Another visit to Ox and Finch, West End, Glasgow

We are going to Ox and Finch (http://www.oxandfinch.com) during this Christmas and New Year Holiday for dinner again. This would be our 3rd time to have dinner and I can't wait.  I blogged about this place while ago when Emily and I went there for the first time. Second time we went was on 30 April this year (yes, it is still Hogmanay in Scotland whist some parts of the world have already celebrated 2016) when my sister Mariko and her husband Kenji came to Scotland for Emily and Craig's wedding but I never got around to blog about that time. Approaching the end of year 2015, I have been reflecting all the good things happened this year and certainly the wedding and their visit to Scotland were really big events of the year. We had a lovely lunch at Ox and Finch at that time ....

There were six of us, Emily, Craig, Mariko, Kenji, my husband and I. It was a lovely early summer with warm sunshine. We got a large round table in the corner to ourselves. We celebrated with drinks, first the forthcoming nuptials between Emily and Craig and also the fact that Mariko and Kenji came to Glasgow, all the way from Japan. This was really a big deal, considering that Kenji hates flying and this was his 2nd trip abroad ever in his entire life. I think his first trip was their honeymoon to New Caledonia.

Anyway, we KAMPAI-ed to each other to start our lunch....

Whilst waiting for our food to arrive, we had sourdough bread with extra virgin olive oil and also toasted sourdough bread with Romesco spread. I love their Romesco spread!

Soon, our order started to arrive one by one ...

This one was my favourite, buffalo mozzarella, grilled figs, mint and 8-year aged balsamic. If you are meat-eater, you can get the one with proscuitto.

Next arrived was crab and crayfish with chilli, mango and glass noodle salad. We had this last time - the was really refreshingly tasty.

Someone ordered seared scallops, ramsay's black pudding, cauliflower and cider vinaigrette.

We also had seared tuna nicoise with olive trapanned.

... chips, truffle salt and roasted garlic aioli ...

and venison, pancetta and neep scotch pie ....

What else? Smoked haddock brandade, poached free-range egg, capers and cornichons (which are small French pickles) and also charlotte potatoes with wild garlic pesto.

The conversation was naturally entered around Emily and Craig's wedding. We were busy talking, drinking and eating.  There seems to be lots of food however when there were 6 of us to share each plate, there were not much food to go around. We concluded that 2 - 4 would be the optimum numbers of people to share food at Ox and Finch in order to appreciate their greatness.

Kenji and Mariko liked this organic lager ....

and look at the size of the glass .... Kenji couldn't help taking photo of Mariko holding the glass ...

Mariko and Kenji brought wedding gifts from Japan ... these are money envelopes for celebrations.

We then had coffees and some desserts to finish our meals.  I must say that Ox and Finch does a really good coffee!

This is yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) parfait with coconut ice creaj, mango and pineapple.

Also tried hot and cold chocolate and cherry trifle ...

I wanted to try lemon and earl grey baked alaska ....

All our desserts line ups ....

We had lovely lunch at Ox and Finch back in late April and can't wait to go back again to try different menu. 

That'a all forks but I will be back soon (I promise ...) with my latest blog about Ox and Finch.

Next year, 2016, is the year of monkey. People who were born in Monkey year are wise, intelligent, confident, charismatic, loyal and inventive and have leadership. Sounds fantastic.

Wish you a happy and prosperous new year!

Little Cafe near Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery in Glasgow

Having had a fab lunch at Ox and Finch (this is a follow up from my previous blog), Emily and I went to visit Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for a bit of culture in the afternoon.

We walked back Sauchiehall Street, passing the snow-covered bowling green with University of Glasgow and the Museum and Art Gallery in the background. What a beautiful afternoon it was. When the food (at Ox and Finch) was so good, it did make us feel so good too.

Glasgow University (right) and Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery (left)

As we were walking toward the Museum, we discussed what we actually wanted to see at the Museum for a bit of culture. We both said, "Those floating heads!" We were actually talking about a series of white heads, suspended from the ceiling in the area dedicated to Expression, depicting a number of human facial expressions as we just wanted to take photos.  Emily declared, "I want to see the big elephant too!"

Floating heads and elephant, sounds like a great plan, maybe not much of a culture but off we went.

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

When we arrived, we also learned they were having an exhibition of Scottish writer Alistair Gray's art work. Ok, since we are here, why not see that too for a bit of culture.

We went through the South entrance to enter the building. As soon as we were inside, we saw the massive pipe organ by Lewis & Co, the centrepiece of the central hall. Unfortunately we had just missed the pipe organ mini concert at 1pm. 

Our plan was to cover the whole ground floor exhibition first before we search for Floating Heads, however as soon as we had a glance of them, we went the area straight away for lots of photo opportunities. 

The lighting from ground below, changing colours from purple to pink to white to yellow, giving an interest effects on floating heads and the ceiling above, whilst contrasting the traditional displays below against contemporary floating heads above. Very interesting ....

We then went upstairs, enjoyed the changes of colours of floating heads and their surrounding ambience. And more photos from the upper level.

I posted this on Instagram for my sister in Japan to see.
She did not like it.... I think she thought they were eerie...

We spent far too much on taking photos of these floating heads and almost forgot to see Salvador Dali's surrealist religious masterpiece Christ of Saint John of the Cross.

We then went downstairs to see the Museum's popular resident, Sir Roger, the life-size elephant that Emily wanted to see.  I asked Emily if she wanted her picture taken with him but she said no.

We then went down to the lower level floor to see Alistair Gray's artwork. The exhibition will run until 22 February 2015 and is £5.00 for entry.  We did not know much about him or his art work so it was interesting and it was a bit of culture for us indeed.

After this, it was time for a nice cup of tea or coffee. Unfortunately museum's cafe downstairs was too full with people cueing to get in, so we decided to go outside. As we were leaving, we saw Elvis.

"Thank you very much for visiting!"

We crossed the road and found this cafe named Little Cafe at 1361 Argyle Street, Glasgow G3 8AF.

On the window, it says Suki Tea - Proper Tea Sold Here!  Yes, I shall try that.

We asked the staff what flavours they got. He explained the list of flavours they got and let us smell some of leaves to help us choose. Emily decided to try apple and mint whilst I chose green tea with ginseng.  Emily also ordered a slice of Salted Chocolate Brownie, which turned out to be a really yummy and chewing delicious dessert.

My green tea with ginseng was really refreshing, soothing and relaxing.

Green tea with gingseng 

Emly's apple and mint tea smelt really delicious. She really enjoyed this tea so much she has just ordered some on-line through Amazon.

Having checked some reviews on Tripadvisor, they have quite good reviews, apparently their home-made pizza is very good.  The service at the cafe was also good and friendly too.

Well, we really had a great day in Glasgow - we had a fantastic lunch at Ox and Finch, an interesting afternoon with a bit of culture at Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, and then a lovely Suki Tea at Little Cafe.  We were then off to a Chinese supermarket to buy some Japanese food for dinner as we were thinking about having Okonomi-Yaki (see my earlier blog about Okonomi-yaki in Osaka!). 

Always thinking about foods, of course!

That's all forks!

Ox and Finch in Glasgow

Emily and I have just has a mother and daughter day out yesterday in West End of Glasgow.

Our plan was to go for a lunch, visit Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallerty for a bit of culture and then go to Chinese supermarket to buy some Japanese ingredients for dinner.

We had different options to go for lunch and eventually decided to try Ox and Finch (http://www.oxandfinch.com) at 920 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G3 7TF.  I first heard of this place from having read the review by Marina O'Loughlin on The Guardian last October (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/17/ox-and-finch-glasgow-restaurant-review-marina-oloughlin) and have been intrigued about this place but not have got around to try this place until now. Because of its name, Ox and Finch, I thought this must be more meat-focused place but actually it is not necessarily so. This place caters for all taste, they even have a separate vegetarian menu too. There are so many tapas places nowadays and you feel like you are getting the same kind of food everywhere, so just think of a bit up-market tapas place with comtemporary feel, a sort of place you could imagine the West End of Glasgow would have.

It's not cheap (if you think of the concept of tapas for sharing) but the food is fantastic, everything taste fresh with great ingredients. We love this place. We can't wait to go back to this place again and it's not often we say things like this about a restaurant.

We checked the reviews on Tripadvisor beforehand. Everyone is giving great reviews. I did not want to raise my expectation too high as I often get disappointed by it. We did not book tables and were not sure if we could even get it. The place opens at noon so we tried to be there around that time, hoping that we could get seated. We parked just outside of Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. We were lucky to get perfect parking space on Kelvin Way and walked for a few blocks on Sauchiehall Street toward the city centre direction. And here it is, sitting at the corner, we found Ox and Finch.

It did not look too busy so we went in. We were told that no tables were available for another an hour or two but the manager came up and asked if we would not mind sitting at counter tables. Of course not, we don't want to miss this chance. Actually it's not a bad place at all to sit as we could see the kitchen and chefs are in action, and on my left was the wall full of wines, great!

The waiting staff came over with menus and suggested that we try 2 - 3 dishes per person. 

We checked the menu and decided to try four dishes of Buffalo Mozzarella, Fig, Mint and Eight-year-aged Balsamic from the vegetarian menu, Crab and Crayfish with Chilli, Mango and Glass Noodle Salad,  Sea Bream, Shredded Thai Salad, Chilli and Peanuts and Salt and Pepper Squid, Blood Orange, Chilli and Saffron Aioli.  

We also ordered Sourdough Bread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil dipping to nibble whilst waiting for the dishes to arrive.  The bread was really lovely and soft and E.V.O.O. was really good too.

As Emily was driving, I could also order a small glass of sauvignon blanc to go with dishes, hee hee hee. 

We were quite lucky as the place was not too busy yet and our orders arrived one by one but fairly quickly so we did not wait too long.

First arrived was crab and crayfish salad.  This was our favourite. It was really tasty, really refreshing. We tried to dissect what was in this salad so that we could recreate this at home. There are obviously crab meat, crayfish, roasted chopped peanuts, glass noodles (or Vermicelli Noodles?), chopped spring onion, bean sprouts, red and orange peppers, carrots, chilli, fish sauce and lime and coriander.  That's all we figured out so far. Emily thought there might be some lemonglass too. 

Crab and Crayfish with Glass Noodles - really really yummy!

Next arrived was Mozzarella with grilled figs and 8 year aged balsamic vinegar. We never tried figs before so we were delighted to try this. Mozzarella was really soft and almost melt in your mouth and figs were really tasty too.  8 year aged balsamic vinegar .... wow, it sounds delectable already even if we could not tell the difference between 8 year aged one and M&S's one.

Salt and peppered squid and sea bream followed.  To be honest, I did not find salt and peppered squid was particularly special although it was still a good dish - personally I would like to have more blood orange segments.

Sea Bream was really good too, with Thai peanuts salad.

We enjoyed everything. Our favourite is Crab and Crayfish Glass Noodle salad. 

 Just as well we only ordered four dishes to share between us (and sourdough bread). We managed to scoff everything except one bit of fried squid tentacles. By that time we were too full to try desserts.  Well, we just need to come back again to try them next time.

We then ordered coffees to finish off our meal. My macchiatto was excellent.

Whilst having coffees, us 'ladies do lunches'  also posted some picture from this restaurant on Instagram.  We decided to go to Kelvingrove Museum for a bit of culture after this and thought of having some tea with desserts later on.  Emily treated me for this lovely lunch. Thank you very much, Emily. It was really really fab!  We would love to go back but next time we need to make sure we book in advance. Whilst we were eating, quite a many people came and could not get in.  We were really lucky that we could get in. I have just found out on the web that this is a restaurant by Jonathan MacDonald who was a former head chef with the McLaren formula one racing team and apparently you would need to book a month in advance if you want to eat there on a Saturday night! Wow, I can't wait that long, I want to eat it there now!

Feeling great about having managed to get in and tried lovely dishes, we felt really good for the rest of the day.  If I get a terrible food at a restaurant, I feel as if my whole day is ruined. Emily laughs about this statement but it's true.

It was a fabulaous dining experience. We also had a fabulous time at Kelvingrove Museum too, which I shall talk about another day.

That's all forks!