Life & style and David Pollock

The best breakfasts in Edinburgh

The finest cafes, bistros and restaurants in the capital for a morning meal

29 Mar 2012

Broughton Delicatessen 7 Barony Street, 558 7111, broughton-deli.co.uk Breakfast served: Mon–Sat 8am–3pm; Sun 11am–3pm. What does this place not do well? A great deli, healthy lunches and superb, made-from-scratch breakfasts from morning until 3pm…

The best restaurants in Edinburgh and Glasgow for cheap eating in January

Dining out options that won't break the bank

9 Jan 2012

EDINBURGH The Mosque Kitchen Now relocated from its former al fresco spot outside Edinburgh’s mosque, the café-style Mosque Kitchen still serves a fine range of halal meat and vegetable curries in no-fuss polystyrene dishes for under £5 including…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

Best Edinburgh Festival street food

The ten best pop-up food stalls to be found at 2011 Edinburgh Festival

11 Aug 2011

Mussel Men Seafood George Square walkway (east side), 11am–1am The guys in the stripey Breton shirts are actually London-based Scots, serving up fresh mussels and oysters from the west coast near Oban. Steaming hot moules come in a wee box sturdy…

Preview: the National Museum of Scotland

A peek inside the museum, plus reminiscences from notable Edinburghers and a guide to coming events

22 Jul 2011

The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street is due to reopen this month after a three-year, £46.4 million redevelopment. David Pollock takes an exclusive peak behind closed doors to find out about the new exhibits

Pho Vietnam House - Restaurant review

Vietnamese cuisine represented well in west-end of Edinburgh

1 Feb 2011

Vietnamese cuisine is hallowed by returning backpackers and adventurous tourists, but it’s poorly represented locally compared to other Far Eastern cuisines. David Pollock found a tiny outpost in western Edinburgh

Scotland celebrates a thriving brewing industry

Caledonian, Brewdog and more are holding their own on the world stage

17 Sep 2010

High-quality water, historic recipes and a growing number of microbreweries means that Scotland is producing beers to rival those produced on the Continent, writes David Pollock.

Smoking Scottish seafood with peat

17 Sep 2010

The unmistakable whiff of peat smoke is something we associate with crofting townships or whisky distilleries. For a few Scottish fish smokers, it’s the sweet smell of success, as David Pollock discovers.

Stornoway butcher seeks protection for Marag Dubh

17 Sep 2010

Black pudding from Stornoway – or marag dubh as it is named in Gaelic – is a common sight on Scottish menus these days. David Pollock caught up with moves to secure its status and identity.

The Pineapple Chunks head up ECA Annual Summer Revel

10 Jun 2010

If ever there was a party in Edinburgh’s calendar that deserves the term legendary, the Revel is it. Everyone knows about Hogmanay, the Festival and even Beltane, but Edinburgh College of Art’s traditional end of term blowout tends to be both truly…

Best bars in and around Leith

3 Jun 2010

David Pollock suggests the finest locations for a festival beverage, or two

Affordable Art: Getting Started - Susanna Beaumont

29 Apr 2010

Buying and owning art can bring both pleasure and profit, and you don’t need stacks of cash to get started. We begin our guide with some tips from a prominent gallery owner...

Affordable Art: Getting Started - Hugo Brown

29 Apr 2010

Buying and owning art can bring both pleasure and profit, and you don’t need stacks of cash to get started. We begin our guide with some tips from an established collector...

Northern light - Dornoch Castle Hotel

11 Sep 2009

‘One thing we’ve noticed this year,’ says Colin Thompson, owner and manager of the Dornoch Castle Hotel in the Highland tourist haven of Dornoch, ‘is that there have been many more young couples and families staying with us.’ It seems the ‘staycation…

A guide to the best clubs in Scotland

10 Sep 2009

It’s not that we want to make Edinburgh feel inferior, but Glasgow is pretty much recognised as the most vibrant city in the UK after dark, behind London. Sure, your student days aren’t complete without a stagger alongside Sauchiehall Street every now…

Cult Fiction Movies shop opens in Edinburgh

6 Aug 2009

To a certain type of movie fan, Newington’s newly-opened Cult Fiction Movies is a magical store where a litany of grindhouse double features, BFI Classics and films from America’s Criterion Collection which remain currently unavailable on this side of…

Everything's Gone Green - Coloursfest'09

28 May 2009

These straitened times seem to be treacherous ones for festivals, but the last thing we need to get us in the mood for summer fun is a story about another call-off. How about a bit of feelgood news instead? ‘We’re already up 700 ticket sales on where we…

Festival people

28 May 2009

THE PROMOTER Sid Ambrose, founder, Wickerman Having been involved in a range of events from raves to scooter rallies and punk events during the 90s, I started Wickerman eight years ago. It was hard going at the time. There was huge local…

Ice cream days: growing up in an old school ice cream parlour

Mary Contini of Valvonna & Crolla describes her enviable upbringing

1 May 2009

It took two men, my father and Tommy Dougal, to lift up each milk churn and tip it into the stainless-steel vat. It could be four or five churns at a time – even more in July and August when the factory was working at full capacity. Once the 20-gallon…

Berry good: the rise of the raspberry in Scotland, and the best places to pick your own

1 May 2009

David Pollock goes by Glen Clova and Glen Ample to discover why raspberries are Scotland’s superberry.

The return of the small family dairy

1 May 2009

The milk industry is a pertinent example of how the link between the consumer and the countryside has changed in two decades of consolidation, industrialisation and homogenisation. David Pollock goes to check if milk still comes from cows.

Bouvrage: a distinctive soft drink, made from Scottish raspberries

1 May 2009

Their first business was a product development consultancy in the food and drink industry. But a simple admiration for the Scottish berry was enough to convince husband and wife team Anne Thomson and John Gallagher to develop their own line. ‘We always…

Water everywhere: An overview of Scotland's other other national drink

1 May 2009

A combination of geography, climate and geology puts Scotland in an ideal position to exploit the modern taste for mineral water. David Pollock raises a glass to one of the country’s smaller producers.

Doctor Who - Space Oddity

19 Mar 2009

In four years time Doctor Who will be 50 years old, but still it remains one of the most popular and imagination-grabbing shows on television. While the best of British actors and television writers are lining up to work on it, the series’ first…

Barcelona

10 Apr 2008

Everywhere you look in Barcelona, you see Ronaldinho. Reproductions of the FC Barca hero fill the shelves of each tourist tat-peddling stall and storefront, even in the shadow of Antoni Gaudi’s mighty Sagrada Familia cathedral, which emphasises the…