About Scotland

Heritage

Scottish Food and Drink

Food

The soups: none heartier than Scotch Broth with barley so thick you can stand your spoon up in it…Cockaleekie, that toothsome mell of chicken and leeks and onion…Cullen Skink, the rich bree of cream, potatoes, smoked fish and butter….sheer sensual indulgence.

The entreés: a succulent roast of prime Aberdeen Angus beef, a tender leg of lamb covered in herbs and mint butter, poached salmon from the Tay, Smokies - the speciality smoked haddock - from Arbroath, and don't forget the magnificent haggis, described by Burns as "great chieftain o the puddin race".

The sweets: Athole Brose, all heather honey, double cream and pinhead oatmeal, Sherry Trifle, Syllabubs, Crannachan made from cream and fresh raspberries from Strathmore.

Oatcakes and Dunlop cheese, a slice of Selkirk bannock and afternoon tea, porridge followed by tattie scones and Ayrshire bacon and fresh baps and Dundee marmalade for breakfast……we could go on and on. Stimulate your taste buds with a taste of Scotland. Spoil yourself, for tomorrow you diet…at home.

Drink

In the distant past the Picts drank Heather Ale - it came back on the market recently marketed with the Gaelic name for heather Fraoch. The inhabitants of the Highlands were traditionally drinkers of whisky - from Uisge-beatha the Gaelic for the poetic water of life. People in Lowland Scotland mainly drank rich Scotch Ale….different strengths had marvellous names like Tippenny and Swats!

But alongside these native beverages, came the fruit of the vine, especially the red wine of Bordeaux called claret which linked Scotland and France so closely it was called the Bloodstream of the Auld Alliance. At one time Leith bottled claret had tremendous cachet, and there remains a tradition of fine wine drinking that goes back to the links with France. The Scots had influence too in other great vineyards of the world, so while enjoying the cuisine of luxury Scotland, you can indulge in wines like Cockburn's or Graham's Port or Sandeman's and Duff Gordon's sherries, and you are still toasting Scotland.