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

[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. ;^)