Mais où sont les bannocks d'antan?
May. 23rd, 2018 04:33 pmDavid at the Creel takes a justified pride in his breakfasts, but this morning's was exceptional - and not just because we were honoured with inspection by the cat. The first course was crème de marrons de l'Ardèche topped with crème fraîche - not something I think of as a breakfast dish, but which I could happily eat at any hour of day or night (I feel about marrons the way some people feel about chocolate...). This was followed by bubble and squeak flambéed in Laphroig - a mixture of green vegetables ("Not leftovers!" David was very firm about this, though I have no problem with leftovers, especially if they can be induced to bubble and to squeak), sautéed potatoes and bacon. The bread, William told us, came from Westray. It was perfectly good granary sliced, but apparently special because bread from Westray only comes to Mainland once a week.
By now I had been in Orkney 36 hours, and not once been offered a bere bannock. I was beginning to wonder why, and this seemed an opportunity to ask. William seemed surprised: evidently he doesn't think of bannocks as central to Orcadian produce, but he thought that there was still one baker making them, at Harray. I've always bought them from Argo's bakery in Stromness, but this meant nothing to him.
It turns out that Argo's now have a branch in Kirkwall, where I bought one bere-meal and one wheaten bannock as part of our supplies for our self-catering stay on Rousay. Also a pair of runic socks from Judith Glue. And![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
durham_rambler picked up a copy of the Folk Festival programme, and is trying to work out whether we can get to anything on Sunday, when we return to Mainland. Then we drove round to Tingwall, for the Rousay ferry.
While we waited, we checked the internet for directions to our cottage: 41 minutes, it told us, "mainly flat." I'm trying to upload the picture which shows why we found this so funny, but the internet is having one of its funny spells, so perhaps I'd better not wait, but try instead to see whether I can upload this.
ETA to illustrate what's funny about that "mainly flat":
By now I had been in Orkney 36 hours, and not once been offered a bere bannock. I was beginning to wonder why, and this seemed an opportunity to ask. William seemed surprised: evidently he doesn't think of bannocks as central to Orcadian produce, but he thought that there was still one baker making them, at Harray. I've always bought them from Argo's bakery in Stromness, but this meant nothing to him.
It turns out that Argo's now have a branch in Kirkwall, where I bought one bere-meal and one wheaten bannock as part of our supplies for our self-catering stay on Rousay. Also a pair of runic socks from Judith Glue. And
durham_rambler picked up a copy of the Folk Festival programme, and is trying to work out whether we can get to anything on Sunday, when we return to Mainland. Then we drove round to Tingwall, for the Rousay ferry.While we waited, we checked the internet for directions to our cottage: 41 minutes, it told us, "mainly flat." I'm trying to upload the picture which shows why we found this so funny, but the internet is having one of its funny spells, so perhaps I'd better not wait, but try instead to see whether I can upload this.
ETA to illustrate what's funny about that "mainly flat":
