The Hatman Chronicles
One of the great advantages of running a couple of shops dedicated to exotic and innovative global food products is we attract some serious food people, that like to talk, about food of course. We constantly get asked for and recommended places to eat . I have spent the best part of a decade mapping out New York finding great places to eat, back street cafes, hidden gems, this has become a bit of an obsession of mine, also gives me an excuse to pick up a new hat from my favourite east village hat shop. I also have the great privilege of having spent two weeks, ticking off and sampling large sections of Singapore’s amazing no frills street guide MAKAN SUTRA, sounds sexy and it is if you’re a food obsessed nut job like me (sutra means guide, makan is food ). I’ve spent most of my life travelling the world in search of exciting culinary experiences.
What I want to do in these pages is use my experience as a cook, a traveller, writer, judge, critic, gatherer of information and total blether and go local . Edinburgh and Glasgow, sure I’ve been all round the world and eaten some amazing meals but I have also had great experiences nearer to home.
I’m very guilty, like most folk, of hanging about waiting for someone to recommend a safe bet .
Not anymore, on goes the pork pie hat and in I go to the places that people pass wondering!!???!!
To places that customers recommend, to places I just cant keep my big foodie nose out of. I’m doing it for you, I’m doing it for them, most of all I’m doing it for me. Yes indeed, each month, I’m going in search of that hidden gem, those much loved places that adventurers like to keep secret and some well kent favourites that deserve a mention. As well as reviews, I’ll share my opinions on cookbooks, chefs, food telly and other food related topics. Join me for a blether, give me your recommendations be part of the HATMAN CHRONICLES.
A good customer recommended a new venture Bia Bistrot up by holy corner, run by a husband and wife. The menu looks great, the chef has worked in Ramsay’s in New York and I want to try them, love their food and give them some encouragement. Whether they know this or not they have opened in a desperately difficult site, a black hole where restaurants disappear never to be seen again. Many a good operator, some established elsewhere have tried and failed at this site and of course there was The Beef Encounter, a steakhouse that by name alone was destined to fail. Only the most idiotic of men would consider taking a first date or celebrating that special anniversary to a place named so. They may as well have called the place The Fanny Fart Café.
I have suffered this week from a recurring dream involving the application of a hair restoring mouse which works perfectly, enriching my middle aged hair and filling out those thinning bits. One morning I actually made it all the way to the bathroom mirror, started applying gel and sculpting the newly restored hair into the wonderful quiff I was so proud of back in New Orleans some 20 years past. Then I woke up still in bed. The dreams were of course a direct result of my immanent 49th birthday.
FEBUARY 2011
25 BATH ST
GLASGOW
There was a time back in the eighties where every Scottish town boasted a flash discotheque, each Friday night lassies with white mini skirts and corn beef legs would pile in hoping to secure a lovely bloke with a tight perm and a steady job. Chances are those palaces of virtue went by the name of RUMOURS or occasionally Reflections but nearly always Rumours. .
What do I know of this place? Whispers from the trade tell me that the guys behind this pristine Malaysian café were associated with Glasgow cult favourite and late night dining joint Asia style, a breakaway brigade, a lone chef who struck it lucky at the casino, a feuding cousin that set up in opposition, all irrelevant chitter chatter, and those other Tid Bits of customer gossip, “ they do the best bubble drinks in Glasgow”, “there soft shell crabs are to maim for”, “they do a remarkable lunch for £6.95”. Rumours turns out to be an appropriate name after all.
FEBUARY 2011
5 Buccleuch Street
Edinburgh
This place looks like a wee Scottish tea room from the outside, net curtains, tea pots and plants in the window. On second glance however, the place becomes a little more intriguing, hints of the orient, Beef Bulgogi and Kimchi on the menu, mmm must go.
I set off on my Jack Jones, on a Thursday afternoon, the only sunny day this February, with one thing on my mind. Who is this Kim and why are her meals small? Nobody has recommended it, not even a whisper, I’m still a bit sore about Kebabish, I got that one wrong and blew £55.00 of my family’s disposable income. It’s a lone lunch for me, if I get this one wrong there’s only £10.00 at stake plus another dent to that instinct I’m so proud of.
To my surprise, the place is packed, sure there’s only 16 visible seats, and most of them are taken by oriental young couples plus a couple of tokes, those who dare win, type students confidently chop sticking their way through impressive looking plates of food .
I never did get to meet my all time food hero FLOYDY so sad when he passed . He was my inspiration in the eighties he was a big part of why I travel, cook, why I opened a restaurant and why to this day I remain a hard core food obsessive and importer of global ingredients. Many of my customers still come in clutching stained copies of far flung Floyd or Floyd’s great curries, his legacy lives on at Lupe Pintos.
Still there are others and I saw most of them at the BBC GOOD FOOD SHOW back in 2001. We had taken out a LUPE PINTO stand under Rick Stein’s Food Hero Banner, we're mentioned in his book in the supplier section. We were there to launch our new book TWO COOKS AND A SUITCASE. Each morning we put out piles of chilies, hot sauces, fine Tequila and piles of our book , then we’d wait anxiously for the NEC doors to open, this was the quiet time, a time to reflect, to get ready for the mayhem the next seven hours would bring.
Dalry Road
Edinburgh
There’s been a lot of programmes on service recently. Mary Portas' dissection of the high Street shopping experience. Michael Roux’s excellent attempt at teaching some novice young folk the ways of the service industry at the highest level. I myself have been in the front line of service for 20 years, I try my best to inform, educate, and serve my customers. I try and have a bit of a laugh with customers and I also get it drastically wrong on occasion. On Saturday the shop was mobbed, by late afternoon my man flu and excessive work had taken it’s toll and I had a bit of a grump on. A very good long term and at times slightly annoying customer, starting moving goods that I had rung through the till back to the position where the still to be charged goods were, not deliberately, she was just being a bit dippy, and I scolded “back off a minute” finished the transaction and attempted a smile. It wasn’t good, I should have apologised, made a joke left the customer smiling, alas I did not. I screwed up sorry.
FEBUARY 2011 ( RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW)
MOTHER INDIA
Infirmary Street, Edinburgh
When I announced to Rhoda and Vincent my intentions to go forth and embrace new food experiences at our own family expense. Make life more exciting, give our loyal customers some tips, share our information. Both of them instantly rebelled and said pretty much the same thing, which to summarize is basically “ I hope you're not expecting us to give up regular visits to the places we love so that you can indulge in your stupid food critic fantasies, and by the way we’re no going back to any weird Chinese hot pot joints”. WHAT ABOUT MOTHER INDIA? They both moaned, we can’t stop going to Mother India.