> TASTE TEST Christmas cake alternatives
For more food and drink visit www.list.co.uk/food
SIDE DISHES News to nibble on
Stollen Margiotta, Edinburgh, www.margiotta.co.uk; also available at the Glasgow and Edinburgh Christmas markets, £4.69 per cake. A traditional German bread-like fruitcake, this loaf represents baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. A strong contender for the Christmas cake replacement crown, it was the most typically festive with its currants and marzipan. Definitely wholesome comfort cake.
Wheat Free Satsuma Cake Delizique 70-72 Hyndland Street Glasgow, 0141 339 2000, www.delizique.com. £2.50 per slice. Finally a wheat-free alternative to Christmas cake that isn’t disappointing, bland or rock-like. This was the undisputed favourite around The List office for its beautifully moist consistency and natural satsuma flavour. A light alternative to the usual Christmas glutton-fest, and perfect for those watching their waistline. Turrón Lupe Pintos, Edinburgh and Glasgow, www.lupepintos.com, £3.50 per box. A traditional Spanish Christmas delicacy that comes in a variety of flavours and can be either hard or soft. This hard variety was nice and dry, and a small sliver would be perfect with a good strong espresso. Reminiscent of peanut brittle or hard nougat, this is much more manageable than cake in your bloated post-turkey state, watch your teeth though.
Peppermint Crisp Tart Zulu Lounge 366 Morningside Road Edinburgh, 0131 466 8337. £2.00 per slice. One for the sugar fiends, this South African Christmas fridge dessert makes a refreshing choice in the December heat. Like Viscount biscuits in cheesecake form, this was perhaps too heavy and sweet to tackle after a full Christmas meal. Still, it saves on the usual faff of custard making/pudding lighting, and its minty decorations look very festive. Makoweic Pani Solinska 73 Broughton Street, Edinburgh 0131 557 6900. £2.95 per slice. This Polish poppy seed cake traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve was the most unusual of our festive offerings, and the poppy seed element avoided any overpowering sweetness. Although much plainer than the other cakes, it was light and felt very Continental, reminiscent of Danish pastry-style cakes. Good for a mid- morning coffee break.
Panettone Marcella’s Italian Bakery, Brougham Place, Edinburgh, 0131 622 5781; La Cucina, Great Western Road, Glasgow, 0141 357 1577, £5 per cake or 80p per slice. An Italian fruitcake eaten over Christmas and New Year, normally with sweet wine or toasted and buttered. With its fluffy bread-like texture and currants, it is reminiscent of hot cross buns. A light afternoon tea treat, large enough to feed an extended mafia family.
FOODFORTHOUGHT
Keiron Mellotte DJ and musician
Normally, I’m off out for a swim before my daughter Heidi wakes up, so breakfast doesn’t happen, and by the time I’ve paused for breath, it’s lunch. This typically involves miso soup or a vanilla bean and honey smoothie, along with a brie, grape and cranberry sandwich. I do love the sandwiches from Rudi’s Deli on Forrest Road. Quite often dinner is some sort of salad and seafood combination; I eat a lot of both. I don’t cook nearly as much as I should, but when I do it’s pretty much saturated in garlic. If I’m eating out, I’m obsessed with Japanese cuisine. Sushiya on Dalry Road is my favourite in Edinburgh. I also really enjoy Indian food or a good Mexican, though the latter is more difficult to pin down locally. When I’m on tour I eat out constantly, especially whilst in the States where much greater effort is made to keep the customer happy. . . and I like to be a happy customer! Being raised Catholic, I have that terrible guilt about food being wasted, ‘Think of the starving children in Africa!’, I say, as I scavenge through your leftovers. . . ■ Keiron Mellotte is DJ and promoter of EVOL which recently celebrated its 17th birthday. He is also in the rock band Pilotcan. EVOL Christmas Party, Liquid Room, 9c Victoria Street, Edinburgh, Sat 27 Dec.
■ JUST TWO MONTHS ago we featured an interview with an ambitious young chef, James Stocks, who was about to open his own place in Edinburgh just a few months after revelations of an over-egged CV had led to his resignation from his high-profile post at Balbirnie House Hotel in Fife. Wild Sorrel was to be the place where he would ‘let the food do the talking’. Barely a month after opening and with some tentatively impressed notices emerging from Old Fishmarket Close off the Royal Mile, the doors were shut and there was neither food nor chef left to do any talking. In October Stocks told the List, ‘The publicity hasn’t finished. I know that.’ It proved a more prescient remark than his avowed aim that it was to be the spot where he gathered his first Michelin star.
■ THERE’S
LITTLE DOUBT
about the most coveted book on the List kitchen bookshelf this Christmas.
The Complete Book of Mince, possibly penned by a ‘cordon brun’ chef from Paisley, René La Sagne, is a paean to the meaty staple of Scottish life and cuisine. With chapters such as ‘The Magic of Mince’, ‘Mince Around the World’ and a handy guide to ‘Mince Through the Week’, no tattie has been left unturned in giving mince a right going over. Some very special photographs show the subject matter in its fullest glory. Pure mince from cover to cover. You can get it for £9.95 from booksfromscotland.com ■ OFFERING A GLIMPSE of balmier days to come is Portobello’s new Beach House Café, located on the promenade at the end of Bath Street, serving freshly prepared soups, sandwiches and platters, as well as cakes, coffee and snacks. Its role as a community-minded place is also marked out by good local produce and a welcome attitude to families.
11 Dec 2008–8 Jan 2009 THE LIST 11