johnadams.org.uk

We were at a really enjoyable wedding in Callander this weekend. After a couple of moderately strenuous walks from Balquhidder and Strathyre and before going to the evening reception, we popped into the Ben Ledi Cafe in Callander, now part of the growing Mhor empire - owned by the enterprising Lewis family who also run the Monachyle Mhor hotel* in nearby Balquhidder.

Ben Ledi Cafe is a traditional “posh fish and chips” restaurant, and has a takeaway fish and chip bar attached to it. It serves the usual chip shop staples alongside other stuff like scallops, fish cakes and meat from the Monachyle Mhor farm. Their speciality is that you can select a fish from the wet fish counter and get it cooked any way you like. On Saturday, there wasn’t much choice (cod, skate or plaice) as the staff explained it had been a busy day.

J had a pan-fried skate wing, I had grilled plaice fillet, along with chips and salad. They don’t have a licence, but there is a Victoria Wine next door and we had a nicely chilled NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

The quality was good (although I think we get better quality fish from Fencebay at Glasgow Farmers’ Market), but the fish portions were small and, in my opinion over-priced (£11-12 for fish, chips and salad). Service was friendly and good. The best bit of the meal were the really well-cooked chips, freshly made for us. I think they were fried in beef fat which gave them a lovely chippy flavour.

I’d certainly go back, but I think for best value I’d stick with a haddock supper.

* See my commenst on Monachyle Mhor in 2004 and 2005 - I believe from friends that it has since regained some of it’s lost magic, although reviews on TripAdvisor are still mixed.

We buy almost all of our fish from Murray at the Fencebay fish stall at the Partick and Queen’s Park Farmers’ Markets. So, when we took Rene and Bert down the Clyde Coast, we jumped at the opportunity to go the restaurant at Fencebay, Fins.

The restaurant is located just off the busy A78, in an old farm steading not far from the village of Fairlie. Also on site are the smokery, the farm shop and a cookery shop. Fins restaurant occupies the old byre and a more recent conservatory, and is warm and welcoming.

The food lives up to the farmers’ market reputation. It had that taste that you only get when the fish is really fresh and has been cooked with a light touch.

Mussels in a white wine sauce - the mussels were small and sweet, and the sauce really garlicky. (For some reason, I was the only person who had a starter!)

Pan-fried mackerel coated in oatmeal, onion marmalade.

Langoustines in garlic butter. Simple, classic, and around 200g of garlic butter for the whole table to dip our bread in!

Seared scallops, white wine, cream and salmon sauce. Sweet scallops, good caramelised flavour.

Cold seafood platter - hot smoked salmon, langoustines, crab claw, gravadlax, pickled herring, mussels, smoked salmon pate and oatcakes. A really well-packed, very Scottish platter.

This is the sort of seafood that Scotland exports every day to Spain and France, and is only just becoming common here.

The service was friendly, passing both stage 1 and 2 of the water test! The staff even offered more bread with the main course saying “you’ll need something to mop up the garlic butter”!

But don’t take my word for it. Support these guys in the UKTV Food Local Hero 2007 awards.

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.

I’m sorry, but I don’t get this media-spun “election chaos” following the Scottish parliamentary and council elections on Thursday.

The instructions were simple:

• For the Scottish parliamentary election, mark one cross (X) in the Regional List column and one cross (X) in the Constituency column.
• For the council election, write numbers (1, 2, 3…) to express your order of preference for one or more candidates.

I don’t think the organisers could have done more to help people, short of asking people to show their completed ballot papers before putting them in the secret box!

• The system was trialled by the Electoral Commission before the election was called;
• There was wall-to-wall media coverage of how to vote;
• Every house received a leaflet on how to vote;
• The instructions were on the back of the polling card;
• When we went to vote, there was a person at the door of the polling station asking if we understood the voting system or would like it explained. And lots of big pictures;
• And the ballot papers had clear instructions.

What more could have been done?