Vegans Rejoice!

My brother and I are vegan and found eating in Scotland pretty easy when we were there in June. Many restaurants had a separate vegan menu, not just in Edinburgh but smaller places like Inverness as well. I had a wonderful vegan haggis benedict at an Edinburgh restaurant. Awesome vegan desserts as well.

Also, oddly the haggis flavored crisps were vegan, too.

Not sure I would go for the vegan sausage roll as I wouldn’t have eaten a regular sausage roll in my pre-vegan days!

Seems that tofu has finally reached Scotland.

Even the dogs wanted to try it Having been a dog owner, I can tell you that's not a selling point. My dog would eat anything, including the cat's poop. She drew the line at raw onion.

Bon appetit

Mike
I am happy to report that there is no branch of Greggs on Skye, or indeed within 150 miles of here (certainly not in Fort William or Inverness)! They used to be an 'emergency' stop in for a grab and go lunch when I was working in England, as they do OK sandwiches, baguettes, and indeed sausage rolls and a cheap 'meal deal' (i.e. sandwich, crisps, drink). However, Pret a Manger was always my 'go to' place for a take away lunch and Greggs more of a last resort.

Anyway, back to veganism. I can report that my B&B guests have given the veggie/vegan haggis the thumbs up. M&S sausages have been also highly commended in preference to any other veggie brand that I have offered our guests. Not sure if they are vegan though, and don't have any in the freezer just now, so can't check.

If passing through Fort William I can highly recommend The Wildcat Café. It is an independently owned, vegan café, serving wonderful food including delicious cakes. I had a hot chocolate drink made with oat milk and it was really tasty. It's on the main pedestrian high street.

And finally to end on a light note, a song (recorded by a blogger with proceeds going to charity) called 'We built this city on sausage rolls', made it to Number 1 in the UK charts at Christmas, knocking Ariane Grande off to the top spot. If you are not sure what a sausage roll is then there is 'actual footage' one in the video and Greggs gets a mention. The song really gets going about 1.53 into the video. A good example of British humour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iEB8bfP7wE

Greggs is an English chain, founded and still based in Newcastle upon Tyne. They have outlets in Scotland too.

Greggs would be my last choice of where to buy bakery products on the high street, as their quality isn’t great. It’s cheap. You get what you pay for. Mostly pastry and little filling.

The Greggs vegan sausage roll featured on tv last week and the hosts said it tasted ok but the texture was very different to a normal sausage roll.

@Skyegirl,

Thanks for the link to "We Built This City." Pure dead brill! I have to figure out some way of downloading it so I can play it on the radio next week.

My wife and I had Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages at a guest house in Inverie (Knoydart). Now they were pure dead brill! The scallops on a bed of white pudding were absolutely awesome as well.

For anyone who likes a really good Scotch pie, Murray's, on South Street in Perth, does possibly the best pies we've ever tasted. Juicy, mouth-watering, delicious crust, cooked to perfection. It's worth going in to central Perth and paying to park just to have a Murray's pie. Best eaten warm, or bought piping hot and let stand to cool a bit.

Bon appetit!

Mike (Auchterless)

“Scallops on a bed of white pudding”.

Well, I do love scallops but what on earth is white pudding? There is a pudding with a French name that my mother used to make, Blanc Mange, and we all hated it but it was a dessert pudding. Please to explain.

Hi, Norma,

White pudding, or mealy pudding as it's sometimes called, is an oatmeal based food, made with oatmeal (primarily), spices, and ground sausage. In consistency, it's similar to black pudding (or blood pudding), without the blood. You can check it out on the internet.

"Pudding" is sort of a misnomer, as pudding is now a British term for dessert. Some menus in Britain don't have a "dessert" list, but a "pudding" list. If a waiter or waitress asks you if you'd like pudding, it's not necessarily custard or Jell-o!

You'll find white pudding and black pudding on the menus at many chippies in Scotland, along with haggis. Unfortunately, they are breaded and deep fried, which does nothing for the taste. Best to try it somewhere that doesn't deep fry. A B&B, perhaps.

Hope that clarifies white pudding for you.

Mike (Auchterless)

p.s.: I enjoy poutine, as well!

Thank you, Mike. My mother, the Blanc Mange Lady, used to occasionally buy for her own consumption, blood pudding. We fled the kitchen when it was being cooked. Quelle smell!

Edit. I have never, nor will I ever, eaten poutine.

Hi again, Norma,

A chacun son gout, as they say! :) I had some excellent poutine with duck at a restaurant on Rue Saint-Denis. Also some not too bad poutine at a St-Hubert in Sherbrooke. Unfortunately, I also had some not very good poutine at a Burger King in Broussard. That last one was actually my first experience with poutine, so I could have been soured on it forever. However, I didn't want to give up on it, and I'm glad that i didn't.

Your mother must have been making black pudding from scratch. I've only had the Stornoway kind, which doesn't have much of an odour when it's cooking. Or maybe that's because the B&B owners kept the kitchen doors closed while they were frying it.

Now I'm hungry for a Tim Horton's maple glazed doughnut! :)

Mike (Auchterless)