‘Full Monty’ grabbed my attention. But it just turned out to be the name board of a popular corner-restaurant in Leidsplien. I am sorry ladies, it offers little by way of female entertainment, but sure looks like doing a good job of recreating the English breakfast experience in a bustling Amsterdam hot-spot.
The name is of course borrowed from a British film set in Sheffield, “the beating heart of Britain’s industrial north.” The movie features a bunch of out-of-work metal industry workers stripping to make ends meet. Surely, the British tourists, whom the restaurant is obviously targeting, would make the connection.
But to my Indian mind, the metal industry, the Netherlands, the Britishness and The full Monty manifested in another way. The sign-board stands in the cultural capital city of the Netherlands, one of whose biggest steel companies was acquired by a company from what was once a former colony of the British. (India’s Tata group acquired the Dutch steelmaker Corus in a multi-billion-dollar deal almost a year ago.)
But that is just an Indian student making confounded connections. What is more interesting is that the ‘Kitchen is open until closing time.’ Just in case you thought otherwise. Have a good English folksJ
