Aizle, Salt Cafe Morningside, Ting Thai Caravan: three exciting new Edinburgh restaurants

A fleeting visit to my hometown of Edinburgh for my best friend's wedding was just enough time to squeeze in visits to three of Edinburgh's notable new restaurant openings. As I said when I blogged my visit to the Gardener's Cottage last year, things are notching up a bit in Edinburgh's restaurant scene - which has always done a good Scottish-French bistro and some amazingly long-standing neighbourhood favourites, but I've sometimes found the buzzy, young, factor missing. 

That's why I liked the Gardener's Cottage so much - young, energised, sparky things, committed and passionate about local food and ingredients, doing great things. And the three restaurants I checked out all offered some buzzy promise to hungry Edinburgers: Aizle on St Leonard Street, Ting Thai Caravan on Teviot Row, and Salt Cafe on Morningside Road.

Aizle is a goodie. Tucked away on anonymous drag between South Clerk Street and Arthur's Seat, it is anything but inside - a simple, but warm interior of greys and whites, with big windows, views of the hills and crags just down the road. The joint is run by a Scottish-American couple who've toured the world cooking fancy food for fancy people, and now want to apply their bistronomical skills to local, seasonal fare in relaxed, homely environs.

The menu is not a conventional list of courses, but a list of ingredients they're working with that day - foraged, from their suppliers, from the market. Ours had unusual ingredients such as bee pollen, summer truffle, Inverurie hogget, sea astor, as well as more traditional ingredients: 'apples', 'blood orange', 'jersey royals'. The dishes are announced as they are brought to the table - and sometimes it's just a glimmer of one of those unusual ingredients you get - but each combination hit gold.

A trio of amuse bouche came first, which included an oyster, a mini stack of beetroot, steak tartare and saffron aioli, and a rice crisp with apple. This was followed by salt baked celariac, with celariac puree, a piece of fried chicken skin, then topped with apple. The combination of flavours was perfect - the salty, fatty skin, balanced by the earthy, deep flavours of the celariac, and the crisp freshness of the apple.

A fish course followed: mackerel, cooked simply, with thin slices of jersey royal potatoes, spring garlic, and various purees, drizzles and scatters that have left my memory. The final course was hogget (which I now know is an age of lamb -between lamb and mutton, with the tenderness of lamb and the flavour of mutton - no brainer really!), with a risotto like bulgur, pink radish, pink wildflowers and more unidentifiable gems of flavour.

I always worry that desserts in these kind of restaurants are going to be a bit austere, but not here. A rich chocolate terrine, with lemon curd and sweet cicely at the side, bee pollen and delicious sweet crispy shortbread-like wafers left us with the luxurious, sweet finale we wanted from such a special meal.

The good reviews have been pouring in, and the place was fully booked with a good mix of Edinburgers on the rainy Friday evening we were there. A sure sign that there's a healthy local appetite for exciting cooking. At £35 a head, it is also remarkably good value for a very special, inventive meal.

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A mile away in Morningside, my old manor, and one famed for its pernickety older ladies, manners, tea shops and a bonanza of well stocked charity shops, Salt Cafe has just opened looking like an East London transplant - all gastropub grey exterior, bare bulbs, brunch and small plates. The area was clearly excited about it - tables were hard to come by at peak brunch hour on Sunday. 

The menu included some nice flourishes: Smoked bacon and poached egg on sourdough with a bit of truffle in the hollandaise, welsh rarebit with smoky tomato chutney, french toast with summer fruits, and some bigger dishes like moules frites and burger.

With most dishes priced at £3.50 we enquired whether one would be enough. They assured us it would, but the dishes (all served in oversized, steep edged bowls) were definitely £3.50's worth of brunch, and therefore not really big enough for hungry brunchers. We ended up ordering seconds - no bad thing, because each item was delicious, and it's nice to have a selection - maybe brunch tapas could be a selling point, rather than something to iron out? Unlike serving toast based food in a bowl - not big or clever, just impractical.

Despite these issues, Salt Yard's proprietors have created a buzzy, young spot in an area crying out for fun, relaxed neighbourhood eating. There's clearly a market for more, and will be interesting to see if any pubs or bars tap into this market too.

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Finally, we tried Ting Thai Caravan - a bustling Thai street food cafe just opposite the university. Also painted in gastropub grey and with bare bulbs, it's a fast paced, communal tables, loud music and brusk affair, with a big menu that includes meat/rice dishes, soups, noodles, curries and an interesting selection of snack/side dishes.

Another rainy lunchtime and the place was hoaching. We got the last table, and queues formed quickly and were seated quickly too. We ordered a big selection of mains, sides and a carafe of wine - and the bill came to less than £60 between six.

Dishes went well beyond the anglicised 'classics' - pungent, spicy marinades adorned pork, pickles and salsa-like condiments brought extra flavours to the plates, and dishes were heavy on vegetables too. Each dish is designed as a meal in itself, and students, lecturers and other local workers pop in to take away paper boxes full of this goodness. 

The sides were inspired - and (all less than £2) meant you could quickly and cheaply sample lots of different flavours. We had an aromatic sausage chopped up with chilli and salad, tempura fried sweet potato chips (excellent texture), almost honeycomb like fried tofu with a sweet chilli dressing, and tempura fried juicy prawn skewers.

It was a fun experience, maybe a bit noisy for some, but an excellent antidote to central Edinburgh's mostly tourist-focused fare.

The Gardener's Cottage, Edinburgh

There's been a bit of a foodie kick going on in Edinburgh, as elsewhere, with lots more celebrating of the Scottish cuisine and ingredients. Edinburgh has always been ahead of the curve in eating out, with a good selections of bistros and cafes for years, and 'fusion' was quite a big bit of it before - haggis incorporated into a French menu, typically. Good neighbourhood dining has always been part of the scene too, but the turnover of restaurants has been quite high compared to city centre restaurants.

TheGardener's Cottage - a highly celebrated new restaurant just north of the centre and neatly five minutes walk from my dad's flat - is a sign of exciting new possibilities in Edinburgh eating. Here, on my recent trip back home to visit family and friends, I had some of the most exciting Scottish food in the warmest, most convivial surroundings. 

It's located in, you guessed it, an old gardener's cottage (three rooms, effectively) on the northern slope of Calton Hill. A gravel path through growing beds leads you up to the cottage. The door is open, but you push through thick velvet curtains to get in. There are two dining rooms, with three ten seater communal dining tables between them, a record player sits in a chimney breast with a stack of blues records piled up, changed by the staff as the stylus lifts.

The menu changes daily, based on what's in season, what's available, what they've foraged that morning. A couple of brunch dishes are on offer at the weekend, a short lunch menu through the week, and every evening there's a single seven course taster menu, priced at a very, very, very reasonable £25 (or thereabouts).

I'm going to walk you through what we had, but given the menu changes daily, it's more a flavour of the kinds of tasty morsels you might expect from the Gardener's Cottage.

We started with freshly baked (still warm!) sourdough with an olive and anchovy tapenade, and venison and duck potted meat - like a Scottish, gamey rilettes. The bread was amazing, rivalling E5 bakehouse for tangy, bounciness, and the toppings were exceptional.

Next up was the soup course: leek, potato and wild garlic soup, topped with smoky, meaty bacon and winkles they'd foraged from the coast that morning. Cured pork and shellfish is a winning combination at the best of times and a favourite in Iberian cuisine, but I like the distinctively Scottish flavour here.

This was followed by treacle cured trout, served with a soft boiled egg, tart creme fraiche with toasted hazelnuts, a couple of thin wild leeks, fermented celariac, and a bit of the aniseedy and lesser-used herb Sweet Cicely.

Next up was a salt baked carrot, served with fermented cauliflower, smoked yoghurt, toasted seeds and some interesting leaves. Salt-baking is a technique I'm most familiar with being used for fish in a Mediterranean context, but it worked well here. The carrot was sweet, salty and full of flavour. 

Now for the 'main course' - hay smoked duck breast, on top of a gravy flavoured pearl barley risotto, served with braised january cabbage, with bits of fermented pak choi. The smokiness was quite subtle, and the barley added a lovely earthy nutty flavour.

The main was followed by a cheese course: a lovely smooth Rachel goat cheese, served with a long crispy thin cracker, apple and pickled walnuts. A perfect combination, and delicious even for those who don't always love goat's cheese (that's me!).

Finally, for dessert we were served sweet little bits of Alexander beetroot, lavender infused cream and beetroot and apple granita. It was a great combination of flavours and sensitations, crisp and sweet, cold and melt in your mouth, creamy and rich. Wow.

Booking is pretty much essential for the Gardener's Cottage, but they make sure it's a relaxed and well paced service. Our table (booked two days before and their last available) started at 5.15 and was ours til 8, meaning we had lots of time to enjoy the meal in a relaxed way. Tables started at different times, and the whole process was exceptionally managed.

I left thinking that the Gardener's Cottage is exactly the kind of restaurant I'd love to run in a parallel world where I didn't work in policy. Friendly, fun, unpretentious and good value. If you are planning a trip to Edinburgh any time soon, make sure you get a reservation in - this is an exceptional restaurant.

The four days of Christmas gluttony

As a lover of food I look forward to the Christmas period for months, ancticipating all the delicious food I get to eat at all the separate celebrations with different family and friends. Speak to me around 29 December and it's a very different picture, when all I want is some raw spinach and some steamed rice. Just please don't show me another roast potato.


As I write this, I am sat on the train from Edinburgh to London and I am enjoying the experience of not eating. I have set myself the challenge of not eating for the entire journey. This is how people end up on the 'detox' in January – a binge/abstain pattern that a moderate like me just can't sign up to and claims for health benefits have been roundly discredited. Nevertheless, I shall draw the feasting season to a close with a round-up of my best festive meals.


Christmas day
Celebrated at my mum's, and documented well last year, this is, on paper, the most traditional of the dinners. But my mum is an intuitive and imaginative cook and Christmas dinner has become an increasingly ambitious affair. Last year we were proud to have 12 dishes on the table – this year, 14. And with a few new twists and innovations. Brussel sprouts this year were fried up with chorizo and chestnuts, last year's pear and parsnip croquettes recipe was refined – drier cooking helped preserve their structure, as did mixing in pureed walnut and garlic, a little bit of ginger was mixed into the carrot and orange, which was a bit more salad-y.


This year we started with quite un-Christmassy dishes – sauteed frogs legs, just butter, garlic and a bit of parsley. And then some 'sunshine soup' – all peppers, butternut squash, paprika, tomato.



Our bronze feathered organic free range turkey was delicious and juicy, and our small plates approach looks particularly awesome on my brother's OCD plate.







The twists continued into pudding – not one for convention, my mum made her own spin on a trifle, with a base of amaretto soaked apricots, topped with amaretto soaked amaretti biscuits (v sweet!), custard and grated chocolate. The classic chestnut whip (sweetened chestnut puree, whipped up with cream) was also served.





Boxing day
To my dad's, where his partner was doing most of the cooking. She prepared a starter of Stornoway black pudding, which was so soft, smooth and nicely spiced. Stornoway has a reputation for the best black pudding – I can confirm that it lives up to the hype.





The main course was beef wellington – a classic, and more and more popular. As a pastry, pate and beef lover, I couldn't hope for more. Marilyn cooked it nicely, the meat was perfectly pink in the middle, and the combination of flavours and textures was great.



In the evening my dad took us out for Thai food at a restaurant near his work. It was a little quiet a first and we got a royal treatment. The food was excellent and great value – I particularly enjoyed my duck in a spicy, tangy tamarind sauce.


The 27th
It's tradition among friends is to celebrate Christmas together on 27th December. This has always taken place at Afsi's family home, where they've always had a huge amount of leftovers (usually from three separate roasts) needing gobbled up by helpful and hungry young'uns. Major changes this year as Afsi now has her own flat. Taking a star-turn as hostess, Afsi had friends and family all round for a slap up meal, sitting around in her immacutely retro furnished flat, weighing up our homemade crackers, supping on G&Ts.


After a starter or chilli fried haloumi and tofu, we enjoyed a turkey wellington and a massive roast ham. Both were delicious, but special commendation goes to the turkey wellington, which was perfectly presented and no end of effort had gone into making it as delicious as it was. The pate was a home-made with porcini mushrooms and marsala wine, and the cranberry stuffing sinside the turkey was also home-made and delicious.





To top it all off, Afsi had made three puddings – a fruit bomb (very retro, one of my granny's classics), a chocolate torte and a Christmas cake. Impressive stuff.





The 28th
And on the fourth day of continuous eating we headed down to the Borders to my grandparents' house for a wider family meal. As a child, Christmas was always at their house – the only house big enough to host four generations of family, different in-laws, partners, and other family and friends. At its largest, there must have been upwards of 20 people in and out their doors on the day, with two meals to accommodate everyone. As some get older (I still have a living great grandmother!), other units break up, others expand and new families form, they've found themselves visiting other dinners and doing less of the hosting.


I love the trusty familiarity of my grandparents' cooking – it's simple and accomplished, with recipes and techniques fine-tuned over the years, and a few new influences and ingredients making their way into the mix. This year they cooked an Aberdeen Angus beef, with all the trimmings. It was a nice beef, well-cooked, simply seasoned and served with yorkshire puddings, potatoes, parsnip and carrots.





Pudding is my granny's particular forte, I think, and her lemon meringue roulade was just spot on. Perfectly light, flawless rolled. Everyone agred it was the best pudding they'd had over the Christmas period. A testament to years of making and refining delicious puddings.




So that was Christmas 2011, then. Time to eat a bit more healthily now.

Christmas lunch #2

I like a traditional Christmas lunch - turkey, trimmings, etc. Without fail, I have had that traditional lunch at some point over the Christmas period, even as my family shrinks, expands, ages, modernises, dissipates and reforms. New techniques have been introduced over the years - goose fat on potatoes, parmesan on parsnips, pancetta and chestnuts with the sprouts - but the essential dishes are always the same:

Turkey
Gravy
Bread sauce
Cranberry sauce
Roast potatoes
Roast parsnips
Brussels Sprouts
Pigs in blankets
Stuffing

The most important things in that lunch for me are bread sauce (well-cloved) and the stuffing, which my mum makes every year from a Good Housekeeping recipe - chestnut puree, lemon zest, parsley, bacon and breadcrumbs coming together so nicely, they'd do as a dish in themselves. My mum makes the cranberry sauce from scratch with generous shavings of orange zest.

A recent addition to the Christmas food experience is the turkey hunt. My sister is a free-ranging environmentalist and can quite easily live off food that supermarkets throw out. On some more Christmas Eves my sister has showed up at my mum's house with a couple of top notch turkeys that she picked out of M&S or Waitrose bins totally free. This year my mum had her offspring positioned in supermarkets across Edinburgh waiting for the turkeys to be reduced in price. At Morningside Waitrose other people were onto the same trick as me (those canny, tight-arsed Morningsiders!), and turkeys were flying (almost literally) off the shelves as soon as the halo'd red and white reduction sticker had been slapped on. My good timing helped us to get a gigantic organic, free range, bronze-feathered turkey for £27 (would have been £65!).

This Christmas was a funny one - my mum's husband was stuck abroad, my sister was stuck at a protest camp and, in the end, there was just three of us eating. It was an awesome dinner and we enjoyed it with a lovely bottle of Gewürztraminer. I piled my plate so impossibly high, but still managed to finish every last morsel.



Needless to say, there were plenty of leftovers. I love re-creating the meal in smaller quantities until there is only leftover turkey. Then it's time for turkey pie, turkey curry, turkey soup, turkey risotto, turkey salad and so on.

Eating out in Edinburgh

I grew up in Edinburgh, a city that was most definitely ahead of the curve in developing a café and dining out culture. Back in the late 90s we had great brunch cafés in our neighbourhood (Marchmont) frequented by students, young families, bobos and pensioners alike. Despite our chilly, windy and wet climate, the French restuarants of the Grassmarket spilled out onto the streets, while independent cafés and Scottish bistros popped up in all sorts of nooks and crannies.

The relative absence of mid-price chain restuarants (no ASKs, very few Pizza Expresses, I don't think I've seen any Zizzis, Slug and Lettuces, Ping Pongs, Loch Fynes, etc) means that this significant price bracket is populated by a diverse range of quality, independent, interesting restuarants. In fact, some have been so successful that they have opened up other branches in different parts of town or even in Glasgow (or vice versa).

What with it being festival time in Edinburgh (and me paying a visit), I thought I'd give a run down of my favourites:

A Room in the Town - my all time favourite. A delightful, airy, characterful bistro serving up innovative modern Scottish cuisine. Think haggis terrine and whisky gravy, sea bass with asparagus and cherry tomatoes, games sausage and parsnip mash. You can get a 3 course lunch for under £15 a head, and it's BYOB too.


The Zulu Lounge - just a few paces from my Mum's flat in Morningside, this quirky, cosy South African café is covered in zebra print, has yummy muffins and brownies and whatnot. And specialises in decadent hot chocolates, such as this calorific Cadbury's 'Crunchie' hot chocolate. Ooh my arteries...


Café Andaluz - Stylish tapas restaurant that started out in Glasgow but was so popular they had to open one on George Street in Edinburgh. I ate at the spectacularly moorishly decorated restaurant in Glasgow's West End last night and it was delicious, atmospheric, classy and authentic. My only complaint would be that some of the dishes skimped a bit on key ingredients. Café Andaluz is popular with Edinburgh's Spanish community, so it must be good, right?


Alba Flamenca - another testament to the popularity of tapas in Edinburgh! This intimate restaurant is part of a very popular flamenco dance school, and the short tapas menu and wine list is well chosen and impeccably prepared. It's also a good deal cheaper than Cafe Andaluz, though less atmospheric and stylish.

Spice Box - My dad ordered a take-away from here on Wednesday night and I could not believe how amazing Thai food can be. Spice Box is run with love by two innovative young upstarts and some excellent Thai chefs. It's take-away only and, such is the demand, you'll have to wait a while for it to arrive, but it is so so so worth it.


Mother India - flavours and seasoning to die for at this Glasgow-originating Indian tapas (yes, tapas again). Perfectly sized portions so that you can have 4 dishes between 2 and not feel too full. The food is clearly top quality and the menu has lots of interesting dishes, such as crab samosas!


Le Mouton Noir - Classy, stylish and affordable French restaurant in Bruntsfield. It's classic bistro fare, but excellently done and lovely surroundings.


Favorit - An old favourite (geddit?!) of mine - often open til 1 or even 3am, you can get fancy fruit beers, refreshing Czech lagers, smooties, milkshakes, ice cream floats, brownies, sandwiches, tacos, etc etc. It's stylishly decorated like an American diner and it's just a good place to catch up with friends at any time of day or night.

Toast - Just round the corner from my old house and formerly Kaffe Politik - Marchmont's defining café, this is a great brunch spot at the weekend, with excellent Eggs Benedict and other great options. It does breakfast, lunch and dinner during the week, excellent cakes and coffees and commands the same diverse clientelle as its predecessor.

Le Bon Vivant - A new opening in the upmarket New Town, this is a dark, elegant champagne bar, with a twist: it's totally unpretentious, totally friendly, totally affordable. They sell £1 bites, including deep friend risotto balls, tartes, black pudding, as well as yummy soups (I had smoked haddock and pea chowder - it was delicious).