Posts by Tom Johnston
Craig Millar @ 16 West End, St Monans
Craig Millar @16 West End 16 West End. St Monans, Fife KY10 2BX 01333 730327 www.16westend.com The Bill Lunch 2 courses £25 | 3 courses £32 | 4 courses £38 Dinner 4 courses £55 | 5 courses £65 The Score Cooking 9/10 | Service 5/5 | Flavour 5/5 | Value 5/5 TOTAL 24/25 I…
Read MoreChef Watch – Craig Millar @16 West End, St Monans
CHEF WATCH Featuring Craig Millar, Chef proprietor of Craig Millar @16 West End, St Monans, Fife How long have you been a chef? I have been a chef (including college) for 33years Why did you become a chef? I always say I became a chef as a matter of survival as my Mum was never…
Read MoreThe Ship Inn, Elie
The Ship Inn The Toft, Elie, Fife KY9 1DT 01333 330246 www.shipinn.scot The Bill Nibbles £3.50 – £5.95 | Starters £6.95 – £10.50 Mains £13.95 – £29.95 | Desserts £2.00 – £8.50 The Score Cooking 4/10 | Service 3/5 | Flavour 3/5 | Value 2.5/5 TOTAL 12.5/25 There is nothing to suggest that the…
Read MoreTom Cooks With Tarragon
So what’s unusual about that, I hear you ask? Well, for one, L is not fond of anything with a strong aniseedy flavour. Nor am I – Pernod, Pastis and the like are a big no no, and I have never visited Greece for fear of being force fed ouzo – but when the flavour…
Read MoreSudi Pigott – A Real Food Writer Comes to Town
Even as lockdown eases, life can still seem a little, well, humdrum. We may be able to eat out, but there is a definite lack of spontaneity. Even the simple pleasure of popping in somewhere for a drink is accompanied by someone (alarmingly) pointing what looks like a laser site at the middle of your…
Read MoreCooking with Castle Game – Venison Steaks and Wild Boar Sausages
This article is timed to coincide with Wednesday’s On The Side column celebrating the delights of Castle Game Scotland. It features two dishes. The first is made using their wild boar sausages with Italian herbs, the second a great way to serve their venison leg steaks. Wild Boar Sausages with Green Lentils The lentils are a…
Read MoreThe Boat House, South Queensferry
The Boat House 22 High Street, South Queensferry, EH30 9PP 0131 331 5429 The Bill Lunch and Dinner Starters £3.95 – £12.95 | Mains £10.95 – £25.00 | Desserts £6.45 The Score Cooking 5.5/10 | Service 3.5/5 | Flavour 4/5 | Value 4/5 TOTAL 17/25 Can it be that every COVID has a…
Read MoreThe Food Producers – Castle Game Scotland
Neil Gilmour and Andy Smith It’s the middle of August. Andy Smith and Neil Gilmour should be celebrating the second birthday of their fledgling business, Castle Game Scotland. The truth is, however, that they are far too busy. I was introduced to them and to their wonderful produce some time before lockdown. L and I…
Read MoreVietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls with Nước Mắm
Just over six months ago (though it now seems like half a lifetime) I was in Vietnam. Our holiday was organised around food, including visits to markets, food producers and, of course, cookery classes. We travelled up river from the ancient town of Hoi An to the Red Bridge Cooking School, where today’s recipe comes…
Read MoreDelta Indian Takeaway
Delta Indian Takeaway 27 Roseburn Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 5NG 0131 346 8973 www.deltaindiantakeaway.co.uk The Bill Starters £2.95 – £5.95 | Mains £6.95 – £13.25 | Desserts £2.95 The Score Cooking 6/10 | Service 4/5 | Flavour 4/5 | Value 5/5 TOTAL 19/25 While this column may be influenced by all manner of external…
Read MoreTofu Making in Vietnam
1 September is National Tofu Day. Time to celebrate? No, I’m not a fan of the stuff either. But it does give me an excuse to write about my first hand experience of making the stuff. Well, almost first hand. It was our first full day in Vietnam, and also the first day of 2020.…
Read MoreEat Out to Help Out & Other News
I know I said that On The Side would be taking a break and wouldn’t return till September. Well, fortunately, this column is more flexible than its editor. I was penning a review and added a section about the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out (EOTHO) scheme. It then dawned on me that as this…
Read MoreDuck’s Inn at Aberlady
Duck’s Inn at Aberlady Main Street, Aberlady, East Lothian, EH32 0RE 01875 870682 www.ducks.co.uk The Bill Lunch and Dinner 2 courses £19.95 | 3 courses £23.95 The Score Cooking 8/10 | Service 4/5 | Flavour 4.5/5 | Value 4.5/5 TOTAL 21/25 Malcolm Duck was a fixture on the Edinburgh restaurant scene (latterly Duck’s at…
Read MoreNational Cheesecake Day 30 July
You could be forgiven for thinking that I keep a special note of these food days. No, I don’t, nor do they appear automatically on my Outlook Calendar unlike sundry random dates. Good Friday and Easter Monday – fair enough; St Andrew’s Day and St George’s Day, hmm; but Trooping the Colour and the Battle…
Read MoreChef Watch – Stuart Muir, Dine, Edinburgh
CHEF WATCH Featuring Stuart Muir, chef and co-proprietor of Dine, Edinburgh How long have you been a chef? I started work as a commis chef at age 16 so 35 years ago now … Why did you become a chef? I used to go fishing and shooting with my father when I was young…
Read MoreGet Stuffed!
The title of today’s column really should be Get Stuffing! That exhortation is less likely to get you a punch on the nose, but equally it is less attention grabbing. Today’s recipe is inspired by a pork fillet which I bought at the butchers for this weekend. It’s not the most exciting of meats, and can go…
Read MoreWhigham’s Wine Cellars
Whighams Wine Cellars 13 Hope Street, Edinburgh EH2 4EL 0131 225 8674 www.whighams.com The Bill A la Carte Starters £4.95 – £6.95 | Mains: £10.50 – £38.95 | Desserts £5.95 The Score Cooking 6/10 | Service 4.5/5 | Flavour 4/5 | Value 4.5/5 TOTAL 19/25 Envy, if thy jaundiced eye, Through this window chance…
Read MoreThe Gastronomical Me by M F K Fisher – Book Review
I have to say that the readership numbers for the book reviews in this column have been a bit on the slack side. This surprised me a little. If you are interested enough to read this blog, I thought you might appreciate being directed to people who really can write, as opposed to my scribblings…
Read MoreLesley Johnston’s Shortbread – 3 Ways
It is a little known fact that my wife is a top class baker. Little known, because here at Casa Johnston we try not to eat sweet things, we don’t do coffee mornings, and so far as I’m aware afternoon tea is not an event which has ever happened in this house in my time…
Read MoreSoleto – Guest Reviewer Miranda Heggie
Soleto Bistro Trattoria Italiana 11 Commercial Road, Southampton. SO15 1GF 023 8023 4044 http://www.soleto.co.uk/ The Bill A la Carte Starters: £3.50 – £16.00 (includes sharing portions) Mains: £12.50 – £23.00 The Score Cooking 8/10 | Service 5/5 | Flavour 4/5 | Value 4/5 TOTAL 21/25 Living south of the border sometimes has its advantages, and…
Read MoreB is for Banana
It was an early holiday in what is now the not so far east which opened my very blinkered eyes to the topic of fruits from the tropics. On visit to a fruit farm/botanical garden I tasted fruits which I thought I knew. I was amazed that they seemed so different. Slowly it filtered into…
Read MoreTom Eats! Best Dishes
When I first set up the predecessor to this blog, my good friend Michael G, now a proud resident of County Cork, suggested that I was making a rod for my own back. Five years on, I felt well qualified to say I had proved him wrong. That, however, was before lockdown. Other reviewers have…
Read MorePizza Takeaway Classics – Made at Home
While we are hoping to see Scottish restaurants reopening soon, I predict that for many months to come the eating out experience will not be as we have known it. Having said that, this will be the last takeaway at home column for a while. Let’s get out there and help the beleaguered restaurant sector…
Read MoreFood and Racism: An Interesting Debate
This column will travel a very long way to avoid political comment; however, I was alerted for the very first time to this possible issue by reading some of the considerable commentary following the death of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter is not a new organisation. As a network, it was formed in 2013 by…
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