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Post by meganl on Jul 8, 2016 6:43:48 GMT
I have recently been posting on Orkney Favourite Recipes about memories linked to food the more I consider it the more I realise that food is like a fine thread that weaves its way through our memories.
Someone recently asked what Orkney folk like to eat in restaurants here is my reply. "When I was young ordinary folk did not dine out much, there were a few cafes, Peedie Charlie's(The Pomona owned by Charlie Celli), The Central (now Trenabies). The Atholl (where the Orcadian Bookshop is) had two parts, downstairs was Formica covered walls and tables, it opened early so folk would head there before going to work(there were not so many cars then so folk were very bus dependant and would come in on the early bus about seven in the morning even if they did not start work till nine because there were not that many busses). It also had an upstairs restaurant which was a little bit fancier and served lunch.
The community centre café was down St Magnus lane in those days and there were another two which if I remember correctly were either side of the community centre though I don't remember ever having been in them. The Cosy Café was to the right of the arch(where the Tankerness house museum is) and The St Magnus café to the left of the arch.
From this you can see that the older generation were more folk for plain fare, fry ups, mince and clapshot (potato and swede (rutabaga) in equal quantities mashed together). The hotels did have restaurants but they were mainly for visitors or for special occasions.
Even at home many Orcadians had a fairly simple tastes, soups, mince, stews, boiled fish, fried fish( usually herrings though sillocks (coal fish) were also common covered in oatmeal and fried wie a knob of butter and of course a hen. The hen usually an old one past laying(eggs were to important as a source of income) was usually boiled with a carrot and onion and maybe a few simple herbs, for visitors it may be taken out and browned in the oven while the stock was used to make a soup for the first course.
Pudding even when dining out was inclined to be simple things like clootie dumpling (I never did understand how two women could apparently follow the same recipe and one would produce a duff that was a delight to eat while the other was like carrying a cannonball around in yer belly for the rest of the day. They also liked ice cream and tinned fruit cocktail and fruit pie or crumble with cream or custard, ice cream being a relatively recent addition(Until most of the houses had electricity freezers were unknown)
Todays Orcadian however has a far wider taste in food with the influence of foreign holidays and the opening of new restaurants from different cultures."
What are your food memories?
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ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Jul 8, 2016 10:22:10 GMT
Megan, Thank you very much for sharing your memories with us. You are a delightful writer. Your wealth of knowledge, and your subtle humour combine to create pieces which are both very informative and a delight to read.
I look forward to reading about more of your memories and will try to add some of my own when my wee brain is less tired. It's past 3 a.m. here.
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Post by meganl on Jul 9, 2016 6:22:44 GMT
Now as everyone probably already knows Scotland is not known to be the driest place on earth. As a family however we always loved picnics and getting out in the fresh air, mind you sometimes it was so fresh nature hadn't yet removed the wrapper. In Rothsay they used to have shelters along the promenade and it wasn't unknown to see hardy Glaswegians sitting in the pouring rain enjoying a picnic. Back then a picnic for your average working class Glaswegian was some sandwiches made with two slices of plain loaf(this was a tight textured bread with hard crusts top and bottom) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_loaf. The sandwiches were not the fancy things folk eat nowadays butter and thick slices of Dunlop cheese or cheddar or some cold meat. The sandwiches would be wrapped in the greaseproof paper that had covered the loaf and a flask of tea. I remember wondering if everyone in Scotland had a flask. I have other picnic memories I will put on later when I get back from town.
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Post by meganl on Jul 13, 2016 11:59:16 GMT
Ok I was not in town that long it only felt like it.
Before a car came into our lives most picnics were in Balloch we would get up early dads old canvas rucksack would be packed with the paraffin stove, kettle, tin mugs while mums string bag had a box of sandwiches another of tomatoes and cheese a blanket and other things that had to be kept away from dad.
about seven o'clock in the morning we would head of to catch the bus into town and walk down to Queen street Low and board the train. If we were going on the Maid of the Loch we would stay on till the train reached the end of the pier. From there would board the wonderful old paddle steamer for a trip up the loch. I grew up thinking it was quite normal for people to carry musical instruments with them on a day out because there was always folk willing to play a tune or sing a song.
If we did the early boat trip we would get of the train on the way back when it reached Balloch station and head for the tearoom in Balloch castle or stop up the long walk through the grounds at the side of the loch to set a brew going. The primus stove had to be carefully nursed along since by the time of these picnics it was already a good 40 years old. One of my strangest memories from those days was the underwater boats. They did not start of that way but the first visit each season they would be there sitting serenely on the base of the loch. People kept house boats tied up to the thin strip of island near the town and every year some would sink in the winter gales and there they would sit till the owners came up and set about raising them to the surface once more.
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Post by sandrainsydney on Jul 13, 2016 13:09:50 GMT
lovely memories, Megan
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Post by meganl on Jul 15, 2016 13:46:33 GMT
About this time five years ago we had just returned from David's memorial service. My oldest niece had suggested to the others that we had a break so there was only the two of us at my house. It was a wonderfully sunny day so Lisa decided we would have a picnic on the lawn in front of the house. It was fairly simple salami, hummus, oatcakes, cheese, olives and a lovely drink we had discovered Cherry cordial mixed with American cream soda.
the only thing she had not taken into consideration was the gradient from the house down to the pavement(sidewalk), she sat with her back to the house and was fine but when I tried to sit facing her (never my most graceful manoeuvre) I went rolling of down the lawn and lay there laughing. I am so glad none of the neighbours were around to see it.
That evening John MacKenzie joined the rest of the family and a few close friends for the drive up to the Merkister hotel a lovely building on the edge of the loch. There beside the boathouse we scattered David's ashes while Lisa read a poem I had written for the love of my life. The evening was as warm and sunny as the day had been as we stood saying our personal farewells and watching the sun begin the dip behind the hills of Hoy.
It may sound strange to say but we had a lovely evening fine food in the hotel which had been the background to so many anniversary and birthday dinners with lovely company sharing stories and laughter about the things ma Beuy had got up to in his life.
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Jul 15, 2016 16:08:18 GMT
I remember, and I'm grateful for your descriptions then and now... I so wanted to be there.
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Post by meganl on Jul 17, 2016 11:52:07 GMT
By the time a car came into our life the family picnic changed. Theo had married and although he left home he lived relatively close so he would drive over many weekends to take us for a run. In the early 70's he moved to a new house and the gentleman across the close was quickly adopted into the family(He eventually played the role of David's father at our wedding since his dad had passed away just shortly before we met)
We now had two cars at our disposal and the picnic grew proportionally in fact it grew so large it was almost vying with Mrs Beaton's effort. Our favourite place for the grand Easter picnic was the David Marshall Lodge, a visitors centre in the Queen Elizabeth Forest park near Aberfoyle.
There was not much there in those days a large room with interpretation boards around the walls and some picnic tables outside. We would head of wrapped up like Scott of the Antarctic some years(Easter in Scotland is not the warmest of weather but we are a hardy bunch)
On arrival dad would find a safe place and get the primus fired up for tea while we helped mum set up. First was the Irish linen table cloth mum had adapted it by sewing a lead weight tape around the hem then the bone china plates and side plates were added finishing up with the glassware and the cutlery.
If it was cold she would have dad heating a pan of soup which she did concede to using mugs for to keep hands warm. we would then settle for the main picnic a roast silverside of beef Pearl's sticky chicken drumsticks and usually a cold pie of some sort, boiled eggs lettuce tomatoes(always Vandyked) Cheddar or Dunlop cheese and of course a caboc cheese(peculiarly Scottish). There were always bowls of salad including potato and bacon learned from a German lady, a rice salad with grated carrot, fresh orange juice and sultanas and any others we thought to make. These would also be laid out with dishes of pickled beetroot, sweet corn and branston pickle.
When we finished that feast there would be jelly and fruit made in Tupperware jelletes the cream came in a separate Tupperware jug and usually a black forest gateau with tea and coffee.
I guess you could take the girl out of private service but not the training out of the girl it explains why dad spent the next two hours dragging us around the forest paths.
P.S. one little aside to this memory was one year we set of and made a stop at Callander a lovely little town to stretch our legs. Mum had Shep our Shetland collie and told him to sit and stay as we waited for the lights to change to go back to where the cars were packed. There were a lot of folk about so when the lights changed we got caught up in the rush to cross and piled into the cars to set of for the lodge. It was not until we decamped from both cars that we discovered that contrary to what we each thought Shep was not in the other car. the boot was emptied and Theo and I drove back down the very windy road to Callander (I wont say what speed he made but I am sure we straightened out more than a few corners) When we arrived we dashed out of the car park wondering where we would begin to start looking only to see Shep sitting at the pedestrian crossing waiting for one of us to tell him to come. A lady from the shop beside the crossing said they had tried to get him to go with them but he point blank refused they were not his people.
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Post by sandrainsydney on Jul 17, 2016 14:38:41 GMT
Megan, I'm enjoying your memories, keep dredging them up!
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Post by meganl on Jul 19, 2016 10:08:38 GMT
Sometimes the simplest picnics are the happiest. Two years ago I was stony broke on my birthday, I was looking forward to a lonely day at home. At about ten am I got a text message from a friend it simply said "Pick me up in an hour."
When she came out of her house I enquired where she wanted to go, if she had an appointment somewhere. She said she just wanted to get out of the house for a bit so we set of for a drive round the west mainland. since we couldn't afford to stop for tea anywhere we skipped past Skara Brae and went to a little road on the opposite side of the bay where we could sit for a while.
She got out of the car and walked about while she had a smoke then instead of getting back in she grabbed her large bag and from it ,like Mary Poppins began pulling things. First came a flask followed by a couple of plates and cups along with a flask teabags and a small bottle of milk. Then she delved again and came up with two bags each had two rolls one with boiled egg the other with cheese, there quickly followed a small bowl of salad from her garden. Finally she handed me a small sandwich bag I opened it and began to cry for there nestled inside she had spent her oldest sons dinner money(sending him of to school with sandwiches) to buy me two partan taes(crab claws) a great delicacy in Orkney.
We ate our picnic enjoying the sunshine and fresh air(for the air on Orkney is always fresh, sometimes a lot fresher than others in a gale.)Something so simple yet it changed a lonely birthday into a super day out with a friend such a great birthday present.
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Post by sandrainsydney on Jul 19, 2016 23:24:07 GMT
simple pleasures
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Post by meganl on Jul 20, 2016 14:30:52 GMT
Moving away from picnics today, we have had thunder and lightening this morning so definitely a day for indoor pleasures. As I have mentioned before Mum was in private service and got a taste for the finer things in life and so it was I grew up knowing the pleasure of the afternoon tea.
Even when I was young Glasgow had a fair number of tearooms where ladies would meet with friends to chat and enjoy this delicate feast. It was of course past its heyday when people like Miss Cranston could afford to hire some of the top architects to design their tearooms from the foundations to the teaspoons. Most people nowadays have heard of Charles Rennie MacKintosh who designed and fitted out her final venture the Willow Tearooms.
Kate Cranston in her tearooms had a room for gentlemen and a room for ladies a practice which would be roundly condemned these days yet for their time was something of a revolution on behalf of what was considered the weaker sex. In a time when ladies were kept under the supervision of their fathers or husbands her ladies only rooms allowed no intrusion by men indeed the scones and other treats were on side tables and a discrete notice asked the patrons to remember what they had consumed. For perhaps the first time in their lives woman could meet with their friends without feeling constrained and spied upon.
My favourite tearoom however was a small place in the Victorian Market Inverness. After I married we used to go regularly to Inverness for meetings, since getting of the island always involved at the very least an overnight stay. On our free day we would wander round the small shops within what had been a Victorian shopping arcade. We always stopped at The same tearooms for afternoon tea. It was a tiny place so we would often end up having our afternoon tea sitting at a properly laid table outside the shop under the glass roof of the arcade, it always made me think of those elegant ladies who went out to places like Egypt to see the excavations and insisted on having a proper afternoon tea
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Post by sandrainsydney on Jul 20, 2016 23:25:10 GMT
Willow Tearooms still going strong! I remember them from Art history classes Megan, thanks for gathering & posting your childhood memories. (why is it I type fro instead of for, & inevitably from when I mean form & form when I mean from? One Of Life's Little Mysteries!!)
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Post by meganl on Jul 21, 2016 5:12:27 GMT
It is in deed a mystery Sandra like the way the becomes hte when I am tired
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maeve
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Posts: 1,154
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Post by maeve on Jul 21, 2016 22:29:54 GMT
I'm enjoying this thread, though too tired to make a proper contribution!
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