Company

“We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink, for dining alone is leading the life of a lion or wolf”Epicurus

In my last and indeed previous blogs, I have mentioned the importance or at least the significance of the people who were to share my experience.  It is true that company can transform mediocre food into a great meal - as long as the wine is flowing and the conversation is stimulating.  The word company is derived from 'companio', someone you share bread with, the roots are the Latin words cum, "with", and panis "bread".  It seems that having someone to share food with is an intrinsic part of our eating experience.  I believe, however, that this is only one way of looking at food.

A militant vegetarian for example will greatly detract from your enjoyment of eating a rare steak; no doubt their disapproving glances will instil a level of guilt as you spread bone marrow onto bread and mop up the blood and juices...  Let's also bear in mind the conversation that happened before the steak even hit the pan...

            "White wine will go better with my salad."

            "Yes, but I would like a full bodied red to match my steak" (which costs about three

            times as much as the grass you are about to consume)

            "Let's compromise, how about rose?"

            "Let's never speak again".

Eating with and in front of  someone takes a degree of trust.  Long gone are the days when we fear poisoning by our host, first asking our poor servant to try it; but let's consider the first date scenario!  I am sure I am not alone when I say that I do not like eating in front of strangers, especially those that I am attracted to.  Many things have to be considered, obviously the spinach in the teeth situation, but further more - can you eat that spaghetti without re-accessorising your outfit with tomato sauce polka dots?

Even your best companion can pilfer the pleasure to be gained from some food moments.  I am currently sitting by my balconette, soaking up the last of the early morning sunshine in early September; enjoying an espresso, a glass of sparkling water and an almond croissant.  I am savouring every fold of the delicate pastry, every flake of almond that falls into my lap.  My lips are covered in icing sugar, my fingers are sticky and all is bliss.  Should my nearest and dearest be here, this would be a very different moment.  My concentration would be divided, apparently it is not polite to ignore people for pastry (even if you paid £2 for it).  The conversation would be entertaining and there would be the chance of them getting me a second espresso but I would be feeling a different level of contentment.  Since Monday afternoon when I booked my darling scooter in for a service up at Abbeyhill, I have planned on popping into Manna House on Easter Road for an almond croissant to bring home and enjoy with espresso.  A simple pleasure, a pure pleasure, but most of all a planned pleasure to be enjoyed with myself.

My solo eating is not always so contrived, or indeed indulgent.  What you choose to eat when there is no one else around is an important part of what makes us individuals, it exposes a bit of your true character.  Are you a lazy eater?  A picker?  Do you go for healthy food?  Or is a take away the way forward?  None of these take a higher position than the other, and often it depends on our moods and what the day has entailed.  I would like to consider our 'dirtier' food habits - what gives you pleasure that you would never admit? - and certainly not blog about!  My name is Nicola, I am a foodie (for all that phrase means) and I sometimes eat corned beef from a can with Smash.  This dish reminds me of being a child and camping with my father; it reminds me I grew up in the 80's (and that I should be having Angel Delight for pudding!); it reminds me of the working class background I grew up in; it helps me to rediscover myself and my home.  It is a dish full of pride.  It is a dish that would require more justifying than a plate of pasta, and therefore best kept just for me.  I come from a mixed background without a food tradition to cling onto (I don't think Matzo counts as a tradition on its own), this is all I have.  Let us not hide our solo eating - celebrate the special moment you are having.  A true expression of yourself, your family and even your heritage through your individual food choices.

Sometimes to dine alone seems pointless, but sometimes it is the simplest pleasure.  Sometimes I do not want the share my bread - sometimes I want to bite the end of a baguette and lead the life of a lion or a wolf!

Jaded

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans" or more often than not, when you are on Facebook.  Incidentally, it has been just over four years since I returned to Edinburgh and began this blog, and over three years since I last wrote.  That is around 1093 meals consumed without comment.  (Let's face it I am too busy to eat more than one meal a day!)  Thankfully my situation, although altered since I last wrote, has not relegated me to the realms of beans on toast.  A fair percentage of those 1093 dinner times were spent in lovely restaurants; lets also through in a few liquid lunches and medicinal breakfasts consumed in cozy cafes.  The food I have had has been mainly of high quality, peppered with a few poor meals which have now become little more than anecdotes.  Life, however, has got in the way of my culinary chronicling!

Edinburgh simply stopped being new.  The Auld Reekie became a familiar smell, like a Grandmother, still with the occasional surprise but essentially comforting and homely.  I quickly found the places that I liked when I moved back and have frequented them ever since!  This is great as  I am rarely disappointed, however, it is not so interesting for blog topics and inspiration!  One must experience something out of the mundane to inspire the pen, simply: Edinburgh had made me jaded.

However, something has obviously piqued my interest to get my ink flowing again.  Last night I was very lucky to be invited out for dinner with a group of friends.  These guys are serious about their food: to be taken to a tried and tested Chinese restaurant therefore, was met with a degree of expectation.  (Wow, she has been on the down low for the last few years - she is blogging about sweet and sour chicken...)  This particular restaurant, Jade Garden, (Cannon Street) has the much fabled 'other' menu i.e. an actual Chinese menu, featuring Chinese food for Chinese people.  Ladies and Gentleman I ate pig trotters!  As per a prearrangement, they had bought in lobster for us, our numbers unfortunately diminutive, left us the arduous task of consuming three between four.  Never before have I felt like a Queen in what is essentially a greasy spoon setting!  The lobsters were prepared in a deliciously subtle ginger sauce.  I am not a fan of ginger, it is in fact one of the few things on my hate list; but I have to concede the heat of the ginger against the sweet and succulent lobster meat had me cursing the entire Chinese nation (yes, all 1,343,239,924 of them) and their culture for not having bread to mop up the juices.

I have to admit that I am a big bread and juices type of girl.  Frequently we get together and enjoy slow cooked meat, (rabbit, ribs - at one point there was a whole piglet...) simply roasted with garlic, chili and rosemary.  Once the boys have licked the bones clean, I get my dipping on and I am as happy as a pig in... well, a roasting tin!  However, this evening I got in with the bones.  While we were waiting for one of our party to arrive, we ordered some salt and chili ribs to nibble on.  They were flavorful nuggets of meat with an addictive crumb that was able to be tidied up with some prawn crackers.  In fact this dish was so good, we ordered more for 'dessert'!

We all work in the Italian food and drink milieu and are therefore, are accustomed to calamari.  The platter of squid that we were presented with, again with salt and chili, was cooked to perfection.  It was soft and succulent, fried to the exact second...  Talking of soft and succulent, the dish of lamb in cumin was also divine.  This struck me as an interesting combination as I more commonly associate cumin with Mexican and Indian cuisines.  If I see this on a Chinese menu in the future I will definitely order it again.  The pigs trotters on the other hand (or other foot i guess!)...  They have been scored off the food 'bucket' list (to avoid KFC connotations perhaps another word has to be found for foods to eat before one dies!) and the sauce they were served in provided a nice dressing for the ubiquitous rice.  I am going to assume that these were just not to our taste rather than being prepared badly, we found then too gelatinous and let's face it after feasting on lobster I doubt we were going to find much pleasure in chewing on a pigs foot!

Jade Garden will now become one of my staples - never to be written of again.  The food, wine and company all complimented each other to create a fantastic dining experience.  My appetite for food has changed; I have been reading more about food history and culture, so to have this adventure appealed to this new side of me.  I hope to write more about food in the future within this context and I am about to start a course relating to this at Edinburgh University.  Future blogs will be inspired by food experiences but not so heavily based on reviews - after all taste is so arbitrary and Trip Advisor can fill in the details!