Regarding Scottish cuisine

Now for the good stuff: Scotland’s eats.

Drink:
As we were in Scotland, I had to try the whiskey (for you Dad!). Courtney is already a lover of the stuff, and I believe Elizabeth has acquired a taste, but it’s a pretty new drink for me unless I do jack&coke. So…I tried ‘Old Polteney,’ which Elizabeth described as a tequila whisky for its kick and fire and ‘Imperial’ which I accompanied with a Guinness. My only experience with Guinness in the past has been the Irish Car Bombs we did for Osh’s 21^st (so long ago!) and now I have to say…I am a Guinness convert. It is so eminently delicious! And chocolatey and rich and tasty. Mmmm. By the way, apparently the Irish call them ‘Belfast Car Bombs.’ Gotta differentiate, ey. As for whisky, I will work on acquiring the taste.

Of the Scottish beers I had a Deuchar’s which was very buttery. I liked the Caledonian more. Strongbow is a cider so I clearly loved that but it was very light, like drinking way too much apple juice at one time. Apparently the Scottish have a non-alcoholic soda called Iron Brew, but as Courtney said…”I will not allow something that color orange into my body” so we steered clear of that.

Food:
As the UK is so fond of Indian food, Courtney and I decided to have this for my arrival meal. We went to Suruchi on South Bridge, I had the Tikka Masala Lamb and it was definitely the best Indian food I’ve had. It did remind me a lot of the cilantro-shrimp recipe from Sonya’s mom’s cookbook, which I love so that was good.

While up at St. Andrew’s, Elizabeth cooked mussels with wine and leeks. I was in heaven from the moment we stepped into the fishmonger’s and I was once again face to face with fresh fish and not just the frozen ‘alaskan filet’ that Hungarian shops offer. We followed the seafood up in the morning with some quality lox and I will be dreaming of all this seafood the next few months as I continue living in a landlocked country. I also tried the standard fish n’ chips which wasn’t bad but wasn’t so amazing either. What was particularly satisfying was when I found Cullen Skink in Anstruther, the fishing village. Cullen Skink is the Scottish version of a fish chowder and it’s pretty fab. Doubly awesome because of its name.

Courtney and I also explored Tesco’s offerings and I am resigned to say that although Scotland’s groceries are unforgivably expensive (damn the value of the dollar!) they are at least quality---there is variety, and there are appealing and satisfying frozen foods. Hungary’s groceries are…inconsistent at best and not all so cheap either. Courtney and I made haggis, kippers, and parsnips---fully exploring the UK culinary offerings.

For my last meal, I was a very lucky girl indeed. While also probably a very ‘bitchy’ girl. My French friend who drove me to the airport cooked, and he was the epitome of a girl’s dream of a Frenchman…too bad that dream is not mine but Squeasel’s. He made leeks with cream, tender steaks, opened a bottle of Bordeaux 2003 Pavillon de Connetables St. Julien Bordeaux (ok, I know nothing about good wine but it sounds impressive, no?) and afterwards of course there was cheese. Poor guy, thought his charm was gonna pan out for him. It was a pretty amazing meal though (there is NO beef in Hungary, only pork. My French friends complain of this constantly. Meanwhile, in the UK, they are actively promoting pork.)

Regarding me as Braveheart, Scotland's wind as Foe

So, it's about time for the Spring Break tales, ey? None of the Cabo-craziness or Fort Lauderdale debauchery for me. Nor any of the do-good while seeing somewhere in South America Alternative Spring Break (though I did New Orleans with Hab.for.Hum. last year and I am down for the ASB south america for next year). What warm, idyllic paradise did I visit for spring break? Scotland.
Which was absolutely beautiful. Also absolutely frigid.
Photos: here.
So in regaling you with my first-time experiences in the UK, I will split this (much like with the Vienna posts) into activities and into food. This post will be devoted to activities...

First off, March 17th, still in Budapest--St. Patrick's day was celebrated properly--in fact, with Irish students. I had a midterm each on Tuesday and Wednesday, they went fine, and on Thursday morning I headed out for the airport.
There I had my first experiences (of many to come, I am sure) with the budget airline, Ryanair. They have severe restrictions on hand luggage so I was nervously moving items in and out to avoid having to pay 12 euro for checking it in. After check-in and security, they bus you out (at Ferihegy, at least) to the planes, with everyone jostling into a godawful mess of a queue...more of a blob, for sure. By virtue of my extreme squirrel-i-ness, I wound up one of the first on the plane with a lovely aisle seat and plenty of space for my hand luggage. I promptly fell asleep on the plane, only to be jarred awake every half hour with the intercom blasting a Ryanair Advertisement. Furthermore, all the overhead bins are plastered with neon-yellow adverts for Ryanair. Truly, this is too much! We're already on your goddamn flight, don't wake us up and blind us with more adverts! Upon landing, a bugle sounds and the intercom shouts "Another Ryanair flight has landed on time...blah blah blah." Very nice, really, I do appreciate the timeliness and the utility of Ryanair, but I also really want to strangle their marketing people.

My flight was into Prestwick, a remote, tiny airport which is a bit difficult to get to (more on that later). I took two trains, one to get to Glasgow, and then another to Edinburgh (around 50 minutes each) and the view out of the trains is just lovely. Scotland's scenery and land...well, it is not tiring to look at, let's say.
Finally arriving in Edinburgh at dusk, I trudged over to Courtney's flat on Nicolas St. in Old Town, and was thoroughly pleased to see a friendly and familiar face! Friday--we took a bus to St. Andrew's where Elizabeth met us. We explored the town (all three main streets of it) amidst hail, sleet, blustering winds, and a smattering of snow. At a point near the pier (which we did not go out onto, for obvious reasons) we barely fought our way against the wind back up to the cathedral ruins. I am not saying this lightly...these winds were worse than the pre-hurricane weather when we were evacuated out of Key West a few years ago. Trying to find and make use of the cheap putting green was absolutely out of the question, but as I am not actually interested in golf whatsoever, this wasn't such a huge loss.
Apart from the weather, it was an absolutely charming little town, full of snooty rich students (apparently a fair amount from the U.S. as well), little specialized food stores (fishmonger's, butcher's, greengrocer's, etc.), cafe's and pubs. After a fabulous dinner, much catching-up, drinks at a pub and getting chips n' cheese for night food, we had to battle our way against the wind yet again for the mile out of town to Elizabeth's flat. Little sidenote: on the phone with her friends, Elizabeth suggested "do you want to meet at 10 in the Rape Alley path?"...wow, that name *shakes head
The following day we took a little side trip to Anstruther, a little fishing village with the best fish-and-chips shop in Scotland (or the UK? i don't remember). The queue kept us from giving you our personal opinion on the matter. Before leaving St. Andrew's we also found a book sale of new books for a pound! I was thoroughly excited although it required my being a bit devious back at the Ryanair desks.

Back in Edinburgh, over the next few days, Courtney and I explored the ruins of Craigmillar Castle, the Edinburgh Castle, The National Museum of Scotland (great!), and the National Galleries (meh). Craigmillar had many windy and fun staircases, and nice views overlooking all the surrounding area including Edinburgh. This is the place where the plot to kill Mary Queen of Scots husband, Lord Darnley, was hatched. Edinburgh castle is huge and vast, perched on imposing and impenetrable cliffs with successively better and better views over the city, and filled with various little exhibits. One night we took a ghost tour that took us into the vaults under the city and we heard numerous tales of murder, ghost-sightings, and so on...teehee, I love this stuff! Afterwards, much like my need to imdb immediately after a movie watching, I researched online and in case you're interested...this blog has the best information.
Most of the museums and cultural places close around 5 so in the evenings we would relax, read, watch movies (so many!), make dinner, etc.
Unlike Eastern Europe, Edinburgh is also filled with various music venues, so we went to an open-mic night at Whistle-Binkey's, and to the Liquid Room---the most bizarre club: it was pulsing with people dancing, multiple floors, and so on, but all to indie music! Quite the strange combination. Next door was another multi-level place, Espionage, which had a floor titled 'Pravda.' Cracked me up, as did the old scottish men wearing kilts who we encountered on our way out the door. Oh, and Edinburgh has no selection of night-food, we went on quite the fruitless search. Probably good as it saved us money. We didn't go out much in general because the weakness of the dollar doesn't put us in such a good position in the UK...we tried to scrimp and save as much as possible, and still I shudder to think of how much I spent. Thank you everyone at whose place we slept who allowed us to avoid accommodation costs. You are welcome on my couch anytime!

Since my flight out was for 9 am Saturday, it would have been ridiculously difficult to make it from Edinburgh so early, so we spent the last days and nights in Glasgow where I had a friend living in Paisley (funny story, ask me sometime) who drove me to the airport. We went to Uisge Beatha, a famous whisky bar, with a set of old musicians who jam on bagpipes and other instruments together twice a week. We also saw the Kelvingrove Museum, which while being a pretty building and having a lot of items in its collection, is rather more geared towards children.

And that was my time in Scotland...a beautiful country, with weather to reckon with. Even during a frigid day, the sky would be glorious and beautiful and someday, when the dollar is stronger (crossed fingers) I would like to return, rent a car, and drive all over to see the various ruins, abbey's, castles, etc. Also, Loch Ness and the Isle of Skye. So much to see, so much to do...and so much to taste...