Warbecks Restaurant

As I mentioned in a previous post, the bane of my life when eating out is the double header of having to ask the "is it gluten-free" question and then having to decide whether or not I trust the answer.

We ate at Warbecks in Falkland, Fife, the other night and it made a pleasant change for the chef to seek me out and explain their approach to storing, preparing, cooking and serving the gluten-free dishes on their menu. The rigour that they apply made it easy to trust the answer. Dishes on the menu are marked with an asterisk if they are GF and a double asterisk if a GF version can be made. They won't serve chips unless you tell them that you are OK with stuff cooked in the same oil as, say, a battered fish, preferring to use separate pans and oil to cook saute potatoes. GF shortbread is cut in a different shape so as not to get mixed up with the regular stuff. The soup of the day, minestrone, was available with GF spaghetti in it. There was quite a choice of meringues on the dessert menu and a GF cloutie dumpling and sticky toffee pudding.

In the end I had a fried brie and redcurrant jelly starter (the brie was not crumbed, alas) and a breaded hadddock fillet with saute potatoes and vegetables. This came with a rich, creamy and rounded tartare sauce. There were also steaks on the menu and a salad table with GF dressings available.

The food itself was good and homely, the kind of tasty meal you would cook for yourself. No fancy presentation or complicated techniques or flavours, just plain, wholesome, well-cooked food. When you have coeliac disease, simple food is often the best when you are eating out. The portions were a good size and the prices economical, certainly by Edinburgh standards. It was pleasing to have a choice of GF dishes rather than experience the familiar feeling of "there's one thing on here that I can eat - maybe" and the chef's eagerness to explain everything was a very welcome change.

If you are coeliac and driving through Fife, you should consider a stop off at Warbecks in Falkland.

What would you like for dinner?

"Something tasty!" is the glib answer in our household.

Does the world need another food blog? Probably not. This is really an extension of our family site, TartanShamrock, and an attempt to digitise the little black book that indexes and contains recipes we've tried and tested over the last few years.

Increasingly I am finding the Internet is a more convenient source for locating new and interesting recipes rather than standing on the chair in our kitchen to select a cookbook or tatty article from the library arrayed along the top of the wall units. While enjoying the hours spent atop that chair, perusing old favourites and fruitlessly searching for new recipes that may combine that day's Ready Steady Cook selection of ingredients, I recognise the benefits of using technology to assist in compiling the weekly menu. It's less dangerous for a start.

So, are there any governing principles to this food blog? No, not really. It's not exclusively about Scottish and Irish food because we aren't particularly traditional in that regard. I must get Sharon to write down her Irish Stew recipe, however. If we can find any ingredients locally, we'll try them. This blog will likely reference all manner of world cuisines without claiming to be an authority on any of them. If we cook something, possibly amending it to suit our locale or capability or taste, then the main requirement is that it is something tasty.

There are some constraints imposed upon us. Restricted diet is one. Location is another. I can't eat gluten so I'm principally interested in gluten-free recipes or recipes that can be adapted to use gluten-free products. Increasingly we favour locally sourced ingredients over air-freighted organic ingredients. This can be a challenge in Scotland, which frequently exports some of its best produce. We also believe in cheaper cuts of meat, slow-cooked, and seafood that hasn't been fished to the point of extinction.

The other constraint is that we have three young children and we believe in trying to sit down to eat the same meal as a family. Many of the recipes likely to feature in this blog will be for the nights when Mum and Dad eat after the boys are in bed, but we will also report on successes with our junior taste testers.