The Bailie, Edinburgh
The Bailie 2 – 4 St Stephen Street, Edinburgh EH3 5AL 0131 225 4673 www.thebailiebar.com The Bill Starters £7.00 – £9.50 | Mains £14.00 – £32.00 Desserts ? The Score Cooking 5.5/10 | Service 5/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value 4.5/5 TOTAL 19.5/25 It was one of the more unusual nuisance calls. There I…
Read MoreB is for Beetroot
Were you pickled like me? No, Mrs Johnston, not like that. I mean, was your first experience of today’s beauty in a jar with vinegar? And not vinegar as is used by us expert cooks, but the industrial strength stuff which you could use to strip paint. Maybe it meant that the producers didn’t need…
Read MoreJam Roly Poly
An older, wiser friend, a man of the world, once took me to one side and told me that there were two of life’s pleasures which one would never get at home. The first of these was lobster Thermidor. I forget what he told me to be the second, but I’ve worked it out to…
Read Moreeòrna, Edinburgh
eòrna restaurant 68 Hamilton Place, Edinburgh EH3 5AZ 0131 531 4680 www.eornarestaurant.com The Bill Set 6 course dinner £105.00 The Score Cooking 10/10 | Service 5/5 Flavour 5/5 | Value 5/5 TOTAL 25/25 In the career of every food genius, there some seminal moments. Obviously I know about these things. There is one…
Read MoreThe Art of Great Service Dissected
No, not originally my title, though I have written about service before. It comes from the current edition of Scottish Licensed Trade News. At a recent event entitled Art of Service, a Q & A session had been set up involving three experts from different parts of the licensed trade spectrum. First there was award winning mixologist Mal…
Read MorePheasant, Apple and Ginger Casserole
This dish is inspired by, but rather different to, a Claire Macdonald recipe. Lady Claire uses whole pheasants suggesting, rather ambitiously, that two birds will feed 6 to 8 people. Secondly, she uses flour to thicken her sauce, which I dislike. Thirdly, she recommends cooking in the oven. While this is perhaps better for a…
Read MorePetiscais, Olhão
Petiscais Restauracao Rua Candido do O Ventura 11, 8700-373 Olhão +351 918 707 936 Facebook www.facebook.com/Petiscais The Bill (Euros) Starters €2.50 – €22.00 | Mains €15.00 – €20.00 Desserts – sorry, forgot to look The Score Cooking 6/10 | Service 4.5/5 Flavour 4/5 | Value 5/5 TOTAL 19.5/25 While the lyrics of…
Read MoreNational Heroes – Anton
No, NOT that one. This is a food column, remember? I have to say that until I read an article in the most recent Noble Rot magazine, I had no idea that Anton Mosimann was still alive and chopping. Truth be told he had slipped out of my memory. Many of you may not even have heard…
Read MoreScotch 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 More