Stefano’s Italian

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If Hamilton, the town I live in, has an abundance of any type of cuisine, it’s most definitely Italian. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Italian food, I just wish there was some more exciting or more prominent cuisines located here. (I type this as I’m eating a lunch of Fusili Carbonara. Hypocrite.)

When I discovered recently that there was an Italian restaurant located a mere stone’s throw away in Uddingston, a few towns over, I decided I’d have a go at it to see how, or indeed if, it differed from the rest of the Italian restaurants nearby. I had a look at the website and was pretty impressed with their style of Italian; not as many traditional Scottish-Italian dishes such as Spaghetti Bolognese or Penne Amatriciana, but dishes such as Penne con Verdure e Zafferano and Filleto alla Pizzaiola. A promising start! I noticed that there was a lunch time menu on Tuesday-Friday which offered 2 courses for £9.95. If anything is likely to draw me into a restaurant, it’s deals that offer me cheaper food, and so in Colin and I went on Thursday afternoon.

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The Hanoi Bike Shop

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I can’t say that Vietnamese cuisine was ever something I thought about trying. Even if I had wanted to, Glasgow had not a restaurant in sight that sold Vietnamese food of any kind. Considered one of the healthiest cuisines in the world, you’d think that someone would’ve opened a restaurant in Glasgow, but nothing was appearing on the scene. That is, until late 2012, when The Hanoi Bike Shop appeared in the former Stravaigin 2 on Ruthven Lane.

The restaurant, which won The List’s Best Newcomer Award of 2012, has been thriving ever since it’s opening late last year. It’s still difficult to get a table in here at night if you’re just walking in without a booking, and having visited last week for the first time, I can definitely see why. From the moment I walked into the downstairs dining area and was hit by the scents coming from the open kitchen, I knew I was going to enjoy it here.

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Hilton Glasgow’s Eat and Tweet Menu Launch Event

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Last week, I received a message through my twitter account asking me to come along to the Glasgow Hilton’s brand new menu launch event. Their restaurant Morblas, a name derived from the gaelic words for “great” and “taste”, was launching their new menu and a handful of food bloggers were invited along to document the event. I was delighted to be one of the few bloggers invited, and what a fantastic event it was!

My plus one and I arrived promptly around 6:30pm, when the event started, and were immediately welcomed with open arms by Simon Magnus, the hotel’s Food and Beverage Manager. Simon, who has over 16 years experience in the hospitality industry, gave us a bit of information about the hotel’s restaurant,  told us a bit about the event, and offered us a glass of champagne. I’m just going to add in just now that said glass of champagne was refilled over the course of the evening about 15 times, so if this review slowly becomes completely indecipherable then I can only blame the hotel and the exquisite champagne.

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Oink

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No, dear reader, this isn’t an article where I discuss the resonant sounds of farmyard creatures. Believe it or not, Oink is the name of a fantastic cafe tucked away in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket. Born in 2001, this company is the brainchild of Adam Marshall and Sandy Pate, two working farmers from the Scottish Borders. These men had the idea to bring their quality food to the city, and in 2001, brought their freshly carved hog roast to the Edinburgh Farmer’s Market at Castle Terrace. 12 years later, they are still attending said Market and have done so every Saturday since their first.

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