Dandelion

GROW YOUR OWN WAY

Suzy Pope explores Dandelion, a community-focused celebration of food, culture and arts taking root in Scotland this summer

During lockdown, people across the country sought refuge and calm in green spaces. Public parks and gardens became even more important to those without their own outdoor refuge. Dandelion takes this newfound appreciation of public green spaces and pairs it with a ‘grow your own’ ethos. Running through to eptember, the pro ect features ne pected ardens across Scotland, from the Western Isles to the Borders. Each garden grows vegetables, herbs and more, combining traditional dirty gardening with the technical growing of vertical farming in structures called Cubes of Perpetual Light. Patches of unused land will be transformed into productive gardens where communities are encouraged to grow their own. andelion will create gardens in the likes of ist, lness and tranraer as well as cities such as lasgow and dinburgh. erhaps the flagship no pun intended) is the floating garden making its way along the nion anal. Two barges have been transformed into a cube filled vertical garden and a miniature allotment and will spend the growing months stopping at towns and villages along the canal, engaging with schools and local growers. The floating gardens are a picture of sustainability, cleaning the canal as they go and feeding the plants with nutrients from the water.

The event’s motto is Sow, Grow, Share, and Neil Butler, Dandelion’s festival and events director, says, ‘we want to show that you don’t need a garden to grow your own food; maybe you just want to grow a garden on the kitchen shelf.’ The floating garden and other ne pected Gardens will be giving out 85,000 vegetable plug plants for free, to be planted in disused spaces, be that a barren patch of land at the end of your street or even an old pair of wellies filled with soil outside your front door. Events held at select gardens throughout summer will also offer advice on how to grow your own produce, no matter how small a space you have.

Dandelion is Scotland’s contribution to the programme of creativity and innovation taking place across the and was inspired by a desire to bring science and art together. Its Sow, Grow, Share philosophy e tends beyond gardening. ‘It’s cultural and horticultural,’ utler e plains. ach ne pected arden has a local musician or band in residence who will spend the growing months composing a soundtrack for a harvest festival at the end of the season. Pupils from over 500 schools will work towards each harvest festival with the musician in residence and a food innovator to create music and a menu specific to each locale.

Bookending the summer, two large free festivals in lasgow’s elvingrove ark riday unday une) and Inverness’ orthern Meeting ark riday Sunday 4 September), featuring a spectacular ten-metre high vertical farm/art installation/concert platform called the Pavilion of Perpetual Light, will host international and Scottish acts, alongside talks, workshops and demos on food poverty, climate action and sustainability.

Suzy Pope reports on the latest news and openings plus the return of a major vegan food festival street food

In Edinburgh, a second branch of the French/Vietnamese-inspired Banh-Mi Bar has opened in Morningside, serving up sandwiches in crusty rench bread stuffed with outheast sian flavours. In eith, aperitivo-lovers can pop in to Bittersweet which opened at the end of pril for Italian inspired small plates and luminescent sprit , ust like the bars of ologna. rema akehouse at the foot of eith alk is a new spot with a range of picture perfect home baking. longside the opening a couple of months ago of Cocorico on Jane Street (from the team who were behind ater f eith af istro), eith’s cake and coffee scene is in good health. t the end of March, rgentinian steakhouse aucho opened its first branch in lasgow where flame grilled steaks are served in a sleek interior on est ile treet. ollowing its first cottish opening in Edinburgh, Filipino fast food chain Jolibee opened to eager queues on auchiehall teet at the end of March too. nd perhaps to balance the universe, lant londe vegan caf opened its doors on yndland treet, where owner ennifer alls has turned her lockdown baking hobby into a fully fledged business with signature mpire biscuits the star. berdeen sees the opening of fine dining restaurant i y ico on nion treet, where each themed tasting menu tells a story. The opening menu is The hipper, an elevated ode to the cottish chippy that proved a crowdpleaser in ico’s dinburgh and lasgow branches. inally, after two years of cancellations, the Scottish Vegan Festival (Sunday May) is back at dinburgh’s orn change where you can sample plenty of plant based food plus cooking and diet demonstrations.

side dishes

We choose a street and tell you where to eat. David Kirkwood, in the first of a twopart exploration of Glasgow’s Dumbarton Road, tucks into bagels, bibimbap and bhuna at its east end

Bittersweet

BRAWSOME BAGELS

A hip, well-executed take on the classic bagel takeaway. Ten types of fresh-baked bagels in the window, with loaded options getting increasingly more filling and filthy, from the ‘Umami-corn’ (tofu, avocado, salsa) to the ‘Pig Mac’ (bacon and ham and cheddar . . . and macaroni cheese).

EIGHTYEIGHT

A top-end, small-plates spot that’s been quietly building its rep since opening in 2020. The menu is ever-changing, the pasta is handmade daily, and while it’s not a vegetarian restaurant, it’s striking how many of the dishes sing without meat (gnocchi with wild leek and mushroom, or broccoli with burnt onion yoghurt and preserved lemon).

DUMPLING MONKEY

There’s a glorious number of Chinese and Southeast Asian eateries on this stretch, and Dumpling Monkey has that familiarly expansive menu of all sorts of variations of meats and cooking styles. But it’s best at hand-folded dumplings, whether boiled, potsticker or Boo Zi (steamed buns). All great, all ridiculously cheap.

BIBIMBAP

Luscious space just off Dumbarton Road pumping out bassy music and Korean favourites to a young crowd. You’ve got your fried chicken and your kimchi fries, but you’d be hard-pushed to beat the bibimbap itself, a steaming clay pot of rice, meat, veg and seaweed with a fried egg.

BALBIR’S

One of the most accomplished of Glasgow’s grand old curry houses, where sauces are rich and robust, and the dining-in experience is nice and formal. The tandoori salmon and the lamb ginger bhuna are perennial favourites.

PICTURE: JAMES PORTEOUS EAT

RESTAURANT

THE PALMERSTON

If starting a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic is a gutsy move, starting one in the streets between Haymarket station and Princes Street, one of Edinburgh’s last restaurant wildernesses, might seem like madness. All hail The Palmerston then, one of those rare jewels that make the art of hospitality seem easier and breezier than a CoverGirl commercial.

Opened in August 2021, there are more than a few echoes of a traditional French bistro here: the beautiful bones of a former bank building, bentwood chairs, dark wooden bar and accessible menu. This changes daily, though there are clear themes: there’s almost always a hunk of beautifully cooked white fish atop a puddle of broth or pile of pulses, and a daily sharing plate tends to feature a roast, a pie or (memorably) a chop that’s bigger than your head. Meat options, in particular, show careful sourcing, with rare breeds name-checked and slow-grown options like mutton championed. Wisely, these carefully sourced ingredients are then allowed to shine without fuss or pretension, so roast hake tastes entirely of itself while the accompanying white beans create a comforting, homely stew.

Desserts show the careful hand of the in-house baker, who also produces their delicious sourdough (which you can take away) and pastries to help ease you into the day with a morning coffee. An interesting wine selection is stored in the former bank vault and a concise cocktail list (with more local producers) means it’s worth building in time to bookend your meal perched up at the bar with a drink. It’s all matched with warm, thoughtful service from a team who seem genuinely pleased to see their guests. It is this little touch of stardust that elevates a meal here to that rarest thing of all: really good fun. (Jo Laidlaw)  1 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, thepalmerstonedinburgh.co.uk

PODCAST

SPILLED MILK

Since 2010, friends Molly Wizenberg and Matthew Amster-Burton have been making a weekly podcast about food and drink. They focus on one topic per episode (pears, calzone, sumac, gochujang, Coke flavours, peanuts, salted butter, negronis, alcohol-free beers, for example) then sample some flavours together and see which rabbit holes the conversation will take them down.

Wizenberg is the author of fantastic queer memoir TheFixed Stars and the food blog Orangette, named after the French word for the chocolate-dipped candied orange peels she was eating when she began writing it. On Spilled Milk, she often pulls up memories from living in Paris and London, or running her craft cocktail bar and wood-fired pizza restaurant, both in North Ballard, Seattle.

Amster-Burton is author of Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo, and drops in occasional fun facts such as the Japanese word for someone who doesn’t like piping hot food (it translates as ‘cats tongue’, FYI). This is a geeky, gourmand celebration of takeout food, home cooking, comfort snacks and international recipes. Listening to the meandering discussion of brewing techniques, personal eating habits, cookbook recommendations and restaurant trends makes for a very moreish kitchen companion. (Clare Sawers)

 Episodes available at spilledmilkpodcast.com