Category Archive: FOOD
The Witchery
Edinburgh, summer, 2013 If you are staying in Edinburgh, book dinner here. Ensure that you book ahead. You may need to be content with a late booking. We wended along the Royal Mile, ascending towards the Castle. L negotiated the cobbles expertly in her high heels. By 9.30pm we were past Boswell’s walk and ready to descend to the secret garden, our way lit by candles on each step (ladies with long gowns, beware). The day had been dry and sunny, with a bone chilling wind. From our cosy vantage, the sky was an arctic blue and pink and you could…
Continue Reading →Bitings on a Complimentary Basis.
Get your bitings here
In 2004, while staying in a converted monastery in wild, windy, Avignon, we read an invitation to “bitings on a complimentary basis” at 7pm . In some trepidation we donned evening garb, strung garlic around our necks and descended to the ancient hall for what turned out to be “free nibbles” and not of the flattering, cannibal sort. The European grip on English translation had not improved by 2013, when, in the train station at Sorrento we read a sign which frightened and confused us.
Continue Reading →Dubai – Dawdling and Haemorrhaging Money
The view from The Atlantis
2013 Wandering in foreign countries seems such a luxurious waste that it would shame P, as a working member of the idle poor. Yet here we are, en route to Rome, stopping for a night in Dubai, described by some as Hell with air-conditioning. Arriving at 5.30am, we are conducted through an enormous white entry and processing hall, apparently designed by the committee responsible for the repulsive Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. Officials in full Bedu garb loiter as we slowly file past and stare into the passport-face-recognition machines that struggle with asiatic eyes. Our modest hotel in an…
Continue Reading →Larousse Gastronomique
Image courtesy of Booktopia
TVC embraces cuisine as a necessary element of culture but has hitherto been rather an ignoramus in the field. Not any more. This Christmas treasure, a gift from good (culinary) friends, was originally devised by Prosper Montagnè, with the first edition in 1938, as a comprehensive guide to matters gastronomic, a serious counterweight to Alexandre Dumas’ Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine. A skim of the contributors to this (2009 English edition, based on the French, 2007) and earlier versions reveals a pantheon of cordon bleu chefs, restauranteurs, academics, scientists, critics, writers, oenologists, sommeliers, confectioners, etc, etc. From recipes to history to…
Continue Reading →La Tombola
61 Unley Rd, Unley, South Australia This inner suburb Italian restaurant is an Adelaide institution and its Majordomo, Tony, clearly loves his work. He has a great staff and kitchen but he personally ensures it always runs true. TVC in particular recommends the formaggio soufflé.
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