Scottish food and drink
Scotland has one of the best larders in the world. Stunning seafood like salmon, trout, oysters and Arbroath Smokies. Flavourful Aberdeen Angus beef, spring lamb, game, and venison as well as the freshest of fruit and vegetables, there’s nothing finer than Scottish food.
Haggis: the national dish
Peppery, hearty haggis is made using a mixture of sheep’s’ offal, lungs and liver. The offal is stuffed with suet, oatmeal, seasoning, encased in a sheep’s stomach and boiled for up to six hours. Modern haggis is often served in a synthetic casing. The dish is traditionally eaten with neeps (mashed turnips or swedes) and tatties (potatoes).
Haggis is a popular dish and can be found in most Scottish supermarkets. It can also be found in fish and chip shops across Scotland where it’s deep fried in batter and served with a generous helping of chips, or fried potatoes. You might also find haggis pakora, haggis pizza or even haggis crisps.
Scotland’s legendary seafood
Scotland has always had a close relationship with the sea and the country boasts some of the best seafood in the world. Scottish smoked salmon is regularly served in the world’s top restaurants and crabs, lobsters, langoustines, scallops and oysters are a west coast speciality.
Creel-caught langoustines are regularly pulled from Scotland’s fresh-water lochs and flown to restaurants in Europe and the States.
The small fishing town of Arboath, on the east coast of Scotland, produces the world-famous Arbroath Smokies. The wood-smoked haddock, produced in small family run smoke houses, are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Like Champagne and Parma Ham, Arbroath Smokies have geographical protection and made in the same today as they have for centuries.
Whisky
Whisky will forever be tied to Scotland - for as long as having a glass of “scotch” means drinking a glass of whisky (however, very few Scotsman would call whisky "scotch").
Around 90% of the whisky Scotland produces is made using blended malts. Brands like Bells, Johnnie Walker, Whyte & Mackay and Famous Grouse. Each area where whisky is produced, Lowland, Highland, Island and Speyside, has a distinct flavour and style. There are a few exceptions, however.
Many of Scotland’s whisky distilleries offer whisky tours, where visitors are taken around a distillery and shown how the process works, with the option of a drink or two at the end.
Haggis recipe from eatScotland
The world-famous Arbroath Smokies being made
More on Loch Ryan native oyster fishing