The Scots! The food, the weather and some whisky!

 The Scots are supposed to be a warm friendly bunch! They definitely have my empathy having to live in the shadow of the Brits! Scotland's history as I understand is also dotted with a number of religious wars like the Jacobite rising and the religious persecution of the past! Their history is very much like India's with the constant struggle for Independence with the union of the crowns happening in 1700's. Finally as late as 1999, The Scottish Parliament reconvened and the Parliament Building opened at the foot of the Royal Mile in 2004.

We will talk more about architecture later, but this building was quite the anomaly! At the end of the Royal mile that is dotted with historic building and right across from the Holyrood palace, this modern looking structure looks very out of place!

The entrance, they have a visitor gift shop and I believe daily tours as well

The pool with Holyrood park and the crags in the background! We will explore that beauty in a subsequent post!

I cant say I know enough of Scottish history to share anything at all! I am still learning and to speed that up I start with this book! A bit of outlander influence here but am looking forward to my read (I bought this book on a down day in Scotland when I explored what claimed to be Edinburgh's oldest bookshop! Although it hardly looked the part!) This was Blackwell's on South Bridge!

I can tell that my Scotland account is going to be all over the place, so I am going to try to reign it in a little bit! So first we will start with a scottish breakfast! For breakfast we head over to Loudons on Sibbald Walk at Royal Mile

A cold day in Scotland! See how the modern blends with the history here! This is a walk off the royal mile with all of its historic architecture!	Ready for a Scottish breakfast at Loudons!
Cappuccino! Both in London and Edinburgh the cappuccino's hit the mark and were just delish!	The full deal but vegetarian style! Haggis, Black Pudding and Tattie Scones! With the bean and eggs!
Even the Avocado toast with the poached egg looked so appetizing! And tasted amazing!	Tattie Scone (Or a Potato Scone)

The Scottish breakfast typically has Bacon and eggs with Black Pudding that is a fried/ baked sausage cut into rounds. I assume the vegetarian version has some black beans and some mushrooms and other veggies. Haggis is usually made out of animal left overs and oats and spices. The vege version was made out of Lentils. The Tattie Scone (a triangular potato patty) is a staple! I later had it on bread and these are served with grilled mushrooms, tomato's and what I believe were grilled Parsnips rounded up the meal! We also devoured a roasted cauliflower soup that we forgot to click a picture of that was just heavenly on the cold, chilly morning!

Food wise I have always been happy with food in Europe! Everywhere we have been so far (with the exception of Greece) we have been able to find good, delicious food! Scotland was no exception! We of course tried the Scottish staples including their famous Scottish pies. They have adapted to people like me and had a lot of vegetarian options! There was a lot of other cuisines we tried as well. here are a few shout outs!

Pakora Indian on Royal Mile - Has a lot of different types of Pakora chat! Very interesting taste on Pakora and some other Indian comfort food! We loved their traditional Dal Chawal!

Kampong Ah Lee - Malaysian food! This little hole in the wall place had amazing food! Hands down you need to try this! We had a soup that we were all fighting over! And some spicy noodles that was just heavenly!

Cafe Andaluz - Spanish food! This is a Tapas place, and we weren't big fans! But the food is pretty authentic spanish! So do try if you like the cuisine!

Kalpna - This Indian food joint came recommended as well. It was decent food and chat!

Noodles and Dumplings - Best Chinese food in town!

Pho on St James Quarter Shopping Mall - Best Viatnamese Pho I have tasted! We ofcourse got their Spicy bowl and loved every delicious sip of it! Location is fantastic too! Great shopping mall near St Andrew Square! Multrees Walk right next to this has a lively luxury shopping district!

The Royal Mile also had a number of quaint little shops for Pastries, wraps and such which were all yummy! And there is a Pizza express on North Bridge which we had come to enjoy! [Tip: Tap water is of great quality in Edinburgh! We didn't know and bought water the first couple days after which we started just drinking from the tap! Bring a bottle, fill and enjoy!]

[Tip: Tipping in UK is generally not mandatory but is welcomed. We did tip in most places. But you have to remember to ask to tip. If you use card they will just bring you the machine and key in the $ amount. So let them know you would like to tip! UK wages are on par so tip is not an expectation. But we like to when we like the service and it was welcome.]

Shopping in Scotland is interesting. Everything closes between 7 and 8. So you better get your shopping in fast! On the Royal Mile lots of Souvenir stores but they are all chain stores owned by non locals that the 3-4 locals on the mile detest! Be on the guard! I bought a couple of kilts for Tootsie and me! Tootsie;s from a fast talking local that tricket me! I probably ended up paying 10 pounds more for a polyester kilt! I was trying to help the local economy instead of feeding the chain stores! My kilt I got from another local merchant but this one was pure scottish wool and although I paid more I felt better doing it!

Next the Scottish weather!

The weather in Scotland is tempermental to put it mildly! They apparently had a heat wave when we were out there! The first day was windy and cold! But then it warmed up (to their heat wave temperatures) which to us from Hotlanta was pleasant and fantastic! We were really happy to have fantastic weather through our stay in UK. But it is best to be prepared, we had it all rain jackets, umbrellas and jackets to layer up!

Last but not the least Scottish Whisky!

Since our trip was restricted to Edinburgh we did a geek version of the whisky tour! A barrel ride with lots of insights into the different regions of Scotland and the process of  making and of course experiencing whisky!

There are 6 regions in Scotland that produce different types of Whisky!

First the Lowlands since that where we were! Yes Edinburgh and Glasgow and the south of Scotland cover the lowlands. Whisky here is light and gentle, grown inland  and has smells that remind you of the grass lands, with some tones of toffee and cinnamon! M really liked the whisky from this region and we brought back one from Auchentoshan!

Campbeltown is the smallest region with under 5 distilleries. There was a bit of a smoky smell to these, and these whiskies were generally supposed to be dry!

Next is the Highlands! The largest area and something we are familiar with in the US. Oban, Glenmorangie and Dalmore being some common names! Very malty whiskies from this region!

Speyside is right next to Highland, north of Inverness. Light sweet fruity whisky from this region! Very popular in the US you have Glenlivet, Glenfiddich and Macallan from this region. To the untrained like me the whiskies here pretty much resemble the Highland whisky.

The Islay whisky is the Whisky trail of Scotland! These are by far my favorite with the Peaty flavors! I absolutely love Ardberg and Laphroig from this region!

Now with Food, Drink and Weather out of the way, lets explore the sights of Edinburgh in my next post! Can you tell I am in love with Scotland? I cant wait to go back!