Karoline Zobens-East is a third generation British Latvian whose grandparents moved to Yorkshire after the Second World War. She co-founded www.latviesiem.co.uk. We spoke to Karoline about the Latvian community in London:

I was born in London but from birth have been heavily involved in the Latvian community both in London and England. Although not an EU migrant myself, I interact daily with people who have moved to London from Latvia recently.

The Latvian Community in London

It’s difficult to know the exact number of Latvians living in London, but recent figures suggest the number could be around 20,000. The community itself is much smaller and we can usually expect around 200 people at a large scale event inLondon.

The community is very active with a choir, a traditional dance group, a school and various other organisations and groups. The community actively organises all sorts of events from theatre productions, music concerts and karaoke evenings, to Independence Day celebrations and more formal, traditional celebrations.

The London Latvian House

The London Latvian House is the beating heart of the Latvian community in London: Latvian people, food, drink, music, and atmosphere. It’s the only place in London you will feel the traditions of Latvia at any time of the year.

When the Latvian House was originally bought by the Latvian Welfare Fund (back in the 1950s) its purpose was to be the central meeting point for Latvians in London so they could feel at home away from home.

Nothing much has changed since then. It gives all Latvians in London and the UK a place to stay, to meet friends (there’s a bar in the basement) and to hold all sorts of events.

The choir, dance group and school all use the Latvian house for their rehearsals and classes and the hall provides a perfect space for a small scale concert.

The Latvian bar is a place where Latvians can enjoy Latvian music, food, beer and sports on a regular basis. There are always Latvian beers available to buy, as well as stronger drinks, and on Fridays and Saturdays it’s possible to eat a traditional Latvian supper cooked by Latvian chefs. Every evening ends up in the favourite Latvian pastime – song!

In addition to all this there is also a Latvian library in the house which is open a few days a week which has a vast collection of Latvian books.

I think the Latvian House will also provide Latvians in London a place to come and watch Latvians competing in the Olympic Games. I expect the men’s BMX races to of particular interest, as the current Olympic champion happens to be a Latvian!

Where to Sample Latvian Culture

Apart from the Latvian House and specific events organised by the community, I don’t believe there are any other places in London where you can experience Latvian culture.

However, Latvian produce is available at most Polish and Lithuanian shops so it’s always possible to find a Latvian delight for your dinner!

Setting Up latviesiem.co.uk

I set up latviesiem.co.uk around two years ago, with a friend who moved to England from Latvia. Apart from a couple of websites and newspapers, we felt there was a lack of information about Latvian communities in the UK, and for Latvians who have recently moved to the UK.

We have information designed to help Latvians settle into life in the UK, as well as news about and for Latvians living in the UK. Here they can find travel, education, work and emergency information. Our main audience is Latvians living in the UK, therefore, most of the website is in Latvian.

Is there anywhere else you can experience Latvian culture in London? Tell us in the comments below.

Thanks to the influx of Vietnamese migrants towards the end of the Vietnam war in the 1970s, London’s Vietnamese dining is as good as it gets.

A classic bowl of Vietnamese noodle-soup (Pho) is the place to start.  This flavoursome rice-noodle broth is the staple diet for most of the nation. Filled with the fresh aromas of ginger, lemongrass and spice, it’s served with a side plate of garnishes and you add in fresh herbs, bean sprouts and chilli to your liking.

It certainly beats a chicken tikka masala or fish and chips, (both contenders for Britain’s national dish), in my opinion.

To sample great Vietnamese food in London, begin in Shoreditch on Kingsland Road, where you can take your pick from numerous, inexpensive eateries.

Favourites include Song Que (make sure you try their spicy soft shell crab), and Old Street’s trendy Cay Tre around the corner for fabulous grilled fish and peanut-based broths.

Neighbourhood local Namo in Bethnal Green village, offers a lovely environment and top quality food and there’s now a second outlet Hop Namo in Shoreditch’s shipping-container shopping mall – Box Park.

If you’re after a Vietnamese feed in the West End, a second Cay Tre has now opened on Dean Street in Soho and it’s equally as popular as the original so make sure you pre-book. Due to being in the centre of town, prices are slightly higher but the food is just as good and they offer a menu of classic dishes and regional Vietnamese specialities.

For more central Vietnamese dining, look out for the Pho chain with outlets on Great Titchfield Street, Clerkenwell and Soho. No guesses what’s on the menu here!

If you want to sample more upmarket Vietnamese dining, take a trip to Bam Bou, by Charlotte Street. Housed in a beautiful wooden-floored townhouse, the three-floored restaurant offers upmarket Chinese, Thai and French Vietnamese cooking.

Vietnam’s French influences have culminated in national street snack – the Vietnamese baguette (Bánh mì) made up of fresh bread, your choice of marinated meat, pickled carrots, chilli and lashings of coriander. You’ll see many mobile baguette shops being wheeled through the streets of Vietnam.

Recently, Bánh mì shops have been popping up in London. Try Viet Baguette by Goodge Street, or, one of the originals – the Bánh mì 11 baguette stall on Broadway Market open every Saturday.

Read Jo Aspin’s blog for more foodie inspiration http://foodiefollower.blogspot.com/

Where else can you find Vietnamese culture in London?

Where can you find something in London which represents the small West African Nation of Togo? The answer is in Forest Hill. More specifically, in the African Worlds Gallery of the Horniman Museum and Gardens, a  treasure trove of objects collected from across Africa.

We’ve been to the Horniman before on our World in London journey, in fact, we’ve previously featured the very Vooduon altar where the objects from Togo can be found.

Nestled among the pieces in the Mami Wata altar from Benin, are a few seemingly random objects from neighbouring Togo. Not much is known about these objects, which were acquired during a field trip in 1998. They include a glass perfume bottle, a green lipstick (!), a rattle, a drum and wooden figures.

All these objects are on display at the museum and can be seen on the Mami Wata altar, apart from the perfume bottle which is positioned out of view.

Do you know anywhere else where you can find Togoan culture in London?

Freelance writer Jennifer Barclay is the author of  The Traveller’s Friend: A Miscellany of Wit and Wisom, and Meeting Mr Kim: Or How I Went to Korea and Learned to Love Kimchi. After giving us her expert tips on South Korea in London, here are her highlights for Nepalese cuisine in London:

Namaste! Did you know that the current coach of the Nepali national football team (as of January 2012) is an Englishman named Graham Roberts, who once played for Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur? Or that Prince Harry wants to climb Nepal’s most famous landmark, Everest, in 2012?!

Nepal, situated in the Himalayas, surrounded by China and India, is home to the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest as well as a whopping 27 million people. Gurkhas, soldiers from Nepal, served with the British Army. According to the Nepalese Association, otherwise colourfully known as Himalayan Yeti, 50,000 Nepalis live in the UK.

So it stands to reason that you can find some fine Nepalese cuisine in London. I am much taken with the names of some Nepali restaurants listed outside the capital – how can you resist the Yak and Yeti in Truro – or even better, the Yak Yeti Yak in Bath? But within London, for great food, a welcoming atmosphere and excellent value, it’s hard to beat Munal on the Putney/Barnes border on the Upper Richmond Road; Gurkhas Diner in Balham; or The Great Nepalese near Euston station, a family business since 1982 and also a firm favourite.

Nepalese cuisine is all about blending herbs and spices, and specialities include “momos” or dumplings (one of the most popular food staples in Nepal as well as Tibet and Bhutan) served with hot tomato chutney, lentil pancakes, mutton curry, potatoes with cumin, and plenty of dishes made with ginger, garlic, green herbs and fresh hot chillies. Then there’s black dal, made from lentils grown in Kathmandu; dal bhat, or lentils and rice, is the Nepalese national dish – perfect for sustaining energy when climbing mountains!

The celebration of Nepalese New Year falls in April, and other major festivals like Dashain and Dipawali around October. If you’re looking for musical and other events, first stop should be the website of Nepali Samaj UK, a community website for Nepalese people in the UK. Other information can be found on the website of the Britain-Nepal Society and the Nepalese Association UK, which runs language classes and dance workshops, and encourages people of all communities to participate in its activities.

Read more of Jennifer’s adventures at www.octopus-in-my-ouzo.blogspot.com or via Twitter @SummersdaleGO

Where else can you Nepalese culture in London?

Shreena Soomarah is a copywriter whose parents emigrated from Mauritius more than 30 years ago.

There is no one race, religion, cuisine, or way of life that defines Mauritius. Much like London, life there is a cosmopolitan existence.  No wonder the two cultures get on so well, and so many Mauritians choose London as their second home.

There are a few places you can find Mauritian culture in London:

• The Mauritian Open Air Festival takes place each July in Down Lane Park, Tottenham, and offers Mauritian cuisine and performances by some of the biggest names in Mauritian music
• Tune into Spectrum Radio, a radio station based in Clapham, to hear Mauritian sega and soca music, plus programmes dedicated to the Mauritian community in the UK
• The first Mauritian post office stamps are among the rarest in the world and can be viewed as part of the Tapling Collection at the British Library.  Dating back to 1847, only 500 of each value were produced
• At the Natural History Museum, you can see a native Dodo.  These are a Mauritian emblem, having been made extinct when the country was colonised

Where else can you find Mauritian culture in London? Let us know in the comments below.

Senegalese director and choreographer Diene Sagna moved to the UK four years ago to run his own dance company, Yaye Dib Sabar. He also holds sabar dance classes in London:

“Sabar is the drum, and also the dance – they go together. Of all the dances in the world that I know, it’s only sabar where you have to be in the air all of the time! You have to be light but also energetic and powerful. In the past it used to be just women who danced but now men are dancing sabar too.

“I’ve been dancing for a long time. When I was six years old I won a competition and after that, even though I was also going to school, dancing was my focus. When I was 17 I started to work professionally, going to Europe and working with big artists. I’ve worked with Youssou N’Dour, dancing on his video for 4444. I’ve also toured and performed with [bestselling Senegalese singer] Coumba Gawlo Seck.

“There are a lot of different African dance classes in London. They used to be mainly from Ghana or Nigeria, but now I can see the interest in Senegalese dance is increasing. It’s hard to make African dance respected in Europe – people think it’s just for fun. You can find contemporary and hip hop dance in the big theatres, but not this West African dance. I want to bring it onto the stage, that’s my fight.

“In London this June we held the first Yaye Dib Sabar International event, a weekend of Afro-dance workshops called Jump for Joy! We will be holding this every year in memory of my mum (who died in 2009) as a way of celebrating not only her life but also West African culture and in particular Sabar dance and drumming.

“I invite all students, from London and the UK as well as Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Belgium where I do workshops every year. I also organise an annual two-week dance training holiday in Dakar, Senegal, called Kaye Fecc, meaning Come Dance. The next one will be from 23 January to 4 February 2012.

“When my students see sabar they say it’s powerful, fast, fun and energetic also. But some people also say sabar is harder because they cannot understand the timing, the breaks. People also say sabar is the most difficult West African dance because it’s changing every week in Senegal. If I stay in UK for two years without going to Senegal I’m going to be lost! That’s why I go every year and spend two or three months there, finding out what’s new.”

The next Yaye Dib Sabar dance and drumming class in London is on Sunday 23 October 2011 at Studio 68 dance studio. More information

If you’re a rum connoisseur head to Sugar Cane bar in Clapham Junction, which serves several varieties of Nicaraguan rum Flor de Caña.

The multi award-winning Flor de Caña is touted as one of the best rums in the world.

It’s made using a slow-aging process which gives the rum its unique taste and is still produced in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, where the first distillery was set up in 1890.

Sugar Cane serves a variety of Flor de Caña products including Flor De Caña Gold 4 Year-Old, Flor De Caña Grand Reserve 7 Year-Old and Flor De Caña Centenario 21 Year-Old.

Where else can you find a taste of Nicaragua in London?

London is home to plenty of Malaysian restaurants and once a year, you can experience the best of them in one place.

For the second year running, Malaysia Night is transforming Trafalgar Square into a Malaysian Pasar Malam (night market) where a selection of the capital’s Malaysian restaurants will offer up authentic Malaysian dishes from stalls on the square.

Sample Malaysian street food-inspired dishes including laksa, nasi goreng, satay and beef rendang. You can even buy Malaysian ingredients if you’d like to recreate some of the dishes at home.

You can also enjoy some traditional Malaysian entertainment with performance, arts and crafts.

This year’s Malaysia Night is taking place on 23 September  so put the date in your diary now.

See what happened at last year’s Malaysia Night:

Malaysia Night, 23 Sep 2011, Trafalgar Square www.malaysiakitchen.co.uk

But a trip to La Galleria in Pall Mall will allow you a rare insight into this secretive society.

La Galleria currently holds a number of North Korean artworks, which are for sale and can be viewed by appointment.

The gallery holds oil and ink paintings as well as North Korean propaganda posters (although the latter are currently unavailable).

North Korean artists must be registered with the state and their work is usually commissioned by the state as well. Due to North Korea’s isolationism, its art is largely uninfluenced by world contemporary art trends.

La Galleria, www.lagalleria.org or phone +44 (0) 20 7930 8069 to make an appointment