The Times
Chitra Ramaswamy headed to Marchmont, where chef Eilish Leyland-Jones and server Pragnesh Patel, who met at a vineyard in New Zealand, have created a restaurant “so devoted to the old art of preservation that it describes itself as a picklery”.
In this tiny kitchen, Chitra said, the technique achieves wonderful results: “The complexity of flavour here is delivered not by lengthy cooking times or fancy kit, but the cunning and thriftiness of pickling, preserving, fermenting, curing and canning.”
Her favourite dish was “the most humble”, and did not seem to involve much in the way of pickling: a plate of “hulking, fat, gnarly carrots, roasted whole, skin on, to intensify their sweetness and softness, laid on a bed of silky whipped feta, drizzled with honey, sriracha and chewy baked chickpeas.”
There’s also a selection of “fantastic” home-made fermented drinks – if you want alcohol you are welcome to nip out to Cork & Cask for a bottle, but Chitra makes clear that would mean missing out on half the fun. She had a switchel, a Caribbean drink made with apple cider vinegar and molasses that is “a bit like a kombucha, though not fizzy”. There are also shrubs, fruit-based syrups blended with vinegar, that are “intensely fruity and tangy (tangy is a word you can’t help overusing here)”.
Chitra Ramaswamy - 2024-10-20
Drinks
Extras
