Cafe Zique III.

Brunch.

At the mo my favourite place for brunch is Heart Buchanan, but in the spirit of things Rachel and I thought we would give Cafe Zique a try. The lattes were good and served in glasses that, although reminiscent of Sydney, are a little impractical.

The eggs Benedict featured Puddledub bacon, a brand neither Rach or I had heard of before, and which was very tasty, on a level with Ramsey's of Carluke. My problem was with the hollandaise. It was not a patch on the HB stuff, being a bit runny and not lemony enough, and the rocket was a little past it's best.
Cafe Zique is also 2.20 more expensive than HB,with portions that are smaller, so this round goes to HB!

Inverlochy Castle

We were on our the way back to Glasgow from Torridon when I realised that we would drive right past Inverlochy Castle. Never one to pass up an opportunity for some fine dining we stopped in for Sunday lunch as we probably would not be in the area again. I could tell Inverlochy was pretty posh because of the Bentley sitting in the drive.

The chef Matt Grey had been on TGBM and his dish of gin poached venision looked great Michelin and the AA seem to rate him too.

We were shown to a lovely drawing room to enjoy the view whilst we waited for our table. The interior of Inverlochy is stunning: old-school and dignified, the staff polite and unobtrusive. We were shown through to an antique laden dining room, where it turned out we were the only people for lunch. We pretended we were Lord and Lady of the manor.. The food was refined, light of touch and excellent.



My starter of rabbit with it's own consomme. Excellent.



Now, this was a much better interpretation of smoked eel and foie gras than the one at Maze.



HI's duck, it was lovely.



My lamb, perfectly cooked.

For two courses at £30 it's not cheap but for food of the level it seems about right. It is a shame it's so far away but maybe just as well for the wallet. A lovely place for a special occasion.

Torridon Hotel.

The whiskey bar.



We were here to celebrate the marriage of HI' sister Catriona, to Ivo. Loch Torridon is in the back end of beyond and felt like were were in some alternate universe that was a cross between Narnia and Middle Earth.
It was stunning.
The Torridon put up a buffet on the Friday night which should actually have been called a feast. Oysters, Langoustine, Mussels, Smoked Salmon, five salads, roast beef and some amazing roast vegetables from their kitchen garden. All this followed by an amazing cheese table and lemon tart.
Excellent.


Oysters and then some.


The spoils.


Lemon tart!


The amazing cheese table


Bambi's da.


Our bath in our swanky room.
As you can see the hotel is pretty swish. They have managed to keep the traditional construct of the house with a refined contemporary interior.
I definitely recommend this place.

Applecross Inn.

I had fond memories of this place from a visit about eight years ago. Time had also dulled the memory of the most scary road I have ever driven. To drive this road voluntarily, there must be something good at the end of it to make it worthwhile, especially as driving means a stiff drink is out of the question. Unfortunately, as with most places revisited out of nostalgia, it didn't live up to my misty memories. It is a quaint, pretty place and even when the wind is blowing a gale and the rain is horizontal it still looks lovely.

I optimistically ordered the oysters


and it was not till I had thrown back my second one that I noticed a little beastie in the remaining shell. Hmmm as sign of it being either really fresh or not that clean I thought.
I passed the rest over to HI.

He had ordered a haggis, drambuie and cream starter



which was a rich as it sounds. For my main I had the scallop dish.



This was what I had been waiting for. In my memory it was served in a shell with wild rice, chunks of bacon and tasty little scallops. The version I got was tasty but not as refined. HI ordered the Venision sausages which were ok but not that tasty.


It wasn't cheap either. That and a beer came to £40 which I thought was a bit steep but i suppose we did have oysters.

Some places are best left as memories..

New York, New York.

What a city. A city of opportunity, of endless promise.

So much so, it actually sends me into a bit of a panic.
We have been fortunate enough to holiday there every year for the last four years. Every time I leave, I can't wait till the next time we visit.

You probably won't be surprised to know that on my daily blog read list are at least four or five New York based blogs, the reading of which enables me to update my 'list' for the next visit.
Sadly, the older I get, the smaller my stomach seems to get. Me Hobbit no more. It used to be I could factor in first breakfast, second breakfasts, elevenses, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and then supper. Those were the days. Aaah..

Now it seems I have to content myself one one meal a day, whether it be lunch or dinner, with some snacks in between. So, in a city of such untapped promise this poses a bit of a problem. It helps that I run every day to burn off the calories, and with jet lag, my day starts at five am, but it still means I need to plan each day carefully.
So, over the year I cross reference Chowhound, egullet, NY Mag with my favourite NY food blogs: Amateur Gourmet; Wandering Eater;the girl who ate everything; NYC food guy and Flyboyz, which has sadly been put to rest. Armed with all this info I then create my 'list' which is refined and refined until the day we actually leave. I also create my 'map' which, thanks to Google maps, now takes a fraction of the time and a lot less sellotape!
Given we will be staying in the LES, a place which abounds with tasty treats, I map everything according to it's proximity to the hotel. It's also handy to plan things in areas, so a day's worth of eating in the LES, the UES, in Soho, Midtown etc. All this prep means that I don't need to worry about missing out, and means that no matter where we are I will know if there is somewhere worthwhile eating at or drinking at nearby.
This might seem a bit excessive and a slight tad obsessive, mock me all you like but I am not alone!! The girls from wandering eater and TGWAE make up spreadsheets of dishes they want to eat at places according to popularity and cost. Now that's dedication.

My wish-list/hit-list looks something like this:

Friday
Spotted Pig
Pegu Club
Arturo's

Saturday
Roasting Plant
Donut Plant
Russ and Daughters
Telepan
Bemelman's
Burger Joint
Death and Co
Ssam Bar

Sunday
Ino
Gramercy Tavern
angel's share
Grand Sichuan International

Monday
Yasuda
Employee's only
Babbo

Tuesday
Le Bernardin
Please Don't Tell
Casa Mono

Wednesday
Di Fara's
Balthazar
Bemelman's
L'Atelier

Thursday
best of the best.

To ensure I got all these reservations, my calendar was prepped and ready to go two months ago..
And yes there is a worrying sense of achievement from visiting all these places.
New York here I come!!

Konaki.

It was a cold wet night, much like any other, and we needed food.

The kitchen is out of commission and we had eaten soup the last four nights in a row so we decided to venture out, but didn't end up very far. Konaki was close by and I had heard good things about it, so feeling brave, we decided to go it a go.

The entrance is deceptive and hides a huge dining room at the back. It was a Wednesday evening and it was relatively busy. It has a homey feel and the service is pretty attentive.
But what about the food. Hmmm.
Well, I know that Greek food can be really tasty but what we had was a bit hit and miss..
I normally love hummous but what we had was a bit runny, a little too tart and not garlicky enough for me. The tomato and onion salad was marred by dried oregano and, tomatoes that were frankly not that tasty.



I love tomatoes and onions and can eat huge quantities of each but again, as with most things, I think it depends on the quality of the produce to begin with. Then there were the whitebait.



They came with an intensely garlicky puree but were a bit soggy. I suppose my benchmark were the crispy little buggers we devoured in Barcelona.

My Stifado, slow cooked beef stew, was quite tasty and good for a cold night and I ate all of it, but HI's Sikoti me kremidakia-slow cooked liver was quiet disappointing.


Stifado at the front, Liver at the back.

As you know the pan-fried liver dish at Italian Caffe has been declared the best dish in Glasgow by HI and I think he was hoping for a contender but the liver was a bit stringy and had not been steeped in milk so had that overt offal-y taste that is the reason I don't ever eat it.

Looking at what other folk were ordering I wonder if we should have stuck to the grilled meats to start with and then some of the less adventurous cuts for mains.
Would I go back? I don't know. Maybe in a big group or with people who know it well and know what to order but there are other places that hit the spot more consistently.

Fifi and Ally redux.

What does Ron Mckenna know? I asked myself. 'Well, he has a column in the Herald so that ought to be worth something.' I replied.

But does is it?

I guess I was just going to have to find out for myself. What the hell am I talking about you may be asking yourself. Why FiFi and Ally of course.You know how I feel about this place, so I won't repeat myself. But what I will say is that I was pleasantly surprised.

I think there were a number of reasons. First off we went to the big space in Wellington St, and we went for dinner. Both of these things could only mean that the service had to be better then the usual shambles experienced at the Princes Square location. That, and the fact that the place was relatively quiet meant that we got to pick our table, sit side to side, and not have to wait ages to get served. Another plus point is that from Wednesdays to Friday they do a very good value dinner offer of two courses plus a glass of wine for £16. The only discrepancy is that on website pdf it says a large glass but, at the restaurant it says a small glass. If I was in quibbling mood I would have gone armed with a printed copy to see how they responded. But I wasn't, so we will have to fight that fight another day.



HI had a pleasant seafood chowder which was tasty but not as good as Fanny's in HI's opinion.



I went for the steak which came as asked, medium-rare and quiet tasty. The standout was the Bearnaise which I normally eschew but on this occasion I ate all of it. I must point out that neither of these dishes were on the early bird special but I intend on going back to try that out.