Can you enjoy a good meal in a bad building? Especially if you know that the building has been named by many in the city “the dog Turd”? This is not exactly an aid to digestion, is it? Let’s be specific. Can you enjoy a meal at Ka Pao, a bold eclectic bistro in Southeast Asia where you are thrilled with great flavors and thrilled again when in a mall like the St James Quarter in Edinburgh? The delightful dog pickle soup is attached to a brass coil that climbs to a peak, on top of the new W Hotel, as part of the 1 1 billion retail development. It is true that the Scottish capital, which still uses the word “new” in neighborhoods that began to rise more than two centuries ago, is not very interested in major architectural changes. But there is no doubt about the impact of this aspect of the St James’s district on the horizon. Once you are told that the copper coil looks like the emoji with the bad ones, it is really very difficult to see anything else. A request to add an eye to complete the emoji look received unexpected amounts of support. They could still do it. “Stair inside”: Mr. fried deer. Photo: Murdo MacLeod / The Observer In fact, the serious issues with development do not lie in the brass coil, which you can always show and laugh at, but with everything else back at street level. There is no doubt about the effort and cost paid to create the new limestone buildings: the huge curved commercial galleries with their vaulted glass roofs, the H&M house and the Peloton and a new space for John Lewis, the cinema Everyman and the Bonnie & Wild food market. It is intended to be a fun, elegant urban “retail experience” similar to Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills. In fact, it’s just a bloody, lifeless mall designed to make you think hard and hard about your life choices. When I was 10, Brent Cross Mall opened in Neasden, a manageable 182 bus ride from my home. I thought there was nothing cooler than sitting by the main fountains there and eating cheesecake from Lindy’s concession. The problem is that I am no longer 10 years old. I no longer think shopping malls are nice. I’ve been to Westfield. It did not make me like myself. “In broth with deep spices”: roasted cauliflower. Photo: Murdo MacLeod / The Observer However, these spaces are full of units that need filling and not just shops. Privileged Restaurants: Pho, Wingstop, Five Guys and Itsu branches. And hidden on the fourth floor which, thanks to the Edinburgh hills and a subtle split in space and time, somehow manages to be at street level, is Ka Pao. The first Ka Pao, which is Thai for the holy basil, was opened in Glasgow in 2020 by the group behind Ox and Finch with a Middle Eastern-Mediterranean tone. This first Ka Pao occupies a dreamy Art Deco building, which is so magnificent that it was saved from demolition by a feverish local campaign. The interiors of both have beams and ducts and booths, but where the Glasgow version looks like a response to the building’s heritage, in Edinburgh all the sharp edges seem to be the only possible option. Praise be to God for the leather banquets, which soften things. I know it seems a bit bad to inspire the environment when cooking without margins here is a proper slap in the face for steaks. It is bold and exciting, every dish is full of flavor and intention. You are experienced people of the world, so you will know that they serve common dishes that are delivered without special order. Getting angry at this is like shouting in the wind to stop the trees blowing, El la Elton John. I’m not that person yet. Give me time. “More diversions”: corn ribs. Photo: Murdo MacLeod / The Observer I ordered eight common dishes, including sticky chili and lime cashews and peanuts, which you should have. I could easily have ordered a completely different eight dishes. The most deterrent, for 6 £, are corn cut lengthwise into quarters, then grilled and cooked with a sweet savory coconut sauce, shrimp and lime. Eat them as you would keep the ribs. Protect your shirt. The long-boiled pork belly sometimes appears. In a fresh, peppery and sour salad of watercress and sorrel, the pieces are lightly beaten and fried. In a curry with solitary fish cheeks, it is in meat cubes and comes in broth with irreconcilable chili reminiscent of the best dishes that soak the eyebrows of northern Thailand. ‘Chilli kick’: lonely fish curry. Photo: Murdo MacLeod / The Observer Fried minced venison and pork with lime leaves and lemongrass, like this wonderful Lao folk minced salad, is accompanied by red chilies and what I consider to be handfuls of their green siblings. I choose my path around them, fearing the burn. Finally I try one. They are the finest green beans. I dig inside. Cauliflower flowers are baked and presented in broth with lots of spices, then topped with a nest of finely grated mashed potatoes for texture. There is a coarsely chopped salad of cucumber, chili, lime and peanuts with just the right burst of acidity. That’s what I tried. I could have tried the fried chicken with spicy caramel, or the whole grilled sea bream with spice salad and green nam jim, or the hispi cabbage with cashew and sriracha butter, or the oyster mushroom with salt and sichuan pepper. The tables of four can order a shared menu with twelve dishes at, 27.50 per head and there is a lunch menu at, 17.50. Cocktails, mostly at 8.50., Include lime leaves and palm sugar, coconut and chili and cassia bark. I put up with a lemon and soda lime, as I have a long train ride ahead of me and I do not want to be the drunk who snores, dribbles on the L. bus. “Zesty”: almond sponge with cardamom. Photo: Murdo MacLeod / The Observer Finish with a light sponge with cardamom and almond, with basil and lime curd, and a soothing panna cotta with palm sugar with pineapple, papaya and mango. Then, in the end, I pay the very reasonable bill and find myself once again in a bright mall, enticed by the promise of Calvin Klein underpants that will not suit me and Miele ovens that I just can not afford. During the day it is a rather gloomy way to finish a nice meal. After dinner, when I imagine that the whole place is a desolate wilderness that echoes only in the crunching of metal into stone offered by skateboards grateful for the new addition to the built environment, I am afraid it will sour what would otherwise be a disappointing experience.
News bites
The non-profit Burnt Chef Project, which provides support to people in the hospitality industry suffering from anxiety, has launched an NHS-approved wellness application in partnership with mental health provider Thrive. The app, available to companies with a monthly subscription of £ 3 per employee, includes more than 100 hours of content covering meditation and relaxation, as well as a mood detector and in-app chat feature, allowing users to talk to trained therapists in times of crisis (theburntchefproject.com). Chef and restaurateur Peter Sanchez-Iglesias announced the closure of the Michelin-starred restaurant in Bristol Casamia in August. The restaurant reopened after the pandemic with a new approach led by chef Zac Hitchman, combining food with “a tailored approach to music, lighting and art to guide customers on the menu”. Sanchez-Iglesias admits that the restaurant is no longer financially viable. It will be replaced by something “a little more affordable” later in 2022 (casamiarestaurant.co.uk). Tickets are now on sale for the Soho Food Feast, organized annually by the local community, with the proceeds going to the Soho Parish School. The daily tickets for the event, which will take place on June 18-19, cost £ 15 with food vouchers once within 50 2.50. Restaurants that operate food stands throughout the weekend, such as Norma, Cricket, Bao, Gunpowder, St John and Gauthier (sohofoodfeast.co.uk). Email Jay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @jayrayner1
