Two Sexy Italians

Hey guys!  Sorry again for the long hiatus in blogging, it's been a hectic few weeks for me.  Since I last posted, I have started my new job as a young leader with the Brownies, begun revising for my exams (at the end of this month, boo!) and most importantly, been to see friends and family in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.  In my travels I ate at two amazing Italian restaurants, so I thought I'd big them up in case any of you happen to ever be in these areas!

My first meal was at Inca in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh.  I have quite a soft spot for this little restaurant, as I have been going there for years with my sister Mairi, her partner Carrie and (in latter days) Tetley.  It's a family run business and Mr Inca is amazing, he'll always give you good chat.  While the decor is a bit dated (check out the amazing 90s website design for an idea of just how much), the food is delicious and the spaghetti bolognese is the best I've ever tasted - and this is coming from a serious bolognese fan...

Tetley and I both had the bolognese as usual, the presentation is a bit slapdash but it's honestly so tasty!



The pizzas at Inca are also super good, they're not so massive that they have to be served on trays, Pizza Hut style, but I personally prefer that if I'm having a pizza to myself so I don't look like a total fatty.  The pictured pizza is Mairi's olive and anchovy one (not in my top ten of pizza choices...) but they do really nice spicy chicken ones as well, and of course the Pizza Bolognese to further fuel my obsession!

Here is my nephew Leo enjoying his pepperoni pizza :)



The occasion of the meal was to celebrate my Mum and Dad's Ruby Wedding anniversary, they've been together for an impressive 40 years.  It was such a lovely day, and so strange to think that out of the 14 people at the meal, 8 of us wouldn't even be alive if not for those two.  Good work, Mum and Dad!

After Edinburgh, we travelled up to Aberdeen.  Tetley had got us tickets to go and see Hairspray at the theatre for our two-year anniversary (totally unimpressive in the light of my parents' recent milestone!).  Hairspray was amazing, I was grinning like an idiot the entire way through and would highly recommend it if it's showing anywhere near you soon! 

My second meal out of the week was at Zizzi, an Italian restaurant in Aberdeen's huge shiny new shopping centre, Union Square.  According to the internet, Zizzi is a chain of restaurants, but I've never seen one before so it was still a new experience for me.  The restaurant is pretty inside, with a big wood stove oven that you can see the pizzas being cooked in, and rows of painted trees, which turned out not to be too practical after I saw the waiter being hit in the face by branches a good few times...  The food was also good, I went for the Penne Pollo Picante which was a tongue twister to order, but extremely tasty:

I should possibly have taken a picture before the waiter covered it in parmesan... 



While my pasta was nice, the thing that impressed me the most was the garlic bread, it had rosemary and a sort of breadcrumbed effect on the top, it was heavenly!  What made it even better was that we got it for free - a woman bashed into the waiter as he was serving us and two out out the ten or so pieces of garlic bread fell on the floor, so we got the remaining ones on the house, perfect!

The pizzas at Zizzi are quite intimidatingly large, however Suzy managed all of hers despite it being roughly the same size as her torso, so I assume it was good. 

Since being back home, I have cooked a good few things, so expect a return to a regular(ish) posting schedule soon!  Next up is my first attempt at a homemade curry, stay tuned...