Cooking, eating and drinking is fun as well as necessary. I do food for fun and I write for a living. Good food makes the world a more delicious and satisfying place. Good writing, meanwhile, can make the world a less confusing place.
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It was National Vegetarian Week a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t do anything special for it: I live with a vegetarian so I already eat a partially veggie diet and have a good understanding of the challenges of being a strict vegetarian. Edinburgh’s pretty good for vegetarians – although…
A few weeks back I was invited to the Sheraton Global Toast, an around-the-globe event where Sheraton Hotels invited guests to try wines and meet people. Edinburgh’s Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa sits back from Festival Square, off Lothian Road, convenient for the West End and Princes Street. It’s a…
When I grew up, French food was the epitome of all things elegant and fancy. The country had the patent on style, sartorial and culinary. Italian was earthy, Chinese exotic but only French managed to be elegant. In the town I spent my first ten years there were only three…
Many years ago, I worked for a software company on Melville Street. In winter, Teuchter was our local. At the time, there was a tapas restaurant in the cellar. Years have passed and Teuchters is quite a different pub from the one I used to go to with raucous colleagues.…
A couple of months ago, the Hotel du Vin chain launched Sunday brunch. Forget everything you know about brunch: Hotel du Vin’s offering is something else. We’re not talking a stack of American pancakes with syrup and blueberries, or even eggs Florentine. We’re talking four courses of fabulous food. At…
The Macallan launched their new range of whiskies a couple of weeks ago, in the Pompadour at the Caledonian. There were whisky cocktails, scrumptious canapés and the main attraction: The 1824 Series. The Series is an interesting addition to their existing range and takes a completely new approach. We’re used…
Yes. I live with a vegetarian. And yes, I like haggis. I like the meaty, sheep’s stomach, bits of blood and guts version. I also really like the veggie version. Particularly MacSween’s veggie haggis. A good few years ago, you could buy wonderful Indian patties filled with vegetarian haggis from…
Brunswick Street is tucked in to the area between Elm Row and London Road. The row of houses that No 11 is part of is surprisingly elegant. They break with the rest of the street: elegant pillars hold porticoes that double a balconies over the entrance. The buildings are four…
I had the fortune to interview Paul Tamburrini last year, before The Honours opened. Conceived as a more relaxed, casual dining experience than Martin Wishart’s eponymous restaurant in Leith, The Honours is a high quality brasserie on North Castle Street. Six of us got together a couple of Saturdays ago…
It’s a Thursday night, half past eight, and I’ve just arrived at Brauhaus, a tiny beer pub in Tollcross, Edinburgh. I’ve been to Brauhaus before, last summer, for a night of fruit-flavoured beers and something supposedly flavoured with chocolate. Tonight, I’m here to drink a snakebite. It’s been a while.
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