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

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.

Saturday Scratch #30 - Leroy Sibbles

Form an orderly queue! This is recent bounty from the allotment, currently sitting on the window sill until it's ready to be transformed, magically, into spicy, hearty soup by Mrs S. The allotment produced many a mouthwatering treat this year, in spite of the best efforts of the local rabbit population. We're in the process of erecting a fence around our plot, which will hopefully keep the blighters at bay. Next year we might need a bigger window sill.

Here, from 1979, is one of the very last great tunes to emerge from The Black Ark Studio. Produced by Lee Perry, it's Leroy Sibbles talking about the 'Garden of Life'.

Previously on Saturday Scratch.

Mushrooms.......

Everyone has one. At least one. One particular item of food (or drink) that can't be faced and who's taste turns the stomach. I have a friend who gags at the mere thought of carrots - which baffles me. I think of carrots as being crunchy orange water, innocuous enough and a good addition to a salad. He, however, will sit and pull every grated morsel from a meal before continuing - or better still leave the meal altogether, as he claims that he can taste the carrot residue. He is equally bemused by my nemesis.

The bane of my life is the humble mushroom - or the devil's shite, as I like to call it. Just typing the word 'mushroom' makes me feel uneasy, the smell makes me nauseous and if I ever unknowingly put a piece in my mouth...well, you can imagine the results. This unfortunate set of circumstances wouldn't be so bad were I not a vegetarian - not so difficult now perhaps, but when eating out at the dawn of the 1990s, the veggie option (if indeed there was one at all) would invariably consist of a big pile of 'em, in one form or another. Even now though, when dining in an unadventurous pub, I'll find I have a choice of mushroom stroganoff or veggie chili, the latter sounding great, until I discover that it, too, is loaded with the ghastly fungus.

On my gastronomic journey through life thus far, I've managed to overcome a handful of similar, though not quite as extreme, food hurdles, not least of which is the tomato, one of which I was literally forced to eat, despite my tears, by an unpleasant teacher whilst on a school trip when I was five years old. Looking back, I honestly believe that single event had a profound effect on me and it's only in the past ten years or so that I've been able to ween myself onto tomatoes, in any kind of solid form. I always knew I'd eat them one day though, I just had to keep working at it. Not so the mushroom. I know for certain that I'll never have a deep, fulfilling relationship with a shiitake or button or portobello......

Excuse me, I'm feeling a little unwell.



(These ramblings were inspired by this terrific post)