Food!
The reputation is that Britain doesn’t really have cuisine. Funny, that’s what our British workshop colleagues said about Dutch food. Anyway, call it what you like, Ann and I had some rather tasty meals over in the UK - both in England and Scotland. And while the fish and chips were awesome everywhere we tried, that wasn’t the only thing that was delicious (though one place in Skye had the best chips I’ve ever had - Ann agreed). For the most part, we couldn’t complain about the food when we ate out. And check out below, some of it was very well presented too . . .
But let me get you started with one of the most pleasant culinary surprises from our trip.
Haggis: “a savory pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with chopped onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach.” Wikipedia.
Wikipedia goes on to say, “According to the 2001 English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique: ‘Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savory flavor.” I could not have said it better! So, so true. And yes, those beautiful bonbons you saw in the first photograph, that was haggis. As you can see above, it’s pretty much sausage meat, and it is delicious!
The reason I have photographs of haggis (and ate it in the first place) is because my bud John (read our Ireland and Netherlands posts) loves trying new food and since he’s never had haggis, I got to beat him to it, and rub it in over WhatsApp. Who would have known my first opportunity to eat haggis would be via haggis bitterballen? Ok, they didn’t call it that, but that’s pretty much what it was. John was jealous.
Our first night eating out was at a Mexican tapas restaurant our first night in Ambleside called Bar eS Ambleside (yes, that’s spelled right - eS). They were delicious. Unfortunately, we were not in the food photograph mindset at the time so no photos, but just think finger food enough to fill you up . . . and have you lick your fingers clean.
We’d prepared several dinners for ease of cooking in the bimobil for the first part of our trip, so we didn’t go to another restaurant until we were in the Isle of Skye. Given the number of fishing vessels we saw, we figured the seafood would be good and it was. I opted for a seafood chowder soup at one of our meals. And I was introduced to a new brewing company - Skye Brewing.
Of course, English food (well, Sky is in Scotland, but . . .) has plenty of hearty dishes given the cold, wet climate, to include things like venison stew. Accompanied of course by a nice Skye Red Ale.
I shouldn’t ignore our extensive workshop stay at the Borrowdale Hotel during the final week of our trip. Every dinner we tried was superb, to include this seafood croquette. Before you get any thoughts, these are the glasses of four people, not just me. But yes, I did have the Wainwright Amber, Guinness and the Cumbria Gold ales the week we were there.
Also, both Ann and I fell in love with Cumbrian sausage, which is often served by itself and is also part of a Full Cumbrian Breakfast at the Borrowdale, which I devoured each morning to keep me happy and full during our workshop excursions.
The top award, though, has to go to a restaurant we found during our stay in Glencoe. In near-by Ballachulish we managed to find a parking space for the bimobil at the Laroch Restaurant and Bar - a 4.4 star Google find. As for the 4.4 star rating, all I have to say is bul@%#&t. On the menu were a couple of dishes with scallops harvested in a near-by loch. Ann opted for the scallops and, to not order the same dish, I had the porkbelly.
Did I fail to mention that the porkbelly was lain on top of black pudding (another English delicacy, see footnote below) and topped with two scallops.
And it tastes even better than it looks. Seriously, this was one of the top three restaurant meals I’ve ever eaten (I’m thinking on par with the veal marsala at the Appian Way and a Brunswick stew I had in Williamsburg - you might call me food oriented). I started with a bite of the scallops and they were the best scallops I’d ever tasted. Then I cut off a bit of the porkbelly - it melted in my mouth with a burst of flavor. Next was a slice of the black pudding . . . oh so tasty. I then started carefully combining parts of the dish - bites of scallops with porkbelly, porkbelly with black pudding, a scallop on black pudding. A bite of potato. Swirl some porkbelly into the gravy.
I was consumed with the dish. I don’t think I’ve ever been so absorbed while eating a meal. I don’t even remember the ale I was drinking with dinner. Then, it was over.
Except for the fact that Ann started ribbing me. Apparently, I had barely spoken a word during dinner. She says it was like I get when I see a photograph and I ignore the rest of the world as I rush to set up the camera and compose an image. She watched in amazement at my trance-like state. We’d been WhatsApping with John about dinner and . . . well, you can see from the screen shot below what happened.
Yeah . . . I was so transfixed, I forgot to offer Ann a bite.
So who cares if England doesn’t have fine cuisine - they have some very excellent food!
Footnote: From Wikipedia: “Black pudding is a distinct national type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork or occasionally beef blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat groats, or barley groats. The high portion of cereal, along with the use of certain herbs such as pennyroyal, serves to distinguish black pudding from blood sausages eaten in other parts of the world.” Oh yeah, and black pudding is a staple component of a Cumbrian breakfast!