Food&Drink News&Reviews
SIDE DISHES NEWS TO NIBBLE ON
BROUGHTON DELICATESSEN on Barony Street in Edinburgh has extended into
evening opening until 9pm Mon–Sat (closes 5pm Sun). The menu (available each day at www.broughton-deli.co.uk and on Twitter) is available to sit in or takeaway, and you can BYOB with no corkage.
STEWART BREWING is set to quadruple its capacity with a move to a new brewery next door to their current site in Bilston Glen, south of Edinburgh. Fresh from picking up a gong at this year's World Beer Awards, you can catch Steve Stewart at the newly reopened Waterside in Haddington later this month (see Food & Drink Events).
ON THE LOOK OUT for Christmas stocking fillers? Seumas MacInnes of Café Gandolfi has penned a handily sized Stornoway Black Pudding Bible, with all you'd ever need to know about the marag dubh, with 50 recipes from black pudding and rhubarb pastries to eggs Hebridean.
BAR CRAWLER
THE CITY CAFE 19 Blair Street, Edinburgh It earned a mention in Trainspotting, but would Irvine Welsh have bothered if the City Cafe had sported colouring-in menus for the kids and an ice cream counter? It does now. Under new management, the place has been refurbished to have a bright, diner-style image, complete with burgers and shakes. Great for a family meal, but its pre-club cool hangs in the balance. (David Pollock)
22 THE LIST 18 Nov–2 Dec 2010
Blas from the past It’s November and the comfort menus are here. Andrea Pearson visits a cockle-warming new partnership in Broomhill
T his season, winter heartiness is what you get at An Lochan. The restaurant is not a new feature of the West End, but new to the premises are the team from Blas (pron. blass, from the Gaelic for flavour), formerly at Kelvingrove. In essence the relaunched restaurant is a merger of the two operations, with An Lochan’s smart looks and livery retained. The Blas team have brought aspects of their Scottish menu to this fish restaurant to serve an appealing range of contemporary dishes.
Scottish The menu has heaps of wintry and comforters: Stornoway black pudding and roast potatoes; slow roast shoulder of lamb; savoy cabbage with Dunsyre Blue risotto; smoked haddock mornay with mash; hot brownie and sticky toffee pudding. This is exactly what the season requires.
The An Lochan Cullen skink
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Toasty Scottish warmers to fend off the winter blues Menu descriptions can be confusing
may not have the indulgent creaminess of some modern renditions of the classic but it makes up for that in its generous portion and its hunks of smoked haddock and potato. This could be a meal in itself. Another starter of a chicken liver paté has a delightful pear and walnut chutney alongside. But there is better to follow. A Thai-style hake and baby langoustine curry – described rather bizarrely as Asian
broth with chilli ginger and coriander – is fresh, spicy and an absolute winner. The langoustine could be a little firmer and the teensy dod of rice is not enough for the serving but these are small quibbles in a near-perfect dish. The monkfish stew is tasty but the tomato and chorizo dominate leaving the delicate monkfish a little overpowered. A selection of blow-torched winter puds keep the warmth coming, which is a bit of a surprise – the menu’s lemon tart turns out to be a caramelised meringue pie. But what the hey? It’s a good time of year to be toasting things.
AN LOCHAN www.an-lochan.com
340 Crow Road, Broomhill, Glasgow, 0141 338 6606
Food served Tue–Thu noon–9pm; Fri–Sun noon–10pm. Closed Mon. Ave. price two-course meal: £9.95 (set lunch) / £20 (dinner)