Duvel

For takeout it is common - they’ll ask you before they wrap it up. Since we ate around the corner in a public place, it was fine.

We headed out to St. Andrews today, a leisurely 45 min drive through the Lowlands. St. Andrews is a lively town, if not touristy. They had a street market going on. There is something about German sausages in this country … We visited the university grounds as well as the ruins of St. Andrews cathedral. I always find it fascinating how a community can live next to a structure falling into disrepair and then completely breaking down without literally being able to do something against it (due to lack of funds, skilled labor, political will). The cemetery on the premises for example was used continuously. Being a bit famished we headed for the Chippy with lingest queue. Squid and fries for the other two, Stornoway black pudding for me … Dessert was at the nearby bakery, again with a looong queue. We bought their specialty: a cream-filled, fudge-coated sweet yeast roll. It was great (and I usually do not care for sweets) ! Heading back, we drove by a carvery a few kilometers before reaching Perth. A quick poll amongst uns made me turn around and I enjoyed picking my meats and sides: Roastbeef & gammon. Maple-glazed carrots, roasted carrots, steamed broccoli, roasted potatoes, buttered brussel sprouts, mini-wieners wrapped in bacon, potato gratin, all topped with Yorkshire puddings. And looooots of gravy. A very happy Duvel. Burger for the little one … And Angus steak for Mrs. Duvel … They had an ice cream bar going on. None of us was able to fit anything in anymore. Maybe a tiiiny digestif … We slept very well !

A very wise choice, my friend - and about 500 m down the hill is the Talisker distillery 🤗

Nope, it is homemade. I used smoked mackerel (which is semidried and very popular in Germany) …

Nasi Lemak & movie night … just because 🤗 Coconut rice, mackarel sambal, roasted peanuts, cucumber, eggs, lemongrass chicken … Enjoyed with „Slumberland“ … not a half bad movie 👍.

Hence the thought of Brie pizza ..?!

If your ancestors fought in the battle of Culloden, the least they can do is to provide nourishment …

I mean, it was bound to happen. You have a bath tub full of frying oil. It’s a slow Thursday morning, and after two or three pints the frying master starts randomly throwing foods into the tub. Deep fried Mars bar, deep fried hamburger, deep fried pizza, deep fried … Seen neighbors kitty recently ?

It is exactly that: they take a (usually ready made commercial) pie and deep fry it. If you like they dip it in the fish batter before. To quote the Wikipedia entry on that subject: “… resulting in a different flavour and nutritional profile.“ 🤣

Maybe a pizza with Brie cheese on it. But I don’t find that on the menu … 🤔

I think portion size was ok, and in line with the other places we visited. Two portions of chips were more than enough for the three of us. But I am with you: I found Scotland to be a tad more expensive than for example Newcastle, where we concluded this tour.

All good things must come to an end, and so we prepared to move to our final destination, Perth. On route, we wanted to stop at the Edradour distillery, but were unfortunately informed that they don’t do any tours anymore, as the owner got annoyed by the visitors. Their whisky still ranks supreme, and I managed to snatch up a bottle a bit later on this trip. Passing the resort town Aviemore, we stopped at Loch an Eilein for some scenic hiking (and sandwiches, not pictured) … A little down the road was a fold village that my wife wanted to see. It was quite interesting: they explained the construction principles of the housing in the 16th century. The inside of each house was “perfumed” by a central “stove” that vented into the house. The result was basically an ancient BBQ setup, with the inhabitants as the recipient of the smoke. Outside cooking was available as well (on good days, so maybe twice a year) … We arrived at Perth rather late. The camping ground was on the premises of an old golf course and huuuuuge. While driving to the nearest supermarket little one suggested to go to a pub instead. His suggestion met very little resistance … The pub was quite busy, and food service was slow. Drink service not, as you had to go to pick the stuff up yourself … My wife had the local golden ale, which she found to be an excellent choice. Little one asked for the chicken plate 🙄 My wife and me had burgers, and so had the little one after bathing his miscellaneous chicken parts in HP brown sauce (that he found he dislikes) and generously giving it to me in exchange for half (read most) of my burger. Desserts were enjoyed in the tent … something I wanted to try, but was sold out in the pub: alcoholic ginger beer (nicely spicy). And a fudge something something. Little one heard fudge and was convinced. He managed half …

Normally someone points it out, but these are not “authentic” mushy peas: I prepare them from blanched (frozen) fresh peas (not dried marrowfat peas), mashed with a bit of heavy cream or fresh cheese (whatever I have on hand) and mint. They taste light, fresh and herbal, and complement the fried fish quite nicely …

The next day we visited Culloden, located between Inverness and our camping site. As a historical landmark where the Battle of Culloden took place, it is a really nicely kept piece of land, with heather flowering and just some stones remembering the battle order and also the graves of the respective clans. Despite the tranquility it was swarming with oversea tourists whise ancestors all fought in the battle (and which they were always happy to explain to you). After exploring we headed into town for the nearest Chippy … Menu And execution. Fish was good, fries were a bite pale, but tasty nonetheless. They had a very light hand on the vinegar, so I had to return and get more. “Regular” haddock and breaded haddock for the grown ups … Little one got scampi and half of our chips. My wife requested to head for a popular beach. Now, beaches popular in Scotland are not quite comparable with those the my wife as a native Catalan would envision as “popular” (and neither were the temperatures). Next to the beach was a snack shop, featuring … Given the “popular beach” misunderstanding, I refrained from sampling. Just next to the camping ground were some stone circles that little one wanted to explore. As it was a nice day we spend some time there before heading back to out tent. Dinner was quickly prepared, basically from leftovers. I made some grilled cheese sandwiches … This was our last pieces of lamb prepared “a la camp”*: fried with garlic, celery, fresh rosemary and a bit of tomato. Of course, sampling from yesterday continued as well 🤗 —- * read: with the stuff I had on hand.

That: For some historic reasons Mockturtlesuppe is popular in Lower Saxony, where I hail from. It features veal head and leg meat. My father likes it a lot. Consistency wise it goes into oxtail territory, taste wise stock and Madeira wine dominate. It does not really compare to the two Chinese turtle soups I was able to sample. But substituting the (elusive green) turtle in upper class soups has quite the history itself. I always enjoyed the Mock Turtle character in Alice in Wonderland …

200 g of regular flour 30 g corn meal 30 g chickpea flour 30 g rice flour 1 tsp salt 1 Tbsp baking powder 330 mL beer (Asahi)

While I was cropping a picture for the Scotland blog, my iPhone broke down. I couldn’t restart it. Nevertheless, the picture I was editing was of us eating fish & chips, so following the things I learned from Advanced Voodoo for Beginners™️, the best way to break a curse is to cook the dish … Everyone was happy !

No need: Imagine 3 oversized homies dancing around a burning barrel to the relentless rap of Ice-T in the Bronx ... Now replace the homies by naked disemboweled chickens, the burning barrel by a regular flame and Ice-Ts music by the sound of dripping chicken fat. And imagine that scene happening a few kilometers more to the south ...

It’s getting cold. Time for slaughtering the pigs and making warming food. Last weekend I went to my parents home in Lower Saxony. While here it is still 10+ oC, there at night it was snowing … A friend of my parent’s pays for raising a pig at a farm somewhere in a surrounding village. That pig had its last sunrise on Saturday. We get a few items as gifts, most notably some liters of Schlachtebrühe, the resulting stock from boiling meats, offal and sausages. Very rich, very porky - and the perfect base to make Grünkohl (kale) … 5 kg of Grünkohl, blanched and left overnight in the cold. Next day: Bacon … … and Weisswurst (sausage made from finely ground meat, onions & fatback) Boiled with the Grünkohl, onions and the Schlachtebrühe for 2.5 hours … The final product … Perfect today with some Bregenwurst (from “my” butcher in my hometown). Heaven 🤗

It was actually not so crowded. If you refer to the last picture, most of the stuff is actually from us ☺️ But - some camping sites were pretty booked, as Scotlands high season is August and hotels are not an option when you don't book years ahead ...

Nope, that’s a Swedish whiskey sampling glass, unbreakable edition …

Yes, correct. You get some little bottles in which you can fill your samples to take home. Scotland does have a reasonable alcohol limit for drivers, but it seems that the distilleries have an internal 0/00 policy, which in retrospect I find a sensible choice …

The second distillery of the day was Glen Moray. Truth to be told this was not my choice because of their excellent reputation or exciting products - I chose Glen Moray because they are the only distillery in the area that allowed kids on the tour, and I really want to show the little one what his father enjoys to drink and how it is made. Glen Moray was far more industrial (with proper process control, a DCS, you name it …), but the tour was well made and little one asked a lot of questions, with about half of them actually related to the tour. 1337 🤣 The most interesting part was the warehouse. Glen Moray is focusing on providing different cask finishes on their products, and they had open casks to showcase the different characters one can imprint onthe basic product. You could sniff & smell the differences. Accordind to the little one, the port finish was the best. I bought a bottle for his 18th birthday … They had quite a few warehouses, a contrast to the single one at Benromach … In the tasting room I added the samples to my drivers kit … By now we had all worked up an appetite and I started preparing linner: A coupe of snacks, pie, grilled lamb and steamed mussels in garlic sauce. All accompanied by a nice beer in the sunshine … The day was concluded a bit earlier with a lemon pie (commercial, very good) … Aaaand a belated sampling for yours truly 🥳

After a brief hiatus we are back online … A beautiful morning - warm and sunny. Perfect for … This was the day I was looking forward to - distillery visits at two Speyside distilleries 🥳 Of course being a German and all, nothing was left to chance. I even brought some Katerfrühstück (some preserved fish in a soucy tomato & pickled cucumber sauce) all the way from Germany, to strengthen my stomach and get ready to buffer the alcohol before the tasting tour … Little one was entertaining his new-found friend and trying to teach her all the games he had. So much patience in that young girl … First distillery was Benromach, one of the very few Speyside distilleries that produces a lightly peated whiskey. They had a lovely visitors center with even more lovely personnel (with the loveliest Scottish accents you could imagine). But then the lovely guide asked: “is anyone here driving ?”, which I unfortunately answered truthfully with “me”. This excluded me automatically from the tasting set after the tour 😪*. The distillery was very “manual” and the expertise on controlling the process was impressive. I had a talk with one of the distillers that was running around how they determine the change from the methanol-rich forerun to the real distillate in the absence of any proper process control equipment, and his answers (and willingness to share those) were really great. I was impressed … Filling casks with a hose would be my next dream job. The room, though well ventilated, was perfumed with the scent of nascent whiskey … All in all a great visit (minus - of course - the inability to taste). I bought a bottle of a rare expression, filled my tasting samples into a provided kit (for later, they were paid for) and headed to pick up the family for the second visit of the day … —- * they were adamant on that: I told them I am a big guy, and three little sips don’t do anything for me, but …

Streak of comfort food continues - today the Catalan edition (and coincidentally what little one requested for his 9th birthday today): Macarrons de l’àvia (or gratinated pasta with meat sauce). Very simple, just a sofregit, meat, tomatoes, salt, pepper and cheese - but full of childhood memories for my wife and obviously for him … Treat for the cook - more of a student memory, though …