Stuff Your Face – food and drink shows at the Fringe
There’s no shortage of food and drink to stuff your face with this Fringe but you could also be more cultured and take in a show or two about the subject too. You can read or download the Fringe programme here.
Join ‘performance-maker and foodie Sean Wai Keung as he gets to the centre of that most enigmatic of after-meal snacks: the fortune cookie’ at A History of Fortune Cookies (Summerhall p 291) or head to My English Persian Kitchen (Traverse Theatre p 309) to see ‘the journey of one-woman’s quest to build a new life around cooking and food.’
Start your day at The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show (Pleasance Courtyard p 267) with ‘brand-new, delicious, rotating “menus” of 10-to-15-minute comedies, eccentricities and dramas, served up with complimentary tea and coffee, croissants and strawberries.’ End it with ‘relaxing classical music by candlelight at Old Saint Paul’s Hot Chocolate at 10 (Old Saint Paul’s Church p 217) or ‘three hand-picked special drams paired with tasty tipsy treats of Scottish delicious canapes’ at Tipsy Midgie Midnight Treats (Tipsy Midgie p 188).
‘Taste each dish cooked before your eyes’ as Australia’s singing cook Michelle Pearson ‘serves up an evening of live music, cooking and comedy’ at Comfort Food Cabaret (Edinburgh New Town Cookery School p 17) or have Shakespeare for Breakfast (C theatre p 324) filled with ‘pentameter, puns and pastries’.
And for those feeling guilty about all those calories being consumed, why not get your steps in and combine a walking tour (and the odd tram ride) with a food and drink tasting. Leith Food and Drink Walking Tour by Edinburgh Food Safari p 186, will shine the spotlight on the historic port of Leith where you’ll sample Danish pastries, freshly roasted coffee, aubergine drizzled with honey, sangria, kedgeree, warm scones with jam and clotted cream.
For yet more immersive experiences and to sample the old tipple, Drag Queen Wine Tasting (Ministry of Camp @ Monboddo p18).will be a campatious tasting fuelled by three delicious wines, a sumptuous pairing and a big, fat singalong. Le Wine Club (Gilded Balloon Patter House, p.22), a wine-tasting musical comedy from performer and wine-geek, Anna Larkin includes a red wine sample, while she fathoms which wine pairs best with revenge? In Pour Taste: A Comedy Wine Tasting Experience (Assembly Roxy, Snug Bar, p 100), comedians Sweeney Preston and Ethan Cavanagh will guide you through tasting five wines and at least five jokes. The Thinking Drinkers: The Booze-ical (Underbelly, Bristo Square, p 162)– is a show I return to year after year, as it’s guaranteed fun and free drinks. These two drinks journalists, Tom and Ben, are joined by Flat and the Curves, as they host a legendary lock-in to prove that the pub, and indeed alcohol, are the cornerstones of civilisation. Meanwhile, 2 Guys, 3 Drams: The Ultimate Live Blues and Whisky Experience (theSpace @Venue 45, p 194) serves up raucous blues music and three superb Scotch whiskies. Sláinte!
