Fried Scotch, or, If you thought the food was bad in London. . . .
 

. . . enjoy this epicurean essay from the <i>International Herald Tribune</i>
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/07/news/scot.html

Well, that's rather a silly article and just intended to make people say &quot;yuk&quot;, see the descriptions of haggis and black pudding.
I suppose that some Scots don't eat very healthily, but many do. In fact, fish and chips is a much healthier meal than many other forms of fast food. The fish will be a real piece of fish, not reconstituted. The chips are the chunky type and have far less fat that thin &quot;french fries&quot;.
Incidentally, I have been visiting London for years and have never had a really bad meal.
Can't we give these tired cliches a rest?
I am English and over 60. I have all my own (white straight) teeth and don't wear floral prints in the summer.

I don't think the authors intended it as a 'silly article just intended to make people say yuk'. If it was as flippant as Sylvia suggests then they might have coined 'fried dog turd' and kept the article to 1 sentence. It is actually based on fact and on statistics and seems reasonably impartial to me. Overall, Scotland has been and is the sick man of Europe FACT. A lot of chippies in Scotland do serve fried pizza FACT. The amount of fat in a fried pizza is extremely injurious to health FACT. People in Scotland smoke more cigarettes per capita than elsewhere in the UK FACT. Although I don't understand the original poster's motives to rubbish a reasonable researched and accurate newspaper article is criminal.

Yes, Glasgow is one of the unhealthiest places in the UK and in Western Europe; in fact, as the article says, &quot;Its obesity rates are fast approaching those in the United States&quot; :-)

Fact :Glasgow has the best restaurants in the UK outside London.
Fact : fried mars bars have never been sold there.Mebbe other cities, not Glasgow.
Fact : Most journalists are lazy and useless.Hence the article.

Must be all the clean living, abstention from alcohol, stress free lives and exercise which are causing soaring rates of obesity. I always thought the experts had it wrong. In the article you'll see that they interview a number of health officials at grass roots. That isn't lazy. Just because Glasgow has good restaurants doesn't mean the majority of the population are eating there. In fact the people who suffer from poor diet because of poverty are very unlikely to eat there. I suggest you actually READ the article.

Will they super-size my fried pizza with chips?

Hmm. According to the BBC news website earlier this year, Glasgow ranked 12th in the table of Britain's *leanest* cities, and Edinburgh was 16th. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3521551.stm

Oh, and just for the record, I used to get fried pizza every once in a while (tastes a bit like fried bread and probably doesn't have much more fat than a couple of croissants) and it's *never* coated in batter (not in Edinburgh, at least).

Same article in NYTimes yesterday (12-7-04) www.nytimes.com. Times recently bought out half of Wash Post in Her-Trib and more and more articles appear in both. The key point of the article that in spite of deep fried pizza and Mars bars, the cardiac-problem rate is only BEGINNING to approach that of the US!

Bad is not a good adjective to apply to food. Food tastes and preferences are varied. Adults usually prefer cooking and foods that there mother supplied. Many foreign foods are rejected or judged by their name. USA military breakfasr often included chipped beef in gravy on toast. Mant named it, S..t on a shingle. Appetizing? Poles enjoy, Flaki Soup. Main ingredient is intestines of cow. So figure? A starving man will relish a leather sole! A gourmet (?) wants a brown shelled and white shelled egg. Local foods are often not familiar to visitors. Be adventurous, try a little of everything.

I posted this because:

- Many of you are interested in food as you travel. It is one of my primary delights also.

- London has horrible food.

- It reminded me of the greasy breakfast in my upscale Edinburgh hotel, the only city I've visited in Scotland. I also had a nice dinner in a restaurant up near the castle. The name of the place had something to do with witches.

Take the artcle as you will.

This is one informitive post on food in London where some of the best rated restaurants are.

Yes, London has horrible food, as does everywhere else. It also has great food, as do most places. In my experience, most of the horrible food is aimed at tourists &amp; locals would never eat it - e.g. Aberdeen Steakhouses &amp; so-called pizza from stalls around Leicester Square &amp; Piccadilly Circus. I imagine this is the case in many places.

The Witchery is a tourist trap but its food is OK - but not the best in Edinburgh.

Gsteed, I strongly dispute your claim that &quot;Adults usually prefer cooking and foods that there mother supplied&quot;. In the UK, at least, what most people eat has changed out of all recognition in the last three decades. I rarely eat anything I ate when I was growing up.

PalQ:

The article, while clearly written by a journalist expecting an audience of food illiterates, wasn't ill-informed enough to claim Scotland was approaching America's cardiac problems.

Scotland's problem of heart disease is far, far, worse than America's, with heart-related death rates getting on twice the US level (and, I understand, declining more slowly). The article claimed that obesity (one, but by no means the most important, factor in heart problems) is approaching American rates.

Nonetheless any journalist who speaks ill of black pudding or innard sausage (hasn't she ever heard of andouillettes?) clearly can't be trusted when it comes to food. Doubtless the kind of person who thinks croissants are healthier than real bread.

Well, that heading is a challenge isn't it?
The only way I can think of to fry Scotch is to adapt the recipe for deep fried mars bar at http://yumfood.net/recipes/deepfriedmars.html

The recipe suggests that you can cut the mars bar into small pieces.
Instead of bits of mars bar substitute chocolate liqueurs with whisky fillings and Bobs your uncle.
I am away to apply for the patent for Fried Scotch ;-)