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Rene and Bert have been here this week, so we had an excuse to go to Rococo in West George Street. We did want to go to Etain but they are closed for refurbishment at present.

Rococo is in the basement of one of the Blythswood Hill tenement blocks, but is light and welcoming, with large leather banquettes and comfortable leather armchairs. Service was attentive and friendly, although they failed the water test at Stage 2*. Surprisingly, the restaurant was only half empty at 8pm, and there were only two tables occupied by 9.30pm, and this was the start of the payday weekend!

The food was well executed and tasty, and presented well on large plates. Most of the ingredients were locally sourced, and the chef was accommodating enough to convert one of the starter dishes into a main course.

Amuse bouche: deep fried ball of duck confit (the oil was a little too hot, so the breadcrumb shell was a touch hard).

Green bean salad, red onions, chicory.
Ballotine of French rabbit, girolles.
Tian of crab, guacamole and tomato relish.

Loin of wild venison, cabbage, bacon & mushrooms
Oven Roasted Fillet of Scotch Beef with Glazed Green Beans, Roasted Gnocchi and Root Vegetables, Truffle Jus
Roast pigeon, pea risotto.

Caramelised apple mille feuille with salted caramel
Pepper cannelini with lemon ice cream and strawberries
Trio of panna cotta.

Coffee and (home-made) petit fours.

We all agreed that the star of the meal was my caramelised apple mille feuille.

* The water test
Points are awarded for:

• Stage 1: Providing a jug of iced tap water when requested (a bonus point if it appears unrequested);
• Stage 2: Leaving the jug on the table. If the restaurant is one of those pretentious ones that seem to think that diners can’t be trusted in pouring their own drinks, then the maximum time a water glass should be empty is 5 minutes.

The World Pipe Band Championships were held on Glasgow Green yesterday. The week before had been sunny and warm, but the day of the championships saw continual light rain and leaden skies - truly dreich. That didn’t put off the pipers, who were well prepared with capes.

The competition involves 200 bands (that’s 8000 musicians) from Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, the rest of Europe, Canada, USA, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Brazil and Oman, among others. There are arenas covering all seven grade competitions, as well as Drum Major competition and Highland Games. And plenty of chip vans.

The best place to watch the best bands at the Grade 1 final tuning area, where the bands make their last minute preparations before entering the competition arena. They concentrate on tuning, tightening up the drumming…

…and getting tricky tunes right…

… before marching off into the competition arena.

Interestingly, Strathclyde Police band were the only band who didn’t use electronic tuners to check the tuning - instead they had two guys who listened and made careful adjustments to the drones. Now that’s serious musicianship.

Results

The Grade 1 results were…
1st Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band from Lisburn, Co. Antrim
2nd Simon Fraser University Pipe Band from Vancouver
3rd Scottish Lion 78th Fraser Highlanders from Toronto
4th= The House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead
4th= Strathclyde Police Pipe Band

Field Marshall Montgomery have secured their second World Championship in two years. That makes up for us losing in the rugby.

More pictures on Flickr.

The elections are less than a week away now and the leaflets are piling in through our letter box.

Not only do we have council elections (for the first time using proportional representation) but we will need to vote twice for the Scottish Parliament - once for our constituency MSP and once for our Regional List. And so far on our Regional List we have:

• British National Party
• Scottish Conservatives
• Communist Party of Britain
• Scottish Green Party
• Independent Green Voice
• Independents
• Scottish Labour
• Scottish Liberal Democrats
• Nine Percent Growth Party
• Publican Party
• Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers
• Scottish Christian Party
• Socialist Labour Party
• Scottish National Party
• Solidarity - that’s Tommy Sheridan
• Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party
• Scottish Socialist Party - that used to be Tommy Sheridan
• Scottish Unionist Party
• Scottish Voice
• UKIP

Politics gone mad?

You couldn’t make it up. A menu leaflet from our new local tandoori takeaway has the following item:

Yummie Hoghee Wraps
Chapati filled with chips, cheese, salad, sauce and…
Donner or Chicken Tikka or Lamb Tikka

And they say Glasgow diets are getting healthier?

Following the historic rugby victory last night, we walked round to Barbarossa in Cathcart. We had booked before Ron McKenna’s 25/30 rating last weekend in The Herald, and had heard other good things about the place. We ate:

Smoked duck salad with orange and mango
Seared West Coast scallops with black pudding and potato puree

Lobster ravioli with sage butter and king prawns (one each!)

Cheesecake with orange sorbet and chocolate
Creme brulee

Ratings: 17/25
Food: 8/10 Well cooked, good ingredients. The ravioli was particularly good.
VFM: 2/5 Overpriced for what it is.
Service: 4/5 Friendly and relaxed, but a bit quick to start with.
Atmosphere: 3/5 Good table on the mezzanine.