Friday, August 15, 2008

A First Foray Into The Fringe (Food)

I don't know which is worse; being at a cafe in which they cover all breakfasts with baked beans or the fact that they deliver.

My experience in Edinburgh, Scotland so far has been a bit of a so-so experience. That being said, the food is not in fact so-so, but a bit of a disaster. To find a decent meal, you must have a guide and little preference. Once you find a restaurant or cafe that doesn't have pre-made food, you check a menu full of extremely high prices. If the pound were equal to the dollar, it would be understandable, but it is worth twice the dollar. You order the food, then wait... and wait... and wait. It takes maybe half an hour to get sandwiches. Only one person is working on the food. The other 3 are hanging out and cleaning dishes.

Shopping for food isn't exactly great either. Much of the produce is horrible. The artichokes were completely brown!

I must admit, I fell into a tourist trap. A sign said a bakery made Mars bars in batter. I rushed inside and bought one. It wasn't horrible. It tastes basically as it sounds. It was just bad enough to throw out after the second bite. I'm not sure each bite was worth a pound, though.

I wasn't even allowed into most pubs. They need licenses to not serve alcohol to minors, so i couldn't just get food. Somehow, I don't think this system works, seeing how Scotland has one of the highest rates of alcoholism.

The one thing that I was impressed with was the cheese and lox. The fatty cheese was creamy and rich while the lighter cheese was crumbly and slightly tangy. The lox was as good as I've had and the kippered salmon had a delightfully spicy aftertaste. At least if worst comes to worst, I can always have a picnic.

No comments: