Back to ♥ Tribecca Glasgow

On request of Aa, we decided to do brunch at Tribecca.
It was his turn to savour the glorious post night breakfast. Sadly, there's still 4 more nights to go .
The place was empty at 1025am but started to fill up as we approach the 11am mark. No reservations accepted btw.




Totally love the canopy





Aa went for the stacked pancakes which he gave a good thumbs up. Fluffy as one would like them to be.

I went for THE HUDSON: A classic Honey Roast Ham, Tomato & Melted Swiss Cheese Omelette. Served with a generous portion of toast.

Mind you , these omelettes consist of 5 eggs per serving. Be totally WoWed when the UFO-sized plate land on the table. I am sure they use large eggs or ostrich egg of some sort.. (joking..)

I was extremely full by the end of the meal. Managed to stay satiated until dinner time. Certainly makes the 12 pound meal (Medium Mocha included) more value for money

Tribecca Cafe
-----------------
102 Dumbarton Road
Glasgow G11 6NX
Tel: 0141 576 0122
http://www.tribecacafe.com/menus/menu/

Congratulations !!!! A & C

After almost 8 years of courtship, My flatmates have finally tied the knot.
*sheds a tear of joy.
Was so glad that We all managed to make it for the wedding after a wee flight mishap at Dubai (O.D on Moet hahaha)

The wedding was held at the very nice Swiss Hotel: The Stamford where a 10 course banquet was served.

The classic cold dish comprised of a few interesting additions which I have not seen before. The salmon nigri was fresh and sweet. Char Siews an interesting one. Not commonly seen and certainly competently done. Although I much prefer it on a plate of rice haha. Salad prawn, spring rolls and crispy deep fried octopus make up the rest of the dish

I suspect my flatmates are Shark lovers although they've never mentioned it. A nice lobster soup was served rather than the controversial lobster soup. I had 2 good bowls, each with chunky bits of canadian lobster. YUm yum.

I love this... Scallops stir fried with asparagus and pine nuts. The sweet flavours of the nuts work in perfect harmony with the freshness of the scallops. Shiok!.
Ate 2 plates hahaha.

Chicken with prawn paste. Its a nice change from roasted chicken and most other chicken dishes I have had in the past.
I was suffering from lack of Singaporean food syndrome. So everything tasted exceptionally nice hahaha

Once again, I had to leave the wedding halfway to catch a flight. Din't get to finish the rest of the dishes.

C's mum made this cake all 3 layers including all the decorations.
Quite impressive eh.



: )

MacCallum’s of Troon Oyster Bar

It seems that every time we make a day trip somewhere, it always ends up with a big meal of some sort.

Our curiosity in a car auction brought us close enough to Troon to visit one of the most talked about restaurants in the area.

MacCallum's of Troon !!!





This former engine house is now a restaurant beaming with pride as one of the most iconic part of the habour. Sitted right next to the Troon Fish Market, the restaurant is likely to benefit from the tonnes of fishes that pass through this historic habour





I especially love the high ceilings and aged walls adorned with pictures of sailboats. There is no mistake that one is in a seafood restaurant after looking at these pictures.

Some complimentary bread to get our appetite going !!!

I started off with a large plate of grilled langoustines. The portion looked large but there were only 5 langoustines. As long as the taste was good I wouldn't have minded BUT... my suspicion got the better of me when I realised that they might not even be fresh. The texture of the meat was powdery and they came out of the shell in bits rather than whole. Sorely disappointed that I had spent 17 quid on this. Its only consolation was the garlic herb sauce.

The cullen skink was a much nicer starter. Well balanced smokiness and fishnesses with large chunky fish meat.

C insisted on having some oysters since we were in an oyster bar. No one's going to stop her.
I don't eat oysters btw.

The mains were the star of this luncheon. I had a sea bream pan fried with some herbs and lemon. Absolutely smacking delicious. My mum's probably thinking in her head right now what's so special about the fish. Afterall, she's been pan frying fish in the household for umpteen years. haha.

I have to emphasise though that the Scottish style of eating pan fried fish lends its taste from the use of olive oil, fresh herbs and lemon juice. That I am pretty sure is different from the CHinese way of pan frying the fish in purely ground nut oil or sunflower oil.

C went with the lemon sole which was once again delivered with perfection.

Aa went for the big kill and settled for a 1kg lobster. It was huge !!!

This giant prawn fared much better than the tweenie langoustines.


I firmly believe that the hallmark of a good seafood restaurant prides itself on sourcing the freshest seafood. For me, Maccullum's almost hit the mark if not for its langoustines.
If you like fish, this place should not disappoint you.

MacCallum’s of Troon Oyster Bar
-------------------------------------------

Harbourside

Troon, Ayrshire
KA10 6DH

Tel: 01292 319339




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Mobile Food War

It started with me sending C a picture of this during her weekend shift





I got no reply so .......


I sent her another cheeky picture

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.
.
.
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A week later..... during my weekend shift....whilst she was in London.


She sent me this

followed by this

AND this ........

Grrr...........

Lochleven Seafood Cafe

The anticipation of visiting the Best Scottish Seafood Restaurant 2011 was building up throughout the day. Its not everyday that we get so hyped up by a restaurant and when our research on restaurants around Ben Nevis eventually brought us to the Lochleven Seafood Cafe Website, we were truly salivating at the pictures of the wonderful platters that they serve.

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The journey to Fort Williams took approximately 2 and a 1/2 hours from Glasgow. In case you are wondering, we did not travel all the way up for this but having eaten here, we actually might.
Finding the place would be easy if you follow the signs and persevere on. Heading up north, once you have passed the Balluchullish Bridge on A82, look out for the Tourist information sign (brown in colour) and turn right onto B863. From there, it is another 4.4miles down the road. If you ever feel worried you are lost, dont.. because we felt the same as it seem like a never ending drive. I reassure you the cafe is there even though the picture seem to suggest just a barren pitch of grassland.

Loud cheers were heard all round the car when we eventually found it. True to their philosophy of letting the natural flavours of the seafood speak for itself, they have kept their establish simple and allowed the natural landscape to take centre stage. Nestled next to the shores of Lochleven with stunning views of the loch and landscape, this cafe was started five years ago as an addition to its sister Company, LochLeven Shellfish. In my opinion this is probably the best way of getting the freshest of seafood: from Loch to distribution centre and straight to your dinner plate.

It was 830pm when we arrived. I am glad C had the foresight to book the place as I heard it tends to fill up quite quickly. Seriously, you don't want to make a trip up and stare at the happy diners whilst you chomp on your fish and chips.

Enough said. Let's move on to food !!! < (: )))>< ~~~

Hot Roasted shellfish in Aioli for 2

The platters were their signature dishes and these come in hot and cold version. In addition to these, you could order specific seafood like langoustines, scallops, mussells and lobsters as an individual main dish. The menu also features an alternate menu for the non seafood lovers which gets refreshed every so often .

Stop hiding you Lobster


There were plenty of wows and oohhss not just from our table but from the neighbouring tables as well as everyone tried to take in the visual spectacle. Every formidable shellfish that Scotland had to offer was on this plate (haha I think*). I couldn't wait to "dive" in but me being the avid food photographer had to stall back my hungry eaters for your visual and reading pleasure.

Cold enough for 2

The Cold platter for 2 turned out to be equally amazing and overloaded. I am salivating again as I look at the pictures. (will need some excuse to go back again for the food)

Since it was 4 of us sharing 2 plates of 2 person platters, I got to try most of the seafood cooked in both ways except for a couple. The lobster was eaten cold and there was just something about the coldness that reminded me of the sea and automatically freshness. The meat was definitely succulent and it was as if the coldness had preserved in the umami taste.

The brown crabs were huge like HUGE!!!. Ok you can't compare them to Sri Lankan crabs but by the scottish standards, these were your big brothers. I had these served roasted. As expected, it lack the sweetness of its other species. I did not enjoy this as much as I hope but hey I've got plenty more seafood to eat.

The mussels and clams were sweet. After many rounds of cold mussels, cold clams, hot mussels and hot clams, I came to the conclusion that the cold clams tasted the best. That bread by the was yummy. It tasted like a banana bread and was extremely good when you soak it in the seafood juices from the hot platter.

Loving langoustines for once. These were huge, succulent and tasted as sweet as prawns. Be it hot or cold, they were absolutely fabulous.

I have forgotten to take pictures of the razor clams. Too hungry I guess.

The initial plan was to have 6 platters for 4 of us .. haha.. but we settled just for an additional plate of scallops with soy dressing.

Dinner ended at 1030pm.... and it was 1am by the time we got back.


Well.. You can always argue that most of the ingredients can be found in Glasgow, but when it comes to freshness, this place triumphs in all ways.
There you have it. One of the best places I have eaten in Scotland.

Lochleven Shellfish
-------------------------------

Loch Leven,

Fort William, PH33 6SA

Phone: 0185 582 1444

Website: www.lochlevenseafoodcafe.co.uk

Christmas Dinner 2010

Time of the year again.. to celebrate Christmas.. What did you guys get up to ??? Besides chiling out in this cold . Did anyone do anything more interesting?

Aa was bent on creating his special meat feast Christmas dinner once again . I m really sick of beef having eaten it for 3 consecutive days...but it was so good though..

and here's what why....

C started prepping the dessert first. A personal favourite of hers... Pear Crumble..

Make sure u layer your pears. Patience !!!

Pour your crumble over the pears and leave it to set in the fridge

Make sure u include some of your five a day.

The first main course.. 2kg of sirloin with roasted potatoes.. bathe in olive oil....

Gammon ham.... 3kg? .... hmm..

Ever since the superb creation from last year, Aa was looking very forward to making it again .
After boiling it in a huge of water with cloves and spices. The ham was taken out to be poked with cloves.

Mix up your favourite glazing. The one used here is a mixture of mustard and honey.
Once glazed.. Give it a good roast..

TADA!!!!!.. HOney Roasted GAmmon Ham.

Roast Beef all done.. Potatos looking a little chao tar!! lolol

Brussel sprouts and carrots...

Where's my food.....

Yummy smoked salmon appetisers.

C getting the table all set up .. Cheapo crackers from Tesco.. 10p ONLY!!!

Another Aa favourite. Clam chowder with oysters... emm.... er... Yummy? (haha I don't like oysters you see..)

I had 2 slices.

And another 2 slices of these.

Hmm.... YUM YUM

Pear Crumble + B and J to finish off..






Very satisfying meal. Thanks Aa.


P.s Was Christmas meaningful for you ?

20101225-108, originally uploaded by jiapui.