food in Scotland

[low_delta]

First, there were the breakfasts. Full cooked breakfast. Every day. Every single day. Fried egg with runny yolk. Pork sausage link, bacon (like Canadian bacon, or ham), baked tomato halves. Usually, a hash brown patty. once, haggis. Three times, black pudding (pucks of blood sausage, looked like brownies, tasted like haggis). Often, mushrooms. Orange juice, coffee and tea. Many places had cold cereal, yogurt, apples and bananas. A few places had stewed prunes and grapefruit sections. That's pretty much it. The best breakfast of the trip was at the B&B on Orkney. The menu offered smoked fish, so I accepted. It was a larger piece than I expected, and then the full cooked breakfast on top of it, was larger than usual - two sausage links, plus a big puck of black pudding (the first time I had seen it).



My dad wanted to eat cheap and light all the time (which was fine, usually), and only Scottish (I would have liked Indian, once or twice, but he neither likes Indian, nor wanted to eat "foreign" food in Scotland). So we usually had sandwiches. They always came with chips. I won't be able to eat French fries again for a long time. We had real dinners three times, I think, and always at my suggestion. My dad's favorite meal of the trip was haggis-stuffed chicken breast with whisky sauce. I had seafood a few times. Salmon, scallops, smoked haddock. Local cheeses (mostly cheddars), including on Orkney.

And I didn't gain any weight on the trip!

My dad and I were talking about the foods we're going to eat when we get home, that we haven't had in a while. Pizza, chocolate. I've been home for about 16 hours, and have had pizza, chocolate chip cookies, a Pop Tart, my cereal and cranberry juice. I think I'll have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on homemade bread for lunch. And I'll enjoy dinner every night this week. Oh, I want spaghetti.

I forgot to mention the ginger beer. I'd always wanted to try it, and I love it. I had it at almost every opportunity. If you like the hot, spicy ginger flavor, you'll probably like ginger beer. Besides that, I usually had a pint of cider (like Strongbow) in the pubs. Or whisky.

Comments

[serendipity.livejournal.com]

Every year when Rachel returned from her weeks in Spain she wanted to go immediately to In-&-Out Burger. And missed Indian food.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

You didn't gain any weight because you were running around so much! Honestly, Cynn's updates on what ya'll were doing made me tired!

I share your father's aversion to Indian food. I just can't get past the spice palate.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I would have been running around a lot more if my traveling companion wasn't 70 years old. I had to learn how to walk slowly.

[(Anonymous)]

energizer bunny you!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I adore Indian food. That's what I look for often in the UK, a good curry!
I love those full cooked breakfasts. What we do is just not eat until evening if we start the day with a "full English".
Or at most, a light snack in mid afternoon, if we need to.

I guess I just don't miss a whole lot of "American" foods. Been away too long, huh?
;)

Ummmm...there's wonderful pizza and chocolate over on this side of the pond.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

The first couple of days, since we had the big breakfasts, we skipped lunch (had granola bars or fruit something), but my dad needs to eat regularly, to regulate his blood sugar. I would have been fine doing that every day.

You miss whatever you're used to. I don't normally miss food that much, but I had this issue with repetition, on this trip.

I only saw places with pizza a couple of times. My dad and I both love chocolate, but that's a luxury we didn't want to pay for - either £ or calories.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Chocolate is never a luxury. It's a basic food group.
;)
And if it's a matter of regulating blood sugar, that's totally understandable.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Worked for me! For the most part.

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

I don't like UK bacon. I have yet to meet a UK sausage that I don't love, though

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Some of them tasted rather pasty. Like they were half grain. They were best when they were overcooked.

Oh that's right - you don't like ham. Yeah, that bacon would be a problem for you.

food

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

I would only eat twice a day I think, although it sounds good (I would have liked some Indian food just to change it up although getting only food from Scotland makes sense). I've no idea what haggis is, even though it's been described to me, and I'd have to ask that no one tell me when I was eating blood pudding.

The General Store in town sells ginger beer (non-alcoholic - I don't know if yours had it or not). I really like it.

Re: food

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Haggis is basically lamb, liver and barley. It tastes better than it sounds, I guess, unless you're a big lover of liver.

The black pudding pictured above was the first one I had. It was very dry. It had a consistency and color similar to a brownie. Flavor like haggis. I had heard from a few people who said they didn't like the stuff, so I was imagining worse. It was so dry that I had to concede that I didn't like it all that much either. I had it twice after that, where it was much better. One was fried, so the outside was just a bit cripsy, and the inside was still moist - more like a good brownie. But still tasted like haggis.

I've never seen ginger beer here. I'll have to keep any eye out for it. I also had a root beer - imported from Australia, I discovered. Very different tasting.

[planetgeorge.livejournal.com]

How was haggis? I've never tried it but have always wanted to. My dad has had it a number of times and said it's an acquired taste, although when he's had it at Burns suppers, it's been doused in single malt Scotch. I will say that from what I've heard from my parents, they liked Scottish food better than English. When they go to London they usually go out for Italian or French.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I like haggis. We have it often, at our dinners, like the Burns Banquet, or at Highland Games. I thought it was fine the first time I had it, and a little surprised at that.

Aside from that and some of the other breakfast items, I'm not really sure what foods are Scottish. Fish & chips, I guess.

[mellary4.livejournal.com]

That breakfast has everything I love except of course the black pudding puck because I've never had one. I like the idea of smoked fish for breakfast!

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

The fish was good! When the plate (in the photo) arrived, there was only one little bit left.

I was surprised that the black pudding was fine. Everybody I'd heard from said it was bad.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Wow that's a lot of fat and protein! It looks good though... very good...

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I cut most of the fat off the bacon. And I'm okay with more protein and less carb. That's probably why I didn't gain any weight on the trip.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

You didn't gain any weight because you were so active.

Bacon cooks in fat. Sausage is full of fat. Eggs are cooked in butter at restaurants. I forget what else was on that plate but it was loaded with fat. You just burned it all off... that and a good metabolism helps.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but people underestimate how fattening sugar is. And carb foods (bread) have less nutrition in them than protein foods (meat). I saw a study where rats who were on a high-sugar diet gained more weight than the rats who were on a high-fat diet.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I grew up with an expert nutritionist for a mother. What you need is a balanced diet. Don't eliminate anything, just be sensible. If you are moderate you will be fine. There is nothing wrong with carbs in moderation. The problem with some of us is inactivity along with unwillingness to cut back on favorite, not necessarily good for us, foods. And... some folks are lucky enough to have high metabolism.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Exactly. But most of us still get more than enough carbs.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Okay... but do try to remember that there are *studies* that can prove anything, and even more that prove them wrong. A lot of rats have suffered for all of them. ;^)

[banana.livejournal.com]

> ..."foreign" food in Scotland
But the British national dish is curry!

What's American bacon like?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Certainly more "local" than burgers, which is what my dad usually ate.

Bacon... shaved, smoked pork. Maybe like prosciutto, only thicker and with more fat. Then it's fried until crispy.

http://video.about.com/culinaryarts/How-to-Fry-Bacon.htm

[dwivian]

What you're looking at for bacon there is a rasher, or back bacon, made from the pork loin that's been wet cured (pickled) for about two weeks. I make this all the time (that is, I buy loins, pickle them, smoke them, then fry them up). I prefer it as it's the heavier meat with less fat, if you've had it cut correctly. Still SOME fat, of course, but far less than US bacon which is pork belly, also known as 'streak-o-lean' for being a slab of fat with only a smidge of lean meat in it. :)

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I didn't know people cured their own meat. Sounds good to me. I'm not a big fan of fatty meat. I guess that's why I like my bacon very crispy.