A delicious weekend with Johanna

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A view from the Edinburgh Castle, September 2006

One of the unexpected, joyful and most rewarding 'side-effects' of foodblogging is the number of new friends I've made, not talking about widening my culinary horizons, knowledge about food and recipe repertoire. Johanna of The Passionate Cook is one of these friends. I first met Johanna, who is originally from Austria, at the 'tiny' gathering of foodbloggers in London in March, kindly organised by Andrew. This was followed by Johanna's and Jeanne's blog birthday party in June, where, after a great evening, I was also treated to a fantastic brunch on the patio the following morning. It was then that Johanna told me she had never been to Edinburgh. As I'm soon leaving Scotland, she thought it would be a good idea to pop up before I go.

And so it happened that Johanna was in Edinburgh just over a week ago, and we spent a wonderful food-packed weekend together. In less that 48 hours we managed to have a cuppa at The Elephant House (supposedly the place where J K Rowling wrote the first of her Harry Potter books), drooled over the amazingly decorated chocolates at Plaisir du Chocolat, stopped for another coffee and lemonade at VinCaffè, and had an enjoyable dinner with Melissa at (the fair-trade/free range/organic/local sourcing restaurant) Urban Angel, followed by a visit to the quirky whisky haven, The Canny Man's, in Morningside. On Sunday, we had a brunch at Centotre (their Cenerentola, a fresh fruit drink made with freshly squeezed orange juice, passion fruit & pineapple is my huge favourite), marvelled at the bounty available and had another cup of coffee at the oldest Italian deli (established in 1934) Valvona & Crolla, stocked up on Scottish cheese at Ian Mellis Cheesemonger and checked out the Mexican delights at Lupe Pintos deli. And finally, after having covered many kilometres by foot walking around Edinburgh, we had a most delicious and luxurious meal (and a great value one at that, £12.95 for the 2-course pre-theatre menu) at The Witchery, the restaurant underneath acclaimedly one of the most romantic and decadent hotels out there.

I didn't take any pictures - Johanna had a great camera with a fancy objective, so I kept my wee baby-cam firmly inside my handbag. But do check out the the pictures and read Johanna's post about The Witchery instead. There is, indeed, so much more to Edinburgh & Scotland than deep-fried Mars bars and haggis, neeps and tatties.