and diversity, giving
work and purpose to refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, older women, people
with a disability and former prisoners.
“I reflect on that sandwich and I still get sad,” Christie-David tells
Australian Story. “To throw away a piece of my mum’s love and to throw away
things that my dad worked hard for [because of] being ashamed of my identity.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
