Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Kweilin - Edinburgh

This friendly little Chinese on Dundas St is the best Chinese I have eaten in Scotland. It is expensive, as four of us was nearly 150 pounds. But in fairness we had a whole lobster in black bean which was very nice indeed. Do not choose sweet and sour fish as its a bit fishy I found ( menu said sea bass or monkfish but I think we were served a lesser fish), and the char sui was a bit dry, but the rice, noodles and choi sum was top class. It is noted for fresh seafood so i would suggest sticking to that, but they can cook. Seriously good Chinese in a nice room.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The true horror of British Restaurants

In the 1960's and 70's British restaurants were known all around the world by travelers as the worst. They served up awful food using microwaves, and this period has been epitomized in many cooking programs as the "scampi and chips" generations.

Unfortunately despite the efforts of the Roux brothers in the 70's until today and of many many chefs down to Jamie Oliver today the real problem has not been uncovered until my visit to Siamese Kitchen in Duns this week made me realize.

The big problem is the British people themselves who put up with rubbish and say "oh well it wasn't bad really..." when it was in fact awful. The lack of understanding of real cuisines (what can one expect from British travelers who go to Spain and order fish and chips)  has led them to accept totally awful Chinese, Thai and Indian restaurants who produce to rote their bland boring chop sueys and rogan joshs, cooked below par, with little flavor and very few original or fresh ingredients.

The number of times we have been recommended restaurants by people and when we tried them we were shocked at how bad they were is almost 100%.  In this blog I have tried to be very fair to all the restaurants reviewed but if you read them there are VERY few who have not had serious problems. You get what you pay for is not true. You get what you deserve is maybe closer to the truth, if we don't complain and ask questions we will get this rubbish forever...think about it!

Siamese Kitchen - Duns

Oh dear what to say about this, the only Thai restaurant in the area? Two lovely ladies run it and they have spotlessly clean kitchens and are lovely people. Unfortunately they have either allowed their cooking to deteriorate to locals tastes, or they fail to cook properly. I think the latter as the pad thai had echoes of the real thing, but sadly lacks all flavor. Thai cooking is all about the use of FRESH herbs  peppers and they have eliminated all that. Also the chicken with basil and peppers has no basil and no peppers so as you can imagine is pretty bland! What a shame, they are both Thai I think and they probably cook great food for themselves but serve up this watered down bland concoction for guests. I cannot recommend it which is a great shame as the Borders desperately needs alternatives to haggis and neeps!!