John the Geologist

We ate and stayed at the 21212 Restaurant in Edinburgh at the weekend. This restaurant with rooms is located in a Georgian townhouse at the end of a long terrace, halfway up Calton Hill and with superb views over the Firth of Forth.

The new owners have put a significant investment (some £4.5m) into the refurbishment, and it shows. The rooms are luxurious. We stayed in a room with a large bed, a wet room with a great shower, and a big comfy sofa. The dining room has curved high-backed banquettes giving the place a rather intimate and sumptuous feel. The chefs all work away behind a glass wall at the end of the dining room. When they were assembling dishes they looked as if they were gathering like monks in prayer.

The owners and staff are truly charming and provide a warm welcome. They remembered preferences we had stated either when booking or earlier in the evening. Service was really well paced – so much so that we didn’t really notice it.

But, what about the food? The 21212 premise is that there are two choices for starter, a single soup course, two choices for main course, a cheese course, finishing with two choices for dessert. 21212, geddit?

Although there are few choices, the menu is complex (see below). The portions are small, but totally packed with flavour. No two bites are the same, and I wished that we had the menus in front of us so that we could analyse and understand all the flavours. For me, the best part of the meal was the main course; the depth of flavour in the lamb was incredible, and hit a delicious spicy finish from the merguez sausage.

I only have two suggestions for improvement. First, the cheese course did not feature any Scottish or even British cheeses; secondly I would have welcomed twice the quantity of soup. But neither of those mild criticisms took away from the pleasure of the meal.

On the whole, 21212 is an different (eccentric?) dining experience. It is very much culinary theatre, but is matched by the tastes and textures of the food. An evening to savour and remember.

And the cost – £60 a head, but that included a complimentary pre-dinner drink. The wine list isn’t ludicrously expensive, and they charged less than a fiver for a single malt at the end!

“Fish & Chips Twice Please”
Warm Smoked Salmon Nugget Topped With A Sliver
Of Sliced, Apricot + Mint, 2 French Fries, (Chips),
Cornflakes (Yes) & A Mushy Pea Sauce.
Ketchup + Asparagus

Tender Fillet of Beef, “Banana-Shallots”,
Chinese Style Bean Sprouts, Rice,
Broken Lemon Curd Cheese Tart,
Sunflower Seeds + Pease Pudding.
Ginger & Peanut Butter Sauce, Fresh Basil

***

Soup

***

Slow Cooked Young Seabass “Scottish Flavours”
(Haggis, Neeps, Carrots, Smoked Haddock),
Garlic & Tomato, Dates, Almonds & Pineapple,
Feta Parchment, Balsamic Reduced Cream Sauce

Assiette of Lamb, Fillet, Merguez, Braised, Diced.
Mediterranean Styles, Rosemary, Currants + Walnuts,
Aubergine + Courgette Confit, Pimento + Yoghurt.
Wild Rice + Onions

***

Cheese

***

Slow Baked Then Glazed Vanilla & Egg Custard,
Cream Cheese, Chestnuts, Apricots & Oatmeal
Served With Pink Peppercorn Flapjack

Mascarpone Cheesecake, “Icky-Sticky”, Oatmeal

***

Coffee and truffles

TorryBattery on Flickr has some great pictures of the food from his visit earlier this year.

It is that time of the year when everything starts happening at the same time. Beans, lettuces, courgettes, chillis, tomatoes, blackberries and herbs all in full production mode. Helped by the mix of rain and sun we’ve had this summer.

Next to come, the fruits – apples, pears and plums.

I love it!

We had a brilliant meal at Corrigan’s Mayfair recently.

Canapes – parmesan biscuits, olives stuffed with goats cheese

Cornish crab with dark jelly and melba toast.
Foie gras, rhubarb jelly and gingerbread.

Rabbit cutlet, spinach and garlic puree.
Pan-fried John Dory

“Cheese from our islands”

Hot banana bread, banana fritter, banana ice cream

The food had a strong focus on ingredients. The highlights of the evening were the crab, which was delicately fresh but combined with the deeper taste of the crab jelly; and the rabbit, where most of the edible bits of the rabbit (loin, cutlet, breast, liver, kidney) were cooked in different ways.

The restaurant has interesting decor, blue banquettes, crisp white linen, combined with dark glossy tiles and a wooden frieze with carved hunting scenes. The welcome was warm, with calm and attentive service.

Overall, a very contemporary feel. There were no fripperies such as amuses bouches or pre-desserts. All very in keeping with today’s more frugal feel.

I definitely want to return in the game season.

As J finished work at midday today, we had our perfect Christmas dinner on Boxing Day evening…

Tom Aikens’ seven-hour cooked shoulder of lamb with balsamic and onions, the lamb sourced from Liz the Lamb Lady.

Potatoes dauphinoise.

Brussels sprouts.

Accompanied by a nice bottle of d’Arenberg Laughing Magpie Shiraz/Viognier.

And Ella on the iPod.

L’artisan du Chocolat choccies now, mince pies later, maybe.

The second stop on our West Coast holiday was the Applecross Inn, accessed by driving over the 600 m ( Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle) from Lochcarron. The day we did it the cloud base was around 300 m, so we crossed the pass in a dense fog.

The Applecross Inn is a typical coastal pub and hotel, staffed by friendly and welcoming people. On the Wednesday night we were there the bar was buzzing with campers, walkers, locals and people staying in the inn. We had to wait around 10 mins for a table, but the owner got us a table by the windows looking out at the rain! The seafood is superb, landed locally and really fresh, treated well by the kitchen.

Local prawns (langoustines), garlic & herb butter, crusty bread, salad.

Crab salad (dressed crab, smoked salmon, marie rose sauce, langoustines), crusty bread, salad.
Local mackerel, new potatoes, salad.

Sticky toffee pudding, ice cream.
Apple & plum crumble, custard.

While we were there, we went for a refreshing afternoon cuppa in the Potting Shed Cafe in the walled garden of Applecross House. The garden has been restored over the past few years and it is amazing to see what they can grow in this sheltered spot.