EAST met west as a taste of the orient came to a Clacton care home.

The Glengariff, in Freeland Road, is staging international food nights to give residents a taste of other countries.

Staff transformed the dining room into a Chinese restaurant and the 30 residents sat down at a noodle bar-style banqueting table.

They eagerly tucked into beef stir fry, prawn toast, egg fried rice and Shanghai noodles.

The home’s staff also put on oriental costumes – including manager Janet Lloyd and maintenance man Steve Goddard, who turned up as sumo wrestlers.

Activities manager Sharron Coomber said: “A lot of our residents haven’t had food from different parts of the world, so we decided to give them a taste. We decorated the downstairs lounge with banners, fortune cookies and chopsticks – it was a lot of fun.”

Staff had some spice-free sandwiches on standby in case the Chinese food was a bit too exotic.

But Sharron said: “Considering a lot of them have never tried different foods, they absolutely loved it, and they were really amused by some of the costumes.

“The residents are used to seeing us in our work clothes and when I walked in they didn’t even recognise me.

“There was so much fun and laughter – it was really nice to see and I loved every minute of it.”