Although I love renting houses and apartments while traveling, one of the best parts of my trip through Scotland was staying occasionally at village B&Bs like the Old Manse in Kilmartin, the Rowan Tree in Sollas, North Uist and Morven on the Square in Dufftown. Why you might ask? Because you’re served a cooked-to-order full Scottish breakfast in the morning.
The full Scottish is usually a fried egg, Lorne sausage, Stornoway black pudding, Scottish tatties, baked beans, a rasher of bacon, grilled tomatoes & mushrooms, a slice of toast plus haggis, if you dare. My favorites were the tatties – think flat scones made from flour and potatoes cut into triangles, the black pudding and the haggis.
Black pudding is actually a type of sausage popular throughout Great Britain and Ireland, which is made from pork blood, pork fat or suet and a grain, usually oatmeal, barley or oat groats.
The haggis? I enjoyed every bite and ordered it every chance I got! As a native Philadelphian, I’m familiar with scrapple and I’d venture that haggis is it’s Scottish cousin. Made from lamb offal and oatmeal, it’s a spicy bite that’s either boiled in a casing or sliced and fried. I liked it best pan fried at breakfast, for lunch in a haggis roll, on a pizza and deep fried into balls as an appetizer before dinner.
If you’re ever in Scotland for a day, a week, or a month like I was, do as the Scots and stop into any pub, cafe or restaurant and try the full Scottish for breakfast or a tasty plate of haggis any time of the day.
Check back soon for part 3 of my Scottish Adventure: meat pies, fish and chips and a hearty bowl of Cullen Skink.
