…that they have to get an expatriate Scot running a restaurant in Reading to compete in the Scottish heat of the Great British Menu on the BBC- he’s not even using Scottish produce- the pork for his main course came from Hampshire! Hope Tom Kitchen wins- at least he lives, works and sources his ingredients in Scotland. As a Scot I really think it gives a bad impression of Scottish cuisine- surely there are some talented Scottish chefs working in Scotland?

How hard can it be to deep fry everything? 😉

I think the deep frying joke is wearing a bit thin now.

Scottish cuisine? offal, tizer and whisky? how could you go wrong? 😆

Yawn. a Michelin starred restaurant across the road from me, 2 more in Edinburgh, 13 total in scotland. More per head of population than any other part of the UK.

Tizer is English – I think you mean IrnBru

How many of them have Scottish chefs?

Hope so. We’re on Scottish C2C next month, and everywhere we’re stopping boasts great cuisine.

How many 3 star jobbies?

TJ, whats the betting that 90% of the menus are ether French, English, Spanish or Indian?

wild tay salmon – what’s the name of that famous english salmon river?
arbroath smokies
aberdeen angus beef
single malt whisky
strawberry cranachan
cullen skink

salt herring and tatties
tatties and salt herring

At the risk of being boring, this is the email I sent the others regarding food:

Evening Meals

Hopefully we’ll be up there in time to eat in the Captains Table Restaurant at The Ship in Stonehaven:

We offer a wide range of freshly cooked dishes using the finest ingredients. Fresh, locally caught fish and seafood are a speciality but we are also pleased to offer fine steaks, chicken dishes, pasta, home-made burgers – something for everybody, in fact!

The Braemar lodge also boasts fine food:

Our award-winning chef takes the best of local produce and prepares it using natural flair and innovation

From the conservatory which extends our dining room, guests can enjoy panoramic views across to Ben Avon whilst enjoying the best of Scottish produce freshly prepared by our excellent chef.

Scotland is famous for its quality produce and we take advantage of the best Aberdeen Angus beef, Scottish fish and game. All the meat we prepare is of Scottish origin and we also offer a vegetarian alternative.

As does the Scot House Hotel, Kingussie:

Dining at the Scot House is a very relaxing, informal experience. Our Dining Room enjoys an excellent reputation with discerning local visitors and residents alike for imaginative, creative cuisine, featuring a fine range of fresh local produce in season, and of vegetarian dishes and healthy food options.

Enjoy excellent, uncomplicated and honest cuisine, where local flavours shine through. Complement your dinner with your favourite wine or a whisky from our carefully chosen stocks.

Personally, I don’t give a shit about the ‘carefully chosen stocks’ bit, you can slaughter the whole herd for me(sorry Jane) 😉

The Lady at the Caledonian has already said she’ll cook for us at £19.50(and that’s a reduced price, because we’re guests). She said it’s all home cooking etc.

In Cannich we’re in the Hostel. I did think we’d have to make our own breakfast, and possibly evening meal. However, the guy from the hostel has recommended The Slaters Arms http://www.glenaffric.info/slaters_arms.html where:

Choose from our extensive a la carte menu which is all fully prepared in our country kitchen. Aberdeen Angus steaks are our speciality!

Steak’s good by me. They also do breakfast, so that could get us out of that too.

Finally, our victory meal, and once again our place of accommodation – The Dornie Hotel – rates itself highly:

The Dornie Hotel’s resident Chef takes a particular pride in preparing a wide range of cuisine to suit all tastes, from the comprehensive à la Carte and Table d’Hote menus available in the attractive, non-smoking restaurant to the popular daily menu of Bar Meals.

The North-West of Scotland is famed for its locally caught fish and shellfish, including salmon and trout, prawns and lobster. Supplemented by superb Highland meat and game, including venison and pheasant, Chef makes imaginative use of these fine natural ingredients (subject to seasonal and local availability) to create an exquisite menu to tempt your appetite.

I think a few bottles of Champagne may be in order too!

Lunch

Day one

We can meet up with the support for lunch. I recon we’ll be riding by Aboyne about lunchtime. It’s about 30 miles in, but they’re fairly easy miles, so shouldn’t be a problem getting there for lunch. It’s also half way for day 1.

Day two

We’ll be miles from anywhere for most of the day. When we do get spat out of The Cairngorms though, the first civilisation we hit is at Loch Morlich. This is a mere 25 miles from our start – but I think even if we set off early, we’ll be lucky to get here before 2. That said, if we can wait, there’s a watersports centre http://www.lochmorlich.com/ that has a café, and is a great setting for lunch, where we could again meet our glorious support crew. Support crew may be interesting in hiring out canoes or something there too. I’m happy to string it out for there, but I’m a bit camel like, and can go long periods without sustenance.

Day three

Miles from anywhere all day. No-where to meet, no-where to eat. I think we’ll have to ask the hotel if they could prepare us a simple packed lunch – perhaps local smoked salmon gateau http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1046/images/1046_MEDIUM.jpg , followed by local high game pie http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/images/diary/gamepiein.jpg , and Cranachan http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/food/cranachan.jpg Scottish desert? Alternatively we could ask for egg & cress sandwiches, and jelly. Let me know which you’d prefere?

Day four

We’re cycling up Loch Ness for 16 miles to Urquhart Castle. A few miles beyond is Drumnadrochit where we could call at the Benleva Hotel, Camra Highland pub of the year 2005 http://www.benleva.co.uk/ .

Day five

Realistically, it’s a packed lunch day. We don’t get near civilisation for about 30 miles, and there’s no roads near us untill then.

So, I propose booking into those places for evening meal, and alerting the appropriate people to our packed lunch requirements, unless anyone has any objection, or better ideas? If I’m booking into those places, I’ll also ask if they would like us to pre-choose off a menu as there’s so many of us – the lady at the Caledonian said it would help. Are there any dietary requirements I should mention?

For those from this island, particularly those slagging off Scottish “cuisine”, could you enlighten us about your regional culinary delights – that are FROM THE ISLAND (i.e. UK).

Hmmm…. bara brith…..

Yes, a bit sad but I do miss it here in Eng-er-land.

those who follow flags don’t deserve them, we all live (and eat) on the same lump of dirt! 😀

the Ship in Stonehaven does (or did when I stayed up there) an awesome cullen skink, and they used do the strawberry cranachan I mentioned earlier.
There’s plenty lobsters in the bay next to Dunnottar Castle, and some of them end up in The Ship.
cracking pint of ale as well.

StevetheBarbarian, as a Stonehaven resident, i’d say avoid The Ship and go to The Marine (only a few doors along). The food is much better! 😉

When are you up these parts?

(sorry for the hijack)

StB – rather than the Loch Morlich water sports centre, you’ll get fresh home-made soup and better scran at the FCS visitor centre.

Futureboy77

We’re in Stonehaven on the 19/5. I’ve already booked restaurant there – as that’s where we’re staying(or 13 are, they’re building more rooms now apparantly) – I should have spoken to you sooner.

Druidh

That’s out of date. Due to advice not to ride Strath Nethy(yourself I think), we’re now bikes on back over Cairn Gorm(I remember the pic of yours up there). They’re all gonna hate me, but it’ll be worth it, and a bonus is it’s gonna make a better day for support, as they can catch the funnicular up the the Ptarimigan restaurant and meet us there.

🙂

futureboy/steve – damn me and my failing memory – the Marine is the place to go, not the Ship. it’s the white one.

StB – nice. Make sure your support guys don’t look like they’re trying to “escape” onto the plateau or they’ll be stopped at the bottom. If they have rucksacks and stuff, they might need to explain to the train crew.

That all sounds a bit serious. They’ll not be taking rucksacks anyway, but is there somewhere you shouldn’t go – and will we be going there? (I know TJ doesn’t want us up there at all)

best steak i have ever eaten in my life (and i have eaten a lot) was at the moor of rannock hotel.
and boy i lurve scottish breakfast, the fried variety.

Steve – leaving aside the debate about cycling on the plateau – you are not supposed to get the train up and then leave the restaurant area.

Just stay on the main paths what there is of them. The whole plateau is a very special and delicate area. No one particularly special area

MrNutt – Member

TJ, whats the betting that 90% of the menus are ether French, English, Spanish or Indian?

I’ll take you up on that. How much?

Now how do I politely cancel our Ship booking?

They were a bit funny, in their email, they said there’s a 10% surcharge for parties over 10?

SteveTheBarbarian – Member

That all sounds a bit serious. They’ll not be taking rucksacks anyway, but is there somewhere you shouldn’t go – and will we be going there? (I know TJ doesn’t want us up there at all)

The idea is that the train won’t take up people to walk around on the plateau. You can of course walk, or cycle, up. To get to your support crew, you’ll have to sign in at the back door and leave the bikes outside. You’re then allowed back out – they aren’t.

If this sounds like too much faff, just meet them at the bottom station – by the car park.

OK Jeremy. We’re not looking to cause trouble, or be a nuisance. I was going to take an alternate route – for the sake of ourselves, but have been told: ‘We’ll lose the will to live’ if we go that way – so it’s back to plan ‘A’. We will be respectfull of the area.

Cheers druidh. That wont be a problem – they’ll not want to roam, but I will explain.

Steve – interestingly I took a straw poll amongst the folk I know who love the mountains and it came out about even as to whether bikes should go up on the plateau.

The food must be great in Scotland, otherwise it wouldn’t have the highest obesity rate in Europe 🙂

Getting back to grub for a moment…

http://theglenkindiearmshotel.com/

Best stovies I’ve had in years . Couldn’t believe they were on the menu when I first went in .

I’ll take you up on that. How much?

ok, say your right, I’ll give you the privilege to cover the airfare, food bill and accommodation, I’ll cover the drinks!

Cheers for that info Jeremy.

[edit] There are other ways round, but having seen pics of Loch Avon, I just need to go there.

according to the international task force on obesity it shows a massive rise in obesity in england,doesn,t mention a problem up north,their data,their words

Its not obesity thats the issue in Scotland – its heart disease.

Like anywhere there is good and bad food. Its certainly loads better than it used to be for sure – and much pride is taken in using local produce. So much so that much of the scottish produced food is exported – especially the seafood – some of the best in the world.

Yeah I read that. You’ll be lucky to get a Dublin bay prawn near Dornie, as they’re mostly exported to Spain.

Getting back to grub for a moment…

http://theglenkindiearmshotel.com/

This is from their website:

Over 20 Malt whiskies and a comprehensive selectio of soft and non-alcoholic drinks.

This is also the main dining area , but should you so desire somewhere slightly quieter we do have a small separate dining room.

Menu
We offer a selection of homemade soups including Cullen Skink, Scotch Broth, Broccoli and Stilton, Mushroom, Onion, Chicken and Vegetable, Game Broth . (subject to change)

Starters include Prawn cocktail, Garlic mushrooms with garlic mayonnaise ,Venison patties, Crispy potato skins, Japanese prawns with a sweet chilli sauce plus many many more to choose from .

Main courses include Haggis, neeps and tatties , mince and tatties, Steak and ale Pie, mushroom and chicken pie, traditional Scottish steak and whisky and mushroom stroganoff, rib eye and sirloin steaks, again this is just a snippet of the main menu. There are also Fish and vegetarian dishes available in addition to a range of curries and spicy dishes.

Desserts include, Belgian chocolate waffle meltdown, clootie dumpling, mixed berry sponge, spotted dick and sticky toffee pudding.”

Originality of dishes and proofreading of menus presumably not included in this exclusive (and oh so typical) Scottish dining “experience”

Steve – if Loch Avon is your target, you could do worse than checking out the Lairig An Laogh, which you can follow to Derry Lodge, then loop back over the Lairig Ghru. the Lairig Ghru would be kind of tricky on bikes, bit it’s awesome country.
There is a bothy in Choire Etchacan (Henderson Memorial Hut).
Personally, on bikes, I’d take the lower route rather than dicking about on the plateau

Ah – but then you’d miss this….