Tag: haddock

Food and drink, Uncategorized

Tolbooth Restaurant, Stonehaven

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We were given a voucher for Stonehaven’s Tolbooth restaurant at Christmas and have waited for a sunny weekend all summer to use it. Our thinking is that it would be a shame to waste the trip to Stoney without being able to sit outside afterwords having a few speciality beers from The Marine. Well, summer came and went with barely a glimmer of sunshine on a free Saturday to get us over the hill so we decided to just book a table and hope for the best.

The restaurant lives right on the harbour in the upstairs of the old tolbooth jailhouse. Every seaside town needs to have a good seafood restaurant sitting right on the pier. Certainly every town with a fishing heritage like Stonehaven’s deserves one. Continue reading “Tolbooth Restaurant, Stonehaven” →

Drink, Review

An afternoon in Brewdog and The Athenaeum

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Saturday was the semi-final of the Scottish League Cup. Aberdeen played Celtic and lost 4-1, as the penalty which lead to the fourth goal was awarded I made my way out of a packed Irish pub in an Aberdeen side street with my brother, disgusted at the 30 minutes of football we’d just witnessed. Giving up on the game we decided to try to find a better way to spend the afternoon.

I haven’t written about Brewdog despite them being a big local (and national) story over the last couple of years. That’s because I’m not really a big fan of their beer. I love their attitude and they certainly have a fantastic knack for promotion. The Fraserburgh based brewery has been a huge success since they began in 2007 and have done a superb job of getting up the noses of the more established brands and the booze establishment. They seem to have caught the general public’s imagination and are converting a large number of young drinkers into fans of IPA and steering them away from bland, commercial lager. Continue reading “An afternoon in Brewdog and The Athenaeum” →

Recipe

Steamed and braised haddock with colcannon

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It’s been a while since I chose a recipe out of a book and then set out to buy the necessary ingredients and follow it as closely as possible. Post-Christmas, having received a few books as presents it’s time to break out of the making it up as I go along groove I”ve been in lately.

The excellent River Cottage Fish book is the one I decided would supply tonight’s dinner and I settled on a recipe for steamed/braised ling. Because Tesco’s is shit and it didn’t have any of the white fish Hugh recommended I decided to go for haddock. It was either that or Vietnamese cobbler. Seemed a better idea to go for the fish that had only travelled a few hundred miles instead of a few thousand. Continue reading “Steamed and braised haddock with colcannon” →

The Marine Hotel
Review

Lunch at the Marine Hotel, Stonehaven

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We had a trip to Stonehaven this afternoon to look after the family dog while my folks were away for the day, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to have some lunch down at the harbour. Stonehaven harbour on a sunny summer’s day is a great place to go and spend some time. When the sun’s shining the sea wall is full of people sitting around enjoying a few pints from the pubs on the quayside and contemplating which one to have dinner in or whether to trade up to the well regarded Tolbooth seafood restaurant further round the bay or to head into the town centre for other fare. There’s certainly plenty of choice anyway. Continue reading “Lunch at the Marine Hotel, Stonehaven” →