Food news, restaurant news, offers and promotions and general musings
The February issue of the free Foodies Magazine was distributed this weekend so get it while it's hot (and there are still copies left). This month it includes features about Gordon Ramsey and Alicia Silverstone as well as tons of recipes and food news.
You can get Foodies Magazine in over 300 restaurants, cafes and delis in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, including Peckhams, Di Maggio's, Tinderbox, La Tasca, Pizza Express and loads more.
David Ramsden's empire continues to expand as Seadogs opens on Edinburgh's Rose Street on Friday. It joins The Dogs, (a) more dogs and Underdogs. Setting up shop in the former Great Grog premises, seadogs will concentrate on fish and seafood. Typical dishes include the kipper carbonara, fish pie and a section of different fish which come in a beer batter and are served with chips and mushy peas.
Word has it that having got four operations up and running in Edinburgh, the ever industrious Mr Ramsden is looking to take his dog pack into other citites.
Lorraine Kelly is hosting a charity tea at Blythswood Square
Most people don't need an excuse to eat out but a couple of 5pm members have come up with convincing reasons to put down the cookery book and make a reservation.
In Edinburgh, Tex Mex II is hosting a charity lunch tomorrow in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. Instead of paying for lunch, diners will be asked if they would like to help the charity by donating what they estimate their meal should have cost to Macmillan. While the food is on the house, drinks will still be on the bill.
Meanwhile in Glasgow's swish new Blythswood Square, Lorraine Kelly is hosting a champagne afternoon tea in aid of Strathcarron Hospice. It takes place on Wednesday 17th February at 2pm. The £25 tickets include a glass of champagne, afternoon tea and entry to a raffle.
And Two Fat Ladies at The Buttery is hosting a lunch with Annabel Karmel and Noah's Ark to raise funds for Sands, which funds research into stillbirths and neonatal deaths, bookings can be made on 5pm.
how yummy do they look? #
what do you think? #
At the beginning of the year, we told you about the Glasgow Restaurateurs' Association and their Celtic Connections Dinearound promotion. Over 45 GRA members offered three course meals with a glass of wine for as little as £14.95.
As you might imagine, it's been a soaraway success and it looks as though the GRA is going to top the 10,000 meals record that it set during last year's Dinearound. The final fiddle has been bowed at Celtic Connections but the promotion has proved so popular that it has now been extended to mid February.
You can check out the great offers here.
Mimi's Kitchen: a funky caff with a floor that doubles as a chessboard
Following on from yesterday's cocktail related blog, 5pm has unearthed a new cocktail bar in Edinburgh's Stockbridge. It's called The Raconteur and is headed up by three young blades who all have previous in cocktail hotspots such as Ricks, Tigerlily and Harvey Nicks. The Raconteur is in the old Dean Bar on Dean Street and, while it is not going to win any awards for Most Bling decor, it is cosy, the staff are fun and they make cracking drinks.
I would recommend their Daisy De Santiago. I realise that it sounds like a girls' drink but it's a beautifully balanced mix of Bacardi, limes, sugar syrup, Appleton Rum and Chartreuse.
We have also been alerted to the the presence of Mimi's Kitchen on St George's Road in Glasgow's Charing Cross. It's a funky looking caff and sandwich bar that dishes up meatball paninis, bacon bagels and seafood wraps.
Another opening to bear in mind is the new branch of Yo! sushi which is scheduled to open on the Forth Floor of Harvey Nicks in Edinburgh in mid February. As well as the standard Yo! choice of 90 odd dishes which will be whizzing around the sushi belt, the chefs, or kitchen ninjas as they like to be known, are promising a dedicated range of especially glam choices to go with their stylish surroundings. The new menu items will go under the collective heading of Yo! Chic.
If you're one of the thousands of parents who are fans of children's food guru Annabel Karmel then you'll definitely want to get along to Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery on the 22nd of April, where she will be the guest speaker at a charity lunch to raise funds with Noah's Ark. Guests will enjoy a reception and gorgeous lunch and then listen to Annabel give advice on baby and children's food and nutrition. All proceeds from the event will go to Noah's Ark, a group which raises money for the Sands charity, funding research into stillbirths and neonatal deaths. Tickets can be booked online here.
How do you fancy eating at a Michelin star restaurant for less than a tenner? Sound good? There's only one problem. You'll have to go to Hong Kong. The Telegraph has a fun piece here about Tim Ho Wan restaurant whose prawn dumplings and 80p pork buns have just been given Michelin status.
'Hmm. Start of the working day. Time for a Rusty Nail'
According to a marketing email which popped into my inbox, men are crying out for 'proper cocktails'. Apparently, we have looked on jealously as Sex and the City inspired women to sluice back the cosmos and flirtinis but, not wishing to look girlie, we stuck to man-sized pints of beer.
Fortunately, according to the blurb, Daniel Craig's portrayal of the cocktail-gargling James Bond has sparked a new wave of interest in cocktails for men. And that's before we look at the influence of the entire male cast of Mad Men who seem to get through at least a bottle of bourbon and one of gin during the course of each working day.
However, according to a poll, British men believe that despite this renewed demand, there are still only a handful of masculine drinks available to them in bars this side of the pond. A massive 40% of those quizzed say that men are expected to drink only beer and an additional 34% believe that most cocktails and long drinks are targeted only at women.
Despite rarely seeing a man perusing the cocktail menu in a bar, precisely due to the reasons stated above, around half of those polled say that they do actually enjoy drinking cocktails, with this figure jumping to 65% in the 25-34 age group.
Fortunately, and here comes the sales pitch, Drambuie have stepped in to save the day for blokes. According to the liqueur makers, trendy bars in Manhattan and London are fuelling demand for the classic Rusty Nail cocktail. I have to say that I always thought of Drambuie as something grandmothers drink rather than a real man's poison but, no, according to Drambuie, the Rusty Nail is the 'quintessential man's cocktail'. They have a point, a potent mix of Drambuie and blended Scotch, the Rusty Nail is not for the faint-hearted. The Rat Pack were rather partial to it.
Drambuie have invented a couple of other cocktails (the Crushed Nail which muddles Drambuie with ice and lime and the Jamaican Nail which mixes Drambuie with ginger ale). You can try them at Edinburgh's Hawke and Hunter.
Fancy a tipple?
Now that we are firmly in February, it is time to ditch the hairshirts, forget about those pesky New Year resolutions and start living life high on the hog again. Wine dinners are a good way to combine eating, drinking and being merry and there are a number of slurp-tastic looking ones scheduled for 5pm restaurants over the next few weeks.
First up is tomorrow's event at Brian Maule's Chardon D'Or in Glasgow. The chef is teaming up with Australia's Elderton Estate for a four course dinner matching Brian's skills in the kitchen with top notch wines from the Barossa Valley.
Elderton Wines is a small, family owned winery in the heart of the Barossa which produces some of Australia ’s most highly regarded Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard owner, Cameron Ashmead, will be there on the night to talk about their wines and their fascinating histories, as well as the traditions from the area.
The Barossa Wine Dinner will begin with a reception at 7pm on Thursday, February 4th, 2010, followed by a four-course menu specially created to compliment each wine. Cost is £70 a person.
Also in Glasgow, Hotel du Vin at One Devonshire is holding a wine lunch on Saturday 20th February. The featured wines come from d'Arenberg in Australia's McLaren Vale. Tickets are £45 per person. D'Arenberg makes some serious wines but they have a light-hearted approach to naming them. The Stump Jump, Love Grass, Feral Fox and The Noble Mud Pie are among their bottles.
