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Edinburgh food
THE Scottish capital gets a very high profile from the good food guides, top as far as that bible of gastronauts, the Guide Michelin goes, with a recommended res- taurant for every 22,712 of the population, just about the same as London.
The spectrum is not as wide, of course, and in a city of less than half a million people there tends to be just one or two good restaurants in each classification, but Edinburgh people eat out regularly and the standard stays high.
The only Japanese restaurant in Scot- land has recently closed down in Edin- burgh's Georgian New Town but the prob- lem there was not the menu but the prices which, by local criteria, were astronomical. In marginal compensation there is a new Thai restaurant and an elegant and jolly bistro serving Indonesian food. This is Negociants in Lothian Street (not Road),
opposite the Student Centre near the McEwan Hall. Graham Allison spent some time working in the Far East and his spacious and cheerful restaurant, tiled, mirrored, with rosewood tables and bro- caded bentwood chairs, provides original and delicious Malaysian and Indonesian as well as European food. Beef and beans in coconut cream lapis soorabaja (£2.50), pork satay with katiana sauce (£3.50), poussin a la creme, sauce almondine (£2.50) feature on the menu.
Prices include vegetables and there is a good wine list from the Wine Emporium, the enterprising group of young Edinburgh businessmen who sell wine by the case near Haymarket and have got round the curious anomaly in the liberated Scots licensing law which forbade buying wine on Sunday. One of the things you would and should expect of a restaurant in Scotland is that
the fish is of top quality. What is done with such splendid raw material is another matter. For some years now Skippers in Leith has been the best fish restaurant in town. Alan Corbett buys his fish skilfully and it is cooked with flair and imagination. Red mullet marinated with coriander, sole and salmon paupiettes with a fresh herb sauce, pan fried fillet of trout with lemon and tarragon maintain the Auld Alliance image, but herrings in sesame seeds with orange and ginger, gravadlax with mustard and dill sauce and smoked haddock in cider have a more northerly aspect. Main course prices are between £3 and £4. There is Leith Bordeaux Blanc at £5.90, Leith Claret at £6.30 and a fine sancerre for £10.80. Leith, with its water- front pubs and restaurants, is the trendy place to eat in Edinburgh these days and Skippers with its intimate bistro atmos- phere, tucked away around the corner of Dock Place is the pick of the Leith-sur-mer eating places. However, it is small and verY popular. It is essential to book (554-1018) and you may have to share a table. The most elegant restaurant a la fran- guise is L'Auberge in St Mary's Street. just off the Royal Mile, recently the scene of an evening out from the Palace of Holyrood- house round the corner for the Duke and Duchess of York. The menu and service are impeccably French, there are only French wines and the food is a hapPY compromise between nouvelle cuisine and dishes of substance. The menu changes every three weeks; the head chef, Jean- Pierre Large, trained at Le Tour d'Argent and the kitchen brigade can muster 18 Guide Michelin stars in their collective experience.
Typical starters are bisque de langous- tines (£2.65), les aiguillettes de pigeon silt gaspacho (£3.85), la feuillette de lapin aux aromates (£4.25). Main courses include filet de pore a l'aneth et anchois (£12.25). le magre de canard a l'aigre doux, le filet
de boeuf aux safran et poivre rose.
The wine list is as distinguished as the food, the peach and grey restaurant has great charm, and the service is attentive, knowledgable and friendly. L'Auberge is open seven days a week and has a set lunch menu of two courses for £5.85 and three for £6.75 and a Menu Gastronomique of five 'surprise' courses from Maitre Chef Large for £19.50.
Edinburgh has some unusual Indian restaurants, the most interesting of which is the Indian Cavalry Club in Atholl Place, where the staff are all in Indian cavalry uniform and the food is in the style of contemporary ceremonial banquets in In- dia, genuinely unusual, subtle and fascinat- ing.
There is no shortage of sustenance for the body as well as the mind and heart in Edinburgh at festival time — or any other time for that matter.
kin Crawford
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