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!

Italian Restaurant Padrino - Westcliff on Sea, Essex

After long drive from Scotland, we finally arrived in Essex (see my last blog). The wedding was taking place in Leigh-on-Sea so we stayed at a hotel in near-by Westcliff-on-Sea, which is situated on the northern side of the estuary of the River Thames, not far from the open waters of the North Sea to the east.

By the time we arrived here in early evening, the weather was gorgeous. Lovely sunshine with nice breeze. There were lots of flowers with full of vibrant colours everywhere on streets or people's gardens. People were having a nice and relaxing stroll along the seafront. Proper summer weather. There was definitely a lovely holiday feel to it. Why can't we not get a weather like this in Scotland???

Anyway, back to talk about food. I did consult with TripAdvisor earlier to see where we could go for dinner, however by the time we left our hotel for wander, I completely forgot a name of a restaurant so we just went for a walk and see what we could find.

We found three Italian restaurants right next to each other on one street, overlooking the seafront, so we just walked into the one that was situated at the corner of the block. The restaurant is called Padrino (http://www.padrinosouthend.co.uk).

As we did not have to worry about driving for the night, we decided to order a bottle of wine.

For starter, we had Insalata Caprese. Mozzarella cheese was very creamy.

For the main course, I could not decide whether to have a pizza or pasta. We decided to do Jimmy Style and had half pizza and half pasta. We ordered roasted vegetable pizza and, since we are at Padrino Restaurant, why not try their Tagliatelle Padrino, which was with squid, courgette and tomato.  The pizza was very delicious with lots of toppings and tagliatelle was also very tasty with perfectly cooked squid with garlic.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and had macchiato to finish our meal.

We ordered from a la carte menu however you can also choose from two course set menu which is £9.95.

The bill arrived. It wasn't expensive at all. We were about to pay and noticed that the restaurant forgot to charge us a bottle of wine. No wonder. We mentioned this to them. They were very apologetic about this and gave us complimentary glasses of limoncello. That was very nice of them.

If it were not for the wedding, we would not probably come to Westcliff on Sea or to this restaurant. The restaurant has a very friendly, warm atmosphere and service was very good. We did really enjoy our dinner and the complimentary limoncello made it even better! 

We did not have any dessert although their tiramisu looked really nice.  I had another idea ....

After Padrino, we walked down to the seafront, passing by houses with lovely flowers.

I saw an ice cream place earlier in the evening when we were driving around looking for our hotel. I wanted to go there to buy an ice cream for dessert and that was what we did.

I can't remember what my husband had but I had Rum & Raisin, which is my favourite.

Rum & Raisin Ice Cream Corn

We had a leisurely stroll back to our hotel, eating lovely ice cream and watching the seafront. Weather was still nice and warm, with lovely breeze. It must be very nice to live down south England where you get a lovely summer weather that you can properly enjoy.

The next day was the wedding, the whole purpose of why were were in Essex.  I hope I could squeeze myself into a dress, and after that back to Scotland.

That's all forks.