SIDE DISHES News to nibble on Mark Greenaway – one of a number of local chefs wearing an ‘as seen on TV’ badge at the moment – has opened up a venue, Bistro Moderne, in the attractive art deco ex-bank in Stockbridge that previously housed Café Fish and Zanzero. Less formal and showy than his place uptown, there’s still plenty of imagination on show in ‘boil in the bag’ cod or braised pork neck with pickled plum.
Also in Edinburgh, the Apiary is creating a bit of buzz in Newington, where it has replaced Metropole, while Panda & Sons is the intriguing new speakeasy cocktail bar at 79 Queen Street. It’s worth checking out the new-look Basement on Broughton Street and there’s even a new artisan bakery in town to savour, Archipelago, incorporated into the Edinburgh Larder Bistro on Alva Street.
FOOD & DRINK NEWS & REVIEWS
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WORD ON THE STREET Street food may be scarce on our pavements, but it’s all over restaurant menus these days. Hannah Ewan finds a new venue where quality counts alongside fashion
I f you’re seeking the zeitgeist of Edinburgh’s dining scene, there are worse places to look than at what Malcolm Innes is doing. He took neighbourhood dining in a new direction when he opened the Apartment in 1999, three years later the Outsider dragged some modernity into the heart of the Old Town and, with Ting Thai, he entered the world of pop-up restaurants in the 2012 Fringe.
Now the permanent incarnation of the latter, as Ting Thai Caravan, with business partner Ilanna Middleton and chefs Ting and Ai Tapparat at the helm, pulls off a crowd-pleasing package that epitomises today’s fevered trends: street food, bare-brick-shabby-chic, and the fashionably temporary becoming successfully permanent.
It’s billed as street food, but what the kitchen delivers deserves more credit than that. Ting learnt his craft from his parents in Thailand but went on to cook for the king. While he’s not reproducing royal banquets, he hasn’t dumbed down for western tastes, nor is this a simple menu of the same noodles and curries we’ve become so familiar with from Edinburgh’s static Thai dining landscape.
Dishes are categorised into rice and noodle boxes,
TING THAI CARAVAN
curries, soup bowls and ‘small boxes’ – perfect for sharing and exploring the kitchen’s skill at packing in fresh, clean flavours. The cooking’s consistent enough that you could choose by closing your eyes and stabbing a finger into the menu, but great picks are yam pla ma-muang – hake with green mango salad, rich with nam pla; lemongrass and lime leaf infused beef (plaa nua ma-muang); and khao mun gai tod, crispy fried chicken with coconut and ginger, which instantly became one of their most popular orders. While no longer a pop-up, Ting Thai retains that informal buzz. It’s street food in energy and in style: hand-written menus tacked to bare brick walls, food served in cartons to take away or eat at bare wooden tables, sitting on uncomfortable stools. So, whirl in, order lots to share and lean over each other to nab a bit of everything. As such, it’s the best of both worlds – cheap and cool, but with food that’s easily good enough to survive the cresting of a style wave.
+ Energy from the streets; food from the royal table - Sharing tables and eating from cartons isn’t for everyone
8-9 Teviot Place, Old Town, Edinburgh EH1 2QZ, 0131 225 9801
Mon–Sun noon–11pm.
Ave. price two-course meal: £7 (lunch)/£12 (dinner) 54 THE LIST 12 Dec 2013–23 Jan 2014