The Bistro Blog

My Bonnie Wee Lamb

Thursday, 18 August 2011 17:32

In Scotland today we have over 7 million sheep which means that for every man, women and child in the country we have something like 1.4 sheep. It astounds me that there is so much lamb imported from New Zealand and the likes. Either they must be very clever or we must be rather less clever!  How it can be economically viable to fly in lamb produce from the Antipodes is beyond me. My advice to all is please, buy Scottish! I love lamb, one of my favourite meats, and you cannot beat the local stuff.  

At the Bistro, we're serving lamb "racks" also known as best end. Cooked on the bone to order, served with maris piper dauphinoise potato, baby vegetables and a rich port and mint jus (cooked traditionally by boiling lamb bones, beef bones and veg for about 12 hours, and then reducing with port-wine and fresh mint)  

Nae baaad min! 

Cod Almighty

Thursday, 18 August 2011 16:01

Much maligned in the mid to late 20th century by the patriotic Scot, Cod was seen as the English alternative to Haddock, and of course was reckoned to be inferior. But perhaps the English were right all along. It's not just something to batter and serve with chips and mushy peas; Cod is now to be found on the menus of the most prestigious restaurants up and down the country, and treated with care is a delicious fleshy melt-in-the-mouth fish.

I have acquired a stone of beautiful large cod from the Aberdeen fish market and the lucky diners at the Bistro will make up their own minds. I intend to pan-poach/roast nice chunky fillets of the fish, set them on baby spinach, and a potato rosti, and serve with shrimps and an Arran cheddar mornay sauce, quite a simple dish but affa fine! 

Alternatively, for those of you who are partial to the aromatics of Thailand (like myself), I'm doing a roast supreme of scotch salmon on noodles and beansprouts with a coconut, lime and lemon grass broth. Zing! 

Hopefully see you soon 

John

Long Hot Summer!!

Tuesday, 28 June 2011 08:28

Hi there Folks

As we move into our long hot summer (well hopefully!) the staff at Alford Bistro look forward to seeing you.  Come in and enjoy beautifully prepared seafood, steaks, grills and a host of other delicious food.  Sit in the main section of our Bistro or enjoy your meal in the conservatory - you choose!  Hope to see you soon.

John, Danni and Staff

What's New At The Alford Bistro

Monday, 16 May 2011 19:43

Hi everyone,  

Sorry about the tumbleweed over this site. We have been ever so busy trying to maintain the high standards at the Bistro and drag up three teenagers, a task that often leaves us with little time for tweeting, blogging or updating web sites. Hopefully we'll be better able to do that in the near future as we're currently in the process of appointing an administrator. 

As many of you will know, the Bistro has been closed for a short while in order to carry out renovation work to the Ladies and Gents facilities and the hallway. We will re-open on Friday the 20th of May 20011.  Look forward to seeing then or thereafter. 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the kind comments many of you have made through this site and I reiterate our intention to make this site more active in the near future. 

Slainte !  

John & Danni..