Foodcourt at Garden City, Perth, Australia

I like going to the foodcourt of a big shopping mall. It’s not because of the food because most of the time, I can get the same things better elsewhere. However, there are not many places where you get masses of people sitting down to eat a big variety of foods - people from all walks of life, of different ages, and race and of different social statuses, blue-collar vs. white-collar.

Therefore it is also the best place to people watch. It is on one of these lunch time sessions that it struck me that a foodcourt is one place where multiculturalism has worked out really well without the problems seen elsewhere in the society at large.

And a requisite of any Australian foodcourt is a kebab stall - not to mention that it is also a staple fixture around city nightspots. In fact it’s so popular that even the most ignorant do not mind or care that it is a food of Muslim origin and that the people serving it are usually of “Middle-Eastern appearance” - a much used euphemism in Australian media.

So we may not like each other all the time, but we sure love eating each other’s foods. It’s as good a starting point as any. Food for thought indeed. :)

Foodcourt at Myer Centre, Brisbane

(via monkeyc @ flickr)