Tagged “food”

That was a productive and fun weekend.

On Friday, Clair was meeting her mum and cousin in town so this was my quiet night in. I settled down to watch episode 4 of the The Penguin and ordered fish tikka from Kebabish – banging).

I now see why people love this part of the world. The dramatic coastline, beautiful deep blue Med, stunning buildings and balconies, incredible food scene, culture and history and buzz of activity… I could go on!

Here’s a list of some noteworthy things we did and places we visited on this amazing holiday.

I got home from Friday morning’s dog walk to find some records in the post. I’d recently deleted my Discogs wants-list having realised twenty years too late that it is far too addictive, and as a last hurrah had earmarked a last few key wants. One of those was The Blue Nile’s Tinseltown in the rain – a slice of Scottish pop perfection on Linn records – and I enjoyed a brief listen before heading back out.

I’ve reached the halfway point of short summer working weeks and long weekends, and they’ve been great so far. I began this long weekend with lunch at the Broadcroft Hotel in Kirkintilloch for my parents’ emerald anniversary. My Uncle Liam was there too and we all really enjoyed it.

Hung out with Jason and Lydia, Aldo and Anna today at Sloan’s bar in town. It was a good day – I hadn’t seen the former two for a while and know they’ve had a rough time of late due to a death in the family. They were in good spirits and we enjoyed tasty but well-priced food and drinks. I had Venison Stew, having loved it so much on that recent excursion to Wild Kabn.

Meanwhile I was delighted to hear that Aldo and Anna had bumped into our friends Doug and Zoe while on holiday in Ibiza recently and had all hung out together.

We spent a happy hour or two shooting the breeze. At the end, I went on with Jason and Lydia to Ryan’s Bar in the southside. That’s my third time there; it’s a cool wee spot with a good drinks selection. I was pretty envious of Jason’s margarita.

For James’s 40th, Clair bought him the gift of some vouchers for the “wild cooking” and dining experience at Wild Kabn Kitchen, Ardkinglas Estate, Cairndow near Loch Fyne. The idea was that we two, James and Grant would go but with Grant looking after a recovering Toby, Toad stepped in.

I didn’t know much about Wild Kabn in advance and wasn’t prepared for how off the beaten track it was! From Glasgow you head out beyond the Rest and be Thankful and Arrochar toward Loch Fyne but toward the end of the journey you’re driving along the world’s narrowest wee track and beating your way through tree branches, which all adds to the excitement.

We were having the Sunday lunch by fire and, since it was a beautiful afternoon, we sat outside the greenhouse, right in the middle of the woodlands and with mountains in the background. We were at a trestle table beside two other couples and enjoyed chatting.

All three courses were fantastic but the venison was stunning.

Afterwards we had a lovely walk around the estate and onto the beach at the loch.

On Friday night Clair and I went for pizza at new joint in town, Frank’s Pizza. It turns out that friend of the family Peter works there and he showed us to a table at just the right time before it became really busy. I went for the sausage and peppers pizza, we shared a portion of Frank’s fries and Peter hooked us up with a new honey dip flavour to try too. Everything was really tasty!

On Saturday morning I made the hour-long drive to Biggar and enjoyed a walk with Rudy on Tinto Hill. It’s a medium-level climb and the weather was decent. Although there were lots of other dogs they mostly gave us space.

Later, Clair and I went to No. 10 down the road to meet Mark, followed by Sophie and Anya. I had an interesting chat with Sophie where it turns out that some of the coaching techniques I’ve been learning at work (active listening, asking questions rather than offering solutions) are things she does all the time in her job as an educational psychologist.

We continued on to the Stag and Thistle where we were joined by Tom, Lou and wee James, up from London. They’re still having bother finding a flat here but hopefully not for much longer. Craig F and Alan M soon joined. I couldn’t chat to them for long before leaving but it was nice to see them.

With Clair off having fun in Skye, the boys (me and Rudy) have been spending some quality time together. On Friday night we watched Dune 11. Rudy wasn’t too bothered but I really enjoyed it. It looks absolutely stunning, especially the all-white gladiator scene. And I thought the heavy, growling soundtrack marked a return to form for Hans Zimmer. While watching I munched on a paneer palak from local heroes Kebabish which, let’s be honest, is inifinitely better than popcorn.

On Saturday with the sun shining and some post-curry guilt, we set off early and walked up Drumgoyne Hill. It was steep but really good fun.

An amazing time was had by all yesterday as Gillian, Clair and I, Tom and Nessa had lunch at Cail Bruich on Great Western Road. Annoyingly on arrival I had a slightly dodgy stomach so went with a non-alcoholic cocktail to start. Fortunately I didn’t need too long to get up to speed, as by the starter I was happily eating raw fish.

As usual the food was fantastic. Among a range of delights we had langoustine, monkfish and that killer mushroom dish. The wines were pretty special too, although the accompanying origin stories are getting pretty long.

In our excitement Clair and I invited everyone back to ours. There, Nessa gave us a great laugh telling us about seeing her current favourite band Tool umpteen times, and we all shared our musical guilty pleasures – Seal’s Kiss from a Rose from Tom C was an unexpected and memorable inclusion! Mark M was at a loose end and joined us, bringing Jura to give Rudy a playmate, and the merriment went on into the wee hours. Ach well, I’ve been pretty good most of the year so I’m allowing myself this blow-out without the need for a post-mortem!

It’s been great to have a change of scenery, a wee bit of sun and some downtime.

I caught up on some listening: Cillian Murphy on Desert Island Discs, Jon Ronson’s Things Fall Apart, Adam Buxton interviewing George Monbiot (I’ve since resolved to buy Monbiot’s book Regenesis) and some excellent Gilles Petersen shows, firstly in interview with Michael Franks and secondly an amazing feature on J Dilla with Pete from BBE. The latter includes a lovely old mixtape from Dilla. I love how he just roughly chopped in the main hooks of tunes in a way that’s low on polish and high on fun.

Also on the headphones were The Smile – both their 6 Music Artists in residence sessions and their new album Wall of Eyes which is great.

My book of choice during the trip was The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey.

As always, every day I took a long walk along the Paseo Maritimo (the promenade that looks right onto the sea, Gibraltar and Morocco in the distance). With its scenery and mix of walkers, cyclists, dogs and restaurants this walk always makes me feel relaxed and happy. A couple of the days I took a detour to Buena Vida for a tasty breakfast wrap and coffee. There’s a Scottish guy working there – he’s from Shetland if memory serves me rightly.

After my daily walk I enjoyed chilling on the balcony and occasionally even snuck in a wee afternoon glass of vino while listening to some music. Ain’t gonna lie – that is a nice way to relax on your holiday.

When hanging out in the apartment on my own at night I watched The Creator which was fun, a bit of Curb your enthusiasm (final season) and some Shogun.

Food-wise, when on my own I kept it simple with dinners at Venta las Pacos – they do stuff like Supa de Mariano and pepper steak with chips. It’s cheap as chips and full of locals arriving post-work. Cibo is also decent, the Hamberguesa Casera at Asador Nagüeles is banging and there’s a wee joint (name escapes me) near the harbour where I had a cheap but perfect morning coffee and croissant and could just enjoy watching people pass by going about their business.

Once Mark arrived we took a walk into the old town and, during a downpour, decided to try Restaurante El Cortijo. They make it clear from their signage outside that they serve authentic Andalusian food and “no tapas, pizza or pasta!!!”. And it was great. We had monkfish clams with prawns in an almond (almost curry-like) sauce – the owner’s great grandma’s recipe, washed down with beautiful Tempranillo wine. With the weater atrocious we decided to also treat ourselves to dessert: Home made apple cake, and crème brûlée. I’ll be back!

Clair was next to arrive. The three of us paid a visit to the Trocadero for late lunch. We had delicious clams, chicken salad and even curry, with a glass of Marques de Riscal Verdejo which definitely hit the spot. It’s a great place.

On the Sunday three of us visited Kala Kuala Chiringuito in San Pedro for another seafood special – more clams, this time with paella. It was then the long-ish walk home along the Paseo Maratimo where we were merry enough to belt out a Pet Shop Boys medley, taking especial pleasure in saying “Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat” in the style of Neil Tennant. We stopped in at Victors beach bar where DJ Luis was playing Kerri Chandler (I could recognise those beats from half a mile off!) and we got talking to him and his Londoner friend (another Laurence). That was a great wee vibe. To finish the night we played pool at That’s Life and did Scotland proud by emerging victorious over our Spanish rivals.

After Mark had left, Clair wanted to scratch her itch for Chinese food and we had a lovely meal at Hong Kong restaurant.

Last thing to mention is that I am gradually learning more Spanish. I’m gonna keep going and see how far I can get. Vamos!

Last weekend was pretty dull and rainy in Glasgow but Clair and I visited a bunch of great local places to keep the spirits up.

Clair and I just rounded off the year in style with lunch and drinks at Bar Brett on Great Western Road. We had a bird’s eye view too, sat overlooking the pass watching the chefs at work.

Between us we enjoyed a variety of small dishes including oysters, sourdough bread with chicken fat butter, cod toast, smoked beetroot with tahini, clams, lobster ravioli, mushroom XO linguine, Peterhead Coley with curried mussel sauce and a Basque cheesecake.

We tried a few glasses of wine: Veiled Vineyards Old Vine Semillon (white), a Delamotte Blanc de Blancs (champagne), and Le Grand A (Burgundy white) – all lovely.

Brett is fantastic and the staff made us feel very welcome.

This recipe from Gousto, with a few tweaks from Clair, is a straight winner. Although I’m sure it’s delicious as they list it, Clair substituted linguine for rigatoni and as a treat added some artichoke hearts which took it to the next level.

This lasagne was meat-free, fun to cook, easy on the eye and tasted great.

A tasty and healthy asian-style recipe from Gousto, which I enjoyed cooking and eating and would like to make again.

Like most folks we didn’t holiday abroad during 2020 and 2021, when COVID was at its height. Trips abroad are a luxury and privilege so this was no hardship. However I’ll admit that once restrictions were lifted and things felt safer, we were pretty excited to head for some sun and good food, and set our sights on a first trip together to the south of France.