Category Archives: Tapas

La Tasca, Glasgow City Centre, Glasgow

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We were invited with a bunch of other Scottish food bloggers to an event at La Tasca in Glasgow City Centre. At first I was hesitant to go – my first (and only) experience of La Tasca was over 2 years ago, and I’ve never wanted to go back. I’m always happy to give something a second chance though, so we went along.

There were a few other bloggers there too and we had a great night getting to know each other, learning how to carve ham (Jamon Iberico to be prescise) as well as learn how to make Sangria. Unfortunately I got a bit carried away with the Sangria making and was adding more alcohol than was strictly allowed – that may also go some way to explaining why the photography on this post isn’t the best!

We were then treated to La Tasca’s new menu. This is what I was really interested in – as we’d just been to Spain, I wanted to see what “UK” Spanish food was like compared to the real thing.

These were some of my favourite dishes:

A festival of mushrooms (Rioja) Chestnut, button and porcini mushrooms, sautéed in garlic butter and white wine.

While I’m not qualified to comment on whether this is an authentic dish, it certainly was amazing! I think it was Janice from Farmers Girl Kitchen who was nudging me to try this – and wow, was I glad I did. It was a really intensely flavoured, rich dish and I could have gladly eaten the whole thing alone.

Croquetas De Manchego – Hand-crumbed with three-month-aged-Manchego cheese and fresh spinach, served with roasted garlic mayonnaise.

I am obsessed with croquettes and these were delicious – again, another dish I would have been glad to eat the whole serve of. Crisp and crunch with a delicious filling, this truly reminded me of the croquettes we ate in Madrid.

Vegetable gratin (picos de Europa) – A creamy potato gratin, with baby spinach and blue Valdeón cheese.

Spinach, blue cheese AND potato – it’s a dish made in heaven. I really enjoyed this one.

Spanish Style Lemon Chicken

Another flavour-packed dish – the smokey peppers and the chicken went perfectly together.

We had a brilliant time visiting La Tasca – and of course the lovely company helped! I’ll be perfectly honest – before this visit, La Tasca wasn’t high on my places to visit  but I have now completely changed my mind. Part of the reason for this (apart from the delicious food) was the sheer enthusiasm of the staff (particularly the manager Suzanne) – it really gave the restaurant a vibrant feel and made the whole experience really fun and exciting.

The Glasgow Food Blog dined as guests of Manifest Communications Ltd.
La Tasca on Urbanspoon

What we ate in Madrid, December 2011

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This would have been called Where we ate in Madrid, but to be honest I can’t remember well all the places well enough, and I can’t find them on Trip Advisor/Google Maps. So you’ll just have to sit back, relax and enjoy some obscene pictures of delicious food.

First night! Sangria, patatas bravas, ham croquettes and prawns
This was at a casual restaurant near Gran Via station, called Iowa. Lovely, relaxing and delicious food and not expensive either (actually, none of the food we ate was expensive) 

I can’t quite remember where this place was but it was a bit more upmarket and had older clientèle. We had a mix up with the order and didn’t get all the dishes we ordered, but thankfully none of us went hungry with these paellas – top is meat only, and the bottom is shellfish. As well as croquettes (yes, my favourite food) with some very skinny fries. 
A relaxed before lunch snack – ham, cheesy sticks, cheese and a bucket of 5 beers for 3 euros! 

At this bar, we were totally lost. The owner didn’t speak any English and we were struggling to even get English menus in our very bad Spanish. Thankfully a customer of the bar spoke English so came to gave us a hand, as well as give us the low down on New Years Eve in Madrid. We had bread with a tuna spread, a platter of grilled vegetables, patatas bravas (spicy) and more croquettes.  

Mercado Plaza San Miguel was one of my favourite places in Madrid – a heavenly food market. We had lunch here one day and managed to sample loads of delights – mini hamburgers were the highlight though! This was my first (and only, sob!) taste of churros as well. Yum. 

 This was the second meal we ate at Lateral which was an unusual, modern Spanish restaurant with insanely delicious food and had a queue to get in, so obviously it’s good. We had sirloin steak with brie, salmon rolls, chicken skewer and baked potato stuffed with ham and topped with an egg. 
We didn’t eat a bad meal in Madrid. Maybe we were lucky, or maybe we’ve got a good eye for these things. I cannot wait to go back to Spain to discover more amazing foods. Alas, we’re off to Amsterdam next month so Spain is going to have to wait for our return visit. 
If you want any accommodation/restaurant recommendations, leave me a comment and I will let you know the parts of Madrid we explored, although I’m sure we missed out on loads of amazing stuff. 
After 5 days in Madrid, we returned to Glasgow stuffed as a googy-eggs (Australian saying for “egg”) so we are embracing 2012 as a year of healthy eating, healthy living and exercising more. Don’t be put off, we’ll still be dining out (of course!) and baking cakes – but I will be including more home cooking posts with suggestions for how it’s super easy to be healthier without depriving yourself of tasty, appetising meals or feeling hungry. 

Perfect patatas bravas

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Last week was quite Spanish themed for us – after attending the relaunch of Pintxo, this article in the Guardian appeared the very next day, proclaiming it had discovered how to make perfect patatas bravas. Unlike the author, we’ve always loved patatas bravas and it’s a staple when we go for tapas – and also a good indicator of the food in general. 


So we though we’d have a go at making it at home. I’d always shunned the idea of home-made tapas – too much effort, for too little reward. But this is what we came up with (we varied the recipe from the Guardian article)


The Glasgow Food Blog’s perfect patatas bravas (inspired by the Guardian article)


Serves 4-6

500g chat potatoes
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
400g tin chopped tomatoes
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 clove of garlic
300ml greek yoghurt
Chives, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut the chat potatoes into rough 2cm chunks. Put a roasting tray with 2 tbsp olive oil into the oven and leave to heat for 5 minutes, then take out, toss the potatoes in the hot oil, and bake for about 45 minutes until crisp and golden, making sure you toss them frequently (every 10 minutes or so).

2. Meanwhile, make the sauces. Put 2 tbsp oil into a heavy-bottomed pan on a medium heat, and cook the onion for about seven minutes until golden and soft. Put in the chilli, and cook for another couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and smoked paprika and stir well. Bring to the boil, and then turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until thick and dark. Take off the heat, add 1 tbsp sherry vinegar, and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
3. Crush a clove of garlic, and mix with the Greek yoghurt to make a cheat’s allioli.

4. Take the potatoes out of the oven and sprinkle with a little salt. Spread the tomato sauce on to the plates, put the potatoes on top, then add a dollop of allioli and a sprinkle of chives, and serve immediately. 

We served the patatas bravas as a side to a marinated chicken breast. The potatoes were beautifully crispy without being oily, I think leaving the skin on the chat potatoes made them tastier. And who wants to peel a chat potato anyway? The tomato sauce was rich and decadent, and the cheats allioli added a real tang to the dish. We did try making the allioli but I didn’t realise just how much olive oil was needed – we tried substituting chilli oil which gave the allioli a disgusting, burnt flavour, like eating poison. Not pleasant at all! I was glad we had some yoghurt in the fridge to substitute, and I probably preferred it to a traditional thick allioli.

Please leave a comment if you decide to give it a try!

Pintxo relaunch, Glasgow West End, Partick

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We wrote about visiting Pintxo back in January and had another visit on the cards. Luckily for us, we were invited to their relaunch to try the new menu and some wines.

We arrived at 6pm and it was absolutely heaving already – and it stayed that way the whole time we were there. It is great to see a local business so well supported by the community (although, I’m guessing that giving away free food and wine could be another reason people were dropping by!)

The new menu was also available to look it – it is now about 1/2 the length of the previous menu with around 20 dishes, but there is still a wide variety and something to please most tastes.

There was 4 dishes provided to sample, as well as some Spanish meats. We got to try the following:

Free range pork belly with almond milk and pickled onions
Pork belly the way it should be – delicate, with a perfectly crunchy top and the almond milk foam was a really lovely accompaniment. 
Roast hake fillet, red pepper stew, garbanzos and cilantro
This was beautiful – the hake was lovely and soft with a perfectly crispy skin, and the chickpeas (garbanzos) had a great texture without being crumbly or gluggy. 
We also tried the aubergine (eggplant) fritters, tomato and pepper relish but didn’t get a photo as these were dived on so quickly! They were perfectly crispy and delicious, with a real saltiness while retaining the delicious soft texture of the eggplant inside the batter. 
We also saw the crispy pigs ear and cracking with aioli circulating but sadly missed out on trying any – it looked absolutely delicious though with a crispy and fresh looking batter. 
I’m impressed with the new menu – as it as kept a few of the dishes we noted as absolute favourites, while still adding a few new dishes to tempt us back to try them very soon. 
Pintxo on Urbanspoon
What are some of your favourite dishes when you go for tapas? 

Pintxo, Glasgow West End, Partick

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Sometimes visiting a restaurant when they’re having a “bad” night can be a blessing in disguise: it shows you just how amazing it really is when the staff are dealing with all sorts of dramas. We dropped into Pintxo for a quick dinner before heading to see Band of Horses at the O2 Academy.

Faced with supplier issues and re-writing their menu, about 40% of the dishes were unavailable. However, you’re starting with a huge menu anyway, so there was still plenty of really exciting dishes to choose from. The waiter was incredibly friendly and helpful in explaining what dishes were off and made us feel relaxed from the moment we arrived.

We had a fantastic selection of dishes:

A surprising stand out was the standard patatas bravas – the potatoes were cut really small but were lovely and tasty, not oily or greasy at all, and the tomato sauce was rich and balanced perfectly with the lemon alioli.

The only dish I felt let down by was the chargriled king prawns with garlic and parsley butter. I felt like it was lacking in flavour and needed more punch.

The salt cod croquettes were amazing – one of those really wow dishes that means you’re fighting with your dining companion over who gets the third croquette (we negotiated and split it, as well as splitting the last meatball)

I never order meatballs – that’s my partners forte. These pork and beef meatballs were a cut above the norm and were deliciously soft (the ones I make at home are always overcooked). Really decadent and left me wanting more.

I really enjoyed our meal at Pintxo and cannot wait to go back when they have a full menu to try more dishes. We also meant to pop into their sister venues, Criterion and Velvet Elvis but ran out of time.

Pintxo on Urbanspoon

Tinto Tapas Bar, Southside, Glasgow

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I’d been hearing about Tinto Tapas Bar from a few different people (and with the limited amount of people I know in Glasgow, that’s saying something) so I was really excited when friends of ours suggested lunch there on Sunday. We took up prime eating position in the window seats.
Tinto has a huge range of deals – Sunday is 3 tapas for £8.95 per head. We ended up with a huge amount of food and it was a real delight to be able to sample so much of the menu. We have written this review together – so don’t think that one person ate all this food alone! 
Tabla de Embutidos – mixed Spanish meat board with olives
A great range of meats which went well with the Manchego cheese (see below). I’ve a newfound love of olives and these were lovely, even enjoyed heartily by our 4 year old dining companion. 
Carne de ternera – flash fried beef strips with garlic, chilli and red onion
This was a real highlight of the meal for me and I wish I had of ordered my own portion. The meat was deliciously tender and full of flavour – I can see why our dining companions order this every time they eat here!
Pollo – chicken breast sliced and topped with chorizo and Manchego cheese with tomato sauce
This was an obvious choice, as I love chorizo, and would happily have it with anything.  The chicken was succulent, and all the different ingredients combined well, although I would have preferred the chorizo to be higher up in the mix of flavours.
Canelones – pasta tubes stuffed with meat and vegetables baked with tomato and cheese
Another solid dish.  The sauce was rich without being overly filling, and the beef wasn’t too dry.  Not mind-blowing, but is certainly worth including in any tapas session.
Conejo Guisado con Cebollitas – rabbit, baby onion, tomato and white wine
The sauce was the highlight of this dish – the onion flavours were strong, but not too overpowering.  The rabbit was OK, but didn’t leave a great impression; I’m not too sure if I would order this one again.
Gambas pil pil – king prawns with chillies and garlic oil
These prawns were delicious – and a proper size, which is a real delight for me (too many times I have order prawns, only to receive shrimps!). They were succulent and flavoursome, my only qualm would be that they were slightly overcooked for my tastes. 
Apio con Manchego – braised celery hearts and twelve months aged Manchego cheese
I ordered this purely on the basis of the high praise from Wine Splodge - the idea of celery and cheese wouldn’t appeal to me otherwise. I’m so glad I did, the mild taste and slippery texture of the celery was refreshing and set off the sharpness of the cheese perfectly. 
Crema Catalana – traditional sweet cream custard topped with caramel
I pride myself on always being the person at the table to order the dish that everyone else envies. It’s a skill I have, and I’m proud of it. However, I didn’t order the crema catalana and had instant food envy when it arrived at the table. I hate that feeling, that someone is tucking into a really delicious dessert and you went and ordered pancakes.  
Tarta di Limon – homemade lemon tart with soft whipped cream
Really, really good this, so good I broke the main tapas rule and didn’t share it with my fellow diners!  Below the crispy caramelised topping, the lemon tart was of a great consistency and had the right balance of flavour; not too tart (if you pardon the pun), but still with enough of a lemon flavour to make it interesting.  The cream was well made as well, and complemented the tart perfectly.
Tortita – saffron pancakes with strawberry and marscarpone ice-cream

The aforementioned pancakes. Luckily for the pancakes, they were soft and delicate and immediately resolved my food envy. These are on the very sweet side so they may not be to everyone’s tastes. Don’t be mistaken though – next time we visit Tinto I will be ordering the cream catalana!

We enjoyed our lunch at Tinto. It was relaxing, the food was tasty and the service was friendly and quick. Tinto is definitely a place we want to visit again, and their excellent value takeaway deal (3 tapas for £6.95) means we have an exciting new takeaway option for lazy nights at home.

Tinto on Urbanspoon