Powfoulis Manor Hotel, Falkirk, Scotland

It was my mother-in-law, Mary's birthday a few weeks ago. My husband suggested that we try this place called Powfoulis Manor House Hotel (http://www.powfoulis.co.uk) in Falkirk as that's where his parents used to go when they were younger...
It's a Scottish Baronial style hotel in Falkirk and the estate has been in the hands of the Bruce Family since early 16th century and for 10 generations, Wow!

Approach to the main entrance of the building

As we were entering into the entrance, we were welcomed by an unexpected rendition of hard rock music. 

We were then shown through to the large Adam Lounge with big fireplace to take seats. I wonder why it's called Adam Lounge. Their website informs me that the owner of the Estate in late 19th century commissioned the Scottish architect Robert Adam to build on the lateral wings of the main building. I wonder if this could be the reason.... but no, it cannot be. According to Victoria and Albert Museum website, Robert Adam was alive between 1728 to 1792, a century earlier.... very intriguing.

I have forgotten to take more pictures but the Adam Lounge also houses distinctive deep buttoned Chesterfield leather sofas, whose name was allegedly originated from the 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773) who said to his servant at his death bed, "Give Mr Dayrolls (his friend) a chair" and died but the servant was confused as to whether the Earl meant his friend should sit down or have a chair as a present (http://www.independent.co.uk/property/interiors/the-secret-history-of-the-chesterfield-2292342.html). Anyhow, the buttons on the sofa were developed to make the chairs more uncomfortable as expensive pieces of furnitures often belonged to rich men of standing who would often have people waiting to see them and so buttons were designed to discourage them from staying.
I thought the sofa was rather comfortable to sit on it though...

I asked my mother in law when it was the last time she was at Powfoulis. She said it was probably about 30 years ago and things did not seem to have changed as she remembered, however she thought the carpets are new, hahaha. 

Staff came to take our drinks orders and then also brought us menus for perusal. When you are at this hotel, you don't rush, just take your time and wait until someone comes and take your orders in this Adam Lounge sitting on Chesterfield sofas. 

Table D'Hote lunch menu is 4 course meal for £19.95 including VAT. That's not bad at all.

Menu is ... some may call it old-fashioned or I would say old school. It's a bit like stepping back in time.

Once our table was ready, we were taken to the dining room. It's not a big dining room but could easily accommodate 3 - 4 big families or groups.  We were a group of 9 including my mother-in law, Mary, the birthday girl but there were also another 2 big groups of families lunching too.

The decor is also very old school with very vintage wall papers ... feels like stepping back in time again or even feels like having a dinner in someone's house....  this all adds to an unique charm to this old Manor House Hotel.

Back to the food. There were proper melba toasts on the table with butter.  Mary noticed the brown table napkin and said, "This has not changed, in fact, I think we still got this at home.... when Peter (her late husband) took it home by mistake after having wiped his mouth as hanky."  I am sure Powfoulis would forgive this minor incident - surely statue of limitation applies, after 3 decades ago ....

Whilst enjoying our Melba Toast, our starter arrived. I ordered prawn cocktail. Classic.

Emily and Craig had pate and melon pearls with mango sorbet.

Next came a home made potato soup. This was lovely too. Someone else had Scottish broth which turned out to be a vegetarian version so we could have had that too.

Then came the main course. I ordered breaded haddock. I must say that the service was very attentive and the staff came with big plateful of selections of vegetables which you can choose, and as much as you want. I tried to keep veggies to manageable portions but others had huge portions of everything piled up high.

This was Emily's steak pie - lots of properly stewed beef....

The birthday girl, Mary, had cold platter of chicken breast and salad - wow, that looks good. Do I see some potato salad hidden underneath that cucumber slice....?

I did not take a photo but Rebecca's macaroni cheese looked really nice too.

After this, a dessert trolly came to our table - with selections of different cakes.

I can't remember what everyone else had but I had white chocolate gateau (I think...) with cream. I don't usually like white chocolate as I often find them too sweet in general but I though this gateau was not too sweet and I rather enjoyed it, so I finished all.

After the meal, I sneaked myself out to go to downstairs where the lavatory is to power my nose ... it was really clean so obviously it passed my toilet check, or should I start saying loo or lavatory check instead from now on ....

Stepping back in time in the lavatory too....

This is a place where time stopped, where everything stays as the way it is or how you would have remembered. Some calls this old fashioned but it's this way of old schoolness that has its own charm. I don't think we would go back again soon, only because we feel that the menu would probably remain the same and I like to try different things, but at the same time I am sure this vintage feel and familiaity that give you a fond memory of 'back in the day' feeling is the precise reason why people would go back to this hotel for meals to keep them going. I would be curious to know what this place would be like in many years later ....

Well, the food was definitely old school but I enjoyed it. My mother-in-law enjoyed it so that's what matters the most. I thought the service was very attentive, the interval between each course was appropriate, not too rushed and not too being kept waiting too long but just right. Overall it took us about 2 hours to have our lunch, which is not something we would do in this modern busy daily life nowadays so I felt like we had a nice relaxing Sunday lunch with family.

Powfoulis Manor Hotel awaits you to join for dinner....

That's all forks ....

Thai Cafe, Kirkintilloch

A new Thai restaurant has come to Kirkintilloch recently and we have already been there 3 times! Twice for dinner and once for lunch. It's called Thai Cafe.

The decor is simple (but in a nice way), bright and comfortable and welcoming.  I think the premises might have been a real estate agency before but I am not sure....

I like their menu. There are lots of dishes I want to try....  You also get tasty hot prawn crackers whilst waiting for your starters to arrive.

For starters, we have tried their Thai fish cakes and Hot and Sour Soup (Tom Yum) with seafood.

I am quite particular about Thai fish cakes but I do love Thai Cafe's fish cakes.

Thai Hot and Sour Soup with seafood has lots of seafood and vegetables in it, including crab claws! I like the taste. There is some home cooking feel to it. I envy Thai families who can get to have this soup at home.

For dinner, we have tried stir-fried tofu with vegetables and stir-fried king prawns (but sorry, I can't remember which type of sauce) and stir-fried egg noodles and beansprouts.

I enjoyed my tofu-stir fried vegetables.  As I love tofu, I would like to have more tofu, cut in bigger chunks rather than sliced, however vegetables were stir fried lovely with tasty sauce. 

When we went back second time, my husband had spicy seafood stir fry. There were lots of seafood as you can see including crab claws!

I had steamed Thai style seabass in lime (or was it lemon...?), coriander, chilli and celery sauce. I love this dish. The fish was prepared beautifully but the sauce was really lovely and refreshing. Slices of small celery were sharp, fragrant and flavoursome. I have never tried such lovely celery.  I would definitely order this again.

We enjoyed our meals so much we then went back the following week but for lunch to try their lunch menu.  It is 6.95 for two courses.

You get some hot prawn crackers whilst waiting for your dish to arrive.

As we don't eat meat, we paid £1.50 extra for king prawns as mains in lunch menus are mainly chicken dishes but we don't mind. I wanted to try their Thai red curry anyway.

Here, starter and main come together in the same dish.

My husband had hot and sour soup with king prawns for starter and Thai green curry with king prawns for main.  I think the soup had some coconut milk in it and it was quite flavoursome.  I also tried his Thai green curry. The sauce was very delicious, flavoursome and spicy.

I had Thai fish cake for starter and Thai red curry with king prawns for main. I enjoyed this too.

Next time I would like to try their Chilli Squid for starter, oh but I do love their fish cakes too - this is a dilemma! For main course I would like to try Thai green curry but I also love their steamed seabass.... another dilemma!

We have enjoyed our meals at Thai Cafe and we would definitely go back.

When we were in the restaurant there were lots of take-aways orders going on. We must try their take-away too, so we picked up their take-away menu.

It's great to have Thai restaurant in Kirkintilloch. There are already very good Chinese take aways near-by, and also two lovely Italian restaurants. I have also heard Persian restaurant has opened up too.  Lots of choices! Kirkie is happening!  Now, I hope someone will open up a nice Spanish tapas place please....

That's all forks!

La Boca in Glasgow

My husband bought us tickets to see INALA, South African singing, dance and Zulu ballet show at the Theatre Royal last Friday night. We decided to go for something to eat before the show.

As I did not want to see the show with full stomach we decided to try La Boca (http://www.labocatapas.com) on Hope Street in Glasgow for their Spanish tapas.

We did not book a table but we were hoping that we could walk in and get a table if we were there just after five.  Wrong! It's Friday after all. The place was fully booked until 6:15pm at least, which means that we would have to wait for almost an hour and we did not want to eat in a rush and get to the theatre. My husband suggested to go to Las Iguanas.  The lady at the bar said we could sit at the counter if we would not mind. No, I would not mind at all. I really wanted to try La Boca and really felt like having Spanish tapas. So we settled with that idea and took our seats on the bar stools.

This was my view at the counter.

This was my view behind me.

Actually, sitting at the bar was not a bad idea at all. It reminded us of a tapas bar we went in Barcelona long long time ago.

Main menu looked good but as this was our first visit and we were going to the theatre later on, we literally tried their pre-theatre menu - £10.95 for 3 tapas and we chose 6 dishes between us.

As we were not driving, we could both drink too. We decided to try medium size glasses of red wine - Torres Mas Rabell Tinto, Catalunya.  The restaurant also has a separate wine menu. 

This was a lovely wine....  Next time we order a bottle.

As we were sipping the wine, our order started arriving as they were prepared.

First one was sweet peppers stuffed with tuna, egg and caramelised onion. This was tasty. We wished there were more tuna stuffed into the pepper, however, it was tasty.

Then Fresh Mediterranean anchovies marinated in olive oil, vinegar, lemon and garlic on bed of potato crisps.  This one was tasty too, would go well with a nice cold beer!  Quite a good accompaniment to a drink.

Next came fried Spanish baby green peppers sprinked with sea salt. This one was my favourite.

I just remembered the grilled green peppers we had at a tapas place in Lisbon where they mix normal and hot (and really hot) green chilli peppers and it was just your luck as to which one you would get!

Also came was a whole fried baby squid in a batter. The squid was perfectly fried, lovely (not rubbery) and soft. It was sitting on squid ink mayonnaise.  Well, I just assumed it was mayonnaise with squid ink as it was grey ...   I don't think grey is a colour for any food. My brain could not compute the colour of grey and its actual flavour. It is a very strange feeling.  However, the squid was very nice.

Then came fried potato cubes with alioli sauce. This was really good too.

We ordered bread and olives to go with the food.

And lastly arrived was king prawns in Piri Piri sauce. Wow, you should see the lots of chilis and garlic swimming in the oil.

...once king prawns were gone, dip the bread into the hot chilli oils....

By this time, we were comfortably full. You think  3 tapas each was not a lot but actually it was a right amount.  I then saw one of the staff carrying a plate of huge freshly made Spanish omelette from the kitchen to the bar and placed them on top of the glass display case. They were big, thick and fluffy looking and perfectly golden without any burned bits.  I must try this. If I don't, I would regret it and would probably keep thinking about it during the entire show later, so we ordered one.

The lady at the counter asked if we like it hot or cold. I asked which would be better. Another staff said he would prefer hot.  The lady said we could try cold and she could heat it up if we wanted it hot later.  As it was freshly made, it was still warm so no need to heat it up.  The omelette was really tasty, with lots of potatoes. I have tried to make spanish omelette at home but I have not mastered it, not to mentioning making it this thick and without burning it at all.  

Night was still young and I must keep myself awake during the show. We ordered two espresso to finish our meal.

We liked this place. Food was really tasty. Service was very good and friendly.  I am sure we would come back here again. Next time we shall try other dishes from a la carte menu and a bottle of wine. I also saw this on the back of their menu - Sherry Flight Experience.  I don't drink sherry but I may learn something if I tried this ...? Next time ....

We really enjoyed our tapas and Torres wine.  Just as well we still had a theatre to go to after this and were sitting at the bar, otherwise we would miss our show as we would be happily sitting there, kept eating and drinking till we fall off the bar stool!

That's all forks!

Tebay Service near Penrith, England

Following on from my last blog, we had a great time at my husband's nephew's wedding. It was really a lovely wedding. The bride and groom looked absolutely fantastic, Kaylee was absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress. Andrews wore kilt and so as his friends and family from Scotland.  Andrew even arranged a Scottish Piper at the church as a surprise for Kaylee.

It was a lovely church service, with delicious food and wonderful venue for reception. Unlike my daughter Emily's wedding, I had no pressure as a MOB (mother-of-bride) so I could actually relax and enjoyed their wedding properly.

The next day, we headed back to Scotland. It was a long journey, especially this time, we made this trip in one day. Luckily, it was Sunday and the road was quieter, even in London orbital.

We did not follow back the same route to go back to Scotland. This was because I insisted to my husband that I wanted to go to a 'posh (?)' motorway service called Tebay (http://www.tebayservices.com) near Penrith. Their website informs me that they are family business, see themselves as a food business, and produce, source, prepare and sell their products on site.

As it is more closer to Scotland than to London, we stopped over at a normal service area for a quick snack around mid-day before we continued on our journey.  Dunkin Donuts and a cup of tea!

As we were approaching the Lake District area, the scenery is looking more like Scotland.

I was wondering how we would find Tebay on the motorway, but no problem. It is actually well signposted.

Tebay has restaurant, farmshop, souvenir shop and some take-away shop too.

They were selling delectable looking cookies and cakes. I said to myself, I would need to come back to this after the meal to take them home...

We then looked around what we could choose.... shall I have flatbread, sandwich or roll ....

I then decided to go for a hot meal.....

My mother in law Mary had macaroni. My husband and I had smoked haddock macaroni. You can choose either chips or salad with it.

It is not cheap but you don't come to motorway service to eat out. You pay for the convenience, and as Tebay says, they use local produce, prepare them and serve, so hopefully you also pay for the quality of the ingredients.

Anyway, I enjoyed my smoked haddock macaroni. There were lots of chunks of fish. I must try to make this at home ...

There seem to be two big areas for seating.  We found a table in the quieter side of the restaurant.

After the meal, I popped into the farm shop area. I must apologise, I don't have any pictures, but I do have a picture of Bacon Jam they were selling, which intrigued me. Well, I even find its own dedicated website (http://www.eat17baconjam.co.uk). Is it a jam, a spread or a relish?

They say it's an onion jam meets smoky bacon. Interesting.... As I don't eat meat, I did not buy it but I could have bought it for a souvenir.

I wanted to bring back an artisan bread or two from the shop but being later in the afternoon already, there were not much loaves left to buy.

We came out of Tebay with empty handed and continued on the rest of our journey back to Scotland.

And then what? I just remembered ... I had earlier told myself to remember to buy some delectable looking big shortbread home from Tebay's restaurant. Of course, I forgot, typical of me! By then it was too late to turn back as I could now see we were approaching Scotland!

Welcome back to Scotland.  Ok, we may not have great weather in Scotland in comparison to the southern England however there are still plenty of places to eat in Scotland.

What shall I eat next ....?

That's all fork!