EATING & DRINKING GUIDE 2016
RIPE • Scandi-Scottish dining – all these foraged greens, purist vegetables and wild game. Chefs of the new wave are reaching for their inner Nordic. • Meat – we can no longer deny the burger. The new guide has a standalone Steakhouses and Burger Bars section for the i rst time. There are a lot of them these days. • Meat-free – Yotam’s got ‘em. Praise be: many more venues have signii cantly improved their vegetarian and vegan offer. • African – Viva! Viva! The choice of energetic, exciting food inspired by Africa is better than it has ever been. • Beer lists – don’t dull me with your overpriced wine list. Show me your ale selection studded with interesting local brews that match the food on offer. • Doughnuts – if you’re going to ditch the diet, make sure it’s with nothing less than a freshly baked artisan doughnut.
BEST BEFORE • Cheffy chefs – if the chef emerges from the kitchen and isn’t carrying your main course, refuse to buy a signed copy of their new book. • Seafood – in too many places, it has got boring. ‘Great seafood’ does not equal salmon, seabass and overpriced i sh and chips. • Thai – where did it all go wrong? Thai was the exciting new thing on the Asian block just a few years ago. The spark seems to have i zzled in all but a few places. • Dirty food – the plug has been pulled on pork. • Hipster hangouts – when it’s hard to tell whether you’re standing outside a gentleman’s grooming salon or a third- wave coffee bar something has gone wrong. • Slates – surely the only places still using them are making an ironic statement on postmodern dining. Surely?
48 THE LIST 7 Apr–2 Jun 2016
TOP OF THE POPS Not long ago, the current thing in cool dining circles was supper clubs and guerrilla dining. Now it’s pop-ups. All of which indicates
that food is loosening up. No bad thing, as Donald Reid argues
Down Candleriggs way in Glasgow’s Merchant City this month, you can spot what might be mistaken for a circus big top, recognisable to those in tune with the culture and festival circuit as a Spiegeltent. The show in town is good food, and the performers haven’t rolled in from afar but, in fact, from local restaurants such as Red Onion, Burger Meats Bun, Cau and The Finnieston. Each of these, and a number of others, are popping-up for a night in the Spiegeltent as part of Glasgow’s Restaurant Festival, which got under way at the end of March. Initially, the festival spawned a series of Secret Dining events and some ‘plate- crawls’ involving different dishes eaten in various venues around the city; from 18 April, the festival spreads yet further with over 60 venues putting on special set-price menus under the theme of Dining in the City.
It’s not the only food festival to be inaugurated in Glasgow during the past year, with the
hugely successful Let’s Eat Glasgow having made its debut at SWG3 in September, beer festivals including June’s first North Hop in Glasgow and further outings from the likes of Section 33. Meanwhile, in Edinburgh we’ve seen the Pitt, a monthly covered street- food market with live entertainment, showcase a range of exciting food businesses and entrepreneurial ideas. Then there’s the growing Leith market with its imaginative monthly Vegan quarter, the crowdfunded Edinburgh Food Studio hosting weekend residencies from intriguing international chefs and Edinburgh’s Food Assembly (which since its October launch is now offering versions based at Glasgow’s Drygate and, soon, Haddington in East Lothian), successfully changing the way we think about how and where we buy local food. For all that, there’s plenty of ‘street food’ being served at tables and chairs within the cosy confines of restaurant walls. All these events (along with the increasing number of food trucks, trailers, bikes and carts serving good quality, small-scale, imaginative food and drink) provide an excellent commentary on the dynamic potential of the culinary scene in Scotland. It’s lively, appealing, imaginative and finding an audience. While popping up is the thing now, let’s hope it’s not popping back into its box any time soon.