Scottish Food & Drink News – November 2017

We'll keep things simple to start this month, with the innocuously-titled Street Food event at this year's Dundee Science Festival. Having lured you in with that straightforward name, you'll explore the links between bacteria and ice cream, find out about malaria's link to gin & tonic, and try what are euphemistically referred to as "surprising snacks". We're sure they'll be totally fine. 2 Nov, 6pm, Discovery Centre at University of Dundee, £5, dundeesciencecentre.org.uk

Over in Glasgow it's soup time, with the Momma's Boy noodle pop-up at top-drawer beer and curry outpost Crossing The Rubicon. Meat-lovers can bash into a bowl of chicken broth, veggies can grab themselves a Japanese-inflected Scottish soup, and everyone can have a lovely beer. What's not to like? Nothing, we say. 2 Nov, from 5pm, 372-374 Great Western Rd, Glasgow

Here in the food section, there's only one thing we like more than challenging, complex beers – and that's obscure references to The Simpsons. Salt Horse's Max Sour Week provides both, and it's centred on eight "barrel aged, wild, funky, tart beers" from across the country. Head down, try something a bit different, be unsure at first, come around eventually, thank us later. From 8 Nov, 57-61 Blackfriars St, Edinburgh, salthorse.beer

If you want to keep things healthy ahead of a predicted December blowout, Glasgow Vegan Festival is a solid option for this month. Promising 50 stalls featuring the best of vegan produce and goodies, as well as full programmes of talks and demos and a wide range of food vendors, it's our pick of November if you want to keep things meat-free and healthy. Seriously, from here on in it's mostly just beer and sweets. 11 & 12 Nov, 10.30am - 4pm, Trades Hall, 85 Glassford St, £3, facebook.com/glasgowveganfestival

Next, beer and sweets! Depressingly absent from a lot of fancy drinks menus, the combination of bitter beer and sugary confectionery is a winner. Grunting Growler in Glasgow's west end know what's up, serving up an Old School Sweets and Beer pairing evening this month in collaboration with Stirling brewery Fallen. For the cost of admission you'll get five beers and a big load of sugar – that sounds like a solid evening to us. 16 Nov, 6pm, 51 Dumbarton Rd, Glasgow, £12, facebook.com/glasgowgrowler

On the same day over in Edinburgh, you can make an early start on your Christmas shopping with the Vino Winter Wine Tasting event. OK, we say 'Christmas shopping', we mean Christmas booze planning, for this is a land of top-notch wines and spirits waiting for your carefully-honed palate. Plus you get a free glass which we're sure you could use as a Christmas present, so everyone's happy! 16 Nov, 7.45pm, Summerhall, Edinburgh, £15, vinowines.co.uk

Craft Beer Revolution festival returns this month for a weekend-long takeover of Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh. Beer-wise there's an impressive line-up of brewers from across Scotland and from further afield – The Skinny heartily recommends getting oneself a pint of Munich's own Schneider Weisse, and to check out Stone Brewing Co. from California – as well as the usual mix of street food and music that turns a day at the pub into the more socially acceptable 'day at a beer festival'. Two thumbs up. 23-25 Nov, various times, 2 Roxburgh Pl, Edinburgh, £6-14, revolutioncraftbeer.com