What we're eating this season - exciting cookbooks, pop-ups and products to pique your appetite for Spring

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At last, Spring is almost in sight.

If the longer (and a tiny bit warmer) days have piqued your appetite, then check out our selection of books, eats, pop-ups and products to invest in this March.

In like a lion, out like a lamb.

Head to Leith this weekend (March 5, 6 and 7), as Nauticus bar has a special guest serving from their portal, as part of their exciting Hatch Series, on Friday, 1-7pm, and Saturday and Sunday 12-6pm. This time round, it’s fishy street food purveyor, Shrimpwreck, who sometimes pops up at Platform Glasgow (www,platformgla.co.uk, currently closed) and other markets. We’re not sure what’s going to be served yet, but their previous dishes have included baked Old Bay crusted fresh fish, buttery mint mushy peas, tartare sauce, rocket and scampi fries. We imagine a queue is extremely likely. Don’t worry if you miss out on this one, Nauticus will have someone else special next weekend, with earlier guests cooking up easy-to-eat-on-the-links delights like grilled cheese and fried chicken.

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142 Duke Street, Edinburgh (0131 629 9055, www.nauticusbar.co.uk)

Don’t be a pariah, try a paratha. These flatbreads are currently the best-selling menu item at Zique’s, Glasgow, and are available to takeaway for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with vegetarian, vegan and meaty options, all for around £8. We recommend the butter chicken variety, with brinjal yoghurt, pickled red onion and red cabbage, or there’s a meat free wonder with an over easy egg, smashed avocado, chilli and seeds. Read our recent takeaway review, here. Order on their website, Deliveroo or soon also on UberEats.

66 Hyndland Street (0141 339 7180, www.ziques.com)

Zique's parathaZique's paratha
Zique's paratha

Edinburgh’s afternoon tea delivery business, Queen of Tarts, has created a rather beautiful Mother’s Day bouquet. It features purple and yellow cupcake blooms that are so botanically accurate, they could fool any expert on The Beechgrove Garden. This creation costs £30, which includes seven “light as a feather” sponge cakes, all piped with swirling petals of Swiss meringue buttercream.

Explore the globe without leaving your kitchen, thanks to new book, The Kitchen without Borders: The Recipes and Stories from Immigrant and Refugee Chefs, compiled by catering company EAT OFFBEAT. This hardback features 70 recipes and 14 chefs from around the world, including Syria, Iran, Eritrea and Venezuela, with dishes like Iraqi biryani, doogh (a yoghurt and milk drink) from Afghanistan, smooth Syrian hummus, to make your sandwiches sing, and chari bari (meatballs in Nepali-spiced tomato and cashew sauce).

Workman, £18.99, hardback, out now, buy it here

Queen of Tarts bouquetQueen of Tarts bouquet
Queen of Tarts bouquet
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It’s International Women’s Day on March 8. If you want to give a boozy cheers to the hard-working women of the world, invest in the limited-edition mixed wine case from Waitrose Cellar. This is available online now, and includes six wines made by female winemakers, including the Waitrose Blueprint Provence Rose, Dourthe Roqueblanche Sauvignon Blanc and Yalumba Organic Shiraz, £53 for six bottles or £106 for 12.

Finding it hard to shake off the winter blues? Then we prescribe a look at Lunan Bay Farm’s Instagram feed @lunanbayfarm. This asparagus and high welfare goat farm in Angus has been documenting the arrival of their extremely cute kids, some of whom have been sporting little cashmere sweaters. Goats in jumpers never fail to cheer us up.

The Kitchen Without Borders book jacketThe Kitchen Without Borders book jacket
The Kitchen Without Borders book jacket

If you want to do something more sophisticated at the weekend than Netflix and cheesy puffs (again), Edinburgh’s Fhior are running a Zoom Wine Tasting Club on Saturday March 6, 8-9.30pm, with tickets available on eventbrite for £90. This includes tastings of six wines with their own sommelier Stuart, as well as chat from Steven Hewison, the maître de chai (cellar master) of Château Le Puy wines. Don’t be gutted if it’s already sold out, as they’re hoping to do more events like this soon, including some wine and cheese tastings. Keep an eye on their social media for updates.

Edinburgh’s Gardener’s Cottage has got the home fires burning with their new Smokehouse goods, which have UK wide delivery. For Mother’s Day, they’ve created a gift pack, to be delivered on March 12, that contains a Tartan Blanket Co tartan knee blanket (mummy’s got to keep those knobblies cosy), an Edinburgh Honey Co beeswax candle, 100g of their new beetroot cured smoked salmon, 30g of Rodda’s Clotted Cream, a packet of beremeal oatcakes, and a 370ml bottle of Nyetimber Finest English Sparkling Wine. Beyond Mother’s Day, they’ll be offering a selection of smoked goodies, including the PCA Assured high welfare Scottish salmon, which is cured by hand and oak smoked.

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Falkirk’s annual Hippodrome Silent Film Festival, HippFest, has announced its digital programme, which this year includes a Silver Screen Cook-a-long with Jenny Hammerton from blog Silver Screen Suppers. She’s collected her movie star icons’ favourite recipes for around 25 years and now has over 8000. On March 20, at 11am, you can join Jenny in her kitchen to make Mary Pickford’s Enchiladas and a special HippFest Cocktail created especially for the festival using Linlithgow Gin. Tickets are £20, with a HippFest pass.

Waitrose Cellar wine collectionWaitrose Cellar wine collection
Waitrose Cellar wine collection

If you’re feeling a bit strapped for cash, Walker’s Shortbread have launched a Mother’s Day pressie that’s under a tenner. Their I Love Mum Miniature Tin is only £6.50, and contains this sugar-dusted biscuit in all the shapes - fingers, rounds, ovals and triangles, though sadly no dodecahedrons. And, no, you’re not allowed a bite.

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