Angus Fling

We'd left our nearby hotel, heading toward Victoria Street to do some shopping and decided to stop here for a quick bite and some coffee and tea. It's a tiny shop, so no surprise when the young fellow who seemed to be running the place asked if it was "eat in or carryout". He seated us immediately (we didn't want to drink our coffee and tea while walking) and gave us menus, taking our drink orders at the same time. I wasn't very hungry, so when he returned to take our food order, I asked for a scone. My wife, never having had haggis, asked for a roll with haggis. He smiled (knowingly?) and asked if either of us had ever tried haggis. We admitted we hadn't (it's pretty obvious we're from the US), which opened a nice discussion about where we were from, when we got into town, how long we were going to be there. He was welcoming and friendly and seemed to be genuinely interested and clearly wasn't going to rush us. The food arrived quickly, taking no more than five minutes. My scone looked sort of like a raisin English muffin and not like the stale, crumbly, iced abominations served by Starbucks. I obviously have never had a proper scone because I found this one surprising delicious, especially with the butter and strawberry jam that came with it. My wife's haggis roll was more like a haggis "sloppy joe". The roll was the size of a hamburger bun and the haggis, from where I sat, looked like a large, flat sausage patty. I'd been expecting it to be similar in texture to scrapple and somewhat patty-like. Knowing the ingredients, I shouldn't have been surprised that it was more like a thick, chunky spread, almost like a savory steel-cut oatmeal without the stickyness. She took a bite and fell in love with it. I'll eat just about anything, yet wouldn't have ordered it myself, but did have a taste. I'd expected it to be rich and savory and, while it was both, the flavor was more delicate than I'd expected. Some black pepper and onion came through with a mixture of savory herbs. Overall quite tasty and a hearty start to a long day of walking and shopping. 10/10 would eat it again.