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Maps
Scotland
External Links
I.J. Mellis
G. Armstrong's
Fishers Bistro
E'bgh Botanic Garden
The Rowan Tree
Monaltrie Hotel
The Anderson
Beer Philadelphia
MacIver Shellfish
Willow Tea Rooms
The Ubiquitous Chip
Caol Ila Distillery |
Bob's Dining Journal
From Skirlie to Caol Ila
Being of a parsimonious disposition, we spent our first
week in Scotland in an Edinburgh self-catering flat, obtained a mere week
before our departure from Philadelphia at a "late break" price because our
previously-arranged Gayfield Street flat became unavailable due to the
landlady’s incompetence. Instead, our flat in the Morningside
neighborhood, with a decently outfitted kitchen, was marvelously situated
around the corner from a branch of cheesemonger I.J. Mellis, and we took
full advantage of the stinky offerings. I particularly enjoyed a raw milk
cheddar from Mull. I also journeyed via bus to the Stockbridge
neighborhood to visit George Bowers for meat (house smoked bacon) and
G. Armstrong’s for fish. (It is strictly coincidental that fire destroyed
Armstrongs a mere five hours after my purchase of a kipper; the fire
certainly had nothing to do the fact that when I unwrapped the fish two
days later I found not a kippered herring but a rather odoriferous "fresh"
herring.)
One of our objectives in leasing a flat is to cope with
the high price of eating out in the U.K. The old saw holds true: If you
would pay $30 for a meal in the U.S., expect to pay £30 in the U.K. for a
similar meal. At today’s exchange rate, that means dinner in the U.K. is
nearly twice the price of what it would be in the U.S. One more reason why
we ate spaghetti in the flat twice during our week in Edinburgh.
Our most enjoyable restaurant meal in Edinburgh was at
Fishers Bistro in Leith. I opted for the cold seafood platter, overflowing
with prawns, smoked salmon, crabmeat, herring, anchovies and many other
food things to eat (including a Loch Fyne oyster), Jean Sue (hereafter
referred to as She Who Must Be Obeyed, or SWMBO) enjoyed a nicely prepared
piece of halibut with a fruit accented sauce. With two starters, two
glasses of wine and two puddings, the tab came to £48 before gratuity.
(All prices cited below are before gratuity; figure the exchange rate at
$1.85 or thereabouts to the pound sterling.)
Another worthwhile stop was
Plaisir du Chocolate on the
Royal Mile. Forgettable pre-made sandwiches but memorable chocolate cakes.
I thought the chestnut accented one was a nice change from what we see in
the States.
While touring we stopped at a few pubs for less
expensive meals, some passable, others best passed by. The surer bets
appear to be cafes at cultural institutions. We thought highly of the
sandwiches and soups at the National Portrait Gallery. Good eats also
could be had at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens.
After our week in Edinburgh we took a leisurely and
highly indirect route to Royal Deeside by-way-of the Fife coast, stopping
for lunch at The Waterfront Café in Anstruther. For £14 we enjoyed very
decent haddock and chips along with non-alcoholic beverages.
In Ballater that evening we dined at the Rowan Tree. I
went for a starter (chopped salad) and the lamb cutlets, a nice portion
and suitably lamb-y. She Who Must Be Obeyed did the gammon steak with egg.
Certainly no great culinary event, but a decent meal for weary travelers,
fairly priced (£27 with one cocktail, one wine, and two puddings).
The next day, tired from our exertions, I dined at our
hotel’s restaurant while SWMBO dined on her portable chocolate supply. The
restaurant at the Monaltrie Hotel offered a Thai menu, so I tried it. It
was filling. Enough said.
After two nights in Ballater, it was onward to Kenmore
on the Applecross peninsula. But first, lunch in Fortrose, a short detour
from the direct route, but well worth it. Let me explain.
Prior to our departure from Philadelphia I visited my
local pharmacist (chemist) to stock up on needed supplies, including
prescription medicines. When I told Walter I needed more than a two weeks’
supply because we would be traveling in Scotland, he abruptly went into
his back office and returned with a business card for a restaurant called
The Anderson in Fortrose. It seems the town’s hotel was acquired a little
more than a year ago by a fellow Philadelphian, indeed, a fellow who lived
in our immediate neighborhood,
Jim Anderson, although I did not know him.
I did know of him, however, because he had published a
newsletter, Beer Philadelphia, all about (can you guess?) beer in
Philadelphia. So, I e-mailed Jim and made reservations for lunch on the
day of our Ballater-to-Kenmore journey. (His restaurant only opens for
lunch upon advance request.)
We arrived with Jim’s favorite brand of razor blade (Gem
single-edge, unavailable in the U.K., supplied by Walter) and he returned
the favor with a most delicious lunch. SWMBO ordered a perfectly done
Highland beef sirloin. After a starter of Arbroath Smokie I selected
boneless French chicken stuffed with skirlie (an oat and onion concoction
and quite savory). Since I had a few more hours of driving ahead of me,
much of it on single-track lanes, I limited myself to a half-pint of Celis
White, while SWMBO chose another short brew. We shared an excellent and
dense chocolate cake. Tab: £60.
Jim sent us off with two bottles of Grimbergen Blonde, a
nicely rounded abbey ale that made a refreshing accompaniment for our
dinner that evening at our B&B, Tigh a' Chracaich, in Kenmore on Loch
Torridon. The innkeeper, Lorna MacIver, served us: two cold seafood plates
overflowing with half a dozen langoustines
(a.k.a. Dublin prawns), both cold and hot smoked salmon, crabmeat and
prawns in marie rose sauce, accompanied by salad, hard cooked eggs, rolls and hot
potatoes. Lorna, whose husband Derrick lands the langoustines,
added labout £30 to our tariff for the meal.
Our next night on the beautiful Applecross peninsula we
dined at the highly recommended Tigh an Eilean Hotel in Sheildaig on Loch
Torridon. At a prix fixe of £35 for three courses we expected an exquisite
meal. We were mildly disappointed. The ingredients were top flight, the
food well prepared, but lacking the extra dimension needed to make a meal
memorable. Certainly the surroundings were enjoyable: a pleasantly blue
accented dining room looking out on the loch. And the amuse bouche duo of
venison salami and herring seemed to be a good omen. My starter of
mushroom almond soup hinted of Spain and also promised better things. We
both ordered the filet steak, which came in huge portions, though SWMBO
thought it inferior to The Anderson’s. Predictably, SWMBO ordered the
profiterole with chocolate sauce (declaring it a success) while I went for
the refreshing rhubarb fool. Two glasses of syrah increased our tab to
£77. (My Tokaj pudding wine arrived gratis because it was not delivered
with the pudding.) A good meal, but not, IMHO, worth the price. Jean Sue
overhead one set of diners discuss how they had been coming to the
restaurant every year, but with the new chef the portions have grown while
the quality has declined. Then again, perhaps we should have ordered
something other than beef, because the starters and desserts were quite
nice.
The next evening, at The Potting Shed Café in the Walled
Garden in Applecross, was more to our liking and budget. SWMBO skipped the
starter, but I devoured my confit duck leg: duck butter! SWMBO had a
hankering for venison and was highly satisfied by the chef’s casserole
mounted upon a colcannon utilizing red cabbage, mustard and apples, the
plate top with deep fried shreds of celeriac. My pork filet rested upon a
more traditional colcannon (savoy cabbage rather than red); a blue cheese
and apple sauce topped the meat. For pudding, SWMBO once again decided to
try the profiterole with chocolate sauce (strictly for the advancement of
science) and pronounced it perfect. Had she not been so full she would
have replicated the experiment, as any true scientist would. My
butterscotched banana chunks baked in a phyllo-like pastry and topped with
honeyed, herbed nuts was the quintessential adult pudding. With a bottle of
Tempranillo our tab came to £52. We considered it our best value meal of
our Scottish holiday. (The chef at The Potting Shed made his mark at the
Applecross Inn and is now out on his own.)
We finished our trip with a couple of days in Glasgow.
Other than the obligatory tourist stop at the Willow Tea Rooms, where we
shared our table with a convivial couple from the suburbs of Birmingham, our only
meal of note was a visit to The Ubiquitous Chip, where (keeping in mind my
parsimonious nature) we dined downstairs on the upstairs menu. SWMBO loved
the butternut squash soup with red bell pepper; sweet vegetables are her
thing. I equally enjoyed the razor clam farcis. Although we have razor
clams in the States, I have never seen them on a menu, at least on the
East Coast, so they were a treat. Mains were a smallish chicken breast in turnip cream sauce
with veggie haggis for her, and Perthshire pork belly (very yummy) over
clapshot and greens for me. I found the young, raw spring greens added a nice tactile snap
to the potato and rutabaga (Swedes) mash. The potent Addlestone's cloudy cider was a
perfect quaff for the pork. She skipped pudding but I went for a piece of
cheddar with house-made crackers and followed that up by introducing myself to the wonders of
whisky. Never having had indulged before, I dove straight in with the help
of the beverage server, selecting one of the softer Islay malts: Caol Ila. I could get used to this stuff!
Our tab for the evening (after I asked for a correction to the addition,
in which we were erroneously charged for four starters and four mains) was
£40, and our venture into the Upstairs menu provided good value. In
retrospect, it appears our money would have been better spent on the
downstairs menu here than at the similarly-priced hotel dining room in
Sheildaig.
I’ve limited my discussion here, naturally, to the
vittles we encountered during our 16 days in Scotland. What I have not
done justice to is the beauty of the countryside and the friendliness of
nearly everyone we met (no dour Scots crossed our paths). My only regret
is that I didn’t eat more lamb! |