I am about to do Scottish food no favours.

And I doubt I am going to do my reputation any favours either. I was going to take the high ground and explain that the following dinner was emergency rations after a days serious walking in approximately zero conditions with rain varying from a light drizzle to a heavy downpour, and without which a serious case of terminal trembling would have set in. That was until i remembered that this was the dinner we had the night before our long walk to Killiekrankie and back. However! It did follow an afternoon of noseying around Pitlochry and was necessary to warm us from the inside before our night time walk around The Enchanted Forest (see below).



So, as I said, all I really wanted was the gammon steak with chips (there, the truth's out and I'm ruined), but it seemed rude not to have a starter. We were on our holidays after all. One of the specials sounded particularly inviting; Scottish Scallops with Pork Belly and Asparagus over a pumpkin puree. And it looked fabulous on its plate of slate too. Sadly although the scallops were perfectly cooked the pork belly was nothing more than a greasy piece of crackling and fat with only the barest quiver of meat underneath. Very disappointing indeed.

But as I said it was all about the gammon steak with chips. Actually that isn't quite true. It was all about the gammon steak with pineapple and chips.

I remember the very first time I had gammon steak with pineapple, although on that occasion it may have come with mash. It was the summer of Charles and Diana's wedding and we were staying at a bed and breakfast in St Andrews, that was also a working manse. Mrs Minister did all of our cooking for us, except on Sundays when we ate at the Pancake Place, not as a special treat you understand as as far as I recall none of us liked it but because nothing else was open on sundays. The gammon steak was probably a think slice of ham warmed in the oven and the pineapple was a ring fresh from the can that was cooked with the ham until the juice went a little thick. Not a perfect gammon steak and pineapple, but a welcome addition to our limited Scottish repertoire.



I really like gammon steak and pineapple. Just like I really like ham and pineapple pizza. It's not cool. It's not clever. I'm not even sure what it is or where it came from in terms of epicurious traditions. It's even verging on retro and kitsch. But I like it nonetheless. And this was a particularly fine Gammon Steak with Pineapple. The salty smokey meat which looked like meat, rather than processed other and the sweet juicy fruit of fresh pineapple. No tin opener here. The only minor disappointment was that the chips were just a little average and would have been all the better of being cooked hotter, crunchier and crispier. Us Scots and our deep fat fryers, I know. I told you I would do scottish cooking no favours.

Left Bank, Glasgow

In recent weeks I have been doing alot of eating at home with Mum and Dad and have been to surprisingly few Glasgow restaurants. After weeks, months, of gadding about all over the place it is nice to do not so much. There will be plenty of opportunity for revisiting the old places and trying out the new ones when I'm in gainful employment, have a home to go out from and my usual dining companion in the same country. Meantime a steak pie from the farmers market (the pastry was flaky, the meat was endless and tender and the gravy was rich and tasty), a pot of smoked mackerel pate (ingredients were mostly smoked mackerel and cream cheese - it was a little too fishy for my liking and would have done well to being lightened with some yoghurt stirred through) and the regular coffee trials are more than sufficient to keeping me amused.

All that being said I did get to try out a new (to me) restaurant on friday night; Left Bank on Gibson Street in Glasgow. It wasn't around before I left town but appears to be fairly established on the local eating scene now. My dear friend Kaizer Suzy took me along and we had a jolly nice Kashmiri Chicken dish each, specifically the "corn fed kashmiri chicken with roasted almonds, honeyed yoghurt, garlic and ginger chutney and caramelised lime". The chicken was cooked to perfection, the spices were delicate and there was a lovely honey end note. The chutney had sweet potato with enough savoury bite to it to meet the other flavours. I only can't remember the caramelised lime and it didn't jump out at the time, which was a shame as I was curious. On the side we had a good salad that was filled with strings of carrot, beetroot, pea shoots and all sorts and a bowl of tasty twice cooked ayrshire potato chips. There was a lovely bottle of french shiraz rose and in place of desert I had a glass of a torrontes tardio (you are!) dessert wine which was dry, floral and sweet all in one go and the nice waiter brought, on request, a dish of almonds to round us off.



I really enjoyed my evening catching up with my friend drinking nice wine and eating a good, fresh and tasty dinner. It would be easy to get side tracked by alot of things about the restaurant and have that detract from an easy evening: the decor is sleek glass and dark wood, almost glitzy; the bar is a big open space which isn't filled in the way that the tables on the mezzanine levels that climb the back wall are; and the menu includes every meal of the day as well as the wine list and desserts and there is simply too much on it. That being said we managed to have the sort of evening you would expect to enjoy in a favourite haunt and I would certainly be happy to drop back in there for a friday night dinner anytime. So either they are simply getting it right, or you must also take the Kaizer along with you when you go.

Rosa's Kitchen

It is true. We eat out ALL THE TIME. Melbourne food is good, it needn't be expensive, there are more places than we could ever eat in (and we are trying to eat in them all), we have no mortgage, no children and only one dependent.

I shall make no more excuses. Especially when the place in question is Journal Canteen. It it my favourite place and I've only been twice.

On Tuesday we had a quick lunch perched on bar stools at the counter. He had an entree size spaghetti with pesto, tomato sauce stirred though and some breadcrumbs on top. Whatever. I had the antipasto plate. Large, of course.



It was similar to the plate we had had once before (see many blogs ago). The absolute highlight was the dressed courgette strips. The nice man in the kitchen said that you use a mandolin to slice the courgette in to thin slices and salt them overnight. Rinse and squeeze out till dry the next day and finish with garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and mint. I love pickles and these were a fine fresh sweet vinegary delight. The fried chat potato slices with tiny salty pieces of bacon were also good. Oh, and the fresh tomato, bread, caper and olive oil salad couldn't have been any better. I'll shut up now. Go!

Una's, Kings Cross, Sydney

Not only have there been complaints about too much talk about food, now there are whisperings (frank accusations actually) that my blog has been superficial in its commentary. Or rather that i have not put enough of myself in what i say. Well be careful what you ask for people.

Almost five years ago I first went to Sydney for a weekend with Kate while I was here on holiday. We wandered around Kings Cross and Paddington with mild hangovers one Sunday morning and ended up eating sausages, sauerkraut and rosti at a very cute Austrian restaurant.

There is a very pleasing symmetry that four and a bit years on one of my good 'new' Australia friends now lives in walking distance of the place and with much more significant hangovers (and after bailing out of going to a fancy Sydney eatery drinkery because of said hangovers) we walked up to Una's and ate massive portions of schnitzel and potato.



I love a bit of romance and being able to be nostalgic about a country in which I have lived for so little time is rather wonderful. Particularly as my time here runs out so quickly now. I also like the rather odd translation of the hanging on the wall, courtesy of a freebie internet translation tool.

It goes something like...
"a loving word at the right has been some compensation against heartache"

Birdman Eating

Along the road from my work is a very cool cafe. Birdmen hang from the ceiling alongside little test tube vases of meadow flowers and a light sculpture made from old fashioned egg beaters. For breakfast there are eggs baked in terracotta dishes and later in the day a choice of big and little dishes. On the day Jo and I went for brunch the eggs came with either pancetta and sugo, creamed zucchini, beetroot, silverbeet and dukkah or roast cauliflower. We went with very good coffee and lunch rather than breakfast.

First there was smoked cod croquettes with a lemon aoili. Smooth smoky fishy filling in a crisp and crunch coating. Perfect.



And then a calamari, potato and chorizo salad with a side of roasted cauliflower. Some might say that the calamari was a little rubbery in that almost underdone squeaky way - but it was a good combination of flavours. The cauliflower was roasted to a sweet lush softness and came with some sliced almonds which gave it a nice bite. The only thing that let it down was too much oil in the balsamic dressing - maybe we should have had some bread to soak it up.

Izakaya

Once upon a time, and very jet lagged, in Japan we sat on the raised floor of an eating and drinking establishment (about which all i can remember is that it was dark, we were sleepy from the bath house and one of us fell asleep while we waited for our food) and ate small dishes of food with beer. Some of the food was japanese and there were some korean influenced dishes too. That is what Izakaya means to me in terms of food and that is also the name of a new place up our street which opened last year. Our local is rather brighter and fancier, the food is more specifically Japanese, but the option of choosing from a range of small dishes is the same. We've been a couple of times now and are very pleased to have another evening option on our street, which has a fabulous daytime cafe scene, but has little in the way of evening eating. Both times we've stuck quite highly to the specials menu, which last time looked like this...



We ordered a couple of glasses of prosecco, miso soup with tuna, the calamari, the crab omelette and from the regular menu sticky rice coated dumplings and the silver whiting. The miso wasn't anything special and the tuna pieces in it didn't really work as they had become dry, but everything else was gorgeous. I was so excited by the dishes that I don't think that I remembered to photo any dish before we had split them in two.

The calamari was soft and smoky, with a sweetness from it's sauce.



The omelette was filled with the soft flavour of the crab and the mushrooms and sat in a puddle of a light broth.



These sticky rice coated dumplings were filled with chicken, prawn and ginger and then steamed. They came with a hot yellow mustard (not so much hotter than a fiery wasabi) and a vinegar dipping sauce.



There is no picture of the silver whiting which was rolled with shiso and salted plum and then lightly tempura battered and fried. We've had this and the omelette both times and they are brilliant dishes. It's really nice to have a japanese restaurant that serves more than the standard sushi, rice and noodle dishes and that serves it so well. There is a precision, delicacy and balance in their cooking.

Crab omelette for breakfast anyone?

Guiseppe Arnaldo and Sons

We took Fouzia to GAS at the casino for a quick bowl of pasta the other week. That doesn't sound particularly extravagant until you see the place. The restaurant is part of the southbank complex in Melbourne and is an enormous space. I'm sure I saw Fouzia with her camera - so maybe there will be a photo to follow. If not, well imagine a long dark room which is painted black with a variety of spaces. Like a stage with a number of sets. There is a large glass cupboard which looks like it came from an anatomy museum, a tall scarlet meat slicing machine that also has the look of modern macabre and a ceiling high set of shelves with a cutting stand in front for the generous portions of bread. There are seats in front of the long window at the front (the windows are smokey - you can see out, but not in) which you can grab if you get there early, a long high table with bar stools for slightly more communal eating and a square eating area or two angled in between the back wall and the kitchen. There are simple Moroccan tiles cutting a swathe across the floor and up the walls to demarcate the different areas in the eatery and also in the bar. A fabulous experience in itself. And then there is the food.

Here's the menu (which comes as your paper place mat)...

http://www.idrb.com/giuseppe_main_flash.html

This was maybe our fourth or fifth trip to GAS. Our eating experiences there have ranged from the sophisticated to the brave. The raw scallops with olive oil, cress, capers and a touch of truffle. Oregano and lemon dusted prawns with aioli. Some extremely classy salami. A very very tender steak. The old school tripe in a tomatoey sauce - it beat us both with it's richness. A sausage stuffed pigs trotter - it looked very much like a pigs trotter and it beat me too. We kept things simple this time though, no offal, no feet.



You can see my calamari fritti with courgette and mint - lightly crumbed and quickly fried. Perhaps we didn't need the rosemary potatoes on the side, but they were also good. Craig had a risotto with marrow (that's bone marrow) with saffron and pork sausage - which he said was a little full on which is quite something from a trotter eating toughie. And this is Fouzia's flathead with tomato, basil and olive oil. Simply lovely.



The highlight of course was Craig tucking in to a chilli from the olive bowl, chewing momentarily, spitting the whole thing out and then the succession of pained expressions until the burning heat lessened. Not so tough now, eh?

Aka Tombo

Tuesday half days are here again and with them even more opportunities for food. This week we went for japanese food at Aka Tombo on Greville Street. It's little, extremely friendly, nicely done out and the sets are good. The pictures are doing most of the talking today.



We had unidentified stalks/ greens/ beans in a clear stock to begin with. Then miso soup.



Followed by the sashimi set for me with the usual mix of salmon, tuna and a couple of white fishes (all meltingly fresh), an oyster with a tabasco vinegar sauce and some delicately cut radish. There was a little side dish of wee squares of dark seaweed that tasted like it had been sweetened in a treacle sauce. Plus a bowl of sticky rice and an endless supply of green tea.



And for him the Teriyaki Chicken set complete with sushi, sashimi and tempura.



And I almost forgot - to finish we had a red bean, tofu and fruit salad in syrup. All in all a winner!