Guest Post: Deli-cious food spots in Edinburgh

It's been an age since I last posted, but I've decided it's time to clamber back onto the blogging wagon. I'm easing myself in very gently though and am delighted to introduce my first guest blogger - none other than my padre, Ian Sommerville, who also writes an Edinburgh food blog (and much more regularly I might add). My parents are Aberdeen-based, but have owned a flat in Edinburgh for 10 years and know their way blindfolded around the local deli spots in Tollcross and Bruntsfield. So without further ado, I'll hand over to my dad to impart some pearls of deli wisdom for the supermarket shy (please don't embarrass me).

Deli and local food shopping in Tollcross and Bruntsfield

Most visitors to Edinburgh stay around the centre and spend their time in the Old and New Towns. There are great restaurants there but if you want to shop for great food and cook for yourself, try venturing south up Lothian Road or across the Meadows to Tollcross and Bruntsfield for a wonderful selection of food shops.

Old hippies will love Real Foods of Brougham Street – since the 1970s, they’ve been the best source of wholefoods in Edinburgh. As well as brown rice and lentils, you can also get baking ingredients, organic alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and a great selection of chocolate.

Doug - the 'Hat Man'
Lupe Pintos

Round the corner in Home Street, you get to my favourite Edinburgh deli – Lupe Pintos. This is not your run of the mill deli with the usual selection of cold meats and expensive pickles – rather, it specializes in American, Mexican and Spanish ingredients. Their chorizos (try the spicy ones) and guacamole are outstanding and they have 30+ varieties of different chillis. Doug (the Hat Man) is an expert on Spanish wine and if the shop is not busy, he’ll chat to you for hours about it. My recommendation is the Con Class Sauvignon Blanc – but all the wines are great value for money.

Saundersons is a highly regarded butcher’s shop just up the road from Lupe Pintos which has a good reputation but my favourite butchers is in Bruntsfield. Wm Christie has been a family butchers since 1889 and the current owners have been there since 1967. They really know their stuff, sell great quality meat and I think make the best sausages in Edinburgh. Try the Cumberland sausages or the pork and black pudding sausages for a real treat.

The best sausages in Edinburgh in Wm Christie.

For bread and pastry lovers, Bruntsfield is the place to go. Falko is a German ‘Konditormeister’ which means ‘expert pastry chef’ and his shop in Bruntsfield sells fantastic German breads and pastries. If you prefer La Belle France, La Barentine specializes in French breads and patisserie – their fruit tarts are wonderful. Falko’s and La Barentine are both also coffee shops so grab a table if you can and try their pastries.

You can also indulge your sweet tooth in Coco of Bruntsfield – an artisan chocolate shop. Their chocolate creations look and taste wonderful and they also have a small counter serving thick and rich hot chocolate – there’s nothing to beat this as a winter warmer on a windy Edinburgh winter’s day.

Peckhams is a deli chain that started in Glasgow but their Bruntsfield branch has been an Edinburgh institution for 15 years. They have an eclectic selection of ingredients from around the world, good cheese, excellent wine and a very wide selection of Scottish and international beer. Sadly, there are rumours of a Sainsbury's takeover but hopefully that won't happen.

I’m running out of space but Tollcross and Bruntsfield also have a traditional fish shop, a greengrocers, a Thai market, and a French deli. There are shops selling running gear and bicycles and a small bookshop as well as numerous gift shops restaurants and cafes.

Festival Fooderies: Eating the Fringe on the Wing

It’s been four months that Jane Eats Edinburgh has been left to languish rather mournfully in a mothball-filled corner of the interweb...job hunting, a subsequent career change and a new home being my excuses for my pretty major blogging lapse. A jampacked summer schedule of wallpainting and dishwasher shopping means that I don’t anticipate having as much time as I’d like to dedicate to some good meaty restaurant reviews…but Edinburgh’s got a wee arts festival *comedy cough* about to kick off, and so - in the wham-bam spirit of the Fringe – I’ve put together a whistle-stop tour of some of my top dining picks over the past few months.

Part 1 is below – check back for part 2 soon!

(1) Best for Japanese cuisine - Bonsai, West Richmond Street

Edinburgh’s first, and in my opinion, best Japanese restaurant. The sushi is fresh, tasty and generously apportioned, but what’s great about Bonsai is that you’re not backed into a teriyaki corner if you fancy something a bit different, with a wide range of non-rice (and non-fish, for that matter) options available. Make sure you try the okonomiyaki, a traditional Japanese potato and vegetable pancake that comes served with what I can only describe as HP Brown Sauce’s much more delicious cousin. I would also recommend the mixed tempura, which comes in a light-as-air batter, and the agenasu, a chilli-spiked aubergine dish.

Near to: festival comedy behemoth The Pleasance, which has a buzzy courtyard that does a fine line in cider in plastic cups, fairylights and minor celebrity spotting.

(2) Best for luxury grazing and boozy festival lunching: Hotel Du Vin, Bristo Place.

I’ve recently fallen in love with the Starters and Savouries selection at Hotel Du Vin, which offers a departure from the rather staid menu stalwarts of pâté and soup – perfect if you’re in the mood for a quick lunch or an indulgent spot of tapas-style grazing (I usually get two - or three if I'm feeling especially gluttonous - which leave me pleasantly full). I love the cheese soufflé, the roast marrow bone on toast and the salt-and-shake whitebait – which comes in a sweetly gimmicky brown paper bag with salt and vinegar.

Very reasonably priced for the superb quality of the food (although the wine is eye-wateringly expensive), and if you prefer more a traditional dining format, then there's also a great dinner deal – two courses, a bottle of wine and coffee for £17.50 a head.

Near to: A giant inflatable upturned purple cow - aka Channel 4's Udderbelly – and just a short walk again from my erstwhile employer Assembly’s new pitch at George Square Gardens.

(3) Best for hangover cures (or hamburgers): The Cambridge Bar, Young Street.

If you fall foul of Edinburgh’s 5am festival club licences, I recommend fighting off the grimy hangover fuzz at gourmet burger heaven The Cambridge Bar. The hamburgers here are teetering skyscrapers - I’ve struggled to finish mine in the past on account of their gargatuan size - but happily there's plenty of quality along with the quantity - plus there’s a fantastic range of unusual toppings to choose from. You have to pay separately for sides, so it's not the cheapest soaker-upper you’ll find in Edinburgh, but it's well worth the few extra pennies.

Near to: the incredibly popular Edinburgh Book Festival– a more sedate but still bustling pocket of festival action at Charlotte Square. You can check out what’s on here, but tickets sell like hotcakes so if you spy something you fancy you’d be advised to get down to the box office pronto.

Check back for recommendations next week!

Chop Chop, Morrison Street

As much as I love food and eating out, I have never claimed to be a trendsetter. I’m always the last to hear about new Edinburgh restaurants, making the most comical noises scrabbling up onto the bandwagon as it hurtles towards the mainstream. However, there is one exception: Chop Chop, on Morrison Street. Long before celebrity shar pei Gordon Ramsey poked his camera crew round that custard-yellow door, catapulting the restaurant to national recognition on his Best Restaurants show, I was cheering at the top of my lungs for the little Chinese restaurant that could.

Which is why, on a previous visit, I noted with flailing pom poms that whilst the meal was still good, the bill seemed bigger, portions were smaller, and at least one dish was unacceptably lukewarm.

Nonetheless, sure that my beloved Chop Chop would step up to the dinner plate, I reserved a table for dinner with my friends Beccy and Simon. Wi. th the epic smorgasbord that followed, Chop Chop did just that, and with an almighty swing, knocked it right out of the park.

First out of the gate was a dish heaped with crispy shredded potato, emerald-flecked with a leafy sprinkling of coriander, spring onion and sesame seeds. Verdict: a transcendental rendering of a bag of Walkers’ ready salted, in the best possible way.

Next was a bowl of meaty pork ribs, again generously apportioned. Dosed stickily with a toothsome treacle of soy and vinegar, these packed a walloping punch of pure umami – the “fifth taste” of can’t-put-your-finger-on-it yumminess, also known in the Jane Eats Edinburgh lexicon as “the nyom factor”.

The chow mein noodles that followed were an exercise in more understated flavours, but had been produced with no less skill, and were trailed with wobbling but enthusiastic chopsticks across the table in a sort of unintentional Lady and the Tramp spaghetti-scene pastiche.

Top marks also go to Chop Chop’s deep-fried northern chicken, which banished memories of gunge-dripping takeout offerings with its nubbly golden pebbles of chicken, swathed in a note-perfect vinegar sauce that was high in zing and low on MSG.

Although the plates were starting to bottleneck a little, I was keen to make room to sample the twice-fried aubergines that arrived next, as it was this dish that had been the hot-plate victim on my last outing. A blip, it turns out, as the aubergines arrived piping hot. Scattered liberally with a confetti of ginger, garlic and spring onion, they were mouth-fillingly moreish and justified every last calorie from their double excursion in the frying pan. My only complaint here was the size of the portion – seven strips of aubergine between the three of us - which felt a bit measly for the £9 pricetag.

Better value for money were Chop Chop’s acclaimed dumplings, in which we indulged with shameless gluttony, sampling a 32-strong selection of chicken, lamb and leek, and pork and prawn. These have been heavily touted, reviewed and praised, and I have nothing to add, except to confirm their consistent excellence. Plus mixing up your own dipping sauce is a novelty that never really wears off.

Last, but certainly not least, was a dish of marinated pork belly - in my opinion, the unsung hero of the menu. Ebony-stained with soy and fragrant with ginger, soy and five spice, this dish showcased a culinary wizardry that me and my hand-me-down Le Creuset could only ever dream of. The pork was cooked to silken, melt-in-the-mouth perfection, its rich stodge marrying beautifully with the clean Asian flavours of the marinade. It was an exquisite demonstration of the transformative power of skilful cooking on a pile of relatively simple ingredients.

Thus ended our chowfest. With my issues of quality and quantity laid firmly to rest, the only quibble left to address was value for money. The tapas-style format does mean that a party of one or two will end up paying more if they want to partake in the Chop Chop pick and mix. However, at under £25 each, including tip and corkage (we brought our own wine), I can honestly say that our meal was money very well spent.

Plaudits must also go to staff on the night, who went the extra mile to iron out a hiccough with our booking, and reminded me, after the egregious dining fiasco that was Hectors, that good customer service is happily alive and well in Edinburgh.

Dearest Chop Chop: Gordon would still love you…but more importantly, your customers do too. Recommended times a million.