Best Eats of Glasgow

Back in July, Rob and I managed to get a couple of days away together. Keen on exploring a cultural and foodie centre, we opted for Glasgow. With such limited time and so many culinary hot spots to explore, we were ruthless in picking restaurants. Below are the few that made the cut.

The Dhabba 

In North India, roadside diners are commonly known as Dhabbas - This indian restaurant in Glasgow replicates that cuisine with finese and true expertise! Recommended by The Guardian as one of the Top 10 Curry Houses in the UK. 

We ate Shuruvaati Thal - a starter platter of king prawn, lamb, chicken and vegetarian bites. Followed by Masala Machli - Juicy monkfish in a sauce of caramelised onions, tomatoes and peppers, Bhuna Gosht with lamb that was 'melt in the mouth' tender, and we garnished our curries with garlic naans the size of my head - an incredible depth of flavour, and a lovely smokey finish.

Cafe Gandolfi

Once part of an old cheese market, this rustic cafe is the perfect spot for a Scottish breakfast.

Deagh Bhiadh, Deagh Bheannachd - Well fed, well blessed. The Gaelic proverb displayed on the wall of the Cafe Gandolfi is the owner's aspiration for everybody who eats there. We started our day with Freshly Squeezed Pink Grapefruit Juice, cheek pursing sharpness and sweetness balanced perfectly. Rob took on the Full Scottish Breakfast - Stornoway black pudding, bacon, beef sausage, cherry tomatoes, potato scone, field mushrooms and scrambled eggs... and toast of course! Whilst I opted for the slightly more modest Eggs Hebridean with Stornoway black pudding. By far the best black pudding I have ever had accompanied by silk eggs and a rich hollandaise, it was enough for a post breakfast nap. 

Bread Meats Bread

We happened to be staying around the corner from Bread Meats Bread and saw it by chance. It peaked our interested immediately - clever restaurant name, good styling, burgers?! So we gave it a try. As you know we're both big fans of American style food, so we hoped it would fill the beef shaped hole in our lives. We ate a Fullhouse Burger - Brioche Bun, American Cheese, Smoked Brisket, Gravy, Tobacco Onions, Pickles and Sauce, as well as the Chicago Goumet Dog with mustard, tomatoes, onion and pickle relish. We then shared a Classic Poutine. If you have never tried the Canadian masterpiece that is Poutine - you are wasting your life, go out and get some NOW. The classic poutine is Chips with Cheese Curds and Gravy. It's not chips, cheese and gravy. It's different, honest. You'll fall in love or your money back (Georgie guarentee*) *No money will be refunded.

Riverhill Cafe

For our last morning in Glasgow, we searched for a great cup of coffee. It had been two days and I needed caffiene - I'm a Londoner! Riverhill ticked all of the boxes. I was finally granted a delicious flat white - smooth, rich and creamy. Rob opted for a Black Pudding Sausage roll, which was beautifully rustic and had a great texture and flavour. Continuing my Canadian theme - we were in Glasgow after all... I tried a Nanaimo Bar. This particular nanaimo was vegan and extremely filling. A traditional nanaimo has a wafer-like base with a custard layer and chocolate topping, but this was a healthy coconut version, made with dates and cocao instead of chocolate. Guilt free cakes at their best!

I Love Doughnuts But...

I have been a little absent from my blog of late, but I haven't been any less obsessed with food. I have begun to make one change however, and that is a promise to myself and my body that I will try my very best to eat cleanly and heathily wherever possible - as well as cutting my meat intake by half.

So I still love doughnuts, but I've just been eating a little less of them and have been getting interested in healthy alternatives to my favourite sugary snacks. The clean eating promise comes from my want and need to nuture my body as there is nothing more important than looking after ourselves. There is a definite awareness that comes with clean eating, and in taking up this challenge, it has really highlighted for me how little I think about what I'm putting into my body - things that would before seem like a normal snack or a drink are things that I no longer want to consume.

This new lifestyle started after I watched the BBC2 Horizon documentary series - 'Should I Eat Meat?', and I was shocked by the effect that meat production is having on the planet. One third of the world's land is used for arable farming, just so we can feed the animals that we eat. Our current meat intake in the UK averages at 220g of meat per day and in order for meat production to be sustainable in our current environment, we need to half that intake. This is a change I thought I could easily make - it would save me money and improve my health. It's been a month or so now and I have definitely decreased my meat intake - some days I don't eat meat or dairy at all. It's made me realise that I don't really miss them.

However being a big foodie and with food being a part of my career as well as my personal passion, I wanted to give myself the freedom to eat animal products if and when I wanted to, as long as I was adhering to my reduction rule. As I cut down on my intake, I started to cook more vegan meals - ones that were piled high with the most delicious vegetables, eating dried fruit for snacks, drinking cold pressed juices and getting really obsessed with avocados. My eating was becoming cleaner, so why not make that a permanent change in my life?

I have also been spending a lot of time on Instagram (you can find my account here: http://instagram.com/skye2612 ), where I post a lot of pictures without writing blog posts to go alongside them. In exploring this, I have found a lot of other accounts that are passionate about clean eating and alternatives to what we are so used to eating. 

Although I still love eating out and am thoroughly obsessed with Crosstown Doughnuts, you will notice a change in some of the things I am cooking and writing about. I hope to share my finds with you - particularly if I find any new good and healthy snacks, as well as my usual food porn.