isle of skye eats.
local beers from cuillen brewery.
first things first: scottish seafood is AMAZING. everything is hyper-local and fresh, and i love, love love that! you’ll also notice i don’t mention coffee or breakfast at all. since we set out pretty early both days (to explore skye, then to drive back to edinburgh), we just went to the co-op close to our airbnb to grab coffees, pastries and sandwiches for the road.
the lower deck seafood restaurant, portree.
soup of the day (tomato) served with local wholemeal bread.
we arrived in the town of portree on the isle of skye in the evening, after a long drive up from edinburgh. since we didn’t know when we’d be arriving, we didn’t have a reservation anywhere, but we checked out the cute harbor area just to see what was open and available.
hebridean seafood parcel: smoked mackerel pate wrapped in cold smoked salmon, with beetroot and horseradish chutney.
we ended up at the lower deck and had a seafood feast (after some warm soup and local beers to warm our bones first, of course). i especially loved my scallops dish - i was already excited for the black pudding, but little did i know that the scallops would all still have the roe attached! i’ve literally never had scallops that way and i don’t understand why - it’s delicious and makes me sad for all the scallop roe i haven’t eaten in my lifetime.
steamed north atlantic cod wrapped in roasted red pepper sauce and medley of green vegetables.
island pan fried scallops served atop stornoway black pudding, garden pea puree, bacon crumble and sauteed potatoes.
the oyster shed, carbost.
as i recounted in my last post, the weather was unkind to us the one day we had to explore skye. luckily, the only real plans we had that day were a tour and tasting at talisker, which is located in the town of carbost. also in carbost is the oyster shed!
grate your own horseradish!
the seating area is outdoors, which did not work well with the weather (the howling winds and rain was in full force while we were here), but they have standing room barrels in the main building and that’s where we sheltered and ate delicious, ridiculously fresh just-shucked oysters, grilled langoustines and pickled herring. and being able to grate your own horseradish is a really lovely touch. i was very happy while we were here.
grilled langoustines.
pickled herring (and onion rings).
talisker distillery, carbost.
part of the reason we picked the isle of skye was because that’s where talisker is located. with our short schedule, we knew we could only realistically pick one city (edinburgh) and then one area or region to drive out to and see. and james really wanted to go to a distillery. there are many beautiful parts of scotland, and many distilleries, but isle of skye and talisker was too good of a combination to not do.
we did their whisky & chocolate tour, in which we got to try three house-made chocolates paired with three of their whiskies after getting a whole tour of the place. i didn’t take any pictures on the tour itself except for of the barrel room, which we viewed through a glass:
that main barrel (5022) has been sitting their since march of 1979 and would be bottled shortly. we called it james’s barrel since that’s when he was born! anyway, the tour is super interesting and informative, and absolutely worth doing.
whisky and chocolate pairing.
restaurant rosedale, portree.
local cider and beer.
located inside the rosedale hotel, resturant rosedale specializes in scottish “tapas” or small plates. it was our last dinner in scotland and we were able to snag a reservation earlier in the day. we even go seated by a window overlooking the harbor!
roasted jerk cauliflower, curried puree, pine nut dressing.
slow cooked smoked ham hock, spring vegetable broth.
monkfish ceviche, cucumber, mint, lime, yoghurt.
everything we ordered was delicious, but the lamb was perfection. we liked it so much we ordered an extra one.
roast lamb loin, pea and broad bean fricassee, madeira jus.
selection of scottish cheese, chutney, biscuits, fruit.
view of portree harbour from rosedale.
that pretty much concludes the first leg of our trip. i definitely wish we had more time to spend in scotland, but i was also very excited to head to our next stop: LONDON.
