Let's get started by mentioning The Fox and Faun, a new bar
which opened in Edinburgh's West End just before things went weird in March.
We know that we are stretching the definition of news a fair bit here but we're still playing catch-up after all the disruption caused by The Thing.
Anyway, The Fox and Faun is on 101 Shandwick Place, which, if memory serves, used to be Au Bar.
As well as thirteen beers on tap, they offer food menus which range from haggis bon bons and wraps to classic bar dishes such as fish 'n' chips, burgers and a Caesar salad. Main pic, taken from their Facebook page, shows fish cakes, chicken manga and pork skewer bites.
They are also very dug-friendly which means a gold star from this scribbler.
Getting spicy with Solti
Sticking with Edinburgh, the team behind Gautam's restaurant in Meadowbank have opened a new place on Drummond Street.
Barely a pirouette from Edinburgh Festival Theatre, the new place, called Solti, offers Nepalese food.
Or, as they rather more poetically put it, Solti is 'inspired by the small mountain-side huts selling chai and daal-bhat to trekkers... a little glimpse into the food and drink culture thriving in Nepal'.
They are currently (21st Oct) offering takeaway but, when normal service is possible, they dish up a lunchtime menu of tapas, wraps, pakora and so on.
In the evenings, the à la carte gets fired up for Himali chicken hot pots, lamb Kathmandu and sizzling tandoori dishes.
The kitchen is big on bringing together Nepalese techniques and spicing with Scottish produce. For example, say 'Hello!' to the tandoori lobster.
The cocktails look pretty good too.
Nepalese spicing and Scottish lobster at Solti. Pic: Facebook
Know your onions
Finally, we must thank The Daily Record for drawing our attention to The Codfather fish and chip shop on Glasgow's Hamilton Road.
They have started selling battered and deep-fried, pickled onions and, apparently, the world of the chippie has been forever changed.
Your blogger was deeply unsure about how advisable it really was to batter and fry pickled onions. In fact, we could feel several snobby and catty comments beginning to boil up.
And then we realised, they are probably quite similar to the deep-fried pickles or gherkins which were all the rage during the last wave of hip BBQ joints a few years back.
Probably not the best first date food but we would happily try them.