Sunday afternoon. The fishmonger phones to say he's got two large lobsters left over. They've just been cooked and they're ours for £24 if we're interested. How's that for a bargain / Only problem is we have to pick them up by 4 pm as he's about to close for the week. We're out and in the car in double quick time. That's our dinner menu taken care of.
Lobsters collected and paid for we make a detour to the trendy cafe for a coffee. The place is run by uber cool young people wearing beany hats and trousers that stop above the ankle. Some of them have those slightly alarming nose rings. The staff would be right at home in La Jolla or Brooklyn. Usually It's packed to the rafters with hip young faculty types but today the cafe is empty. Presumably the usual crowd are battling with the hordes of last minute shoppers at the supermarket in town.
Politeness dictates I order a frangipane mince pie with my coffee. The expectation is that this is going to be disappointing but it isn't. The pastry crumbly, the filling light and fruity. It might quite possibly be the best mince pie ever but mince pie ranking is something that's never impinged on my consciousness ... until now. The flour the cafe uses is made from 'heritage' grains. We'd never knowingly come across 'heritage' grains before but the enthusiastic cafe owner and his team soon fill us in :https://scotlandthebread.org/flourandgrain/grain-research/ .
Off to the butcher on our way home for some nitrate free bacon. Nitrates in bacon are not at all good for you.
On our way to the car park we pass a new shop that has opened up alongside the organic brewery. It sells ( or seems to sell ) an unusual mix of kitchen knives, salt, bees wax candles , pre-order dinners and chocolate covered raisins. The raisins are soaked in cognac before being dipped in chocolate. Why has it taken so long to discover anything this subtle and glorious ? We shall be regular customers. This eclectic retail combination may, or may not, support a sustainable business plan but the alcoholic raisins are a sure winner.
12 comments:
Hari Om
Just about the perfect pre-Christmas for you it seems! Thanks for the excellent variety of links today. YAM xx
Ah. I was in that shop last month. I bought brass pastry cutters on a ring.
Also, the raisin thing? There’s a shop on the outskirts of Mirande in the Gers that does that, but with Sauternes. I’ve never seen them anywhere else.
Macaroni pie? How odd.
You could have a competition next year to find the best mince-pie in Scotland.
Christmas music #21 gave me goose pimples...loved the audience participation.
What a brilliant idea. I'll get to work straight away .
It has a very Christmasy 'order out of chaos' vibe.
Our local bakery also has heritage grains , red fife . https://www.truegrain.ca/
My husband is ready to travel to St. Andrews just for those chocolate covered raisins - way beyond his beloved Raisinets.
Raisins soaked in cognac prior to being dipped in chocolate? I'm looking at flights as we speak. Happy Christmas.
That macaroni pie would have fed half the population of Glasgow.
Today in the supermarket I noticed cooked crabs all neatly packaged in plastic!
Coppa's Girl (Google is interfering again!)
Sign me up for a pound of those raisins! What a fantastic culinary journey you had this morning. TRAVEL, let's create a charter trip. Maybe we can rent the Wee House in town!
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