Our Christmas edition, warmly hosted by Giulia and Brian, was mostly about the sweet stuff. The spread featured American gingerbread, Estonian Kringle braid, bûche de Noël, champagne syllabub, Christmas pud (trad, and in truffle form) and ginger shortbread. All delicious! The savoury side had a European slant: gravadlax with beetroot rosti, salt cod bolinhas, and Italian meats.
We took inspiration from closer to home at the January meet, namely Scottish food. This produced an amazingly well-balanced banquet: Scotch broth and Cullen skink to start, with either Scottish cheese scones or tattie pancakes. Smoked salmon pâté on homemade oatcakes as an entremet, then Dermot’s fine poached trout or Mike’s ‘wee beasties of the glen’ with Giulia’s rumbledethumps (cue discussion of what a Scot calls a parsnip) on the side.
Puddings were high in calibre and calorie, including a splendid St Andrew’s Cross-emblazoned gingerbread, superior cranachan and bara brith, plus brown bread ice cream. At least two of these contained whisky, so no risk of missing out on the Burns’ Night dram. Hearty thanks to Mike and Yvonne for providing theme and venue.
Next meet is at 11:30am on Friday 20 March hosted by Sarah Carter at Fieldfare, off Church Street. The theme is Polish food.
Kieron