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1— GoodfoodatTinthePark
Drumloch Cheese on Toast
Just to prove that all this chat about local, seaonal, organic food doesn't mean posh, here is one that ticks all the boxes without being exclusive. The cheese is called Drumloch, and it's a farmhouse cheddar style made from the milk of cows grazing the shores of West Loch Tarbert on the Kintyre Peninsula. Part of the excellent Food from Argyll group of producers who'll be at T in the Park for the second year running.
Arbroath Smokies
If you're the type who comes back from abroad cooing about the paella you had on the streets of Madrid or the spring rolls on the streets of Hanoi, then listen up. An Arbroath smokie, hot from the barrel and eaten with your fingers from its greaseproof paper wrapping, is right up there. In fact, if lain Spink, a favourite stall-holder at farmers' markets and festivals like this, has any trout. try that hot smoked too. World class.
Bumble Sticky Toffee Puddlng More unexpected delights from the fields and farms of Argyll. The rich, real and lip-smacking puddings made on Achnabreck Farm by Lochgilphead by Alexandra Marshall, using local free range eggs and cream, are aimed — strange as it may seem - at the 'iPod generation'. lf STP — made with buttery date sponge and rich toffee sauce — is just too obvious, then there are equally gooey sticky ginger and chocolate fudge puds to try.
Mutley’s Crepes Geoff Terry is a bit of an environmental campaigner, and, based in East Lothian, he tries to source ingredients from places such as Phantassie Organic and Knowes Farm. The freshly made crepes are savoury or sweet, and you can ask to ‘fruit it up', which is a bit like super-sizing, only healthier. And fruitier. And, frankly. tastier. Terry has a no-tins policy. so instead of fizz he sells pints of homemade organic lemonade for £1.
Stoats Porridge
When there's a longer queue at the porridge bar than the hamburger stall, you know a) we live in ever more enlightened times and b) Stoats is in town. The five-year-old company offers the best breakfast/midnight feasts on site and its mighty Porridge Bars, made with a blend of Scottish organic oats. simply sneer at effete museli bars. Tuck a couple away for emergency rations. On second thoughts, who nees an emergency?
Fire in the Hole
Once you've tasted pizza from a wood- fired oven you'll realise that the only future for the frozen kind is as frisbees. Northumbrian Martin Charlton is building a larger wood-fired oven just for T in the Park to meet the inevitable demand. Dough is made on site and the fantastic-smelling pizzas cook in about 90 seconds, so this is about as fresh and fast as good food comes. Ingredients are organic and/or locally produced.
0 Victor.“ Moore
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ow to Dunk
How to Drink
Victoria Moore
Clearly, we have a drink problem. Why else this book? Well, Moore is concerned that too much attention in foodie circles is devoted to food and not drinkies. ‘A good drink — the right drink poured at just the right moment — becomes not just a thirst quencher. but part of our social fabric,’ she says.
How to Drink is more important for its inspiration than its recipes. It'll have you exploring, tasting and revisiting booze in a slightly more cultured manner than you did as a 15-year-old. all the while admiring the author's formidable drinking history and 80-degree-proof name dropping (“The writer Vitali Vitaliev once spent an evening showing me how to drink vodka “the Russian way" . . .’).
Still, Moore doesn't just stick to posh or trendy cocktails, with sections on wine, tea, coffee. smoothies, softies and even hot chocolate. She pays much respect to the absorbing rituals of drinking and preparing drinks. with diversions into selecting the right glass, and the need to get obsessive about types of ice. The book is at its best suggesting why certain drinks work at certain times of day or year, explaining how flavours, temperatures, textures and alcohol affect the glass in hand. You might just feel you need a refresher course. (Donald Reid)
I How to Drink, Granta, £15.99. www.howtodrink.co.uk
News to nibble on
l W, the cult Glasgow bar of the cult LA film, has slouched through to Edinburgh and sprawled onto a leather sofa in the former Festival Tavern site on Morrison Street. Styled similarly to the Finnieston original, it has bare brick, polished wood and an A-list of cocktails. There’s a genuine commitment to sourcing local, seasonal and ethical produce, with meat coming from Aberfoyle and ingredients (such as Mull cheddar) as choice as the menu descriptions (Croque- Muncher appears among the Dude Lunches).
I All”! MAUI, the man behind the highly rated Pinxto tapas bar on Dumbarton Road, has taken over a neighbouring property and opened it up as Velvet Elvis, an all-day venue serving bar food classics ‘a notch above the normal’ and playing tunes from an old vinyl juke box. Set in a former butchers, the restaurant retains the tiled walls and even a proportion of the old meat chill (now used for beer storage), with large double doors opening onto Partick. 0141 334 6677, velvet-elvis.com
l m Thai restaurant Mai Thai has relocated from the ground floor of the Tun building near Holyrood to Old Fishmarket Close, just off the Royal Mile near to the Fringe Office. Menus remain pretty much as before, but it’s now open seven days for lunch and dinner, with an early evening deal 5.30pm-7pm for £10.95. The new phone number is 0131 225 1001, mai-thai.co.uk
I I'll m Seafood Festival takes place on the shores of Loch Fyne on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July with family entertainment, parades and local food. Nick Nairn is again in place to rattle the pans. with market stalls the main attraction on Saturday and music on Sunday. More at seafood-festivalcouk
14—28 Feb 2008 THE LIS'I' 15