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For the first time ever, we took Tailend on the road! Last weekend (11th&12th of June) we joined many other local producers at Crail Food Festival! This amazing annual event is held all over the beautiful coastal village of Crail.
This was also great for us as producers, we had the opportunity to meet potential new customers and also to collaborate with other local producers. As many of you know Tailend prides itself on working and supporting independent businesses, so this was a great chance to meet lots of new local foodies to work with. Over the 2 days we were situated in Marketgate. Right next door to the beer tent (which was very handy). The beer marque was also home to live music from local bands, which just gave off such a happy atmosphere. Gorgeous food, live music and beer on tap, definitely got us in the festival spirit! Also joining us in Marketgate were fellow foodies East Neuk cooks, Flat out Food, The Tin Van, Wood Fired Pizza & Anstruther Row Club.  We were the only spot in the Festival where people could get hot food, so come lunch time we were very busy! We were the only seafood stand in Marketgate and offered a selection of cajun seabass or cajun salmon tacos, warm Arbroath Smokie with lemon, warm Hot Smoked Salmon and a range of seafood boxes (containing a choice of patè, salad, chutney, hot smoked salmon & oat cakes). We also had vacuum packed Smokies, Hot smoked salmon & a range patè for sale (smoked mackerel patè, arbroath smokie patè, smoked mackerel & blackberry patè). Considering this was our first time at an event like this, we got into our rhythm very quickly. All food was cooked to order and we made the salad boxes fresh to order too.  Lunch time, Saturday. Our first day was a massive success, all the Tailend team had a great time and we even had to run back to the shop on market street for more stock! Come 4.30 we started to pack away and prep for another day fun filled day on Sunday. Sunday Sadly Sunday got hit with traditional Scottish summer weather, it was rainy and cold but the Tailend troops were in good spirits and got the stall set up ready for the day.
behind Tailend and where they could find our stall. We were kept busy through day down at the harbour but we still managed to find the time to exchange food for food with our neighbours up at Marketgate! In exchange for tacos we managed to wangle a pizza from the Tin Van, Soup from the East Neuk Cooks & the offer of beer from St Andrews Brew Co, but sadly we were all driving (damn car) so coffee for us instead! We loved making new foodie friends. We had an absolute ball at the festival and we have been bitten by the travelling bug! We are looking to get involved with other festivals and events in the area. So keep a look out for the Tailend the next time your out and about, you never know where you might see us! A huge thank you to Graeme (from the honey pot, in Crail) and his team for organising such a huge event so well. Everyone working the event was so friendly and helpful, which was very comforting due to this being our first time out of the restaurant and onto the mean streets. A truly great weekend had by all! Until next year #crailfoodfestival click the link to see more highlights from the day www.crailfoodfest.co.uk .
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 On wednesday the 25th we held a little event aptly named 'crafty tacos'. We created this with Luvians Bottle shop St Andrews, just a fun promotion where we made 6 different tacos and we matched them to unique craft beers & ales supplied by luvians bottleshop. (see luvians website below) -Cajun Seabass -Cajun Salmon -Jack Daniels Pork Belly -Tuna Satay -Veggie Chilli -Sweet Chilli Chicken & Haggis This was such a fun, simple event that worked really well! Definitely something we will do again, so be sure to sign up to our newsletter to hear about the next event.  Read our review of the night from Spoon St Andrews here spoonuniversity.com/place/everything-need-know-tailend-taco-night/ Luvians Bottleshop st Andrews: www.luvians.com Spoon University: spoonuniversity.com Our Gin Tasting Menu has been a huge success and as much as we love the menu we currently have, we have decided to create a brand new one for summer '16!! Like the first gin menu we created last year, we invited the Eden Mill team in to test it out before we launched it to the public. We like to use them as our guinea pigs. We love to support local independent businesses (like ourselves), so our Gin menu is made up entirley of our incredible neighbour distillers Eden Mill of St Andrews(who also hold distillery tours & tastings, info can be found at the bottom of the blog). Gins work so well with fresh seafood it was the perfect match for us to work together and create something special and delicious for our customers.  For this new gin tasting menu our chefs spent a long time deliberating which way to take the menu. In the end they have chosen an asian fusion direction. Inspired by Darren's recent trips to Australia where this style of food is having a huge moment! Our menu includes a lots of elegant flavours, sesame & soy. Our chefs are amazing and all the delicate beautiful flavours really come out incredibly in each and every dish! Especially in our Tuna dish, which was a clear favourite with the Eden Mill team.
 Still going down that whole Asian/fusion route we had a tuna dish in mind that needed a big gin to stand up to it and hop is it! The tuna is marinated in a little soy, sesame, lime and honey and then rolled in black sesame seeds and lightly seared. Alongside it is a Asian slaw Mage with cabbage, carrot, chilli, lime, sesame, coriander and crispy fried shallots. Accompanied with that it is an avocado wasabi puree to add an extra little punch. 2nd course Seared scallops, pea puree, crispy pork belly and thyme oil. This scallop dish is one of the chefs favourites and they have been wanting to showcase it for a while! The scallops are sourced from the Shetlands and are beautifully sweet when cooked. Working in harmony with the sweetness from the pea puree. We felt the dish needed some saltyness and why we served it with crispy pork belly morsels! We thought a little woodiness from the thyme oil too would bring it all together! Therefor the best match (we believe) for this dish is the oak gin! With its sweet notes and rich oakiness we though it would really compliment the scallops... We tried garnishing the gin with a few different ingredients but settled on thyme, peppercorns and mandarin. The thyme to enhance the oakiness and woodiness, the peppercorns to give it a wee kick and the mandarin to bring out the natural sweetness too!
3rd course We couldn't bring ourselves to take the taco off the gin menu as it has been such a hit with out customers. So instead of taking it off we decided to reinvent the taco, this time using salmon. Blackened salmon taco w tomato, ramiro salsa. Blackened salmon is a Cajun coating on the fish which is then chargrilled to give it a crispy coating! We have served it with a coriander, tomato & ramiro salsa. With added lime to give it a citrus kick! We loved the original gin with this dish as it has that natural citrus zingyness to it that really compliments the spices in the salmon. We paired green olives in the original gin for this course. The olives pull out the coriander in the salsa and also pull the bitterness out the gin which makes the gin and the taco really work together to create an amazing flavour on the palette. 
4th course Of course our fish and chips had to be on the menu! Our Tailend classic, humble haddock & chips and Eden Mill classic, Shipwreck IPA are just made for each other. The bubbles from the IPA work wonderfully to cut through the batter on the fish and the light golden flavour doesn't detract from the fish! In simple words, it just works! Surprise course Also with this menu, we have a special supplement course! When we get our hands on the new golf gin we are thinking to incorporate an additional course on as a pre dessert, a cheeky blueberry/blackberry sorbet with honey comb . Guests can opt to do it or not but this will only last for as long as we have the golf gin, so best book quick!! 5th course For the final course we were first inspired by the Love Gin and wanted to create a dessert around that. We have tried many different garnishes over the past few weeks and we discovered, through almost selling out, that the Love goes amazingly with grapefruit & rosemary. Initially we thought a bizarre pairing but it works beautifully. Pannacotta has always been a dish we wanted to try. So we thought why not pop all those garnishes from the gin into the dessert too! ...If its good enough to drink, its good enough to eat, Right??  We had such a great night, as always, with the Eden Mill team. As this was a pre-launch we asked them to give as much feed back as possible, what they thought worked and where they thought little changes could be made. So the menu we officially launch may be slightly different to this one after the final tweaks are done. Its amazing to have such a fun working relationship with our fellow businesses and when it involves eating food and drinking gin, its not a bad job! The new gin tasting menu will be launching soon and if you sign up to our newsletter using the form below, you will be the first to hear of our launch night and any other promotions or events we will be holding. To find out more about Eden Mill and/or about the tours they offer click the link below. We highly recommend their tours-very informative-very fun-tasting at the end-superb! |
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