This Crow Has Landed!

My apologies on the lack of posts, this crow was busy soaring around Scotland for the past week enjoying lots of tasty morsels along the way. It was refreshing to go to a country that doesn't cram the phrases "fresh ingredients" "local" or "grass fed" down your throat; in most Scottish dining (as well as other European countries), these labels are not boasted, they are implied.

Nick and I treated ourselves to one fancy shmancy dinner while we were in Edinburgh at Maison Bleue (Its that first blue building shown in the picture above). It was classic french dining with some subtle Scottish flare. To start, we split a bowl of Shetland Mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce. I know this sounds sacrilegious coming from a Maine gal, but these were the best mussels I have ever had. To top it off they even brought over some tea cups with warm water and lemon slices so we could rinse off our grimy seafood hands (usually a reason that prevents me from ordering messy seafood in restaurants). For the main course, Nick ordered the special of the day- freshly caught sea bass served whole over roasted vegetables and prawns. The seasonings were very basic to not mask the fresh fish flavor. I was feeling a bit carnivorous that night, and I also knew I could peck at Nick's Sea Bass, so I went for the fillet of beef with potato gratin, roasted vegetables and a delicious creamed pepper sauce to top it all off. Meat was cooked perfectly to a pretty pinkish red, and I could cut through it with a butter knife- now that's perfection.

Unfortunately we didn't have time for dessert because we had to meet up with our Hostel's nightly pub crawl to catch some drink specials. Speaking of Specials, the hostel we stayed at had great deals with the surrounding cafes and pubs (which was desperately needed due to the awful dollar to pound conversion rate). This cafe was our go to spot for cheap, but delicious food and drink, they also had some Internet we could tap into. They offered backpackers Two for One Burgers and Panninis and Two for One Selected Beers and Mixed Drinks.

Overall the food was fantastic in Scotland, usually your diet suffers when you're on vacation but definitely not here! They could however use a couple of microbreweries- their national beer, Tennets, was quite possibly weaker than Budweiser ick!

I know this doesn't have much to do with food but this is the Castle we stayed in for Sarah and Jared's Wedding (the reason for our Scottish Adventure)