Top Tips for Edinburgh Fringe Eating and Drinking

Union of Genius takeaway soup - photo by Brendan MacNeill

Edinburgh’s annual festival bonanza each August is always a blast. But how you approach it depends on whether you’re a local or a tourist, a first timer or a seasoned visitor. And in turn, that’ll determine what and when you eat.

48 Hours in Edinburgh

If you’ve decided to cram everything into 48 hours, quick and filling will be your go-to. Luckily, there are plenty of options around the “Big  venues, Assembly, Pleasance, Underbelly and Gilded Balloon. Clustered in the heart of the Old Town, they are surrounded by Fringe-only pop-ups and year-round stalwarts.

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Drink in Champagne for the Weekend

Top 7 Seven TIps

A city break to Reims

Do you love driving in France? I do. Of course the cities are busy, but get on the autoroute and generally you fly along, enjoying the countryside. Bliss after our clogged motorways.

Top 7 Seven TIps

Take a long weekend off and you could head for the Champagne region as we did. It was our first crossing using the Eurotunnel and we were seriously impressed. Giving ourselves plenty of time in case the infamous M25 was slow going, we arrived way before our set train time. We were waved through. Subject to availability you can travel two hours before or after your chosen time.

You might think that the carriages you drive in to are claustrophobic. Not at all. The carriages are light and airy. You can get out and stretch your legs. After 35 minutes, your through and as customs were passed through on the English side, you are straight on the motorway. We had 2 1/2 hours to drive.

Our focus was food and drink naturally so we planned ahead. Reims is a compact city. Astonishingly, after the First World War just 60 houses remained. So 400 architects were engaged to create the new city with very few constraints. Now the roads are wide and reminiscent of Paris with touches of art deco too. It’s an easy place to get around – we walked to most of our destinations.

We spent 3 days in Reims. Here are our Top 7 things to do

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Food inspiration: Recipes from Pakistan and India

Mung Been Curry from Mira Manek's Saffron Soul

Cookery Book Review

There is always room for one more book about food. I love that sense of anticipation. Will I find a recipe that I will cook many times? What ingredients will I need? Will I discover what makes a chef tick?

This month, I’ve been reading about desserts from Pakistan, healthy food from India and a fascinating glimpse of how a Michelin starred chef creates his dishes.

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