Home of Haggis, the Highlands, and my Heart
Foodcapades | SCOTLAND
Day 12: Do you think we should be tired of eating yet? If ever there was a task to excel at, eating fits the bill perfectly for me. Our first day in Scotland was a dream, and we were anxious to keep it up today. We headed for a late breakfast in Old Town, and this is when I had my FIRST introduction to Haggis🐑. Funny enough, you can’t get a glimpse of it on my breakfast tin, but trust it is there. I ordered a Full Scottish Breakfast, which will forever ruin any other breakfast for me for the foreseeable future.
The Full Scottish includes: Sausage, black pudding, back bacon, haggis, poached egg, baked beans, toast, potato scone, roasted tomatoes, and mushrooms. I also had one of the best Americanos of the trip; it had rich chocolatey notes and was absolute perfection. Back to the Haggis, cause y’all are dying to know. Haggis is a savory sausage-like situation, flavored with lots of pepper and even more herbs. It is hearty, nutty, and filling. I find it delicious. Eat with some pea shoots and a poached egg to cut through the powerful flavor profile. Do you really want to know what it’s made of? It is made from the heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep, chopped very fine and cooked with lots of herbs and spices, and mixed with oats. Who is hungry! If you can get past what it is made of, there is nothing not to like about haggis. If you can’t just eat your toast and more haggis for the rest of us.
Black pudding was also on my plate. Black pudding is a sausage made from pork or beef blood, mixed with fat, oats, and lots of spices. It is rich and earthy and a good source of iron if you can believe it🩸. Again, I ate it with the egg and greens and found it quite nice. If you didn’t know it was made from blood, you wouldn’t know by biting into it. You don't have to like either of these items. But it is nice to know that delicious things are being made with leftover bits that may have otherwise been discarded.
I am sure there are versions of each of these dishes that are not as good as the ones I had. This restaurant happened to be top tier, and my first experience was a 10. My thought process when traveling is When in Rome, Eat haggis❤️
We wandered the streets of Edinburgh until it was time for a snack annnnnd of course a wee dram.
We bumped into a bun shop with ONE of the best cinnamon buns I have ever had. It was soft and pillowy like a cloud, no skipping on the cinnamon, and something that surprised me. The frosting was not cream cheese; it was some airy fairy, perfectly fluffy buttercream. We were all in heaven and contemplated getting another because it blew all of us off our feet. I will dream about that cinnamon bun, and when I go back to Edinburgh, it will be on the TOP of the must-eat list.
A couple of tipples for the girls and a beer for me mum. I had an Ardbeg 10-year, and Rachel had a Jura; the beer was a refreshing local lager.
Always thinking about the next meal, we walked even more if you can believe it, and made plans to meet for dinner later in the evening.
This restaurant was fantastic. The exact kind of food I don’t mind paying for (all food is pretty pricey over here). The dishes were well crafted, with simplicity in mind, and everything tasted amazing. It is really hard to consistently make this kind of food (at least in the States). And the bane of my actual existence is to pay top dollar for food that is mediocre and only pretending to be top quality. I hate it.
There was this very trendy neon red light in the restaurant that made all these pics look insane, but please enjoy our very nice meal in the restaurant. I will nickname the red menace.
Squash croquettes with sage and parmesan aioli—crusty, deep-fried shell full of rich, gooey cheese. I could have eaten 7 of them.
Seared celeriac katsu with warm flatbread, crispy chickpeas, and spicy pickles—a vegetarian dish that had all the feels of a meat dish. The sauce was heaven, and then you crunched into a chickpea!
Charred hispi cabbage with smokey buttermilk dressing, crispy onions, and green oil—Charred cabbage is hands down one of my favorite vegetable dishes, the char contrasts perfectly with the sweetness of the cabbage.
Skewered hake with basil and lime aioli and charred herb salsa—hake is a succulent white fish, always room in the world for more aioli.
Slow-cooked pork belly with pineapple miso glaze and pickled chili—Very few pork bellies I have come across and not thoroughly enjoyed. Nice compliment to all our veggie dishes.
Not pictured - Sourdough bread plate w/whipped salted butter, that we inhaled, and the dessert, which we also inhaled. It was a Stout brownie with malt honeycomb brittle and vanilla ice cream. Warm, comforting, and the perfect ending to our meal at the Red Menace.
This was our farewell dinner with my friend Rachel. We were headed on a bus trip up to the Isle of Skye, and she was headed to stay with a friend in Loch Ness🐍.
Day 13: Coffee. Get ourselves to the bus station and then more coffee! Off we go to the Highlands, one of the most magical places on earth.
We saw epic landscapes, the cutest highland cows, and ate mediocre sandwiches with Haggis-flavored potato chips and an Irn Bru, Scotland’s other national drink. The flavor is indescribable, literally. When I looked up the description of the infamous soda, it says indiscernible flavor. My friend Rachel said she used to drink it with vodka😊back in the day. I thought it was tasty, not a soda gal, but on our Highland picnic in the mist and trees, it really hit the spot.
I am pretty sure I had a constant flow of Swedish candy, trail mix, beef jerky, and whatever other snacks were bumbling around in my backpack throughout the bus journey.
Dinner was a sharing-is-caring situation with my mom; we had both snacked all day and had been having non-stop feasts since we started this whole UK operation. We shared a bread plate with oil and vinegar, a blade of beef with mashed potatoes and veggies, and a trio of smoked salmon. The beef was so tender, the salmon was extra nice, and the dessert was, of course, another sticky toffee pudding. It was all very good, but I think we were both excited to get some sleep.
Day 14: Breakfast was at our B&B, nothing to write home about. Deli meats, cheeses, yogurt, fruit, toast, and coffee, of course. Enough to keep us full until lunch. (Lunch was a sandwich and chips, again.) Back on the bus (we were doing a 3-day tour). Oh, the sites we saw, I would love to tell you every last detail, but we covered a lot of ground, and we need to focus on the food! Oh, okay, but just a snickle of scenery.
Tonight’s dinner was one of my favorites of the trip, and them’s fighting words because we had SO many delicious meals. If anyone still thinks that the food in the UK is boring, well, that is old news!
It was time for a scotch egg! A hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage and then baked or fried. served with a mustard mayo (my new favorite condiment) and tomato chutney. It’s the perfect snack and packable if you can believe it. You can eat scotch eggs hot or cold. I liked it hot for sure, but would never turn down a cold scotch egg on a picnic somewhere picturesque.
I also had a 1/2 roast chicken with haggis stuffing. The chicken was broken down into parts and had their pan drippings poured over the top with a plop of spinach on top. It didn’t look like much, but it was the best chicken I have ever had. It was succulent and tender, and had a wild taste almost. These Scottish chickens must be very happy because I could taste it. My mom got the sea bass with crispy skin, and it also exceeded all expectations; the skin was actually crispy. It was after this meal that I actually said out loud, how are we ever going to eat when we get home.
Dessert was out of the question as I took down half a chicken for dinner! Our time in Scotland was coming to a close, and I could feel us both getting sad about having to leave. We needed more time; there were more hills to climb and many more chickens to eat.
Day 15: Another forgettable breakfast and lunch. But dinner was nice. After a long few days bumping around on the bus, we were exhausted😂 (funny but true). This was the only day it rained, so it was dark and rainy most of the day. WE stopped by Loch Ness, but didn’t catch a glimpse of the monster, dang it! Next time.
Dinner was at an Italian place close to our hotel (another red menace restaurant). Felt like we needed some cozy carbs on this chilly, rainy evening. I ordered Cacio e Pepe, pepper and cheese pasta. It was PEPPERY, and because of my newly developed sensitivity, my mom switched her pasta with mine. Probably one of the nicest gestures you could ask for. I hope you have someone in your life who will, without even a second thought will switch plates with you so your face doesn’t explode at the dinner table. We had tiramisu for dessert, no notes😘.
Day 16: The last full day in Scotland. We made the most of it! Started with an avocado croast (avocado toast made with a croissant), it was amazing. Swapping toast for a baked good with ten times the flakiness and butter, sign me up. I couldn’t help myself, and also got a side of smoked salmon for the table.
We can officially say that we had tea and cake at the castle. I mean, the queen wasn’t there, but the royal jewels were (at least when we went through). Carrot cake and a scone with jam and clotted cream.
We wanted a cozy pub dinner for our last meal. I had been instructed by our tour guide to eat haggis, neeps, and tatties, so I did! Haggis, we already know what this is for, better or worse. Neeps are mashed turnips, and tatties are mashed potatoes, and it came with a wee pot of gravy, which I drenched my plate with. Overall, a very soft meal, the haggis was the best I have had so far, neeps were ok, I did end up doing a bit of a trade for some of my mom’s chips. I guess I really just wanted double potatoes and haggis. I finally got my dram of Talisker and a wine for my mom for our last hurrah.
Day 17: The best way to start out a BIG travel day is with, you guessed it, a Full Scottish and an egg benny for my mom. Serving the beans in a measuring cup was so cute. Tater tots were the breakfast potato of choice, and let me tell you, the tots tasted EXACTLY like what we get over here from a bag. This is no shade, I love a nostalgic tater tot, they were salty and extra crispy. (See cover photo for brekkie pic.)
I am glad we got to go out on a high note. The breakfast was a winner, and I don’t even recall what we ate during our very long travel day. Another plane, pasta dish, chips, and candy, I would assume.
Who wants to take a trip to Scotland with me!? I must go back, although I am very nervous to rent a car because then you have to drive it on the other side of the road! There is so much more to see and even more to eat, and I think I need a car next time… Let’s keep hanging out and chatting about food every week. It brings me so much joy. I am back to my normal eating routine at home. Who wants Foodcapades | Counting Protein Edition!????😂
Cheers,
Nicole | Butter Cult
