Eating with the Enemy (again) and a culinary trip to edinburgh

At last, came back from a weekend in Edinburgh and received a letter confirming that the telly programme Eating with the enemy (see earlier blog in March 2008) will finally be aired from Monday 21st July 2008, 4.30pm on bbc2. The north west heats are the first.

So back to Edinburgh. Well being a foodie it wouldn't be a weekend unless it involved eating and drinking and this weekend certainly did. Mark and I had spent a weekend in Edinburgh some years ago in 2003 and found a delightful restaurant called 'Off the Wall' off the Royal Mile. We planned to be utterly predictable and visit their again however its now an Indian Restaurant (even though their website is still up and running).

Anyway we decided to research eateries before heading to Edinburgh and couldn't help but be impressed by a restaurant called the Witchery on the royal mile next to St Giles Cathedral and close to the entrance to the castle www. thewitchery.com. This restaurant has one of the most efficient booking systems ever. You select your date and time and number of guests, book in online and receive an e-mail and text message confirming your booking. You can also provide e-mail addresses for your eating partners and they receive an invitation. Finally the day before you will receive a phone call to confirm that you are still able to attend - excellent.

So onto the food, I ordered wild rabbit and toulouse sausage terrine (with a carrot slice in the terrine showing an excellent sense of humour from the chef) and Mark ordered ceviche of western isle scallops and oak smoked salmon. Both utterly delicious. The scallops were flavoured with lime juice and had just the right amount of sweetness. The terrine was a triumph, full of flavour and moist.

As a main course we decided to order the chateaubriand of borders beef for two that came with some jenga chips (square chips piled a la jenga) and bearnaise sauce. Now we fell at the first hurdle when the waiter asked how we'd like our chateaubriand for two - Mark said medium rare and I said rare. We compromised on rare (yessss) and Mark had the more well done slices. It was truly delightful, cooked to perfection, a beautiful silky and slightly acidic sauce, accompanied by portobello mushrooms flavoured with tarragon that complemented the bearnaise sauce very well.

The Witchery is not a cheap eatery, however its dark and seductive interiors and panelling, excellent service and wine list that resembles the encyclopedia britannica is awe inspiring. My only complaint - the bread came as we were part way through our starters. If thats the only complaint, then thats not so bad. Dinner for two, including bottled water and a bottle of Lirac came to £116 - and worth every scottish penny.

So what other culinary delights did we sample in Edinburgh? Well, as our hotel booking did not include breakfast (we'd rather explore and eat out) we had a fabulous breakfast in The Royal MacGregor pub on the Royal Mile on saturday morning. soft scrambled eggs and black pudding on toast, beautifully cooked and served with a smile. the contrast being on Sunday we breakfasted in Garfunkles on the Royal Mile and had scrambled eggs you could sole shoes with, no seasoning, no toast, and I suspect that reconstituted egg played a small part in the breakfast - such a disgrace that I was forced to complain (yes for the 4th time in my life) and the eggs were comped. Memo to self, in future if we have a good breakfast on one day, eat there again!!

On saturday evening we'd read some great reviews about Fischers Bistro in Leith and planned to eat there on saturday evening, but it was fully booked. So off to the Royal Mile again we went and found an absolute gem. A restaurant called Wedgewood. I can't find a website, but you can find rave reviews on www.toptable.co.uk/Wedgewood-Restaurant. We walked in off the street with no reservation and were delighted to get a table straight away. The restaurant is contemporary in design, has quiet music in the background and a decent view of the kitchen. Run by Lisa and Paul, this is an oasis of calm.

I ordered sticky sesame beef for starter which was soft, not really sticky at all but had a decent amount of sesame oil, soy sauce and honey to give it a boost. My only criticism that the dish was messy to eat and I had a trail of sauce leading from the bowl to my lap (where thankfully my napkin caught the torrent). Mark had crab and salmon tiene which he pronounced as very light and refreshing although the wow factor may have been missing.

We were given a complementary course as a palette cleanser and this one little glass completely blew our socks off. This is why the Wedgewood is so good. We were presented with little shot glasses that contained raspberry sorbet at the bottom, topped up with ginger ale and topped with lemon sorbet and a raspberry. Ok, you may not think this is anything special, but let me tell you, its the most delicious and unusual palette cleanser I've encountered in a long time, so simple and yet so bloomin fabulous.

For the main course I ordered crisped sea bass which came with garlic potatoes and green beans - beautiful fish cooked to perfection and seasoned so well I didn't even glance at the salt and pepper pigs on the table. Mark ordered the venison with a juniper and peppercorn jus - however the waitress did not ask him how he would like it cooked. Luckily it came just on the rare side of medium, which is how Mark would have ordered it. He was suitably impressed.

We were asked to sign the visitors book as it was our first time and were happy to do so, discovering that 2 days prior the Raconteurs had been in the restaurant...well if its good enough for the Raconteurs.......

Dinner for 2 including a lovely vanilla bottle of chablis and water came to around £80.

I'm certainly not suggesting that the only decent eateries in Edinburgh are on or around the royal mile, its just that we were staying in that area and gravitated towards the hustle and bustle of the royal mile. Given more time in edinburgh we'd have sought out some eateries further afield.

Cath