Brownies with chocolate chunks and nuts

I've tried so many brownie recipes already but it doesn't keep me from trying new ones. This weekend I tried a recipe off  the BBC food website (follow this link). I used the base recipe and then added what I wanted. That's the cool thing about brownies. You can add whatever you want just not too much so the brownies don't fall apart from the weight of things like chocolate chips and nuts. I added the pecans and white chocolate mentioned in the recipe, but did not add the milk chocolate. Instead I added dark chocolate chunks, some hazelnuts and some shredded coconut. The brownies turned out heavenly.

The Dogs Restaurants in Edinburgh

Ever since I started reading Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club series, which takes place in Edinburgh, I've been wanting to visit the Scottish capital. I finally had the chance to do just that. Scotland really is a beautiful place and is beautiful thanks to the frequent showers that like to surprise innocent tourists such as myself. One minute the sun will be shining, the next minute a cloud dark as slate will pour its insides out right over your head. It could happen that you'll be standing in the rain on one side of the street and the people on the other side of the street will be enjoying the dry sun (that's an adapted quotation from a Scotswoman). 

My favorite restaurant experiences are when I randomly come across a restaurant, decide it looks good judging by the exterior (yes, looks do count!) and the menu, and it turns out to be good! This was the case with the group of restaurants The Dogs, Amore Dogs and Seadogs in Edinburgh. What I like about the three restaurants is that they are minimalist but still stylish and the food is unpretentious, fresh, and delicious. Amore Dogs and The Dogs, both located on Hanover Street, were on our way from town to our B&B so we passed them a few times and finally decided to eat at Amore Dogs, the Italian restaurant of the Dogs restaurant group. 

At Amore Dogs my friend and I both went for the coley (a.k.a pollock) with olive crushed potatoes and lemon and caper sauce. It was very good. For dessert I chose the chocolate, pear and almond cake. Little did I know that it would be served with balsamic vinegar caramel sauce. I took one taste and twisted my face. I'm not one for mixing flavors generally associated with savory foods with sweet foods. Otherwise, the cake was outstanding offering the perfect amount of chocolatiness and sweetness. As we were leaving I asked the waitress for a business card and she explained that there were two other restaurants belonging to the same owner: The Dogs and Seadogs. The Dogs is located right next door to Amore Dogs, whereas Seadogs is located within walking distance. 

Since we enjoyed Amore Dogs so much, we decided to try The Dogs the following evening. The Dogs was the first of the three restaurants to open up and features Scottish cuisine. My friend and I once again ordered the same thing: fidget pie with boiled cabbage. The fidget pie was described as gammon, pots, apples, sage, onions & cider. I had to ask what gammon and pots were. "Gammon" is ham and "pots" are potatoes. Talk about comfort food! It was very, very good. Along with my meal I decided to have Crabbie's, an alcoholic ginger ale or ginger beer as they call it in Britain. At first I found it a little watery, but after a while the ginger flavor lingered and it became quite tasty!

Of course you can't go to Britain without eating fish and chips! So that's exactly what I had on our last night when we went to Seadogs. You could choose between coley, haddock, smoked hake, rainbow trout and whitebait for the fish and beer batter, oats or grilled for the way the fish was cooked. I chose haddock in oats. The fish was very good and I really liked the oat batter because it didn't seem as greasy as beer batter although it must have been fried as well. The mushy peas that came with the fish were also very good. The first time I'd had mushy peas was at a pub in Ireland last year and they were absolutely hideous. For dessert my friend and I couldn't help trying the raspberry and whisky trifle. It turns out there are lots of different kinds of trifle. I thought trifle always had sponge cake in it, but this one didn't. And I also thought trifle always had fresh fruit in it, but this one had a raspberry jello in it. The sweetend whipped cream on top and the vanilla custard sauce (which I assume had the whisky in it, although I couldn't taste it) were delicious. The raspberry jello on the other hand was a new thing for me. It didn't taste like much on its own. Nevertheless the dessert was very good. 

Next time I'll also have to try Underdogs, the bar located beneath Amore Dogs.