Food fromour region

FOOD FROM OuR REGION

For produce that is fresh and local, the West Highlands is the place to be. Here, you can enjoy just-caught game and seafood, locally brewed ales and single malt whiskies, Highland beef and hill lamb and home baked treats – all a stone’s throw from source.

Why not dedicate a day to enjoying all that’s delicious? Begin by sampling a hearty Scottish breakfast – whether you choose a Stornoway black pudding (from the Isle of Lewis), porridge with seasonal fruits, Loch Fyne Kippers, or the Oban-originated square Lorne sausage. In the West Highlands the perfect setting can only enhance your eating experience, whether you head to a waterfall for a picnic – perhaps some Arran cheese and oatcakes – take your time over tea with fresh-from-the-oven scones at a lochside hotel, or savour dinner with a sea view. If you enjoy local fare in situ but don’t want the experience to end yet, there are plenty of specialist shops and home producers offering local delicacies to take away. The region hosts several farmers markets where you can enjoy a lively shopping experience and get hold of fresh local produce direct from the people who caught, farmed or created it. A Highland holiday takes you to the heart of whisky and gin country, and you can visit distilleries and craft breweries on the mainland and islands to sample the taste and hear the story of your tipple. If alcohol isn’t your thing, you can quench your thirst with local lemonade, from Dunoon, or delicious Wee Isle Dairy milk.

eating out

The natural resources of this area are the envy of chefs the world over, many of whom have chosen to make their homes here because of the richness of the natural larder.

The flagship restaurants of many of the region’s celebrated hotels offer signature dishes which add a new twist to quality ingredients. Fine dining, usually with spectacular views and a wine and whisky list to match, is an option in bigger towns, but you might be surprised to find remarkable restaurants in out of the way places as well. While traditional Scottish specialities retain a strong presence, the variety of visitors and the availability of fresh ingredients ensures a strong international influence. Dishes with a global theme appear on most menus and you will find speciality establishments, including French, Thai, Indian and Chinese too. The tea rooms and coffee shops of the West Highlands have a growing reputation mouth-watering snacks, meals and hot drinks in atmospheric settings (‘home baking’ here really is made by locals in their own homes – try cherry scones and millionaire shortbread for starters). Seafood is a particular speciality and it is a matter of pride for establishments that what appears on your plate was in the sea a matter of hours ago. Most chefs will be happy to share the precise provenance and you might even be lucky enough to look out of the window and watch the catch landed for yourself. Among the destinations where fish is a particular source of celebration, are Tarbert, Loch Fyne, home to the popular Tarbert Seafood Festival, and Cairndow, near Inveraray, where the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar chain began. Carradale, on Kintyre, and Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, are good places to watch a catch landed and see fishing woven into the fabric of a community.

Milk that’s hard to beat, from the only dairy farm on Gigha. Pasteurised the low temp batch method. Good old-fashioned drinking milk. T. 01583 505 033

Heritage Bakehouse is a story of success. It is a bakery and sourdough school combined. Try our bread, if you like it, you can learn to make it! We make sourdough bread for Oban, Mull and the surrounding area, providing shops and cafe’s with a variety of breads and sweet bakes. We also deliver to Oban Food Hub (Market) on Thursdays and have online ordering from our website and from GoNaked organic veg Ltd. All our flour is organic Scottish milled. We support the Real Bread Campaign and the concept of bread that is free of additives, pesticide and yeast. Each loaf is hand made and the recipe’s are created by baker Tracey Law. Each type of artisan flour is unique and requires understanding of how best to craft it. Some of our loaves are in tins and some as free form. Enriched sweet bakes include babka’s, buns and fruit loaves. We cater for vegan and wheat free. You can order for delivery to holiday homes around Oban, or see our website for shops who stock our bread. Our Sourdough School is open Fridays and weekends. To avoid disappointment, see our availability online. “I bought one of your loaves via Go Naked Veg. It’s to die for! Best bread ever. Cheers, Rebecca” heritagebakehouse.co.uk Just outside Tobermory on the Isle of Mull you will find The Island Bakery, renowned for their organic biscuits, shortbreads and other organic delectables that make their way from Mull to good retailers across the UK and abroad. The business, which began as a local shop on Tobermory’s colourful main street run by husband and wife team Joe and Dawn Reade, has since developed into a specialist and unique bakery. As well as using organic ingredients in everything they produce, they are also the world’s only biscuit producer to do all their baking in wood-fired ovens. Using locally grown renewable timber, this is not only a low-carbon source of energy, but gives a slow and gentle bake. This really is a unique bakery, with award-winning and renowned products. Island Bakery fans rave about their Lemon Melts, and rightly so! At the inaugural ‘Best of Organic Market’ Awards run by the Soil Association, they were voted the ‘Nations Favourite Organic Product’. They haven’t been resting on their laurels however …. In the last 12 months they have begun producing biscuits made with Isle of Mull Cheese, and award-winning new oatcakes made with olive oil. Find them in good retailers across the Highlands – and beyond! Also available to buy online at www.islandbakery.scot Charles Macleod Ltd is a family business that stretches back over seven decades, established by Charles Macleod in 1947. A traditional crofting kitchen staple, our award winning black, white and fruit puddings are cooked daily on the premises and shipped to customers across the UK. Multi award winning, including several Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Foods, our Stornoway Black Pudding is made with Scottish oatmeal to give a unique texture and the moist deep flavour is a result of high quality ingredients and fine balance of seasoning. Black puddings arrived in Britain with the various wave of invaders which perhaps accounts for the variation between regions. Stornoway Black Pudding is unique in that it uses only the following ingredients in order of quantity; beef suet, oatmeal, onion, blood, salt and pepper with the addition of water. Stornoway Black Pudding is intrinsically linked to the area’s tourism, frequently purchased by visitors as a souvenir or ‘taste of the islands’. There is world recognition of the brand and the link back to Stornoway as an area. There is also a strong diaspora of the population from the Western Isles that regularly holiday in the islands, known as “coming home”.

Wee Isle Dairy Tobermory Chocolate Love whisky? Download the new Cask & Still app

Wee Isle Dairy is based at Tarbert Farm on the northern end of Gigha. Since 2017 Emma Rennie Dennis and her family team have been pasteurising and bottling the farm’s milk, sending it out across Scotland in reuseable glass bottles. They only offer whole milk, as they state there is overwhelming evidence that the single biggest dietary cause of obesity is the consumption of lowfat milk. Whole milk satisfies both thirst and hunger, and by using the old fashioned approach to pasteurising, which involves heating the milk to 63˚C and holding it there for 30 minutes, the wonderful rich flavour of the milk is preserved.

Emma’s husband Don is the farm’s ice cream maker, and has been refining his recipes for the past 7 years. This dedication has paid off, as their ice cream recently won an award at the Specialty Food Show at the SEC. Offering 16 flavours, their ice cream is sold in shops and served in hotels in Argyll and beyond - even reaching Stornoway! Using the milk from their herd, and old-fashioned egg yolk as the emulsifier, they have gained a growing fanbase for their ice cream as well as for their milk. We have been making our own range of handmade chocolates here, in Tobermory since 1991. We have always sourced the best ingredients possible and introduce new flavours whenever we find something delicious that we feel needs sharing. Our all-time favourites are Rose and Violet creams, Mint selections, Milk and Dark chocolate truffles and Pralines. However, our range is extensive and very varied. I am sure that you would enjoy looking and sampling for yourself, either in the shop or online where we have boxes and tins filled with selections and seasonal gifts. Tobermory Chocolate is situated on the Main Street of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. If you are unable to visit the shop personally, fortunately, we have selections and a pick and mix section on our online shop. www.tobermorychocolate.com or telephone 01688 302526 Sadly, it is not possible to buy them anywhere else because we are too busy supplying our online customers as well as keeping up with demand in our own shop. If you manage over to Mull and visit Tobermory, please call in and say hello. Tobermory Chocolate shop is open all year round and we’re always happy to put together selections, special gifts and wee bags of chocolate shapes for special occasions.

WHISKY IN YOUR POCKETWHISKY IN YOUR POCKET

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Awards

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Be a part of the 2022 SCOTTISH FIELD WHISKY AWARDS AWARDS

JOIN PRESENTER FRED MACAULAY

HOSTING THIS YEAR’S AWARDS

28 OCTOBER 2022  6.30pm: Arrival for drinks reception  7.00pm: Awards with meal afterwards  Dress code: Lounge suits

SINGLE TICKET: £120

TABLES: £1,080 no booking fee

For tickets: email John Boyle at jboyle@scottishfi eld.co.uk or call 0131 551 7911

*You must be 18 or over to attend the event.

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