THE ORIENTAL CAFÉ, LADYBANK
by Alan Robertson
Ladybank (population about 2,000) in Scotland’s tranquil Howe of Fife, is set in low-lying fertile farmland, much of it given over to raising vegetables destined for supermarkets. These crops are gathered by hand, largely by gangs of workers from Poland and elsewhere in the European Union. Cupar, the County Town of Fife, lies only six miles to the east, its narrow streets blighted by heavy goods vehicles as they thunder between the road bridges over the rivers Tay to the north and Forth to the south.
Having lived here close on eleven years, this Ladybank incomer assures CLS Newsletter readers that his adopted xiangcun is by no means the kind of rural backwater for which it might be mistaken. Its Victorian railway station on the main East Coast line (EdinburghDundee-Aberdeen) and branch line (Edinburgh-Perth and beyond) has listed status. Besides frequent local buses to adjacent centres such as Cupar and St. Andrew’s, the hourly coach service linking Dundee with Edinburgh passes through.
Although Ladybank boasts a post office, bank, pharmacy, a first-rate butcher’s shop, well-stocked newsagent/general store and two minimarkets, it has for many years lacked any source of cooked food apart from sporadic meals at its pub, their quality at the mercy of ever-changing chefs. That deficiency has only lately been rectified when The Oriental Café opened its doors. True, it is only a takeaway (or as we Scots say, a Kerry-Oot) but its owners, clearly taken aback by my first greetings, are Mandarin speakers, with whom I usually exchange pleasantries as I pass, gently teasing them about the absence of a name in Chinese characters on the fresh new fascia.
