30 April 2011

Oklahoma folk drink tea too...

The Sweeneys have arrived! Well, Mama and Papa Sweeney that is and we are already partying this Caledonia pretty hard. We hit up Kleofas Cafe last night for some delish Polish cuisine. See previous post to get more of the details of what a place like this has to offer. And today was High Tea at The Caledonian (indeed, the 5* place where Sean Connery stays when visiting Edinburgh). True to Sweeney form, many of these parties have revolved around great food. What is better than great food and the best company afterall?

And great, high fa lootin' food it was! Check out this spread...


Lori was the most refined of us all, I think. She catches on quick to high class culture it seems. Check out that pinky action...I swear it was unintentional.
We all had different votes on the best delectable of the day. Mine went to the above pictured meringue. Billowy with a marvelous mix of sticky, chewy and crunchy. The bite with the raspberry and cream was absolute divinity - no pun intended:)


I have been pining to take tea at The Caledonian for a while now after walking past it on Lothian Road regularly for the last few months on our way into town. Lothian Road is normally such a roulette of foul smells (I'll spare you the details on the types we have encountered on our walks). But there is incredible moment that hits when you pass the one 10 metre stretch along The Caledonian. It is pastry pleasure for about two good inhales and it takes me to the kind of happy that I have only gotten in places like Great Harvest during a Christmas shift and the shortbread came out of the oven with pools of butter....you know the serene joy I mean.

So did it live up to all I hoped? In the words of Kurt, "I will remember this until the day I get dementia". I am in accord. So a big thanks to Kurt and Lori who sponsored such a marvelously fun and memorable afternoon tea!

28 April 2011

Royal Tailgating...

...or Fancy a Blue, White and Red party?

It is the Royal Wedding Eve! It does seem that there is at least as much talk about it over on the Stateside of the pond as there is here in Scotland. Still, we have had a fair share of William and Kate's pic plastered all over mugs, postcards, and "Quiksilver" gambling houses.

I scored a bit of luck housekeeping one day when a tour group left behind a couple of mugs in their rooms after checking out. My boss let me keep the first one, as she was doing beds with me that day, but luckily she secured her free mug a few rooms later. Perfect for a royal cuppa tea!

On telly today, all of my "Bargain Hunters", "Save My Holiday" and "Homes Under the Hammer" programmes were replaced with LIVE footage of people camping out on the Thames and outside Westminster Abbey in Britain coloured hats (worthy of the Kentucky Derby). The Regis and Kathy Lee London equivalents speculated over tea, finger sandwiches and fairy cakes about what Kate's dress will look like and how Prince William will manage to carefully cover his bald spot (apparently something he is quite sensitive about...).

Though I had little interest up until this point about the whole thing, I have to say that I started to get a bit caught up in all the talk and paused a few moments between stripping beds and turning on the hoover to see what details they would share from what they knew. I think the same thing is happening with the Scots, in spite of themselves. If you ask whether or not they care the response tends to be something like "Ah...I didnae care really. It's just a silly English thing". Still, from what I gather, my boss is going to a hat party with her friends tomorrow to watch the coverage, the restaurant manager will have the telly going all day to keep tabs on the goings on and in the words of Matt's supervisor at the National Library of Scotland "I have mixed feelings about the monarchy but I won't argue with a day off".

I say cheers to William and Kate as I'll be enjoying that extra bank holiday while on the continent in Holland's tulip fields next week!  It seems fitting too as what is more British than enjoying a good and proper holiday?

22 April 2011

Spring Visitors and Loch Ness Adventures

Now that the dark and drizzly days of winter are being overcome with the light and drizzly days of spring, loads of visitors are heading up north and across the pond to adventure Caledonia with us. The festivities began just this last weekend when Matt's mate from the ol' mission flew all the way out to stay in our wee flat on William Street in hopes we would show him a good time in these parts. I prepped for his arrival by buying some authentic flavours for him to enjoy which included hot cross buns, scones and clotted cream, Tunnock's Teacakes and a couple of Kinder Eggs. Luckily Chase has a sense of humour and no agenda because he quickly forgave Matt and I for having eaten nearly all of the scones, hot cross buns and clotted cream before he even got here! Thank goodness we had the self control to leave some Teacakes and Kinder eggs for him. That said, I think his week adventuring with us was still full of some good tastes of Scotland.

Some highlights of the week, at least for me, were walking about Holyrood Park and getting loads of new views that I swear I had never seen before. That place will always be a wonder. It has so much to offer.

We all worked up a pretty good appetite for some "chipy" when we finished. The Fish n Chips place on the Royal Mile was recommended by a couple of people at work so we stopped there. It was perfect. Served up by a frowning Scottish tween then eaten in a plaza with an distressing number of pigeons, we got all kinds of authentic local flavour from our lunch stop.

That afternoon, we packed up and headed over to Waverly bridge to catch our train to Inverness. What does Inverness have to offer you ask?

Any guesses? Can you see a slithering creature swimming about in this pic?

Indeed, it is just a hop, skip and a swim through a canal from the famous Loch Ness. So after resting our wary legs at the Inverness Student Hostel, and getting an earful from a chatty but tactless Englishman about "what Americans are like", we made our way over to our "Jacobite Tour" of Loch Ness. The weather was somewhat unforgiving (though how could I expect anything different than overcast and chilly/fresh Scottish weather?) and the pre-recorded tour narration was stale and hard to follow but no complaints on the views. It was that austere kind of gloomy beautiful that this place has to offer. I loved it.

Though, I found our wee trip down the canal somewhat upsetting as this random local fellow took it upon himself to wait around on the banks until our boat left and then road alongside us the whole way. For some reason it stressed me out beyond words. Maybe because it was he made it difficult to take a picture that didn't include him or perhaps because he kept looking over at us to make sure he was "on pace" with us. Would you believe he waited for us for the hour+ we were on the loch and was there back on the bank of the canal to ride alongside us back?! If you ever make your way up that far north and take the Jacobite tour, you will have to tell me if you encounter this guy.

Inverness is a lovely town to explore on foot and easy to keep your barrings. We took a leisurely walk along the canal after our lunch of sandwiches and scones. It had some really idyllic sites to offer.
The rest of the week has blurred past since we got the midnight train home and I have worked the last couple of days. Still, amid all the stresses of applying for jobs around the country, papers and finals, work and church callings, it was so so lovely to have an excuse to take a wee holiday just north of us. I think I am learning the art of being a Brit in their right to a proper holiday for good mental health. Many more adventures are awaiting us too as my dear friend Mary is coming in tomorrow afternoon and those dear Oklahoma Sweeney parents next weekend. I have already booked our "Tea for 4" at the Caledonian next weekend with them and set aside my holiday earned from the "Royal Wedding" next week to go towards a trip to our first trip to the continent. Much to love in a Scottish Springtime it seems....

14 April 2011

Smacznego (or "Bon Appetit")

Before coming to Edinburgh, I would think about all the different, new experiences I expected to have.  I wondered whether haggis really would be as unappealing as everyone made it out to be (turns out it is actually quite nice). I wondered if I would be able to make friends with Scottish people or if there would be cultural barriers that would prevent it. Among the things I wondered about, there was also a fair amount I expected to experience. For example, I expected going to the supermarket would be even more loathsome than it is was with a car (this indeed turned out to be true). I anticipated that it would be hard to find a lot of the ingredients and foods that I am used to cooking with (this has been the case sometimes but not always*). Etc etc.

One of the great things though about exploring a new place though is that there are loads of things that are great which you don't even expect. One of the biggest ones for me in the Edinburgh chapter of my life is getting to know Polish people, culture and food. When I first interviewed for my housekeeping job, I was asked very matter-of-factly if I knew how to speak Polish. "What a random language to know", I said. "Why no, I don't know if I have even met a Polish person before." The duty manager, a kind but humourless fellow, followed up by telling me that there are a lot of Poles in the Edinburgh area and that half of the housekeeping team was Polish and a handful of the kitchen help were as well. At the time, it didn't matter to me one way or the other (I just cared about getting a job). I had no idea what a cultural adventure I was about to have.

My second day on the job I was paired up with this spunky, wee Polish lass who in spite of having learned English only a couple of years ago could chat it up more than anyone I had ever met. Ever. From the start, we "got on like a house on fire". I don't know how you couldn't with this girl Aneta. Within the first couple weeks of work, we were already swapping favourite cultural dishes with each other. I made her chile con carne and cornbread. She brought me potato dumplings, meat stuffed cabbage, and Polish herbal teas (she is fascinated with me not drinking leaf tea as a religious thing). Even today I have come home with a 15 bags of "Malina + Granat - Herbata Owocowa" (Raspberry and Pomegranat Herbal Tea judging by the pictures on the box) and a handful of Polish biscuits and wafer candies. Her teas and biscuits have yet to disappoint as they have an unrivaled grasp on how to best espouse the wonders of marshmallow.

Last night sealed the deal for me though. For a couple of weeks, Aneta and our Latvian co-worker/friend Agnese and I have been talking about going to Kleofas Cafe, a wee Polish restaurant over on Gorgie Road. It took some scheduling acrobatics to get us all there at the same time but oh was it worth it!

The wonders that the Poles can work with beets, potatoes, cabbage and the like. Never thought to saute pickled beets in butter to make a warm salad but it is one idea to remember.

Though the potato dumplings were unbelievably moist and soft and my pork medallion impeccably savoury with a mushroom sauce they made, the award of best dish would have to go to the dessert cake I got. "Sour Apple and Dark Chocolate Cake". What an inspired combination of  melty bittersweet and sour with the most stimulating texture. I have never eaten a cake that accomplished so much without any frosting. What a delight!
How had I never heard the raving reviews of Polish food before? Surely with the contributions they make to the culinary world, there would be more restaurants around and aisles in supermarkets with their ingredients. I will say though, that this experience is probably a template for something much bigger that I will encounter as I go new places, meet new people throughout my life. I imagine that there are a wealth of people and cultures (and food) I have never really thought about before but has something magnificent to offer.




*Foods I expected would be difficult to find but are not
-Cummin
-Mexican food (there is little variety and not as great/authentic quality but it is there)
-Cinnamon sticks (I didn't expected these to be difficult to find but they are so super cheap here compared to the States)

*Foods I expected would be easy to find but are not
-Ground pepper (they usually only have the peppercorns?)
-Diced green chilis
-Popcorn
-Chocolate chips
-Tofu
-Dried Beans (Black and Pinto beans are the most difficult to find; they can be found but they are quite expensive and only at the biggest supermarkets.)

11 April 2011

Simple Pleasures in Portobello

These last few weeks Matt and I have been burying our heads in homework, the ol' church callings, work and volunteering. However, with the start of British Summertime (ie Daylight Savings for all you American folk) , our days have gotten luxuriously longer, quicker than we expected. This has led to all kinds of restlessness in trying to stay in, with work to be done. Since November we became used to a cozy hibernation with mugs of tea in our wee flat when the sun went down at 3:30pm for month after month. In the last couple weeks though it has become a bit torturous to try and be too productive when it is light (and often even balmy warmish!) until as late as nearly 8pm. Indeed, a day-adventure was calling our name. So we looked at how far the Lothian line buses would would take us in any direction (in spite of the 10pence increase) and chose a Saturday afternoon in Portobello.

We hopped onto #26 that took us out to Edinburgh's seaside resort of yore. Apparently, this place used to be quite the holiday seaside destination for 19th century folk but like most idiosyncratic resorts, like Saltair, it has been in slowly declined in popularity over the ages.

Portobello is only 4+ miles from our flat but it might as well be in a different city than Matt and I as we have no car and a maximum walking distance capacity of 5 miles round trip. That said, it was well worth the 5.20 it took to get us to this stretch of the Firth of Forth. The 19C (66F) weather was about as friendly as one can ask for from a Scottish coastline in the spring (or ever for all I know). Still, I am not sure I would have been as brave as these thick skinned wee lasses messing about in North Sea waves in nothing but swimming costumes. Perhaps Scots are bred a bit heartier for a holiday at the sea.

One of the Edinburgh historian-types in our ward was telling us just today that he once had a mate that would swim across the Forth, starting in Portobello, on New Years Eve every year! Unimagineable....

This is a coastline that doesn't call for the boogie boards and only those who are "having a laugh" would think to bring a umbrella for sun protection to this misty, cool beach. Still, there is something utterly serene about visiting a part of the sea that offers a boardwalk with nostalgic wonders like "Noble's Amusement's" (a la Pleasure Island scenes in Pinocchio) and stretches of beach that don't place you in uncomfortable proximity to overweight sunbathers.

I think one of my favourite nuances of the place was this mist that would rise up from close to the tide.

After walking about for a bit, Matt and I decided the outing called for Magnum bars and an Italian Ices along with a good sit and some people watching. When we finished up, we walked our way back along the boardwalk and caught the bus home. I think it felt a wee bit easier to whittle away at our papers and assignments with a hints of wind burn (or perhaps could it be from the sun?) on our skin.