Nahm-Jim & The L'Orient Lounge @ St Andrews, Scotland

As St Andrews in Scotland is a relatively small town, there are not many Asian restaurants available and Nahm-Jim is one of the few. It serves both Thai and Japanese cuisine but we only sampled the Thai dishes. It is located at the city centre and is fairly easy to spot.

       

        

Table setting

     

Tom Yum (GBP 6.50)

     
There is a choice of king prawns, chicken or mushrooms with the traditional Tom Yum so naturally I chose king prawn =D My brother and I had one bowl each because we expected the portion to be the size of a Chinese rice bowl. You would never believe the size of a portion for one - the bowl pictured above is a medium sized soup bowl!! As you can see, the bowl is chockful of button mushrooms and prawns. The chefs certainly did not tone down the fieryness of the soup for the Scots as even I felt that it was spicy. The Tom Yum is definitely a surprise winner with its spicy and sourish flavour.

     

Chilli and Thai Basil Duck (GBP 14.50)

   
This Chilli and Thai Basil Duck is also our favourite dish. It has lots of wok hei and the tender duck slices are fully infused with the flavours of chilli and basil. The onions and peppers added a nice crunch to the dish. The spicy gravy, though oily, goes so well with rice.

     

Aubergine Green Curry (GBP 12.50)

   
This dish came laden with lots of greens such as the titular baby aubergines, broccoli and peppers. The gravy is thick with the aroma of coconut cream and fragrant due to the addition of herbs. I'm not a fan of green curry as there is a distinct flavour that I can't quite describe but if you love typical green curries, this will most likely win you over too like it did my brother who kept ladling gravy over his rice.

     

If ever you're craving Asian food in St Andrews, Nahm-Jim is a good choice =D

   

    

PawPoints: 4 Paws

    

http://www.nahm-jim.co.uk/index.html

    

Nahm-Jim @ The L'Orient Lounge

60-62 Market Street

St Andrews

Scotland

Tel: +44 01334 470 000

Sun - Thur: 12pm - 4.45pm, 6pm - 12am

Fri - Sat: 12pm - 4.45pm, 6pm - 1am

The Dogs @ Edinburgh, Scotland

I came across this cute pub while researching for food in Edinburgh. The usual pub food is served at The Dogs whereas its sister restaurants Seadogs serve seafood and Amore Dogs serve Americanised Italian fare.

Unfortunately, this pub does not have the usual pub favourites such as Shepherd's or cottage pie, roasts (probably because it's not a Sunday) or even my favourite J2O(!!) (a non-alcoholic beverage in a beer bottle with melon flavour). Nevertheless, it is a cosy place with nice food.

Coat of arms

Menu

Bar counter

Skirt steak, chips, beef tomato and smoked garlic butter (GBP 11.75)

Simple steak and wedges done beautifully - the steak was juicy and well-flavoured with the added taste of garlic butter, the wedges were roasted to a crisp yet fluffy texture and a halved grilled tomato. Good stuff =D

Seafood stew with garlic crouton (GBP 9.95)

The seafood stew was filled with ingredients - lots of mussels, prawns, mini clams, fish and calamari stewed together with cabbage, celery and leek. The broth was creamy and rich with butter, coating every single piece of seafood very well. The garlic crouton was crispy but slightly tough once dipped in the gravy. I would have appreciated a bigger piece of crouton though =P Overall this was one yummy dish but it can get kind of cloying after you've had most of it.

Showing you the way to good food

PawPoints: 4 Paws

http://www.thedogsonline.co.uk/

The Dogs

110 Hanover St
Edinburgh
Tel: 0131 220 1208

Daily

Garfunkel's Restaurant @ Edinburgh, Scotland

We were surprised to find Garfunkel's in Scotland as we saw posters all over London proclaiming its "Any 2 for £11 Breakfast" promotion (they now seem to have a different breakfast deal). We thought breakfast at £6.50 per person is a steal. In any case, its homepage states that it has outlets in Edinburgh and Bath too so if you're in one of these cities, you can just hop in for nice, warm and affordable British fare.

      

Garfunkel's

   
Garfunkel's caters for breakfast, lunch and dinner and after perusing the separate menus for each meal, I quite regretted not having more proper British dishes for each meal since it will be a while before I return T_T You can preview their drool-worthy offerings here.

     

Breakfast Menu

    

Garfunkel's Legendary "Full House" Breakfast (GBP 12.50 for 2)

   
The "Any 2 for £11 Breakfast" deal mentioned above was only valid for all breakfast choices except for the Garfunkel's Legendary "Full House" Breakfast which requires an additional £1.50 top-up for the meal deal. Still, the total price wasn't too bad with such a huge portion and bear in mind, the above picture shows the portion for 1 person. 
     
The legendary plate came filled to the brim with TWO rashers of bacon, a pork and leek sausage, fried egg, half a grilled tomato, baked beans, a grilled large flat mushroom, TWO hash browns and black pudding <big grin> Well now that I'm quoting the items from the menu and looking at the picture above, I seem to have been shortchanged a hash brown hmmpf.
     
Well, fried egg and baked beans are usual everyday items and these were done very well. The grilled tomato was perfectly done with a nice slightly crisp skin and insides that were slightly mushy but did not spill over when cut. The bacon was good, very meaty with the layer of fat just seared nicely whereas the sausage was grilled to a crisp and really juicy. The black pudding was addictive and crisp but the mushroom was a tad too salty. I love the super crispy hash brown with fluffy potato insides.
      
It was rather windy in Edinburgh but it felt so good chowing down a plate of big Scottish breakfast with a steaming cup of hot tea while dining outside the restaurant alfresco style with the (strong) breeze whipping about your face. I highly recommend Garfunkel's as a relatively cheap alternative to good British fare. Wish I had found out about its existence sooner though.
            

PawPoints: 4 Paws
    
http://www.garfunkels.co.uk/
     
Garfunkel's Restaurant

130 High Street
Edinburgh
Scotland
Tel: +44 0131 220 4445
Daily: 8am - 11pm

Tailend Fish Bar @ St Andrews, Scotland

What do you do when you first step foot in UK? Eat fish and chips of course! And it helps if the first city you go to is a seaside town with a chip shop =D

The Tailend Fish Bar at St Andrews used to be quite famous in Edinburgh and without ado after arriving at the guest house, I set off to the town centre in search of British-style fish. Now before we proceed to the taste test, how would you pronounce Tailend? Well it was very obvious to me that it's "Tail-end" - I mean those two words literally jump out at you. Turns out, it is a homonym of Thailand >.< And I even stopped to ask a few locals where "Tail-end" is located when I couldn't find the shop  >.< (JS: tsktsk)                       

Menu Part 1

Menu Part 2

Single Breaded Cod (GBP 5.80)

I had the single breaded cod instead of the usual battered haddock that I always order. Perhaps because of this and the fact that I had raised my expectations for the famous fish and chippery, it did not taste as nice as I had expected. It was deep-fried to a nice golden brown but it was rather dry. Maybe it was also because I had just got off the plane and didn't have much appetite but I couldn't finish it. To its credit, the fish is much larger than I expected (the usual haddock I have is half its width) and the styrofoam box is much larger than the usual chicken rice type.

Also when you are in Rome, do as the Romans do. So when in UK, fish should be eaten with a liberal splashing of malt vinegar. Here, the vinegar, salt and ketchup bottles are not available for self-service - instead you tell the staff what you want and they'll do it for you. Anyway, there wasn't enough vinegar on my fish but I should have told him to add more.

Oh well, now that I'm back, I should probably go try the Magnificent Fish & Chips Bar that everyone is raving about.


PawPoints: 3 Paws

Tailend Fish Bar
130 Market Street
St Andrews
Scotland
Tel: +44 01334 474 070
Daily: 12am - 10pm, 11.30pm - 12am

Full Scottish Breakfast @ Craigmore Guesthouse, St Andrews

Now I know people seldom think of St Andrews of Scotland as a tourist destination but it is home to one of the most important cathedral ruins and prestigious universities in UK. It is also very famous for golf so please don't come during the summer as all the guesthouses and hotels will be full and the prices exorbitant =.= The university itself hardly needs introduction as Kate and William famously met there as students. If you fancy some sea breeze, do make a trip to St Andrews too as it's a coastal city.
   
Anyway what I wanted to highlight in this post is... <drum roll> ...Scottish breakfast!!! =D

       

Menu

   
I stayed at Craigmore Guesthouse (which I highly recommend) and they offer a choice of full Scottish breakfast, Scottish kippers or porridge (otherwise known as oatmeal). No prizes for guessing which one I ordered =P
     

L-R: Marmalade, Butter Cubes, Strawberry Jam

   
I usually do not like toast with jam and butter as I had it every single day when I was still schooling and now I'm sick of it but I love the butter cubes, marmalade and strawberry jam served here - they all tasted really fresh as if they were just processed from milk and pureed from fresh fruit.

     

I also had a rack of toast to accompany my huge platter. Oh how I miss British bread! It is just so much fluffier even though the bread is compact with a nice bready aroma. It went so well with the preserves and butter that I was tempted to eat more than a slice.

   

Ham & Fresh Fruit

   
There was also a tray of ham, cheese, fresh fruit, yoghurt and muesli to choose from. I had a slice of ham and some summer fruits. The ham was really fresh and sweet and superior to any ham in KL; I could have had more but I was saving space for the porky platter and also there were limited slices on the breakfast trolley =P The rock melon, blueberry and raspberry were really sweet and juicy and a great appetiser.

      

Full Scottish Breakfast

   
The Full Scottish Breakfast consisted of, clockwise, sunny side-up, grilled mushrooms, grilled tomato, pork bacon, pork sausage, potato scone and black pudding. The fried egg, mushrooms and tomatoes were yummy as usual. The pork bacon was a little on the salty side though and not as crisp as I like it to be but it was really meaty. The pork sausage was a real winner with its crisp skin yet juicy filling. The potato scone was rather bland and tasteless - that's a miss. 

      

Now I bet most will be wondering how does black pudding taste or even, what it is. For the uninitiated, black pudding is a type of sausage made by cooking (pig's) blood with some filler such as oatmeal until it is congealed. It probably sounds like Fear Factor material and I was initially kind of apprehensive about its taste too so I had a tiny nibble and...it was nice! The black pudding was grilled to a crisp texture and if you don't dwell too much on the fact that it's congealed blood, it actually tastes like sausage but with a gamier taste. It's slightly crunchy too from the crisp exterior. All I can say is, if you like innards, give it a try. If you dislike innards, try at your own risk =)

And if you're curious, here's a view of my cosy room =)

   

Cosy double bed

Love the curtains

PawPoints: 4 Paws

 
http://standrewscraigmore.com/
      

Craigmore Guesthouse

Murray Park
St Andrews
Scotland

Tel: +44 01334 472 142