F1300 & DRINK

TITBITS

I Mickey’s Big Mouth Beer More shameless PR bumf has landed on the desk. this titne informing us about the year‘s promotional plan for Mickey‘s beer. In order to prick up interest about the American brew. a fun- loving team spent l05 days on the road. covering 9351 miles in order to dispense l2.354 bottles of Big Mouth. None of which would merit a mention were it not for their handy Viz-like tips such as: ‘Christmas Money Saver drink loads of Mickey‘s and use the empty green and gold bottles as Christmas decorations.‘ I T.G.I. Friday’s The American restaurant and bar have hooked up with Tesco to produce a range of American-style desserts that use bucketloads of what the manufacturers call ‘feel good‘ ingredients. But before you start salivating over the thought of Prozac pavlovas and sherry- sodden trifies. it should be pointed out that we’re speaking caramel. nuts. cookies and the like rather than tnore potent pleasure-providers. Nestling in Tesco's freezer cabinets. there are six different puds awaiting the sweet- toothed. from the Chocolate Mountain Meltdown to Turtle Swamp Pie. How much they will help you experience that elusive feel good factor is up to individual taste but the desserts have certainly moved the makers to the dizzy heights of rapture. The Chunky Chocolate Lovers Combo is described as ‘a smooth cheesecake layer smiling between layers of cookie crumb and milk chocolate mousse, smothered in chocolate drenched crispy chunks. sleepy honeycomb pillows and

(this is the best bit) kissing fudgy bits.‘ The Meringue Mountain Madness. on the other hand. would seem to have forgotten the languid language of love and opted for a more sporty metaphor: ‘chocolate and toffee sauce race down the snowy peaks of meringue through clouds of fresh cream followed by chocolate drench popcorn.‘

Should consumers be inspired to wax quite so lyrical. especially with a gobful of cookie crumb and milk chocolate mousse. remains to be seen.

Edinburgh

I Broughton Street Brasserie Broughton Street. 558 8868. Yet more culinary action is taking place on Broughton Street with the opening of this new diner. There’s an Italian flavour to the food on offer with various forms of filled focaccia taking pride of place alongside antipasti and enough different ways of preparing and serving coffee to keep any travelling Milanese happy. However. the grub on offer is by no means exclusively the produce of Italy and assorted hot specials from around the globe also make an appearance. including that home-grown, Sunday morning favourite and hangover remedy - the full cooked breakfast. Given the mind- boggling size of the windows. twice the surface area of a football pitch at a rough guess. you’ll be hard pushed to find a more sunlit café. I Po Ila Ila Souk Bar basement, 43b Frederick Street. 0468 060706. One of the more unusual newcomers to the Edinburgh bar scene of late is this North African themed bar underneath

Café Rouge. Clients can soak up the souk

atmosphere along with a cocktail or beer until 3am every moming. Two food menus are available. one until l0ptn that concentrates on Turkish kebabs. fish. steaks and couscous while the other menu runs until 2am and offers snacks and tapas. Regular DJ spots will keep the atmosphere vibing.

I Maxaluna 4 l() Sauchiehall Street. 332 0617. Design features are hardly rare in Glasgow bars but Maxaluna has gone one better than most and installed a full size car aquarium. Made frotn the shell of Ford‘s new Ka. the latest ‘finstallation‘ holds 245 gallons of water and a shoal of Koi carp. Now if diners could point out which particular carp they wanted to eat that would really be meals on wheels. I Nice ’n’ Sleazy 421 Sauchiehall Street. 333 9637. Sleazy‘s is getting into the festive spirit with themed Christmas dinner nights on the first four Mondays of December. Diners can choose between a five-course traditional Christmas menu. a Mexican version or a buffet. Having picked your meal. all that's left is to decide what night to eat it on. The easy listening night on Monday 2. the Latin night on Monday 9. the ceilidh night on Monday 23. or most intriguing of all. Monday 16. for a night of punk and techno mayhem featuring the delights of Area 51 and RH. Family. The thought of pogoing on a bellyful of steak chilli colorado topped with an avocado salsa is a frightening one but fear not, there will be a strict diet of ambient music during the meal sittings. The five-course menus are going at £25 a head and the buffet is a mere £5.

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99 Hanooen Stneet, EOIDDURQI’) EH2 10}. Telephone: 0131 225 4680.

The List 29 Nov-12 Dec 1996 99