Jennie on Food and Drink
Despite my lifelong problems with having a proper appetite and keeping on weight, I have always had an appreciation for good food and drink. I am fortunate to live in a country where even the tiniest villages have delicatessens (often before they have post offices), and in a city whose maritime status ensures an abundance of foreign food and cheap fruits and vegetables. The food budget for myself and Donald rarely exceeds forty pounds a week, even including trips out to dinner; it is often closer to ten pounds a week; but we eat well on that, and I have access to most of the ingredients I want.
For much of the last few years, the bulk of my diet has been comprised of vegan friendly food, on account of the dietary preferences of flatmates, with whom I regularly shared meals. As a result, I've learned a lot of new culinary skills, such as the best ways to get results with egg substitute and tempeh (an Indonesian soya-based staple, infinitely preferable to tofu). I personally have no ethical objections to eating animals or dairy products, so I still cook other things on occasion, but I find vegan cooking a lot less effort most of the time. I've never stuck to a single preferred 'style', despite many people's peculiar expectations. I like curries and chillies, salads and soups, pasta dishes, roasts, the occasional traditional bit of Glaswegian deep fried pizza or haggis, all kinds of things really. The biggest cupboard in our kitchen is crammed full of dried herbs and spices, though I cook with fresh herbs too when I can get them. We grow some of our own, taking advantage of Kadath's big windows, but without a garden it is difficult to produce them in sufficient quantity to supply our meals.
I've been drinking alcohol in small quantities since I was five years old; experience tells me that this may freak out a lot of Americans, but in most areas of Europe it is unremarkable. My parents used to give me a small glass of wine with our Sunday lunch, that kind of thing. It provided the first stage of educating my palate to appreciate good quality alcoholic drinks. It ensured that, as I grew up, I never experienced the slightest temptation to join neds in downing bottles of Thunderbird, Buckfast, or cheap cider on street corners. I was never impressed by squealing teenagers anxious to get out of their faces as quickly and easily and volubly as possible. Alcohol was something which I enjoyed for its own sake, not for the sake of getting drunk. Which is a good thing, since I have quite a tolerance, and getting drunk isn't easy. It's something I enjoy a few times a year, at Whitby festivals and suchlike. The rest of the time, when I drink, I do so because I like the drink itself.
Tchai Ovna, with outlets in the West End (just off Otago Street, near top bookshop Voltaire & Rousseau) and Shawlands, is one of the best remaining vegetarian eateries in Glasgow, as well as being something special in its own right. With over fifty different kinds of tea on the menu, all of them very reasonably priced and topped up as often as one wants, it's a place where one can inadvertently lose hours. Its West End tea garden is a beautiful place to sit on warmer days, and the interior is perfectly judged, full of private niches, with odd bits of furniture and ornamentation, the air heavy with scented tobacco.
Grassroots Cafe on Glasgow's St. George's Road is practically the best vegetarian place I have ever come across; however, it is now ridiculously overpriced, and all its regulars (including the lunchtime crowd it depended on) are abandoning it. Prices there went up by as much as half overnight. I really hope the management reconsider, because the place is going to die; and also, I'll really miss the delicious food which I've eaten there on a frequent basis ever since it opened.
The Firebird Cafe, near Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow, is the best Italian place I have discovered in ages, with many more interesting dishes than the usual tagliatelli in a meat and tomato sauce which anyone could cook at home. Best of all are its salads, which contain a rich variety of tasty leaves, nuts, and other bits and pieces, everything always fresh and beautifully presented. It offers a number of vegetarian options, some of which are easily converted for vegans. Despite the considerable range of its main courses, all are cooked with intimate skill, and, still more unusually, its chefs are capable of producing a really good dessert. Highly recommended.
Malaysia Style, just round the corner from me on Glasgow's St. George's Road, is the Chinese restaurant most beloved of Glasgow's Chinese community. The owner, who is a lovely man and always on the premises, continually enthuses about fashionable new Hong Kong dishes he has heard about and is trying to recreate. Alongside these exotic delicacies is a range of easily affordable staple dishes which can be cooked to order within five minutes, and which are always superb quality. The best green tea in the city is served free whilst you wait. The only real problem with Malaysia Style is that it offers very limited options for vegetarians.
The Lemon Tree, recently opened on Great Western Road, is something which Glasgow has been missing for a long time, a really good quality Chinese restaurant. Small and family-run, with a plain appearance and frequently awful background music, it nevertheless excels where it really matters, with the food. Its light, crispy, non-greasy prawn crackers are the best in town and are always provided in abundance. Its meat is always tender, yet crispy where appropriate, and its sauces, especially the subtly aromatic szechuan, are superb. Vegetarian and vegan options are available.
The White Horse and Griffin restaurant on Church Street in Whitby is slightly more expensive than my usual kind of place, but worth every penny. While the portions look small, they are in fact incredibly filling, and served with an abundance of side dishes. The wine list is reasonably priced and extremely well selected. Some vegetarian dishes are available, though vegans won't have much luck. The range of different breads provided before the meal is amazing, with every one of them delicious. As for the main courses themselves, they are exquisitely cooked, tender and beautifully spiced. I recommend the roast duck with wild mushrooms.
You can see more of my restaurant reviews here on the IoWiki.
Uisge Beatha on Woodlands Road in Glasgow is where I can most often be found if I've gone out for a drink in the evening. Despite its increasing tendency to attract a student crowd, it has never lost its friendly traditional atmosphere nor compromised its style. It's a huge rambling place with four main rooms, mostly separated into booths; big tables in some of them, others small and discreet, with plush red velvet covered chairs or pews to sit on. There are oil paintings and stuffed animal heads everywhere, an old Spitting Image Margaret Thatcher puppet blending in so well that most people never notice it, and a range of other unusual sculptures besides. In various places there are shelves crammed with books. It's always a relaxed place, never rushed, and the staff are quite happy to let a customer sit for a couple of hours quietly reading and sipping a pint. It's always possible to get talking to friendly strangers there, of all ages and backgrounds. There are over ninety different malt whiskies on the gantry and usually quite a few good real ales. They also, for some reason, have a history of employing really cute bar staff, though I may be biased, as I had an ex among them. Oh, and they make damn fine coffee.
The Halt, also on Woodlands Road, is my other local, though I don't spend as much time there as I used to; it's getting to be busier these days, and harder to find a seat in. Some readers may be familiar with it as the location of much of the Taggart TV series popular a few years ago. It has a big horseshoe bar in one of its larger rooms, which is sometimes too loud due to the television there, which shows mostly sport and videos; there's a nicer bit of space round the back of this, with an open fire which is wonderful in winter. And there's pinball, which keeps Donald happy. The adjoining room makes a pleasant place to sit around quietly during the day, on those occasions when it's open, and at night it plays host to some good local blues bands. There's a decent selection of real ales available.
Nice n' Sleazy on Sauchiehall Street is Glasgow's only punk pub, always a relief to enter after the hassles of walking through a ned-ridden city centre at night. It's pleasantly dark and smokey, especially in the basement, which frequently hosts excellent gigs as well as a monthly goth night. The beer is limited in range but decent in quality. The food is excellent and fairly cheap. There are pool tables. The staff are always friendly and helpful. It's a good place.
The Thirteenth Note, on the corner of King Street, behind Glasgow's St. Enoch Centre, plays host to our netgoth gatherings on the second and fourth Thursday of each month, and is a good place to hang out at any time. The staff are always friendly, there are some good bottled ales available, and, before ten o'clock, it also offers delicious vegetarian and vegan food. There's also a tapas menu, though the olives leave something to be desired, being brine-soaked. On busy evenings, the jukebox can be too loud to talk over; and there's very little in the way of heating in the winter or air conditioning in summer; but other than that, it's quite lovely. Newspapers are always available. There's a useful noticeboard and a supply of flyers and listings publications. The recently re-covered seats are very comfy (albeit sadly no longer purple), and there are big tables at which artists often work.
I find that a lot of omnivores are naively dismissive of vegetarian food, whilst the majority of vegetarians imagine a vegan diet to be exceedingly dull. This is a shame, as there are plenty of delightful foods in the world besides meat, honey, eggs and dairy products. Much traditional Chinese, Indian and south east Asian cookery excludes meat and dairy. There are a whole host of delicious cereal and nut based dishes which most westerners neglect.
Personally, I have no ethical problems with eating meat, only an emotional disappointment in people who can't see beyond it. Almost all other animals are happy to eat meat if given the chance, so I don't see why I shouldn't. I'll be happy enough to be eaten when I die. Sure, I don't want to be killed for it, but I don't imagine that any ethical considerations would stop a hungry leopard or blue shark from making a meal of me; that's just the way the world works. I have no pretentions to being 'above' other animals or more heavily obligated by virtue of being civilised.
Where I do draw a line with what I'm prepared to eat is where it comes to torture. I won't eat veal or pate du fois gras. I buy free range eggs from reliable wholesalers so that I can be sure more than just the letter of that law has been adhered to. When I buy meat, it's usually game; the freedom enjoyed by the animal invariably makes for a better flavour, anyway. I don't see the need to force feed, isolate or severely confine animals for the sake of producing food. For more personal reasons, which I'll admit are as much emotional as logical, I also abstain from eating the more highly intelligent animals - no whale steak or calimari for me, thanks. I guess that's to do with the extent to which I value each individual life.
This being something of a specialised field, but one which is, sadly, growing with the spread of the HIV virus, I am hoping to publish a set of guidelines and recipes within the next year, as my personal experience of looking after the nutritional needs and gastronomic pleasures of an immunosuppressed person develops. The first rule, of course, is strict hygiene; everything must be spotlessly clean, and food must never be left uncovered, reheated or eaten past its best before date. However, when an individual is seriously immunosuppresseusly immunosuppressed, there are a great many other considerations besides.
All fungi based foods are out. That means not just mushrooms, but also truffles, and things like soft cheese, beer, tofu, tempeh, yoghurt and fresh-cooked (leavened) bread, where fermentation has been involved in their production. Most fungi will still give off spores even after being boiled or fried for hours, frozen or dried or pickled for months. With the exception of such items, anything out of a tin is completely safe, provided that the tin has not been dented or punctured and that the outside of it is wiped before it's opened. Pasteurised foods are also safe provided they're used up quickly. Individually wrapped slices of pasteurised cheese designed for children are safe, for instance. Fruit and vegetables must be peeled wherever possible and must always be thoroughly washed. It is safest to boil or fry fresh foods for a long time before serving. All food with cooking instructions should be left to cook for a little while longer than ordinarily advised.
One of greatest sources of confusion I've encountered is in the area of herbs and spices. It seems that most people have so little familiarity with these as to be unable to distinguish one from another when it comes to safety rules, but after much research I have been able to find out a few things more useful that just "don't". Black pepper, paprika and cayenne peprika and cayenne pepper (all of which come from the same plant) are completely off limits, since they carry the aspergillis bacterium, which can be extremely dangerous. Chilli pepper and nasturshums, however, are fine, and can substitute for those other pepper flavours to an extent. Staple dried herbs basil, sage, oregano, thyme, marjoram, coriander, mint, tarragon, parsely, dill and rosemary are fine as long as they are thoroughly boiled or fried; fresh ones must be washed carefully, but are otherwise even safer. Fresh ginger root and garlic are safe as long as they're well cooked.
Cream, eggs which haven't been hard boiled, and any products (such as mayonnaise) made using raw egg are too dangerous to be eaten at all, since they provide an excellent growing medium for bacteria. Salami and pate should be avoided for similar reasons. Uncooked nuts are dangerous; as yet I have been unable to determine the status of roasted ones, but I wouldn't want anybody to discover they were dangerous the hard way.
I shall attempt to keep adding to this article as I learn more.
Last updated 10th January, 2009