Annual Pilgrimages

[Dormouse]

At this time of year lots of us trot off and do the same thing, year after year. Here are some snap shots of our Annual Pilgrimages. However, feel free to add anything, even it is your first time and you think it is worth the trip.


There is Cherry Cake, Real Cherry Cake and then there is Fisher and Donaldson's Cherry Cake. Not until the onset of the Pandemic could you pay by card at Fisher & Donaldson in Cupar and before that you needed a hefty chunk o' siller in yir pooch if you did go in. Their car park was full early this morning - and often is! Expensive? yes. Worth it? yes.

Then there is our New Year Provisions Pilgrimage. Used to be to the Buffalo Farm just outside Kirkcaldy but nowadays it is to Blackettyside Farm, Leven as they now stock Buffalo Farm produce. Unusual in it's opening hours but very well stocked with all sorts of delights. And, like Fisher & Donaldson in Cupar as well as, quite recently, The Buffalo Farm, it has an excellent Cafe that is well worth a linger.

Now what goodies did we get?

But it does not end there as all this was added to this.

Our New Year Hamper.


Cheers Everyone! Season's Greetings and, when it comes, have a truly Happy New Year. Slainte!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Cheers Everyone! Season's Greetings and, when it comes, have a truly Happy New Year. Slainte!

and the same to you and yours.

Barrs cream soda the finest accompaniment to fish and chips.

Some years since we have been up near Cupar, had a Mini Metro City old Y registration at the time. Stayed at St Andrews but visited friends at Ceres. Heading for home on the Saturday we broke down at Pitscottie. Needed fixing straight away got recovered to a local garage. They did a head Gasket! Subsequently found that was not the problem when it started playing up again down at Berwick. A simple condenser replacement did the trick.

Regards Neil

[Dormouse]

This is what we locally refer to as "A Single Fish" ie an adult portion of battered Haddock or more precisely 2 pieces of fish and a handful of chips. A childs/OAP portion is a single piece of Haddock with the obligatory handful of chips. Chips come in a separate box and would feed a a small family. And a Fish Supper as we call it usually comes with a can of Irn Bru.

The plate underneath is full sized Dinner Plate for reference.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Speaking of good fish and chips

Carlo's in Alnwick tops my list, the Angel in Corbridge is very good, but I do enjoy a stop at Wetherby at the Wetherby Whaler if we are on tour out of area.

Our favourite, No.1 Chippy in the entire country is in Penrith, "Angel Lane Chippie", a bit pricey, but superb! If you haven't sampled it, do so.

I agree Puxa, we have enjoyed fish and chips from the Angel lane chippy many times I do like Carlos in Alnwick too, and a good chippie is well worth knowing about.

I posted this up....on an off-topic tangent on another thread....about Carlo's with a nice picture of a scenic location which adds to the pleasure of consumption!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=48953&p=464349&hilit=corby#p417432

Regards Neil

[Peter.N.]

I would like to try the famed fish and chips at Whitby - but never been able to park there. Haven't tried at this time of the year.

Peter

[Dormouse]

A friend of mine from Aberdeen returned home to Ayr to run the family Chip Shop many years ago. He used mainly local fish but used to get a delivery of Haddock from Aberdeen once a week and these were his "Special" Fish Suppers. I have tried both on many occasions and they were both great but you could tell the Aberdeen Haddock. Another friend had a farm outside Stonehaven and supplied many of the local chippies with potatoes. He was in the Haven Chippy doing a delivery when Mel Gibson's Film Crew from Dunottar Castle were trying Deep Fried Mars Bars for the first time.

There is some debate as to whether The Haven was the first chippy to deep fry Mars Bars.

Addendum - thinking about it, Morando's Haddock were probably from Peterhead or possibly Gourdon. Must ask next time we speak.

[myglaren]

I would like to try the famed fish and chips at Whitby - but never been able to park there. Haven't tried at this time of the year.

Peter

You may be disappointed. The Magpie is not all it is cracked up to be. Fuscoe's allegedly better.
But The Silver Grid by the town hall used to be very good. That was decades ago though.

On the left.

The very best was owned and run by my mate's brother and his wife, a former girlfriend. Long gone unfortunately.

[Dormouse]

not uncommon. The Wee Chippy is far better than the Famous Anstruther Fish Bar in my (and many others) opinion. Our local chippy is variable as it depends on who is working the Fryer.

[Peter.N.]

There is a nice restaurant come take away in Helmsdale off the A9 in Sutherland called "La mirage". that does very nice fish and chips. We have a child's portion a full size one is to much to eat, go there every year.

Also at Beamish museum they do them on a coal fired range, haven't tried them yet but their is usually a queue

Peter

[Dormouse]

I have been trying to find the post I made about the minimum price of alcohol in Scotland a while back but haven't found it yet. However, as part of our annual pilgrimage to see our daughter's family at the festive season, we usually stock up on my favourite tipple - cider.

This is our first visit since the minimum charge for alcohol was raised last autumn here in Scotland and, this time round, was between Christmas and New Year. I worked out the minimum price for cider to be £1.43 per can in Scotland just now with the retail prices ranging from £1.45 to £1.50 in most major stores north of the border. That made the value of our 6 x 18 cases come to anything between £154.44 to £162. The best deal in Redditch was £11 for a case of 18 cans making our bill £66 for our 6 cases. That is a minimum saving of £84.44 to maybe £96.
Our fuel bill for the 750 odd miles was less than £100. We effectively paid for our fuel!!!!!
Add to this that Absolut Vodka 1l was on offer at £20 compared to £29 here, we actually made over £20 on our round trip. I added 2 bottles for LOML to my haul - one is missing from the photo.

It is a sad state of affairs when you have to bootleg booze across the Border

[bobins]

Hope you didn't exceed your duty free allowance

[Dormouse]

I use a road across the Borders to avoid the Customs Toll Booths.

[Dormouse]

Bizarrely, if you order booze on Amazon, it is at English prices delivered to your door. Don't tell the Scottish Government. They couldn't stand the effort to figure that one out!!!!

[Dormouse]

Hope you didn't exceed your duty free allowance

Working on the cost / benefit ratio of hiring a big van next time.

[Dormouse]

And they wonder why Morrisons in Berwick and Carlisle have so many Scottish customers!

It would almost be worth your while to go from Inverness to Carlisle to do your big New Year shopping.

The fuel for the return trip would be cheaper too. How many fuel cans are you allowed to fill?