eating in edinburgh (festival permitting)
Just spent 4 fantastic days in Edinburgh … at the fringe, the film, and THE festival. loved it. the people of edinburgh are so friendly, that at the end of the first day I had the strange feeling that something must be wrong. but the next few days convinced me it wasn’t — or rather that something might be wrong in most other places. cab drivers emphatically agreed that four days is not enough, before sending us off with a heartfelt “make the most of it”. at one occasion the driver even refused to take a tip. and everyone helped us find our way through the 800 page fringe directory as well as the city streets. the latter was especially appreciated as we foolishly attempted to navigate edinburgh by bus - something even the bus drivers struggle with. route planners offer a confusing bouquet of bus colors (I am still not sure what they meant by the “red” bus), numbers (hundreds of it) and names that meant nothing to me or my map. obviously none of it is explained anywhere. On the other hand, we would not have seen so much of the city if not for the occasional “detour”.
The festival is so full of wonderful things, that I can’t even start explaining. I can’t wait to go back, next year (and the one after that, and the one after THAT, and and and …)
So obviously our main focus (for once) was not the food. Nevertheless we found two gems that are worth sharing with whoever might read this:
- On the first day, we had a quick and delicious lunch at at a little Italian sidewalk cafe called Sadivino, where we had a nice lentil soup, a sandwich and home-made tiramisu. They also sell a wonderfully flavored (melon and passionfruit, with a twist) sparkling water called Aqua Libre. It is produced by orchiddrinks, which seems to have been taken over by britvic (their site either does not work in Firefox and Safari, or is simply useless)
- What better way to keep at bay the inevitable depression that I knew would hit me after this much-too-short trip in the best of company, than focusing on the proper farewell dinner. The Grain Store Restaurant offers a nice mix of Scottish tradition (cured salmon, rack of lamb) with modern influences. All the dishes we tried (grilled mackerel starter and a mix of mushrooms wrapped in a soft crepe, in addition to the salmon and lamb) were well prepared and delicious, but the desserts were simply outstanding. The Pear Tartin went straight from the oven onto our table, where it tried to melt a single ball of caramel and nuts ice cream, before we would eat it all up (it wasn’t a fair contest, and the tarte did not even come close). However, the espresso chocolate cake was dark and strong and not intimated. Especially as it did not arrive alone, but was very well accompanied by a dessert wine fittingly described in the menu as “the business”.
Just in case you were wondering, we did not try the haggis. I admit, the fact that boiling heart, liver and lung inside an animal’s stomach, simply does not sound so exciting to me might have had to do with it. However, more importantly it was the first cab driver’s confession that, actually, it’s the tourists that eat the stuff. The people of Edinburgh only have it once or twice a year themselves and he certainly did not seem very excited about it. He recommended we try some Chinese food instead.
Off to Iceland tomorrow.
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Sadivino
West Richmond Street (close to Pleasance)
The Grain Store
30 Victoria St (1st Floor)
Tel: 0131 225 7635