Ahhh, Portobello. Or rather, Porty. A quaint seaside town with a lovely community feel about it. Gorgeous buildings and a nice beach, Porty has it all (including great Montreal-style bagels)! Just outside of Edinburgh, Portobello is a great place to escape to for the day - especially if you're in Edinburgh and feeling slightly overwhelmed by tourists at this time of year. Once popular with smugglers and sailors, Porty is now home to commuters but worth visiting in its own right. For one thing: the beach; a lovely sandy beach looking out onto the Firth of Forth. On a sunny day, it's a great place to hang out and stroll along the promenade. If I could name only one other reason to visit...
Uisge-beatha: the water of life. Whisky is to Scotland what maple syrup is to Canada. Maybe even more so. When I first moved to Scotland I admit, I wasn't much of a whisky fan. But then, about 8 years ago I attended a malt whisky tasting at MacSorleys (RIP) organised by the Good Spirits Co. and I learned to appreciate whisky (and also got quite drunk, to be honest). Since then I've been to Islay twice now and have visited every distillery there bar one. If you're not really a whisky fan but think you might appreciate the odd dram now and then, I would highly recommend attending a tasting to learn a little bit about whisky and the different...
Today is Pancake Day in the UK (Shrove Tuesday and Fat Tuesday elsewhere), where it's perfectly acceptable (encouraged even!) to eat pancakes for dinner. Being a Canadian, naturally pancakes are one of my most favourite things to eat. To be honest, I am somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to pancakes though. I prefer proper big fat fluffy buttermilk pancakes rather than those crepe-like things; pancakes, to me, should be the thick North-American type, you know? I mean, they are called PAN CAKES. Over the years, I've tried dozens of pancake recipes and the one I always keep coming back to is the good ol' buttermilk recipe from Bette's Oceanview Diner. First though, a few tips: - This recipe uses...
One of the things I love about Christmas, besides the indulgent food, slowing down and spending time with friends and family, is buying gifts for people. Now I know some people dread it and stress out about it but I actually love researching gift options for people. As we get older and accumulate more "stuff", I find it's getting harder and harder to buy for people; once you're at a certain age, most people tend to buy what they want for themselves anyway. This makes it even more challenging to buy for other people. When purchasing presents, I tend to fall back on gift food items, gift certificates, and experiences. I also like to top it off with an item that I've really hunted around...
As someone from the New World and who has lived in Scotland for 12 years now, one of the questions I'm often asked is "why?" A lot of the times it goes something like this: Scottish person: "You're from Canada?! What are you doing here?" Me: "Well, I originally came here as an exchange student in University and I loved Glasgow so much that I moved back a few years after graduating." Scottish person, visibly irritated: "but WHY? Why Scotland?" I get it - for a long time Scottish people left these shores for a better life in the New World (I've mentioned before how imperative the Scots were in establishing modern Canada), including my own Grandmother and Great Grandfather. It's probably somewhat...
