Peter's Yard. The Quartermile

Reading through some of the previous review posts on here, I seem to always be very positive. Though this may indicate that I only eat in the most fabulous places (or that I have a thoroughly undiscerning palate), it's actually because I don't want to bother reviewing places that have rubbish food! Especially as they are usually places that you know will be rubbish, but you have to go ahead with it anyway because it's your friend's birthday and they wanted to go there (I'm talking to you, Wetherspoons). Although if I do eat somewhere that is hilariously bad, I probably will blog about it for comedy value.

Somewhere I have mentioned on here a couple of times, and I have been meaning to review for ages, is Peter's Yard. It's in the new Quartermile development, although to me, it'll always be on Middle Meadow Walk. A few weeks after it opened, a Starbucks sprung up 2 doors down. I did not hold out much hope. Well over a year later, and Peter's Yard is still thriving.

I love this sign - it tells the truth.

Peter's Yard isn't a typical Edinburgh cafe. For starters, it's not in a pokey converted tenement front room. It's industrial, with exposed pipes, concrete, lots of glass and half the space taking up by a very imposing looking bakery area. The menu is written on brown paper rolls that hang from walls, with no option of a frappucino with soy whipped cream and extra sprinkles.. In fact, you can't even choose to supersize your coffee, it comes in standard only. The furniture is stylish but utilitarian. This is not the third place.

Instead there are the usual coffees, including an honesty station, where you can pour your own filter coffee to take away, leaving your money in the jar next to the flask. The coffee is very good indeed, and often comes with some very impressive examples of latte art.

Latte Art at Peter's Yard

However, the thing that hooked me in, and drew me to Peter's Yard when I knew I should be in the library studying, or saving money by eating at home, was the food. All the baking is done on the premises, and they produce some of the best bread in the city. The cakes are also particularly good, with the parsnip cake and the Valrhona muffins being among my favourites. Often after a miserable day at uni, I would attempt to cheer myself up with a bowl of their soup, and a big hunk of fresh bread. They also sell quite a lot of grocery food too, such as packets of Swedish cookies, the teas and coffee blends they serve, and some seriously good chocolate, including Valrhona, Amedei and Michel Cluizel.

After a fun afternoon spent queuing at the council office to pay for a parking permit, I stopped once more at Peter's Yard. Deciding it was too hot for soup, and I wasn't hungry enough to justify a massive open sandwich, I went for a cappuccino and a slice of pecan pie.

Pecan Pie and Coffee at Peter's Yard

The coffee was delicious as usual, although I think that today's barista was still in training given the slightly poor attempt at latte art! (Some kind of musical notation? Or just a random swirl?) I love the way the top is really bitter, but the main coffee drunk through the milk is almost naturally sweet.

The pecan pie was rammed with nuts, and had an intriguing construction. Bordering the pastry was an almost cake-like layer, which I guess was probably made from ground nuts. On top of that was a hefty layer of whole pecans, and then the top was glazed with apricot jelly. This tasted quite strong when eaten alone, but when eaten with the pecans gave the pie a satisfyingly fruity aftertaste.

Peter's Yard is more expensive than a lot of other places nearby, especially given that it is a stones throw from the George Square campus. However, the quality of the food and drink is such that I think it justifies a slightly higher charge. If lunch at Starbucks is going to cost £5, then I'm totally ready to pay £6 and have something much much better. Given that Peter's Yard is often packed while the neighbouring Starbucks is almost empty, it seems many Edinburghers agree with me.

Food Adventures in Florence: Part III

Fruit and Vegetable Stall in the Central Market

One day we checked out the Central Market in Florence, and bought some goodies for a picnic later in the day. We got bread, ham, cheese, olives and strawberries, and stole some butter from the hotel breakfast buffet to make sandwiches. We tried to eat our picnic in the Boboli Gardens, but they wouldn't let us in with food. This meant we went on a 8 mile hike around southern Florence looking for a good picnic spot. We eventually found a rose garden on the way up to San Miniato al Monte, only to find later that the back gate to the Boboli wasn't guarded with x-ray scanners and security staff, but a rather bored man in a hut who barely checked our tickets. So, if you want to picnic with the Medicis, the Belvedere entrance is the answer.

Tripe and other unidentified body parts

The market was excellent, a real paradise for foodies! I wish there was somewhere like that near here. Practically every meat stall had tripe for sale, which is apparently a Florentine speciality. There was also a pork stall selling ears, tongues, heads, tails and trotters, and another stall selling horse meat. I think if you are going to eat meat you shouldn't be precious about what you eat. There is no difference between killing a cow or pig and eating it than eating a cat, or horse, or dog. Plus if you are going to go to all that trouble, you might as well get your money's worth and eat the offal. Yum. (Although it was far too early in the morning for me to be brave enough to try a tripe burger.)

Miniature tartlette in Dolcissima

While wandering around the Oltrarno artisan district, we found a old fashioned bakery called Dolcissima. We'd just eaten, so weren't in the mood for anything too big. Instead I got a miniature tart of custard and baby raspberries. It was small but perfectly formed, and made me wish I lived nearby so I could buy boxes of these for parties.

Pizza with Capers and Anchovies

We couldn't go to Italy without trying some pizza, so we headed to Gusta pizza. The poor €:£ rate meant we were keen for a cheap meal, and we'd seen the wood buning oven in Gusta pizza while wandering around earlier in the day, as well as a good write up in the guide book. The place was basic, with orders being taken at the till and dispensed by order number. Eat in pizzas were served on a cardboard platter with plastic cutlery. Seating was on bar stools around empty wine casks, and drinks were self-served from a fridge. However, the pizza had a crispy base, with rich doughy crusts, and the toppings were simple but generous. Probably one of the cheapest meals we had, but also one of the tastiest too.

Random Graffitti

This graffiti was everywhere. I have no idea what the significance is.

London Food Adventures Part II

Two places I was quite interested to visit this time were Westfield and Selfridges. I'd never been to Westfield, despite it only being a few stops away by tube, and the Selfridges' food hall has long been one of my favourite places to amble around.

Although I failed miserably in my attempt to find a new pair of jeans, I was impressed by Westfield. Everything was clean and well kept, and the snob in me was pleased that fast food chains had been kept out of the main food area. Instead there was an interesting looking risotto stall, along with a Lebanese bakery, a French rotisserie, Indian tiffin boxes, Mexican wraps and a pho stall. I have heard good things about pho, but the queue was massive. I doubt that it was the most authentic stuff you can find in London, but I thought it was interesting that it had been included in a mainstream food court.

Instead I had a frozen yogurt from the salad bar stand. I totally fell in love with frozen yogurt in Canada last year, and would insist that we got a snack every time we passed a Yogen Fruz. It doesn't seem to have caught on much in the UK, and most places just have vanilla yogurt with some random fruit on top. In Canada, they would have a whole freezer full of fruit, and you could choose your own combination to be blended in to your yogurt. The blender was a specialist piece of kit, that blended, chilled and served the yogurt, with the finished product being neatly piped into a bowl rather than scooped out. If you know of somewhere that does this within 500 miles of Edinburgh I would love to visit!

Frozen Yogurt in Westfield

I also spent some time standing outside Wahaca drooling at the menu. As mentioned in my past London post, I love South American food. If I hadn't just eaten all that frozen yogurt I probably would have been tempted by some churros. If I won the lottery and had an extra stomach that would be great, but until then I have to restrain myself.

I hopped on the central line to Bond Street to check out Selfridges. I always get confused about which is the nearest station, and have to stride along Oxford Street dodging thousands of tourists, but I made it in the end. I wasn't really intending to buy anything, especially not since Le Cafe Anglais ate all my money. I particularly enjoyed the chilled counters, as they had some fantastic looking Middle Eastern food on display, as well as a very well stocked fish counter. The butcher's counter had every cut of meat imaginable, including a pig's head. There was also a "raw food" counter with dehydrated carrot cake, which looked too wholesome to be any fun. I was slightly disappointed by the ambient section, as I was trying to get some orzo for my mum. The pasta section had spaghetti, penne and lasagne, and not much else. Poor show.

As it is Selfridges 100th birthday this year, there were lots of promotional products in the trademark yellow.

Selfridges' Centenary Coca Cola

Another culinary first on this trip was dim sum. I am not majorly in to Chinese food, and I've always been a bit scared by the lack of description, especially when in comes to dim sum. I am less wimpy these days, and more likely to order something without knowing what it is, but I still found dim sum a bit too much of an unknown. My friend E, who I have known since primary school, decided we should visit Ping Pong for dinner. As an introduction to the world of dim sum, I thought this was the gentlest route! Again, while the authenticity of some of the dishes must be compromised, I thought it was great that a fairly niche cuisine could be popular enough to form a local chain. I quite enjoyed the dinner, and I especially enjoyed trying some of the more unusual items such as the steamed buns. I have heard there are a couple of decent dim sum places in Edinburgh, so I'll have to give them a go now I have a bit more confidence!

Lastly, here are the Laduree pictures I promised you last time. Sorry for the rubbishness, my camera is 5 years old with 4 megapixels, so the pictures are not the best quality. It was so snazzy when I got it, and now it just looks lame compared to modern cameras!

Jess and I ordered a box of 8 to share. I got lemon, praline, salted caramel and bergamot, Jess got the salted caramel too. (Annoyingly, I can't remember what other flavours she got, I was too absorbed in the macaron goodness!) We ate the first ones nearby, sitting on the base of a statue of Beau Brummell, while the others got saved for a sunny spot in Soho Square.

Macaron Tower

Lemon is still my favourite, although praline is now a contender. The bergamot was too subtle, and just tasted of almonds. I was looking forward to the salted caramel, so much so that I saved it until the end. However it was over-caramelised in my opinion, tasting a little burnt and bitter. I might try to make some macarons at home soon, as the recipe looks hard but not impossible.

Laduree macarons, and my reflection