Hungary makes you
hungry
Of particular interest to Glasgow gourmets during the Hungarian Festival will be the Hungarian Gastronomic Week. This will be focussed largely on Scotland‘s first Hungarian restaurant. based for the week in the Newberry’s restaurant of the Kelvin Park Lorne Hotel (923 Sauchiehall St. 334-4891)
Flying over to supervise the transformation of Newberry's into this melange of Magyar meals and Hungarian hospitality will be a top team from the Hotel Budapest. This first-class establishment. run by Hungarhotels, is one of the finest in the city and is supplying chefs, pastry-cooks and an authentic gypsy band. Visitors to Hotel Budapest at Newberry‘s will be able to sample real Hungarian dishes such as goulash. paprikas and fish soup. For desert. the pastry-cooks will tempt you with delicious, but no doubt outrageously fattening. treats largely composed of cream, cheese and fruits. All this. ofcourse. to the accompaniment ofa four-piece gypsy band in traditional costume.
Two special events to look out for are the Gala Dinner (Sun 6 Oct. 7.30 pm. £20) and the Farewell Dinner (Sat 12 Oct 7.30pm £14.95) The Gala dinner will include one bottle of wine per couple and both dinners will run to several courses. including an aperitif and liqueur. There is one sitting only to each dinner and tickets must be bought in advance from the Kelvin Park Lorne Hotel.
Lunch daily Mon 7 Oct—Sat 12 Oct 1230—230 pm £9.95
Afternoon coffee and pastries Mon 7 Oct—Sat 12 Oct 3pm—5pm £2.95 Dinner Mon 7 Oct—Fri 11 Oct 7pm—11.30pm £10.95
The gypsy band will be present at all the above.
As well as Newberry‘s, other city eateries will be entering into the spirit of things. The Cafe Gondolfi in Albion Street will be attempting some special dishes and are buying a Hungarian cookbook especially for the occasion.
David Mellis of the Third Eye Centre cafe will be trying to create some vegetarian dishes. The big problem with this, he has found. is that it is extremely hard to find any sort of Hungarian dish of which meat
is not an integral part. He was last heard muttering about the limitations of beetroot and cabbage.
One of Scotland’s premier restaurants, The Ubiquitous Chip (12 Ashton Lane) will be adding some Hungarian dishes to their usual menu. The Chip. rightly famous for its impressive wine cellar and the knowledgability of its staff about its content. is one of the very few places to have Tokay Aszu Eszencia. This wine is apparently made from ‘nobly rotten‘ grapes aged for at least ten years in oak and is consequently rather expensive.
Wine, in fact, will be just as much a feature of the Hungarian Gastronomic Week as food. All the cafes and restaurants involved will be stocking a selection of Hungarian wines including; Somlo Furmint (1982), Muller—Thurgun (1982) and Szeksard Nemes Kadark (1981), all ofwhich, I am informed. are more paltable than they are pronouncable.
For the real wine connoisseur, there will be a talk about Hungarian wines followed by a ‘tutored tasting‘ at the Third Eye Centre on Wed 23 Oct 7.30 £1.50. This will be hosted by Tim Mason (not the director of the Scottish Arts Council) of Masons of Holbrook: a company set up by Tim and his father, Robin. to import unusual wines from Hungary, Australia, Germany and France.
Capital Idea
Fighting the good fight against the common foes of low public awareness and limited finance for publicity, an unstructured, informal and almost clandestine alliance has been forged amongst some 25 of Edinburgh’s major arts and tourism groups.
The Capital Group unites theatres. museums. Festival bodies and just about every other organisation in the city propelled by punter-power in a sustained campaign to enlighten locals, visitors and tour companies as to the manifold diversions the region can offer.
Short-term strategy — following their successful trial run in Waverley Market this summer— is the setting up of an all-year-round Information Centre. By the end of October everything anyone might want to know about local goings on will. they hope, be available from one single, central point — in time they plan to expand the service to include reservations and ticket sales.
Further in the future is the
distribution of free weekly events diary and the development of more joint advertising initiatives amongst group members.
Amidst a certain amount of acrimony. the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival was launched in London last week. Leader ofGlasgow District Council. Jean McFadden refused point blank to go to London for the launch. saying that it should have been held in Glasgow and was only moved to London for the convenience ofScottish Secretary. George Younger. The planned publicity stunt featuring Mr Younger. Selina Scott and Billy Connolly fell apart when permission was refused to send up a hot-air balloon and the principals had to content themselves with waving to the assembled pressmen from where they were tethered. ten feet above the ground.
The festival itself. running between April and September. promises to be
quite an event. It will attract an estimated crowd of five million, spending a staggering £100 million. Plans for the 120 acre Prince‘s Dock site include a 200 ft observation tower which will be serviced by a
revolving. glass-enclosed elevator. It
is hoped that this tower will be dismantled after the festival and re-erected on a permanent site elsewhere in the city.
Other planned attractions include a roller coaster, a pontoon bridge.
There have been nasty nimours circulating that the sudden disappearance at live music irom the Traverse Theatre bar is due to irate neighbours complaining about the inlemal din, and a subsequent loss at licence by the Traverse. Nothing could be further irom the truth. The List can report that the real reason behind the dramatic loss of live music is that alter years at living underthe misapprehension that punters only drank there to listen to the live music, the Traverse have discovered that theatre goers don't, after all, need a
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resident craftsmen and a spruced up Finniston crane. Exhibitions will change daily on the site and also in the new Scottish Exhibition Centre which will be linked by a new bridge.
Scottish Secretary. Mr George Younger said at the launch that the festival will be the most successful event of its kind ever staged in Britain. Lord Provost Gray added: ‘The festival will provide the single biggest boost the city has had for many years.’
0 ‘Street Style' is the title ofthe photographic competition currently being organised by the Third Eye Centre. The aim of the competition is to reflect the amount and variety of personal style to be seen on the city's streets. Janie Munro ofthe centre explained that it was: ‘comparable with. ifnot superior to. that ofmajor cities such as London or Paris; and we thought that it was time that someone took note and recognised this.
The competition is open to everyone and free to enter. Any format offilm is acceptable including disc or Polaroid. but not transparencies. The best entries will be exhibited in the third Eye Centre from 18January to 15 February. One of the judges will be Scots actor. John Gordon Sinclair. soon to be seen in his new film The Girl in the Picture. in which he plays a
photographer.
Entry forms are available now from the Third Eye Centre in Sauchiehall Street and entries should be submitted on 15—16 November.
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musical accompaniment to knock back
! theirapres theatre shifters, and that
i the bar can survive very nicely, thank you very much, without any help from
; musicians.
Despite protestations from the
Traverse that the bar's success is due
to the pleasant surroundings and excellent service, I suspect that It may have also something to do with the tact that come Sunday momlng, while the rest at the city is sleeping solidly in preparation for church services, culture vultures at the Traverse can slosh back their 6&Ts until 2.30 am
48 The List 4-17 October
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