The Edinburgh Experiment Google Event

by Bex

A few weeks ago, Nik and I caught the train to Edinburgh for a night out with Google City Experts (which I recently signed up to), thanks to Zoe.  The event was called The Edinburgh Experiment and was held in the old veterinary school at Summerhall which was the perfect venue!  I would LOVE to hold a Halloween party there!

As the theme was geek chic, I wore my GEEK T-shirt and Nik wore his red bow tie (from his ringmaster costume) and I borrowed a pair of Nik's glasses and jazzed it all up with some bling.

After 'enrolling' and donning our lab coats or body suits (there were no lab coats left by the time we arrived and as I had a skirt on the body suit wasn't an option for me), name badges and glow sticks we went exploring.  There was a bar set up in a room full of cages where we enjoyed a selection of interesting cocktails, including one which fizzed up when you added a fruit mento.

There was a music room with old gramophones playing the music.

And we soon discovered the edible insects!

I ate a cricket leg and some kind of grub thing...

We then got a table and enjoyed some more foodie experiments.  The food was all designed and made by Jelly & Gin who did a fantastic job!  The menu was projected onto a wall like a periodic table and the first thing we tried was the spherified beetroot & goats cheese on a blini.  We were advised to put the whole thing in our mouths to avoid making a mess - when we did it was clear why, it sort of exploded into liquid form in your mouth and tasted amazing!

Next we tried the thai soup which was served with a syringe of coconut milk which formed noodles when it hit the hot soup.

I love exciting food and it was delicious as well!

Next we tried the chicken and the egg.  A chicken terrine with a slow cooked quail's egg, parma ham and bread crumbs.  And by now Gwen had found us in the food room and joined us with her friend.

Then it was time for dessert, jellied gin & tonic served in petri dishes, lit up with a black light to make the tonic glow!  I absolutely hate tonic (far, far too bitter for me) but took plenty of photos of everyone else enjoying it!

Zoe was particularly neon next to the black light!

Next we tried the space ice-cream!  The freeze dried stuff NASA invented for astronauts.  It was interesting and not entirely popular.  It reminded me of those alphabet sweets but different although I didn't mind it.

And finally, we went to check out the DNAquiris.  We were shown how to extract the DNA from strawberries using pineapple juice and bacardi.

Apparently the white bits you can see floating on top are the strawberry DNA strands!

We had an excellent time!  It was so well organised and such an exciting evening!  We all posed in the photobooth before we left and received goody bags of popping candy!  :)

It was a late-ish night and we just missed the train home, despite Gwen's lovely boyfriend giving us lift so we had to wait for the next one.  It was only when we were at the station that I realised I left behind my hat, gloves and scarf as well!  I'd taken them out of my bag to put them on back at Summerhall but got distracted saying goodbye and put them on the side and then left them, d'oh!  Luckily Zoe found them and posted them back to me which I was so grateful for as the scarf was new and I really really love my sparkly gloves!  Massive thanks Zoe for inviting us along and for saving my accessories!!!