Edinburgh dining - Ondine

Despite our trip to Edinburgh being short and sweet, we did manage to squeeze one wee meal in town. After a bit of perusing on the List website (Scottish equivalent of Time Out), we plumped for swish seafood resto in the Old Town, Ondine. Most of the reviews I had read seemed positive and apparently, it was the place where the movers and shakers entertained clients and the like.....was a little worried then that maybe I was a bit underdressed for the occasion but service was friendly, phew! :)

The food overall was pretty good but portions were a little on the small side. Whilst my main of langoustines were lovely and quite reasonable at £21, I was more than a bit miffed to pay 3 squid for literally 10 chips!! Desserts promised a lot but disappointed, my beignets looked tempting upon arrival but it was as if someone had forgotten to add the sugar to the batter and it all tasted of bland deep fried eggy mess. I was also commenting to JD on how they were a little stingy with the chocolate sauce for my beignets and miraculously, a waiter appeared by my side with an extra little jug of sauce. I was little embarrassed but grateful for the extra sauce but sadly, it didn't make the beignets any better, oh wellos....

 Bar in the middle of the resto

 Starter of squid tempura with Vietnamese dipping sauce - tasty!

 Grilled langoustine with garlic butter - yum!!

Eggy tasteless mess, aka. beignets

Loving the teapot :)

Falko Konditormeister

Despite an ongoing travel ban at work, JD was summoned up to Edinburgh for a workshop this week for a few days so I decided to tag along and use the trip as a chance to catch up with some old school mates.

I had arranged to pop over to my friend S's house on a wintry morning and didn't want to turn up with "兩梳蕉" (lit. 2 bunches of bananas in Cantonese. The bananas are in reference to your hands, ie. emptyhanded!) so I popped into a bakery in her neighbourhood to pick up some cake. I didn't realise until I was in the shop that Falko was the same bakery that was featured in one of the episodes of Rachel Allen's enormously popular Bake programme. At the time of filming, there was only 1 bakery based in Gullane and the programme centred around the making of Baumkuchen. I did ask the lady who was serving me about it but they didn't have any available at the moment and also told me that it was very much a Christmas speciality. The bakery doubles up as a shop and cafe and had a lovely cosy, old school feel to it - if I had a bit more time in the city, I would've definitely headed back for some coffee and cake :)

After much pondering at the cake display, I finally settled for some plum cake, black forest gateau, choux layer cake and a decadent looking chocolate and peanut slice. S's wee lads tucked into the choc/peanut slice combo and gave it the seal of approval! Cool place for a pit stop if you ever happen to find yourself around Bruntsfield/Morningside :)

 My choices were top shelf (middle) = plum cake, middle shelf (middle) = peanut and chocolate slice, bottom shelf = choux layer cake and black forest gateau :)

Yummy indeed!

I've been spending the last few days away from the big smoke and headed up north to Glasgow for family reasons. Despite spending the first 7 years of my life in this city, I rarely go back now and it certainly has changed a lot since I was last back. Like everywhere in the UK at the mo, the recession is affecting everyone and you can really see how hard it is to make a living, especially in the Chinese catering business.

On the recommendation of my uncle P, we headed to Yummy Food for one of our dinners. The decor and location is nothing to write home about (whilst there, we overheard a conversation between the boss and the delivery boy about the latter having a takeaway delivery nicked whilst in a tower block and not being able to collect money for it......ROUGH!) but the food is generous, comforting and quite tasty! Yummy Food is open every day midday to 2am (CRAZY HOURS!!), so if you're in town, I recommend you pop in for a bite to eat!

You've been warned about the decor!! :)

Mmmm.....what to eat? Authentic Macanese favourites, anyone?

 Bitter melon and spare ribs in black bean sauce (Ba Chan's chopsticks in the background, he was hungry!!)

叉燒 and 燒肉

 Braised oxtail

Breakfast, Glasgay style!

Fresh out of the oven of China Court Bakery in Glasgay!!