Friday Photo #44

Almost exactly a year ago, I was the first of our merry band to roll into Edinburgh for BlogCon '22, allowing me almost a full day to explore the city before festivities formally commenced. I spent the time wandering both hither and thither in an enjoyably aimless fashion, climbing endless steps, stumbling over tricky cobbles and generally gawping at the sheer majesty of the place. Following an enjoyable dustcutter (™ John Medd) at The World's End on the corner of St Mary's Street, I veered off the Royal Mile and found myself outside a restaurant called Makars Gourmet Mash Company. I was intrigued enough to suggest it as a lunch destination to my comrades-in-blog the following day, but alas it was fully booked.

Finding myself back in Edinburgh on Springsteen business last week, I resolved to have another bash at getting into Makars for lunch and this time I was successful. The Makars premise is very straightforward. Choose from one of nine varieties of mashed potato (chilli, smoky, cheesy, horseradish etc), then one of ten toppings (wild boar, chicken, haggis, lamb etc) four of which are vegetarian or vegan, throw in the obligatory neeps, douse in lashings of delicious gravy and presto. How can a meal so apparently simple be so bloody tasty? I don't know, but believe me it was. I had the veggie haggis by the way, but my mate had the real thing and concurred completely with my thumbs-up assessment of the sumptuous repast.

A little later, while consulting my friend Mr Google, I was briefly elated to discover that there was a branch of Makars considerably closer to my own neck of the woods, on Shaftsbury Avenue in London. My joy was short-lived however, as further research revealed that in spite of wall to wall outstanding reviews, the London branch closed down earlier this year.  

Cornell Campbell - Mash You Down

Seven is a Jolly Good Time

Whenever a birthday rolls around, Mrs S & I tend to put all usual noshing constraints on hold for a few days. We temporarily set aside any dietary and financial considerations in favour of hoovering up any treats that might happen to pass our way. And that is how, just last week, I came to eat this.

Some will already be very familiar with the concept of the deep fried Mars bar, this however was a new one on me. The deep fried Cadbury's Creme Egg. Despite not having a particularly sweet tooth, I felt I had to give it a go - purely for research purposes, obviously. Very good it was too, though I'm kinda glad that the fish & chip shop responsible for its creation is many miles away, lest I be tempted again.

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Egg were a part of the prodigious Canterbury scene, releasing a clutch of LPs between 1970–1974. The band, led by future Hatfield & the North, National Health and Bruford mainstay Dave Stewart (who would go on to have hit records with Barbara Gaskin in the 1980s) grew out of another outfit, Uriel, whose line-up boasted the early talents of one Steve Hillage. This is Egg's first release, a single from 1969, 'Seven is a Jolly Good Time'.

Egg - Seven is a Jolly Good Time

Out Of Town

By the time you read this, Mrs S and I should, all being well, be in the middle of a short stay on the North Norfolk coast. Our destination is only an hour and a bit away from Swede Towers, but rather than coming and going, we thought we'd snag a B&B for a couple of nights and make a break of it. The plan, as always, is for a bit of walking, a bit of eating and, who knows, maybe even a bit of drinking, though these days anything more than a couple of glasses of wine at one sitting sends us quickly on our way to snoozeville - lightweights!

My CD collection is still (still!) stored away in the spare room following our move in 2011, but whenever we travel I always have a fish about in the boxes and grab a few albums for the road. For this trip I've also lovingly hand-crafted a couple of brand new CDr compilations, the first in absolutely years. Here's a great live version of a tune that made the tracklist of one of those compilations, 'Hinterland' by Lonelady, a firm favourite round these parts since its release in March.

Battered Cheese - What's Not To Like?

On Tuesday evening, in preparation for our trip to the coast the following day, I sat at my laptop perusing a selection of online pub-lunch menus and stumbled upon a dish that caused my eyebrow to creak upwards in the manner of Roger Moore's Spitting Image puppet. Vegetarian Fish 'n' Chips. Intrigued, I read on. The 'Fish' was actually halloumi, deep-fried in chilli, coriander and lime batter. I closed my laptop. We had a winner. There was no further research required.

Apparently, Chicago singer/songwriter Daniel Knox enjoyed a full English breakfast on every stop of his recent UK tour (the best was in Coventry, in case you're wondering). I'd be interested to hear his opinion on the merits of my veggie Fish 'n' Chips. Maybe next time. Daniel's 'Blue Car' is easily my favourite song of the year so far and to be standing immediately in front of him as he sang it, a couple of weeks ago, was one of those, never to be forgotten, concert moments. Check out more of his remarkable music here.

Get Together

Every four to six weeks, Mrs S and I get together with two other couples, old friends from my record shop days, to eat lunch, drink wine and catch up with each other's lives. We take turns to host what has come to be known as, 'The Tummy Club', and yesterday it was our turn. After licking our plates clean, we headed out into the late afternoon sunshine to walk off our hearty meal, returning an hour later to enjoy a slice (or two) of Mrs S's outstanding homemade cheesecake, in front of a roaring fire.

The Tummy Club reconvenes in the middle of March. Can't wait.

Here's the great Sid Griffin with a bluegrass interpretation of a much recorded Chet Powers song, taken from his fine 2014 LP, 'The Trick Is to Breathe'.