Chitra Ramaswamy

Thanks for having us @paisleybookfest ❤️ It was wonderful to speak about the development of our first publication, Rich Things, at the festival today, and to explore its layered responses to the work of Alasdair Gray. Huge thanks to @chitgrrlwriter , whose words are at the root of it all; @matthewarthurwilliams for the beautiful responsive photographs — we missed you, Matthew, but were glad to share your words and images — and to our custodian @sorchadallas for the marginal notes, all beautifully designed into Rich Things by @maeve_redmond_ ✨ #alasdairgray #thealasdairgrayarchive

Just walking Lizzie Lemon on Leith Links and who should I come across but the UK's only LGBTQI+ Bollywood dance troupe @bollyqueer ! They're performing and running workshops today at a queer community event @lgbtiscotland @equalitynetwork Pride in our Community. They were so beautiful I had to ask to take a photograph. They immediately acquiesced, naturally, and struck a pose.

Leith Links children's orchard posy. Forever grateful to @leithcommunitygrowers for making one of my favourite places in Leith, possibly the world. Happy Friday all. Community is the place from which hope springs.

My @thetimes restaurant review of @chef.stuart.ralston stalwart @notoedinburgh , specifically the excellent value set lunch. From my review: "When Noto opened in 2019 it was a revelation. Here, along the auld cobbles of Edinburgh’s Thistle Street, was a slice of lower Manhattan minimalistic chic: a tracery of twigs on the monastic white walls, and North Sea crab served in the shell, swimming in warm butter and dill on the menu." "The vibe was east Asian via east coast America — big-flavoured small plates (still such a novelty that no one was rolling their eyes at them) of beef tartare spritzed with yuzu kosho, natural wines and nerdy cocktails. Noto was the name of the chef-proprietor’s room-mate, Bob Noto, when he lived and worked in New York. And this was that still relatively unknown restaurateur’s second restaurant." "Fast-forward to 2026 — a lifetime in restaurant years, as well as our lives considering what’s gone down in the interim — and every fourth opening is still some variation on Asian-influenced small plates dining. Which, yes, I love. Even if, like everything in life — high streets, jeans, sourdough — it can get boring when things all start to look (and taste) the same. Noto’s menu may be more familiar now that many of us have had the pleasure of blasting our palates with mushroom XO, but it’s still influential, exciting and full of things you want to eat." Read the rest online...

Beard: a close study.

An exceptional dinner I ate recently @nadairedinburgh where foraging, instead of being an afterthought or embellishment, is absolutely integral to the flavour and storytelling on each plate. I ate many plants I've never eaten before, including Scots elm seeds, currently carpeting Leith Links, and papery and melon tinged on the palate, magnolia petals, which impart the merest suggestion of ginger, garlic mustard, and my first St George's mushrooms. Stunning produce led plates, beautifully conceived and balanced, absolutely brilliant curated drinks pairings too. Also the first time on the job I've encountered a clootie dumpling on a relaxed fine dining menu - draped with Gouda on the verge of beginning to melt, and speckled with truffle honey. All that and it's a very reasonable £65 for a six course set dinner menu. Full disclosure: I was invited for dinner, I rarely say yes when I'm asked to do this, but in this case I decided to because I've been meaning to go ever since they opened. Well I'm bloody glad I did because it's one of the most interesting, inventive, yet approachable restaurants in Edinburgh, simultaneously in the vein of modern New Nordic/Scottish restaurants such as @montrose and @timberyard10 yet also doing its own small cool leftfield thing. Can't wait to return. Edinburgh dining just gets better and better.

My @thetimes restaurant review of one of my restaurants of 2026 and an extremely rare 30/30: @brett.restaurant by @chef_colin.a and his top notch tattooed team. From my review: "Once you reach a level of dining in this country, chef’s counters are as commonplace as wild garlic on spring menus. They’re not for everyone (no restaurant is, after all), but for those thrill-seekers who want the smoke from the grill to seep into their bones and wake the next morning smelling last night’s dinner on their hair, chef’s counters are the apotheosis of eating out. These are front row seats at the most sensory, intense and pleasurable of theatres." "I rarely book a seat at them because there’s no worse nightmare for a chef than a restaurant critic at the counter eyeballing every plate at the pass. But once in a while the chef’s counter is so integral to the ethos of the restaurant that to eat anywhere else would be an offence." "Brett is part of the group that owns Cail Bruich, the Clarence and Caravan Shop just across the road. Think of Brett as Cail Bruich’s younger, brasher sister: the one to go to for ice cream dolloped with Kings Imperial caviar and gildas turbo-charged with chicken fat." "Weirdly this is the first and third time I’ve reviewed this restaurant. First during lockdown restrictions when I ate outside beneath a heat lamp in my winter coat. Second at a distillery pop-up where the kitchen was so minimalist Anderson had to restore his chicken wings in an air fryer. Ever since, I’ve been wanting to review Brett properly. Finally the motivation arrived: a glow-up focusing attention on the counter seating and open kitchen." Read the rest online folks.

Was lucky to be gifted a sample set of ghee (thuppa in Kannada, my parents' language) from the wonderful @shopajjis . It's blown my mind as it never occurred to me until now that of course you can add all sorts of herbs, spices, and little infusing extras to your homemade clarified butter. Naturally I began with the honey and saffron ghee in porridge and it was ace: all sweet, warm and buttery notes (especially with chopped stem ginger). Rosemary and sea salt was perfect drizzled on toast (would have been focaccia if I had it), slightly bitter and herbaceous, and the original went on the paratha we ate with the most glorious butter chicken made by my very talented chef pal @yash_rajpal90 of @ghar_edinburgh . Next up is the chilli one... It's all presented so beautifully, I can't quite believe what's happened to south Indian food, our food, in my lifetime in this country. It had such a powerful effect on me that I went to sleep the night I received it and dreamt of my beloved late mother, my children's ajji, who was of course an exceptional thuppa maker, and the one who taught me. Such is the power of ghee. Thank you so much @shopajjis go check them out.

Bank holiday mornings are for sunning one's funky little beard. Dogs are my favourite thing on earth. They teach us how to live.

A joyous community launch of Rich Things, the first publication by @thealasdairgrayarchive at Garnethill Multicultural Centre yesterday. My youngest book event crowd to date - a bunch of kids making their own mini archives - scroll for my daughter's miniature Lizzie Lemon - while I read a few micro essays from this beautiful book brought to life by the magnificent and supremely generous and cool @sorchadallas with photos by @matthewarthurwilliams and design by @maeve_redmond_ such a lovely day in the heart of Grayland. You can now buy Rich Things on the archive website half price for just £6!!!! Snap it up folks. Link below. /shop/other-books/rich-things/

It's PUB DAY FOR RICH THINGS!!!!!! My micro book of micro essays, each one responding to an object in Alasdair Gray's archive, each one a small and impossible conversation with the late writer and artist and, on one occasion, Agnes Owens. And boy am I in love with the beautiful publishing of this book, the writing of which was so foundational it spawned a whole other book (that typically no one wants to publish), by @thealasdairgrayarchive which combines photographs by @matthewarthurwilliams design by @maeve_redmond_ and marginal notes by @sorchadallas . This, pictured, is one of the micro essays in the book. It's the Archive's first ever publication and we are launching it tomorrow at Garnethill Multicultural Centre from 12-2pm. Please come! Oh, and you can buy Rich Things now on the archive website.

It's PUB DAY FOR RICH THINGS!!!!!! My micro book of micro essays, each one responding to an object in Alasdair's archive, each one a small and impossible conversation with the late Alasdair Gray, or, on one occasion, Agnes Owens. And boy am I in love with the beautiful publishing of this book, the writing of which was so foundational for me it spawned a whole other book (that typically no one wants to publish) by @thealasdairgrayarchive which combines photographs by @matthewarthurwilliams , design by @maeve_redmond_ and marginal notes by @sorchadallas . I've opened this reel (never do reels, find it easier to write books frankly, this may be awful sorry) with one of my micro essays. It's the Archive's first publication and we are launching it at a community event tomorrow at Garnethill Multicultural Centre, 12-2pm. Please come. Oh, and you can now buy Rich Things on the archive website.