Jul 13 2009
Scottish Shellfish
It never fails to bother me that we import so much in the way of prawns and shrimp in this country. Why oh why do we fly prawns in from Madagascar and Indonesia when this is available all round the coast of Scotland (and mostly sold to restaurants in France).
We had this for dinner at The Old Inn whilst on our wee Highland Escape and it tasted as good as it looked.
The squat lobster and langoustines tasted so good we barely touched the aioli, going instead for an au naturel licked off the fingers and washed down with ale flavour instead.
I love shellfish, but I have to say that I am very surprised to see it with chips! Maybe because where I come from we eat shellfish with shellfish. I have never tried the combination above.
tee hee…i suspect it’s more a case that in Scotland, we eat everything with chips. These were pretty lame chips too, as they go, as they were only french fries. I’d have preferred some nice chunky cut chip shop style things. Mmmmm deep fried!
they look a bit scary, though (the shellfish, not the chips) Maybe it’s the way they are all lined up with each other to jump off the plate….
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how long would it take me to drive to Gairloch today!!!
My mouth is watering!
So exciting you’re going back to uni, it’s seriously the best thing I’ve ever done. I worked for a few years and went back last Sept and love my course. I hope you love it too, can’t wait to see what you get up to :)
A BBC program claimed once that most “fresh and local seafood” consumed along the Spanish mediterranean coast (and possibly in surrounding countries) comes from Scotland.
Nowing that the Med is catastrophically overfished, I see no reason to doubt that statement (except maybe that there will be a large portion of deep frozen langoustines from Thailand on sale along the Costa Brava, too).
So. One reason to import seafood into Scotland might be that all local catch goes onto a plane to Barcelone at 6am every day. This won’t change unless local buyers offer decent prices for local catch, and provide sustained business not just once in a whole, but regular.
P.S. As to the chips… I recommend potato wedges instead. Quick and simple to make, virtually fat-free, and when tossed with cayenne, lime juice, salt and olive oil, also offer a nice kick. 35 minutes at 200C and you’re done.
Supports local potato growers, too, and no plastic wrapping required.
We are both big fans of potato wedges, with a variety of seasonings (whatever your hand gets to first in the spice cupboard!) but for some reason this pub went for french fries. Cheap, I guess. Still, they tasted pretty good, a handful of chips and a handful of crayfish. Daresay wedges or proper thick cut chips would have been even better though!