Scottish Food

I have been here in Scotland for just over a month and I wanted to say something about the food here, now Scottish cuisine has a lot of European influences but still have their own method of preparation.

Scottish Smoked Salmon, ready to eat right out of the package. Now I myself didn't know about this until earlier this week but when introduced to it I bought a package of my own. It is so delicious!!! 

The Smoked Salmon is from the Uig Lodge, I have yet to go there myself but had a friend pick it up for me. 

Cranachan a Scottish dessert. Whipped cream, whiskey honey , raspberries and  toasted oatmeal. I have seen some with a shortbread base but they seem to vary from place to place. 

As for breakfast it is pretty much exactly the same as an English breakfast (Sausages, bacon, eggs, black pudding, beans, roasted tomatoes, fried mushrooms and a tattie scone) 

The Tattie Scone is what I wanted to talk about since the name in my mine would make me think of an English Scone. Instead it is actually a potato pancake/scone. It is mashed potatoes and butter minus the milk and then salted, after that they add flour to the mixture and make it into a dough. Then it is rolled out and put on a pan or baked in the oven. They can be pizza shaped or little circles.

I really like potato scones, then again I really like potato pancakes! One day I hope I can travel around Europe and try the many different kinds of potato pancakes. Lastly, I have to mention Irn Bru since it is the Scottish beverage that has made its way around the world. The only reason that I mention this drink since I don't drink a lot of pop/fizzy/caffeinated are the adverts. I think they are all quite amusing. 

Climbing Giolabhal Glas

Today we decided to climb a mountain. Actually, that's not entirely true - first we got up late and then we went for lunch at the First Fruits Tea Room, just around the corner from the hotel. They had delicious smoothies and good food and wonderful cakes. Afterwards, we had just returned to our room when we noticed that the sun had come out, making it a rare nice day on Harris. With that, we decided to climb the mountain that is visible from our bedroom window, something we had been intending to do since first laying eyes on it. So we stocked up on water and juice and set off.

The ground on the lowlands was very marshy, and eventually we found out why when we stumbled across this tiny lake of accumulated rainwater.

Lots of randomly scattered rocks made for some impressive formations - this one had a little shaded cave underneath it. The question is, how did all these rocks get like this?

Every time we reached the summit of a major incline we looked back, and the view over Tarbert continued to improve. This was about as high as we got; beyond the town lies South Harris, and off on the horizon is Skye (maybe).

After 71 minutes we reached a major summit, albeit one that still wasn't the mountain we'd set out to conquer. Conscious of our dwindling supplies and the rapidly approaching evening, we decided to call it a day and began our descent, taking a different route to see what we would find.

This new path led us to a beautiful mountain stream that has carved an impressive path for itself all the way down to the ocean, with many waterfalls and gorges. The water is incredibly clear, fresh off the mountains and yet to pick up any level of sediment. It also contains absolutely no life, neither fish nor bugs.

Eventually we ran out of path after the stream made its way to a minor loch, and had to sneak out of the fields and back into town via somebody's back garden. 

The view from our bedroom window - the mountains are much further away than they look.

All in all it was an excellent days adventure - the stream was certainly the coolest thing we've found on Harris so far, and the views from the summit we reached were excellent. Next time, we'll pack more supplies and aim to reach the top of the mountain that we now know is named Giolabhal Glas.

A Day in Stornoway

We caught the 11:30am bus from Tarbert to Stornoway £6 return ticket which takes exactly an hour pasted rolling hills sprinkled with sheep, wee to huge lochs, a mini forest that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared behind a mountain range. Through and near little gatherings of houses that were spread quite far apart cept for a little village that I do not know the name of. The weather was lovely today 20C with a cool breeze through the air upon arrival we were dropped off near a busy little market that was made up of about 10 stalls. Ethnic food smells wafting in the air Danny and I gravitated towards the cheese stand and ended up buying chilli and lime, sticky toffee cheese and herbs and onion all we got to taste test. If you ever see a curry madras cheese by all means buy it, soo tasty.

From there we wandered around the town looking for a Thai Cafe restaurant that I read about in trip adviser the day before. When we walked up to the door the door the sign read closed but there were people already eating their afternoon meal, so we went in to order. The food arrived quickly and I thoroughly enjoyed my duck red coconut curry with vegetables with a side of steamed rice that I could not finish.

After our meal we went off to cross off the things on our list that we had planned to finish by the time we got back on the bus back to Tarbert. Not even 2 minutes away from the restaurant, found a barbershop and  for just £4 I got a hair cut from a lady that had travelled all around the world. She instantly guessed where I was from and had a lovely conversation during my hair cut. What a bargain.

Danny needed work shoes so that was the next big hunt in town we entered a shop I didn't catch the name but it was near the tourist information that sold mostly clothes and nick-nacks next door. This is where we got the best customer service in a long time, the lady ran to the back where ever that was grabbing all sorts of shoes she was super helpful. Thank you lady at the unknown shop you were lovely. We picked up all the things that we wanted and even a mini french press so Danny and i can have coffee made the real way. Instant coffee just doesn't do.

Lastly, I wanted to find some non dairy milk since they only sold soya at the shop near our house off to the big Tesco. They had almond milk, coconut milk and rice milk I am so pleased and they were on sale no less. We didn't get the chance to visit the museum, art gallery and the Lews castle (since it was under renovations) but there will be a next time. Stornoway is a great place and I am sure that we will be back.