Veggie food is still hit or miss in the Aberdeenshire area. Most small hotels and pub food caters primarily for decaying dead stuff consumers. (Put the emphasis on the words in that sentence any way you wish).
Plentiful venison, game, rare breed pigs and assorted brown shapes drenched in gravy but no respect paid to vegetables. Predictably poor choice of veggie burger, macaroni cheese, and in a completely non-ironic throwback to the 70’s, cheese and peach salad. That last offered in an establishment boasting a vast range of fish, game and other abattoir products.
Mercifully, the fates have located some terrific Indian restaurants in the area. Of all the odd places, Peterhead has one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve ever been in. Their vegetarian Thalli seemed to be served in a steel container nearly a meter wide – an exaggeration, it just felt like the most intimidating amount of food ever placed in front of me. Over an hour of steady munching interspersed with pauses for air, made hardly a dent in the food mountain. Reluctantly submitting to the inevitable, more was left than eaten. I mourn those leftovers yet.
Huntly has if anything, an even better, if less fancy, Indian restaurant. The food is so full of flavour and just all round yumminess, but again comes in improbably hearty portions. The price is in inverse proportion to the portion size. Overcome with greediness, and in order to taste their veggie Samber and the bindi baji as a side dish, along with rice and a chapatti, there was little hope of getting more than half way through.
This run of scrummy Indian food comes to a full stop in Fraserburgh. For somewhere that claimed to have won an award, I was left pondering exactly what the award was for.
The standard of food and the prices in Indian restaurants in Edinburgh is dire, or at least the one’s I’ve tried recently; with the honourable exception of the two veggie ones. On the other hand, perhaps it is just as well that the local take-aways’ nasty habit of adding sweetcorn to their veggie dishes saves me developing a worse curry addiction. Thankfully, I often go to the "curry mile" in Manchester where there is almost infinite choice of regions and cuisines. It will take many more visits before I have sampled them all!
http://www.restaurantsofmanchester.com/rusholme.htm
Showing posts with label Aberdeenshire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aberdeenshire. Show all posts
Aberdeenshire visit
Before winter sets in completely, I decided to travel north to Aberdeenshire for two or three days. I really like this part of the country. The scenery is varied between hills and coast as well as the winding Spey Valley. Previous visits have seen me do the castle trail and the delights of family attractions when my daughter was wee and could enjoy the parks in Aberdeen and the fun of Storybook Glen.
http://www.storybookglenaberdeen.co.uk/aboutus.html
I came up to Huntly during the summer and returned via Glenshee to admire the scenery and in the passing saw a red squirrel run across in front of me - the first time I've seen one! On this occasion, I decided that as last weekend these roads were cut off by snow, it was best not to risk it. I stuck to the main roads and drove that right angled road up through Perth, Dundee, and at Aberdeen turn right out to Huntly.
Huntly itself is an attractive wee town with some interesting shops the like of which are only found in towns but not in cities. I nearly bought a kitchen table and chairs, but remembered in time that nothing of that size will fit in my new car.
This area has some really good B&B’s. I stayed with Doreen who “only takes clean people.” Not sure how she makes that judgement by the voice on the phone booking it, but I was allowed to have a room. Her large Victorian house is comfortable, warm and appears as neat and tidy as if it has just been unwrapped. But, Doreen has a minor vice. She has a weakness for frills and ribbons and crystal.
http://www.storybookglenaberdeen.co.uk/aboutus.html
I came up to Huntly during the summer and returned via Glenshee to admire the scenery and in the passing saw a red squirrel run across in front of me - the first time I've seen one! On this occasion, I decided that as last weekend these roads were cut off by snow, it was best not to risk it. I stuck to the main roads and drove that right angled road up through Perth, Dundee, and at Aberdeen turn right out to Huntly.
Huntly itself is an attractive wee town with some interesting shops the like of which are only found in towns but not in cities. I nearly bought a kitchen table and chairs, but remembered in time that nothing of that size will fit in my new car.
This area has some really good B&B’s. I stayed with Doreen who “only takes clean people.” Not sure how she makes that judgement by the voice on the phone booking it, but I was allowed to have a room. Her large Victorian house is comfortable, warm and appears as neat and tidy as if it has just been unwrapped. But, Doreen has a minor vice. She has a weakness for frills and ribbons and crystal.
The above graced the ensuite. Such objects were a fixture of a 60’s childhood, but not seen since. Has Doreen captured all such sub-antique objects because whole generations have grown up without seeing a frilly doll with a toilet roll under its skirt? The theme continued in the wardrobe with sumptuously padded and frilled coat hangers, and complimented with the frilled tissue box cover.
Attention to detail is a feature of breakfast. The poached eggs were precision cooked and the butter cut up in regimented squares. My only complaint, and this goes wherever I stay, the coffee needs to be stronger.
Deans Shortbread factory is a must see. Started by Helen Deans in 1975 it has grown into a fair sized family business in Huntly. The factory shop is a source of goodies and a reasonable priced way of trying out new flavours of shortbread, (I’m trying not to gorge myself on their butterscotch flavour as I type). A local person mentioned their bags of shortbread crumbs which when sprinkled over fruit make a luxurious crumble, but there were none available when I popped in.
http://www.deans.co.uk/index.html
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