Posts by Tom Johnston
Scotch Broth
In her recent review of The Soup Solution, Cat Thomson name checked two famous Scottish varieties, one of these being Scotch Broth. Truth be told, it’s not my favourite. It’s also very fiddly to make, which may explain why we don’t see it so much these days. This recipe comes from a cookbook written by my…
Read MoreGloriosa, Glasgow
Gloriosa 1321 Argyle Street, Glasgow G3 8AB 0141 334 0594 www.gloriosaglasgow.com The Bill Bites £6.00 – £9.00 | Plates £13.00 – £28.00 Desserts £8.00 – £14.00 The Score Cooking 6/10 | Service 4/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value 3.5/5 TOTAL 17.5/25 Gloriosa I can be sniffy about restaurant names. Perhaps a little unfair,…
Read MoreBooks for Giving
If you have pals who love food and with whom you exchange presents, help may be at hand on the gift front. Unless you know them very well, I would counsel against cookery books. (An exception may, of course, be made if the person has been wise enough to drop unsubtle hints.) Suffice it to…
Read MoreAndrew McCall’s Famous Apple Cake
It’s been a bumper year for apples everywhere around here. Even our own recalcitrant tree yielded a record crop – at least seven whoppers. Wander around my leafy suburb and there are many help yourself baskets on garden walls. What to do with such bounty? Over the past few years I’ve made rather more chutney…
Read MoreSandemans, Fonab Castle, Pitlochry
Sandemans, Fonab Castle Foss Road, Pitlochry, Perthshire PH16 5ND 01796 470140 www.crerarhotels.com/collection/fonab-castle/dine/sandemans/ The Bill 7 course Tasting Menu £120.00 The Score Cooking 9/10 | Service 3/5 Flavour 5/5 | Value 5/5 TOTAL 22/25 All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his. Oscar Wilde, A Portrait of…
Read MoreThe Food Alphabetical Part 2 – A
Well I did promise it would return, did I not? But just to confuse you, the A in question isn’t really an A at all. Yes, artichoke does begin with the letter A, but today we’re referring to the Jerusalem “variety”. Now not only is our hero not really an artichoke at all, it certainly…
Read MoreTom’s Soup Solution – Two Soups
After Cat Thomson’s recent review of Charlotte Pike’s book (The Soup Solution), there could be only one topic for today’s Tom Cooks! Coincidentally, I did bring back a soup recipe from my Spanish travels, but it’s now completely out of season. See more below. But I’m 100% with Cat saying that October marks the beginning…
Read MoreTaberna El Pórtico de San Lorenzo, Córdoba, Spain
Taberna El Pórtico de San Lorenzo Plaza de San Lorenzo, Centro, 14002 Córdoba, Spain +34 957 15 68 88 Facebook: Taberna-El-Pórtico-de-San-Lorenzo The Bill (Euros) Starters €3.00 – €22.00| Mains €7.50 – €18.00 Puds €4.50 – €6.00 The Score Cooking 7/10 | Service 5/5 Flavour 4.5/5 | Value 5/5 TOTAL 21.5/25 When abroad, how do…
Read MoreBook Review: The Soup Solution – Guest Reviewer Cat Thomson
Readers of The Scotsman newspaper and other good periodicals will be aware of the quirky but elegant writing of Cat Thomson. We lunched the other week – at The Gordon Arms, Yarrow, review pending. With my neck at its brassiest, and my luck pushed to stretching point, I suggested an article for my dear reader…
Read MoreParador de Málaga Gibralfaro, Málaga, Spain
Parador de Malaga Gibralfaro Castillo de Gibralfaro, s/n 29016 Málaga, Spain +34 952 221 902 www.paradores.es/en/parador-de-malaga-gibralfaro The Bill (Euros) Starters €14.00 – €22.00| Mains €14.00 – €32.00 Puds – Didn’t Get There The Score Cooking 7/10 | Service 5/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value 4/5 TOTAL 20/25 My, oh my. While I’ve been away you…
Read MoreOysters Part 2 – Campbell Mickel’s Rockefeller
In last month’s article, Oysters At Home Part 1, we highlighted a problem if you aren’t prepping them yourself – your fishmonger will open them for you, but you’ll probably lose the “juice” What to do? Simple idea – cook them. Do that and the juice is no longer essential. This is one of the…
Read MoreIn Praise of Paradors
Granada If you’re thinking of cultural innovations, Spain in the years 1930 – 1950 may not be the first period which comes to mind. And unless you have travelled much in that remarkable country, you may be completely in the dark as to what a parador is. Surprisingly, they started in the 1920s, and developed…
Read MoreCool Jade, Edinburgh
Cool Jade 3 – 4 Downie Terrace, Corstorphine, Edinburgh EH12 7AU 0131 334 3823 www.cooljade.co.uk The Bill Banquet £32.50 per person Small Plates £5.70 – £8.70 | House Favourites £11.80 – £23.30 Classics £11.30 – £30.00 | Sides £2.90 – £6.80 The Score Cooking 6/10 | Service 5/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value 5/5 …
Read MoreOysters At Home Part 1
Did Wednesday’s article about the Stranraer Oyster Festival tickle your taste buds? Let me pose a few questions. Dear readers- How many of you like oysters? How many consume them regularly, say once a month or more? and How many of you have ever prepared them at home? Now if you say you don’t like…
Read MoreStranraer Oyster Festival
The UK’s native oyster season begins on 1 September. This means that the increasingly popular Stranraer Oyster Festival will soon be upon us, I’m grateful to my friend Cat Thomson for providing me with the official press release. It appears that ice cream sellers have not been the sole beneficiaries of our warm summer. Marine…
Read MoreSteak Diane
August in Embro’s/A time to remember The best of all Festival fringes/So rich that the visitor cringes, or goes off his hinges An absolute plethora/You’ll gasp for breath/Or abandon the game But don’t worry – each year it’s exactly the same Words by J O Drife Every year at Festival time here in Edinburgh I…
Read More1925 At Pompadour, Edinburgh
1925 At Pompadour The Caledonian Hotel, Princes Street, Edinburgh EH1 2AB 07401 760638 www.restaurant1925.com The Bill Lunch 3 courses £39.50 Dinner Snacks £7.00 – £12.50 | Starters £16.00 – £22.00 Mains £28.00 – £38.00 | Grill Menu (single course) £35.00 – £65.00 The Score Cooking 6.5/10 | Service 3.5/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value…
Read MoreFood, Friends and the Festival
And when I say Festival, I obviously mean The Edinburgh Festival, the wonderfully chaotic collection of events which takes place here in my city every August. It’s the world’s biggest arts festival, featuring over 54,000 performances in the month. Don’t be fooled into thinking there is just one Edinburgh Festival. The picture shows The Hub,…
Read MoreZabaglione
On Wednesday we promised you a zabaglione recipe. Because the editor of this column is a nice man, and because my assistant Zeph is so generous, we bring you two. The original recipe, intended as a pick me up, had to be consumed immediately, and was usually served warm. That would be a little odd…
Read MoreSebb’s, Glasgow
Sebb’s 68 Miller Street, Glasgow G1 1DT 0141 739 9381 www.sebbs.com The Bill Olives and Dips £4.00 – £7.50 | Plates £7.50 – £22.00 Desserts £6.50 The Score Cooking 5/10 | Service 5/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value 4.5/5 TOTAL 18.5/25 Restaurant names always interest me, and I’m always pleased when in the central belt…
Read MoreZ is for … Zabaglione
Well, we got there. Five years after the first A made its appearance (for Avocado in July 2020) we’ve reached the end. The end of lap one, that is. It’s been incredibly useful to have as a filler when nothing obvious comes to mind. The On The Side slot is definitely the one which causes…
Read MoreChicken Kiev/Kyiv
Let’s go retro. And, in the process, a former student of the Russian language (53 years back) at last discovers why the name of the city changed. I’m not retro for the sake of it: it’s just that classic dishes achieve that status for a reason. That reason is that they’re delicious. Today’s hero is…
Read MoreTuk Tuk Indian Street Food, Southside, Edinburgh
Tuk Tuk Indian Street Food Southside 16 Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9TX 0131 563 9871 www.tuktukindianstreetfood.com The Bill Roadside Plates £5.75 – £7.95 | Street Curries £7.65 – £12.00 Desserts £3.95 – £5.00 The Score Cooking 6.5/10 | Service 5/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value 5/5 TOTAL 20.5/25 George Drummond, my ultimate hero from 18th…
Read MoreWhat’s In A (Food) Name?
In last week’s Saucy Mothers article we touched a bit on the naming of sauces. But if you look, not even that carefully, you’ll discover numerous names in food nomenclature. People and places, pandering to divas, sucking up to aristocrats, and a few downright dodgy stories. As with the origins of sauces, which we looked at last…
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