On The Side

Sushi Tokyo Fish Market Some of you who noted the absence of Tom’s Food! these past few weeks may have been labouring under the impression that I was on holiday. As if! Those who follow me on social media will have known that L and I have been in Japan, researching frantically to keep these columns…

The only food magazine to which I subscribe is delicious. While the adjective is one I do my best to avoid in Tom Eats! columns, I very much enjoy the periodical, with a good range of columnists and recipes. It is enthusiastic and entertaining without being condescending or patronising. The September issue was dedicated to France, and contained…

 According to a report in The Times  this week, coffee has overtaken tea as Britain’s favourite drink. I wasn’t entirely blown away by the statistical evidence which was quoted. To say, as the article does, that shoppers bought more than 533 million packs of coffee compared to 287 million packs of tea, is meaningless. From a…

Can’t even boil an egg. The ultimate culinary put down. But why, one wonders? Can’t even make toast, or can’t even open a tin might surely be more damning. The topic came up the other day in The Knowledge, a daily newsletter which has interesting features on politics, society, arts and miscellaneous trivia. Twenty years…

Confused by the title? Well, come and have a look at my (overflowing) book shelves. For a good number of years I tried to operate a one in, one out policy when it came to cookery books. Now, however, I can’t think of a single one in my collection I could bear to part with.…

Tina and Ross Coventry While I’m thinking about the food and drink industry in particular, it’s quite a wide ranging question to anyone who is in business. The butchers, bakers and wholesale merchants who supply the food that you cook or sell on; the fishermen and farmers who labour, often in arduous and dangerous conditions,…

It seems to be a gloomy day. I’m not just referring to wildfires and strikes and global warming. On one of this column’s favourite subjects, restaurants, the news seems to be worse than usual. Now I’m not shedding any tears over the impending closure of Noma. Rene Redzepi has declared that the model for his…

Air Fryers. Didn’t have one; didn’t have a view for or against, though a few friends are keen devotees. Life changed last week in the shape of a large box as a  birthday present. Indian giving, possibly. Anyway, have beast, will fry. For experiment 1 below, I had no clue what to do and nothing…

Dionysus NOT Dionysios Dionysios, I said to myself. Are you sure? Is it not Dionysus? Sad, I suppose, that the idea for a column can materialise when you’re taking your best girl out for a hot date. Early evening at the flickers followed by some leftover chicken stew. Don’t tell me that I can’t show…

A question I’m commonly asked relates to unusual foods which I’ve consumed over the years. People are usually expecting tales from far flung places, involving Johnny Foreigner and his more disgusting habits. Well, it’s not just charity which begins at home. Try, as I have done, describing haggis to a busload of 50 non Scottish…

My wife laughs at me. I really don’t understand why. When I’m asked what is my favourite vegetable, there can be only one answer – today’s hero, the potato. Not only do I fail to comprehend why that’s remotely amusing, I genuinely find it difficult to see why anyone would make another choice. My grandson…

Whirly & Gregorie Marshall Salt: essential for human life; one of our senses of taste. The stuff which makes our food worth the eating. But there is more: much, much more. Did you know that there are over 14,000 things you can use salt for? Whirly Marshall does, and her husband Gregorie can probably tell…

This must be a pretty easy life, I said to myself. Although it’s his day off, James Robb has served me a bite of lunch in the East Pier Smokehouse, hard on the water’s edge at St Monans, in the part of Fife known as the East Neuk. Not a cloud in the sky; the…

Well some Food Alphabeticals are easier than others, and time was short for today. Even the mighty Larousse Gastronomique has only 10 pages for the letter O. Despite the illustration on the left, today’s choice is not based on a favourite ingredient of mine. What I prefer to feature is something which has a bit of history,…

Most of us go on holiday for a break. Nick Sinclair is not like most of us. When in Australia with his wife Hilary, he spotted a van advertising the company wares, artisanal butter. Becoming a big thing in Oz, his friends told him. So on their return to Scotland, the two of them started…

Chef Watch Featuring Mathew Sherry Head Chef, number one, The Balmoral, Edinburgh       How long have you been a chef? 15 years, since 2008. Why did you become a chef? From a very young age I knew, I just always loved food and wanted to cook. Favourite ingredient My favourite seasonal ingredient at…

Impending redundancy is a nasty, invidious thing. It seeps into you and shakes your sense of self worth. Fear, generally, impacts on your well being and your capacity for logical analysis. This has never happened to me before. Shall I rage against the machine, like Ned Ludd and his fellow 19th century weavers, smashing up…

Making hot cross buns at the weekend, my thoughts turned to yeast. Why, I pondered apart from breads and enriched breads, (traditional buns, croissants and the like) is yeast used so little these days? I then researched it a little. I found hundreds of recipes using the stuff. Back to the drawing board. So instead…

On Sunday I attended an excellent performance of Bach’s St John Passion at St Giles Cathedral, the choir in extra fine form. It was sung in the original German. Fortunately the programme included a translation. With Easter approaching, I got to thinking about its traditional food and the symbolism. If you were brought up in…

It’s Indonesian, but you won’t find it in Indonesia. You’ll find it in the Netherlands, but it’s not Dutch. If you’ve been to Amsterdam, you’ll know I’m referring to the traditional feast known as the rijsttafel, a very large number of tiny plates of Indonesian food served with rice. I ate this on my first…

Chef Watch  Featuring Martin Orr of Dine Murrayfield, Edinburgh     How long have you been a chef? I’ve been a chef for 30 years this year. Why did you become a chef? My parents had a small B & B in the village I grew up in. I would help my Mum cook and…

Yes, one of mine I know, you were expecting Tom Cooks! Bread Month to come to a dramatic conclusion with a sourdough fanfare. I do appreciate that many of you get fairly excited about the stuff. And if we’re looking at the economic benefits of home made, making your own really scores here. Assuming you already…

In a previous existence I spent much of my time advising the licensed trade. When it came to law reforms affecting licensees, many hours were spent trying to persuade governments of the unworkability of many a scheme, and hundreds more ranting after those protestations were ignored. Lorna Slater MSP These days I live an untrammelled…

Sounds like part of a bad joke, doesn’t it? Readers of a certain vintage will remember this one. – How do you know if you have an elephant in the fridge? – You can see its footprints in the butter. Sarah and Steve Mitchell Substitute buffalo for elephant and it works just as well/badly. In life, how…