Dining in Edinburgh : Scottish, French Mix
The Scots are a no-nonsense people when it comes to eating, and the food of Edinburgh reflects this attitude.
“The old Scottish way o’ makin’ soups and porridges is, ye put ye’r meal in the pot wi’ a wee bit o’ salt, fill it up wi’ water, and let it stand overrnight,” says Mary Burns as we devoured a warm scone. “The next day ye put ye’r meat and vegetables in and fill the pot up wi’ boilin’ water. All the goodness jest comes burstin’ forth.”
Mary Burns is owner and chief cook of the Celtic Tea Room in Brodie’s Close on High Street in Edinburgh. A friendly, straightforward Scotswoman with a pale, clear complexion and bright red hair, Burns makes most of the soups, quiches, scones and pastries served in the cozy tea shop set in a building that was built in 1646.
Scottish Specialties
Her shop is typical of many small restaurants and teahouses throughout the city that serve Scottish specialties.
Many jokes are made at the expense of Scotland’s national dish, haggis. It is a kind of sausage or pudding made from the heart, lungs and liver of a sheep, seasoned with spices and traditionally cooked in the sheep’s stomach.
It is more palatable than it sounds, and is usually served with “chappit tatties” (mashed potatoes) and “bashed neeps” (mashed turnips).
Other favorites are cock-a-leekie soup, a robust soup of chicken broth, leeks and other vegetables; hotch potch, a mutton broth with vegetables, and finnan haddie, haddock originally smoked over the peat fires of Finnan, Aberdeenshire.
Scotch broth, potato soup and sandwiches of Scottish cheddar cheese are sold at Mary Burns’ shop for 50 pence to 1.50 (about $2.38 U.S.).
“The scones are much better hot and buttered,” Burns told us as we sat in front of the stone fireplace. Soon she brought us steaming cups of tea and a plate of warm scones dripping with melted butter.
The Celtic Tea Room is one of several small restaurants that make ideal stops for lunch or a snack while sightseeing. It is on the Royal Mile, the stretch of High Street and Canongate that runs from Edinburgh Castle down the hill to the Palace of Holyrood House.
Another good one is in the basement of historic St. Giles Cathedral, where John Knox once stood in the pulpit and railed against Mary Queen of Scots. A variety of salads, sandwiches and quiches, from 50 pence to 1.50, are sold in a small, whitewashed room with a vaulted ceiling.
Reminds of Burns
Farther down the Royal Mile is Clarinda’s, a cheery little restaurant named for Clarinda McLehose, a correspondent of Robert Burns and the subject of one of his poems. Because the place was busy when we entered, we shared a table with a resident.
The table was covered with a white lace cloth and set with fresh flowers. The menu, which changes daily according to what’s fresh, was hand-written in pencil on a sheet of notebook paper.
We had mince and potatoes (1.60)--ground beef cooked with spices and served with a huge potato so rich and flavorful that it didn’t need butter--and kilted sausages (1.60), spicy Scottish sausages wrapped in lean bacon and also served with potatoes. Tea sandwiches run 78 to 88 pence, and the scones and rock buns (a gingerbread-like muffin) are homemade.
The Laigh Kitchen on Hanover Street, just two blocks from the main shopping thoroughfare of Princes Street, is a self-service tearoom housed in two small basement rooms that used to be the kitchen of an 18th-Century town house.
Visitors sit around an old trestle table or in Orkney chairs in front of the huge fireplace and nibble on freshly baked scones, oatcakes and gingerbreads from the Laigh Bakehouse next door. The whole-wheat scones (24 pence) are exceptional. Butter is 9 pence extra, but the scones are so rich that you don’t really need any.
An Extensive Variety
Beyond the simpler fare offered in the small tearooms, Edinburgh offers an extensive variety of restaurants serving sophisticated food at prices about a third of those in London.
“Scottish produce has always been of the very highest quality,” says Jeffrey Bland, executive chef at the Caledonian Hotel. “Angus beef is considered the best in the world, and Scottish salmon is superb; also our lobsters, oysters, mussels and scallops are excellent.”
Handsel’s, in a 19th-Century town house on a quiet street, offers a fixed-price dinner for 23 (about $36.34 U.S.) that might include Mallaig prawns, breast of wild pigeon with wild mushrooms and a juniper berry sauce, and a fillet of Aberdeen Angus Beef with Dutch veal sweetbreads and truffles.
Simpler fare is offered in the wine bar on the ground floor. We can recommend the Scottish seafood soup and the salmon with mussels in a ginger butter sauce at 4.10 (about $6.50 U.S.).
Another elegant restaurant is the Pompadour in the Caledonian Hotel. Although the name might indicate a French flavor, the influence comes not, as one might expect, from anything contemporary but rather from the days when Scotland was “knee-deep in French claret,” as the locals say.
From the 12th Century to the 16th the Auld Alliance spawned heavy trade between Scotland and France, and the influence is here in such traditional dishes as a poached salmon with leek sabayon and a wild duckling with claret wine sauce.
Overlooking the Castle
We sat at a table with a view of Edinburgh Castle and sampled a wild salmon that had been dry-smoked on a farm. The flavor was intense and the texture perfect. Bawd bree, a hare soup with mushrooms and mussels, came with a round, flat loaf of farmhouse bread.
For the main course we chose a slice of roast Angus beef with potatoes and fresh asparagus. A selection of Scottish cheeses included a traditional caboc and the legendary Lanark blue, which is being made once again after a hiatus of 200 years.
For dessert there were wild strawberries served with cream and Cranachan, a mixture of oatmeal and heavy cream with chopped fruits. Dinner at the Pompadour emphasizes French cuisine, while lunches feature Scottish specialties. The prix fixe luncheon is 11.50, and a la carte items run 3.50 to 10 for starters and 7.50 to 14.50 for main courses.
Le Chambertin restaurant at the George Hotel offers such Scottish specialties as cullen skink (a soup of smoked haddock, leek and potatoes for 1.85), medallions of veal Balmoral served with a whisky sauce (10.50), and the traditional haggis with neeps and tatties (3.25).
Some of the best dining we found in the city was concentrated in the seaport of Leith, just a 15-minute cab ride from downtown. Such pub-style restaurants as The Tattler and The Shore are part of a newly refurbished waterfront area.
Our favorite was Skippers, right by the water. Theater posters papered the red walls and mounds of fresh oysters were piled on the old bar.
We began with grilled queenies in garlic butter (a scallop that should not be missed), smoked mackerel mousse with oatcakes and Loch Sheen oysters. Small red mullets came grilled after being marinated in garlic and fresh coriander, and scallops au gratin were immersed in a creamy, whisky-laced sauce that enhanced their fresh-from-the-sea taste.
A cheesecake, fragrant with rich Scottish cream and bananas in a rum-flavored cream, completed the meal. A two-course, fixed-price dinner costs 11.25; three courses is 13.
Dining and Entertainment
Several hotels offer “Scottish Nights,” evenings of dining and entertainment steeped in Scottish lore. Typical is “Hail Caledonia” at the North British Hotel. After the “laird of the manor,” Alan Borthwick, recited the traditional Selkirk Grace, a steaming haggis encased in a sheep’s stomach was ceremoniously brought in on a huge silver platter, while the Pipe Major serenaded on the bagpipes.
The “laird” then offered the Address to the Haggis, as written by Robert Burns in 1784.
The meal consisted of cock-a-leekie soup, the haggis served with neeps and tatties, a shot of Scotch whisky, roast beef and a Glayva Heilan cream, a dessert of whipped cream, biscuits and almonds.
Entertainment ranged from traditional Scottish ballads accompanied by the pipes to tunes from “Brigadoon,” and included the Highland Fling and a traditional sword dance.
Although unabashedly aimed at the visitor, the whole evening was great fun and cost 19. A similar “Scottish Evening” is offered at the George Hotel for 21, including wine.
Recommended: Celtic Tea Room, Brodie’s Close, Royal Mile.
Clarinda’s, 69 Canongate, Royal Mile.
Handsel’s restaurant, 22 Stafford St.
The Laigh Kitchen, 117A Hanover St.
Le Chambertin, The George Hotel, George Street.
North British Hotel, Princes Street.
Pompadour restaurant, Caledonian Hotel, Princes Street.
Skippers, Dock Place, Leith.
