The Wonders of Google Analytics

So, readers. It turns out that I have some. Wow.

When I installed Google Analytics, I really didn’t expect to find that anyone read this but seemingly quite a few people do – kinda regularly as well – and I post with terrible infrequency; I have no idea who you all are, especially those of you in America, Sweden, Japan and Australia, but thanks for reading.

Seriously, I’m touched by your interest. Please leave a comment or email me (itinerantappetite@googlemail.com ) to let me know if there’s anything you’d like from this blog, more recipes, more reviews or more general rambling?

I’m also really glad to hear from Sean Kelly, ex-head chef of Abstract in Edinburgh and, in my view, a serious talent; Sean’s one of the guys I would love to have heading up the kitchen if I ever manage to get enough cash together to open my dreamt of Restaurant with Rooms in East Lothian.

Now, while we’re talking of readers, I’ve heard a rumour that some doctors forum has been debating my review of Ducks at Kilspindie; once again I’m glad you’ve got an interest in my hobby-blog-type-thing but please do remember that this blog is a hobby. I’ve got a real job, two brilliant but exhausting kids and when I go out for a meal I pay for it and want to enjoy it; it doesn’t matter if someone’s father was a respected GP – if you work in hospitality and then take my money, I’d like to be fed reasonably and served pleasantly. Not too much to ask, you’d think.

That’s all for now but I have a backlog of meals and recipes to write up which I’ll do as soon as work, kids and wife allow so expect more soon.

Duck’s Round 2 (or “a lesson in customer service”)

So, following my post on my experience at Ducks at Kilspindie, I received the following email from Malcolm Duck, Owner of Ducks at Kilspindie, Experienced Restaurateur and Chairman (for what seems like donkeys) of the Edinburgh Restaurateurs Association.

Mr Boyce,

I was absolutely aware of you last night while you were dining even though I was in Dublin. Here at Ducks we take what we do very seriously and the team has a great deal of pride in their work. Whilst you blog for fun we work for a living.

I take all comments, good and bad seriously and try to learn from them, we give every guest the chance to leave comments on the dockets which come with the bill. I read them this morning and as usual they made very pleasant reading.

I note your comments and I have discussed them with my staff. We will learn and move on. I will also take onboard the views of my wife who was there on the evening.

As you have made comments and published them about my business I will give you some constructive feedback which I hope you will also have the good grace to publish.

If you write and wish to be taken seriously, do your homework. The chefs at the bar had nothing to do with Ducks so your comments are wildly inaccurate and misleading, not to say offensive to those working hard in the kitchen. It also calls into question the validity of your entire essay! Serious reviewers do not announce themselves to all and sundry. Calling some one a 'prick' (Roy Bret review) is simply offensive, abusive and just plain wrong. There is a real danger some might just think the same of you!

I have copied my reply to my Wife and my general Manager.

Malcolm Duck

So, I guess that's me told; I gather that I'm wrong, the service was up to scratch and the food wasn't burnt.

Except, Malcolm, please do bear in mind that I have no pretentions to being a journalist (I couldn't take the pay cut for one thing) and as such I don't expense my meals; all visits, good or bad, are paid for meaning – and this might be a tricky concept for you – that I'm a paying customer.

So, attitude to customers noted Duck old bean.

 

Ondine - Update

I'm not going to review Ondine again, I promise.

Well, not for a while anyway, otherwise people will think I'm some cyber-stalker-blogger or summat; but I did pop in yesterday for lunch with my eldest (who tells me that, at three and a half, he's almost a grown up and will get to drive my car soon) and I thought I'd share a thought or two.

They were completely accommodating when we arrived, I asked if they thought the restaurant would be appropriate for a child and they welcomed him and made a fuss as appropriate but also seated us in a quieter corner so our chat didn't annoy other guests and meaning I wasn't bumping into anyone when helping Jamie cut his food which I appreciated. The food, as always, was very good (Jamie loved his "real" fish fingers and his Jelly though he wasn't too sure of the mushy peas) and the restaurant almost full which I liked to see (support you local sheriff chef) and the service was right on the money.

I'm really, really happy, patchy service was the only thing which let Ondine down previously and now we can but wait for showers of accolades to fall onto Roy and his team.

Review – Duck’s at Kilspindie

Dear Malcolm Duck,
I understand you are away watching the rugby this weekend (great result wasn't it?) and so I thought I'd drop you a note to let you know how Ducks at Kilspindie runs when you're not around to supervise.
I suppose we should all expect people to take their eye off the ball slightly when the boss is away, but when one is a paying customer should we be the ones expected to compromise? Well at Kilspindie it seems the answer is yes.
The meal had an inauspicious start with the restaurant manager greeting us with the wrong name and then, when leading us to the table, stopping in the bar to chat to another party. Leaving us to stand in the middle of the bar waiting for their conversation to end.
When we finally got to our table the situation improved, a delightful waitress (Helen I believe) and an interesting menu which suggested ambition; the wine list was good, if a bit too biased to the pricier end of the spectrum, but it did hold a gem in the form of a Chinon of decent age for only £19 so we can forgive that.
So, decisions made and order taken we found our starters arriving quite quickly, before the wine in fact, with a couple of plates being passed over my head to the diners on the other side of the table. Service faux pas aside, the Gravadlax was pronounced very nice, the crab and shrimp tian fair and the quail bland and under seasoned.
Mains came, again with plates passed across the table as if serving to a chimps' tea party, and the slow-roast pork belly was promptly returned due to burnt crackling. Now, I know that most blogging, and most especially food blogging is an act of vanity on the bloggers' part and that the wide majority really don't care about our opinions but please, if I care enough about food enough to write about it as a hobby, perhaps I know a little. I certainly know the difference between cooked and burnt and so was more than a little offended when the same plate was brought back a minute later with the offending carbon scraped and trimmed from the crackling with an accompanying explanation that it wasn't over done and that was the way pork belly is cooked. I love pork belly, it's a luscious, meltingly tender piece of beauty when prepared properly; at Duck's it wasn't prepared properly. It may have been cooked slowly but not slowly enough and at too high a temperature, the fat hadn't rendered and the meat was tough and chewy; the accompanying braised shoulder was the best thing on the plate but too small, the dauphinoise potatoes underdone and the roasted shallot puree would have been a fitting sauce had the pork been edible.
The others all had the Duck (when in Ducks etc..) and found it uninspiring, not as tender as it could be and under seasoned.
Had dessert not been included in the carte (3 courses, £28) we'd probably have left at this point, but as it was paid for: the Ice-Cream was "acceptable", the apple tart was a semolina cake, the chocolate fondant underdone and burst before it hit the table and the cheese had been pre-cut and was beyond its best (with wrinkled, brown grapes accompanying it).
Funnily enough, we left on a positive note when our main waitress, Helen, embarrassed about the quality of the meal, asked for my card so the proprietor could contact me. I wonder if he will.
As we left, we noticed two chaps in chef's tunics sitting with a couple of pints at the bar; now I'm not certain they were the chefs from Ducks, but as the meal seemed prepared without love or pride, perhaps by someone who just wanted to get things done before starting their Saturday night, I have my suspicions. At £208 (plus tip) for four I'd rather not feel like an impediment to someone's drinking time.
So, will we be back? As Duck's at Kilspindie is the closest restaurant to me then I'm sure I will, probably when snow or storm have prevented me from making it into Edinburgh where I'll get better food and service for the same price.
Yours etc.
Ross
The Itinerant Appetite

Well done Wales

And Wales now has 3 new Michelin starred establishments, that's 4 in total.

4 Stars eh?

Well done Wales.

Obviously Edinburgh has 5 stars alone, before we look at the rest of Scotland, but it's not a competition. Is it Glasgow (no stars for it's deep fried cuisine)?

Good News / Bad News

So, the Michelin list for 2010 has managed to be leaked in time for the weekend papers again, someone at the Guardian wrote, what a surprise.

Still, I don't think it really matters if we find out today or next Tuesday so let's start by congratulating Paul and Katie at 21212 on their Michelin star, well deserved - come to think of it, didn't I predict they'd get a star when I reviewed 21212 in May? Oh, I did; well done me.

A glaring omission is Martin Wishart from the ranks of 2* holders, every meal I've had at Wisharts in the past few years has been consistently as good, if not better, than many 2*s I've eaten at (specifically Hibiscus and Pied A Terre - and I enjoyed them). Shame on you Michelin.

In other sad news, the Edinburgh outpost of Abstract will not reopen for 2010; I know Abstract lost it's joie de vivre when Sean Kelly left (for reasons and to destinations unknown - does anyone know where he went? He was a talented chap and I'd like to try his food again) and then became a glorified steak and chop house but the food was good quality and the service excellent.

To finish on an upbeat note, well done to Tony's Table in Castle St. for it's Bib Gourmand; it's also 3 minutes from my office so is very handy for good lunches and well done to the Peat Inn for it's star.

Tweet, To-whit, Towoo....

So, I've now joined the microblogging ranks and am tweeting updates on what I'm cooking, eating and drinking as I cook, eat and drink.

So far there's also been a couple of sweary-rants (not my fault, honest; blame the Bastard Taxi Driver who soaked me the other morning), but I doubt many kids read this stuff so let's not worry about a watershed.

My tweeting can be found at: www.twitter.com/happy_appetite - seemingly "itinerant" was too long and I was in too good a mood to use "moody_appetite".

Also I can now be contacted at itinerantappetite@googlemail.com for praise, abuse and invitations to restaurant launches (please?)

Review - Ondine

So, a belated write up of a trip to Ondine, Roy Brett's new(ish) restaurant in Edinburgh; you might not have heard of Roy before but you'll have certainly heard of his food with 4 years as exec. chef at Risk Stein's place in Padstow and another 4 years heading the operation of the Dakota hotel chain and specifically manning the helm at the award winning Dakota Forth Bridge where he was garnered with awards including Scottish Seafood Chef and Scottish Hotel Chef of the year.

Anyhoo, Roy has now fulfilled a long held ambition and opened his own restaurant in Edinburgh City Centre – it's a bright and open room which is part of the Missoni Hotel building (but not part of the hotel); for those without local knowledge, a large glass wall overlooks Victoria Street and specifically the entrance to "Espionage" a club much beloved of students and stag parties, I suspect this may be where to sit for the best views of street theatre on Friday and Saturday nights. We went for lunch but for some reason I'm finding this really amusing and can't wait to go on a weekend night.

So, the food – as one would expect from a chef with such a seafood pedigree (and a restaurant named after a water nymph), the menu is predominantly seafood with a good lot of crustacean and a few other options as well as a selection of both daily and weekly specials.

We couldn't decide what oysters to have while perusing the menu so they had no problem providing a selection of Fine de Claires, Maldons and Cumbraes – all good but for the price the Cumbraes were far superior to the Fine de Claires. Starters were shared in so far as I had half of Fiona's treacle cured salmon and wouldn't let her near my barbecued salt and pepper squid; I despise reviews that constantly glow but in this case I can't fault either dish, both were far above average.

I then had half a dozen langoustines with cocktail sauce for a main, and just to be sure a portion of the beef dripping chips; the langoustines were mammoth and juicy and the cocktail sauce perfectly adequate but I'm never sure why cold seafood tastes better in France than it does at home - both use Scottish produce! Perhaps it's a state of mind? Anyway, both the cooking and produce were spot on and the chips! The chips came from an old uncles' memory when everything smelled and tasted better, I can't wait to have them again. I can't remember what Fiona had, I think it was Grilled Seabass with brown shrimps, she seemed to like it but I was too busy protecting my langoustine and chips to pay much attention. For not fishy people, there are several other good options based on both meat and veggies.

Pudding was the only disappointing note of the meal, we shared some doughnut thing which had a white chocolate custard thing to dip the d-nuts into; it was all just a bit too sweet and a bit too much for us, not exactly in keeping with the rest of the menu.

Service was great (especially as we managed to pitch up without a reservation in the opening week) and we were made to feel completely welcome by everyone, despite being a bit scruffy and having a 6 month old with us. On the downside though was a junior Maitre d' (I think) who seemed to enjoy bossing about the waitresses and from my observations, made every single error of service in the room that lunchtime; the waitresses and the real Maitre d' seemed to put up working with him well, I'd probably have knocked him out if I had to work with him.

 

Authenticity

Here's a question – what's the point in authenticity?

That's a strange question for someone who loves his food, you might think; that flies in the face of accepted foodie wisdom you may even say, but indulge me a little on this one.

I have spent most of this year flirting with Northern Asian, Chinese and South East Asian food and I have been loving it – especially all the Vietnamese dishes I had during the muggy part of summer, but as I have never eaten in a Vietnamese restaurant, let alone visited the country, how do I know if the flavours were authentic? Simply, I don't. That said my lemongrass beef salads were great and my "Korean barbeque" pork was amazing – and this is my point; I created these dishes using inspiration from Asia but let's face it: my Mongolian hotpot will have been very different to one eaten on the Steppes and therefore not authentic but was it any less enjoyable? No.

And so, why do we get hung up on authenticity; if something is enjoyable can't we accept that? I've come to the realisation that inspiration and influence is more important than authenticity and that while the Pho in Ho Chi Min city is probably far better than mine, as there's no chance of me popping over with 2 young kids in tow I shouldn't forgo my still enjoyable approximate facsimile.

Review - Hibiscus

Simultaneous business trips to London on my wife's birthday provided the excuse for a visit to Hibiscus earlier in the month.

I'd booked it a couple of months ago so turning up and discovering the tasting menu available midweek was exciting, discovering the prices had been increased since booking wasn't. Not that it was a huge increase (£5 per head on the à la carte) but did have Fiona pondering the notion of prior advice of the change, especially as they had my email address; what can I say – she's a lawyer.

Anyway, that was a talking point and certainly didn't detract from the meal; predictably we opted for the tasting menu which was adapted from the àlc with a few augmentations and kicked off with a chilled Hibiscus soda with spherified pineapple and black pepper; it reminded both of us (pleasantly) of an unnamed drink from childhood holidays in Brittany.

Then came a single, monstrous scallop with a granny smith and hazelnut crust and a pork pie sauce; all lovely though there could have been more of the unctuous sauce. In fact, I would happily have had a glass of the sauce on it's own. Next up was a ravioli of cevennes onion with a salad of grelot onion, granny smith and a spherified potato "gnocchi", I'm a huge fan of the onion/potato combination and the addition of apple enhanced the flavours; I was also impressed by how distinct the two types of onion were, both sweet and oniony but also individual and complimentary.

The following course was red mullet accented with an onion salad, bone marrow and onion toast, smoked butter and civet sauce which stood up to the sprout leaves which tarnished the plate (entirely a personal prejudice, Fi happily relieved me of the offending leaves, strange woman). The bone marrow/onion toast was amazing and went far too quickly – I'd have loved more but Fiona wondered if it may be too rich for a larger portion, no matter the course was a triumph and left us looking forward to the next.

Which was a disappointment, Fine de Claire oysters poached in their shell with a shallot and sherry vinegar gel and lemon caviar; I have no idea why anyone feels the need to cook oysters but I also don't have Claude Bosi's accolades so we tried with an open mind. I really wish we hadn't bothered. The oyster was fine, spoiled slightly by the poaching but the gel was horrificly acidic, the flavour dominated everything else with the shallots and lemon caviar undetectable. I hope the gel was made my some commis on a stage as whoever did make it has a problem with their palate.

The next course resumed the otherwise excellent balance of the meal; roast foie gras with fig compote and raspberry vinegar purée. It was great – though I think I'm getting a bit bored of foie gras; that really does sound louché doesn't it? Ah well, on with the Grouse...

Which was what was next, roast Scottish Grouse with a sourdough puree, sweetcorn and curry gel and black pepper oil; the grouse was cooked to perfection and not too high, the sourdough puree and the gel complimenting it perfectly.

For desert there was a granny smith puree, sweet celeriac jelly and cream of chestnut which wasn't bad but didn't make as much of an impression as the preceding courses and then came a mystery desert. To be honest I'm a bit over the whole "we'll tell you what it is once you've finished" thing but this time it was fun. So, we had a mystery tart with a pear sauce and a vanilla & smoked caramel ice-cream; the accompaniments were good but the tart was perplexing, slightly grainy in texture but beautifully put together. We wondered on chestnut but as it was in the course before I decided it must have been nutmeg; turns out it was parsnip, just not like any parsnips I've ever had before.

Throw in a couple of Kirs, a bottle of dry Aussie Riesling and a lovely Savigny les Beaune and we have a lovely evening; I'm still not sure about the room, it felt uncomfortable slightly but I'm not sure why, it didn't spoil anything though. Interestingly my wife's now keen on spherification and gels – she's always been unsure at my home attempts – so it looks like I can get the algin etc. out again.