The Times
Chitra Ramaswamy dodged the early-morning queues by turning up at “Scotland’s most talked about bakery” after 11am to sample the “pastries, cakes, breads, buns, tarts, custard slices and cookies of your wildest, most algorithmically constructed dreams” from Darcie Maher, a 26-year-old self-taught baker from the Borders.
The “fabled croissants” were sold out – “they’re usually gone by 9am” – so Chitra made do with jambon-beurre; a slice of Lannan’s signature “rich, tangy and unbelievably moist” chocolate, buttermilk and rye loaf; another of pala romana — a traditional Roman flatbread — topped with very thin slices of potato and finely grated cheese; a kimchi and Mull cheddar Danish; and white chocolate and sour cherry cookies.
“Everything is flawless, the best, all the superlatives you can stomach,” Chitra enthused, while her six-year-old daughter shouted “IT’S THE BEST I’VE EVER HAD.” The coffee too, roasted by Obadiah in nearby Abbeyhill, was “exquisite”.
Chitra Ramaswamy - 2024-04-21The Sunday Times
“Toughen up your tastebuds, boys. Business lunches are only going to get spicier,” declared Charlotte Ivers, after sampling the West African cuisine at this new spot in Borough Market.
Given that it is no longer acceptable to “totter back to the office after two bottles of 2pm malbec, the alpha males of the City” have found a new way to parade their machismo, she reckons – by eating the Lagos poussin, spatchcocked, barbecued and swimming in “the type of bright orange that your lizard brain tells you to flee from because it’s either undiluted E
numbers or ten tonnes of mouth-altering habanero”.
“Forget Michelin, there should be awards for the restaurant that can do the most with a bit of lettuce. These guys would win.”
Charlotte Ivers - 2024-04-21
