Tuesday 29 September 2009

Thai Siam



A favourite of ours. We always order the same:

from left to right chicken with sweet basil, chilli and cashwew nuts, larb gai, somtom.

hot, savoury and tasty.

Friday 25 September 2009

EAT at Clarkston Toll

Although the Southside seems lacking in quality deli's, Eat is reckoned to be one of the best. It was full on a Saturday lunchtime with a healthy queue of people, taking out. However, compared to Heart Buchanan or Delizique I did not find it to be all that.

My sandwich although substantial in appearance was lacking in taste,



whereas the chocolate filled eclair was quite decadent and tasty.



The bill was pretty steep coming to £25 for the sandwich, two hot drinks and two eclairs. I think that I may still venture to the West end of a Saturday morning and stock up whilst I am there.

Truffle Risotto


This was a weekend treat. I had made chicken stock using the left over carcass from a roast. HI had got all excited and bought some black truffle-white not being readily avaialble.

You know the drill:

Sautee some shallots and garlic until golden but not brown, meanwhile heat up the stock so it simmers, add the risotto (carnaroli is meant to be best) and fold into the shallots and garlic, stir until you smell a toasting smell, season with salt and white pepper then add some white wine so that the alcohol burns off. Once this has been absorbed slowly add, ladle by ladle the hot stock making sure it is absorbed before adding the next ladle. At this point I add some sliced wild mushrooms, watching out for their water content. The addition of stock can take quite a while and I always aim for the description of a single grain of rice suspended in a globule of liquid- not too runny not too thick. Just before serving I fold in two to three generous handfuls of grated parmesan and then the finely slice truffle on top.

A real treat.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

The left bank.

The left bank is situated diagonally across from Stravaigin which means it has stiff competition and usually loses. However, on a quest to find baby friendly lunch joints, I met my friend there for lunch. It serves smaller tapas plates in addition to larger mains, and has an AA rosette, something which Stravaigin does not oddly enough. We ordered a selection of small plates most of which was pretty good. The ribs were excellent with the meat falling off the bone, the humous was garlicky and tasty, the meatballs were generous in size with a slight chili kick. The fries decent enough the only downside being that, for some bizarre reason they don't serve mayo, despite the fact that they have chipotle mayo on the menu. My naive assumption that to have one you must first make the other was refuted without much discussion! Oh well..



rosemary salted chips



spicy lamb meatballs with tomato sauce and parmesean



excellent sticky pork ribs



garlic and aubergine humous

..the food was pretty tasty and they like babies so I will be back.

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Fifi and ally

A quick lunch.
They seem to have pulled up their socks service-wise, we were seated quickly, our orders taken without too much delay and the food appeared not too much later.



A very generous garlicky, creamy wild mushrooms on toast, which was very good



and a healthy roast chicken salad, again with a healthy portion of moist roast chicken

There were also comments cards on the tables which is refreshing to see, and something I wish that more places would do, as it shows a willingness to constantly improve service.

So, well done Fifi and Ally!

how lucky am I!?


Freshly made garlic chutney and paper thin dosa hot off the stove, all washed down with piping hot coffee. Yum yum