#insert witty edinburgh pun here

[tauers-go-dutch]

*Edinburgh Pun Here

Mariah and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on May 25.  Last year, I took her to Nice, which is a lovely city set majestically on the coast of southern France.  But I think five years is much more of a milestone, one that deserves something a bit more grand, a bit more thoughtful, a bit more unique.  So I booked us tickets to the Edinburgh Beer Fest!

Ok, ok, it wasn’t really like that.  Yes, I legitimately planned to go to a beer fest on our anniversary weekend.  But really we booked several other items on this trip, and on the trips to come in the following weeks, to celebrate our special occasion.  In fact, the first thing that we did upon arriving in the city was to go to Dishoom, an elegant Indian restaurant that we first fell in love with in London.  We splurged with cocktails, fried okra, pau bhaji (mashed veggie curry paste), classic mattar paneer, chana chaat salad, and a lamb dish that was the special for the Edinburgh location.  This was a truly great meal and a great start to our anniversary.  We strolled through the city a bit, and then enjoyed cocktails in a truly hidden speakeasy called the Bramble Bar.  If we hadn’t had to sit next to the speakers, we might have stayed a bit longer.  No matter- we enjoyed our evening regardless, as we managed to find a little beer bar near our hotel called Salt Horse. They had some great stuff on tap due to the beer fest, but I would bet the list is aces every other day of the year as well.

Cheers to five year!

After sleeping in, we grabbed a late coffee and pastry at a local coffee shop called Fortitude. It is a tiny place, but the coffee is superb and the pastries are fantastic.  I had a cinnamon roll with a cream cheese frosting.  We tried not to eat too much, as I also booked a food tour for the afternoon.  Our guide was actually also the company owner, which was pretty cool.  She was a food writer who is originally from Edinburgh, but worked in London and Hong Kong for years before returning to start this company.  There was only one other person on the tour- a sommelier from Portugal.  The sommelier was nice enough, but she was a little… off. Its ok, as we still got to enjoy veggie haggis.  It’s actually pretty easy to find the veggie alternative to the traditional dish throughout Edinburgh.  Ours was fried as a bar snack, which is not uncommon in the city for both traditional and veggie haggis. The veggie haggis is typical a combo of carrots, onions, mushrooms (don’t tell Mariah!), lentils, oats, and nuts (ie, hazelnut), all mixed with traditional spices.  It was good! Also on the tour, we ate ridiculous amounts of cheese, including the strongest blue cheese I’ve ever had, from the famous IJ Mellis, amazing chocolate from Coco Chocolatier, tea and scones from a small tea house, and peaty Islay whisky at a bar called Pickles. Overall, it was a good outing.

Veggie haggis

So. Much. Cheese. 

Trying the local fishmonger’s smoked salmon

Afternoon scones

Topping off the tour with a whisky

After the food tour, we went over to the beer fest… well, I may have stopped for a quick pre-game beer first! The fest was held in an old biscuit (meaning cookie if you’re American) factory.  There were breweries pouring beer on three levels, with food stands outside and some sweet swag for sale in the annex.  Breweries big and small were pouring, most from the UK.  We started with the Wild Beer Co, but we found a ton of other little gems, such as Buried in Strawberries (strawberry Flanders red) from the Hanging Bat Brew Co, Woodland Creatures (pistachio and honeycomb milk stout) from Left Handed Giant, or the nicely referenced Not Your Buddy, Guy (Canadian maple breakfast stout) from the local Stewart Brewery.  The food was great as well.  I had a Korean fried chicken sandwich (yum!), some gyozas (yum!), and wood fired pizza (yum!).  We also bought some shirts and a hat!  It was a great night.

She’s excited about the wood fired pizza coming her way

By now, dear reader, you should guess that we started the next day with brunch.  Mariah and I stuck to our strengths.  Acai bowl for Mariah, and eggs Benny for me.  Delicious. We walked over to the Stockbridge Market. Great food… Mariah had more gyozas, which were a knockout.  I was able to hunt down my first classic Scottish egg.  It was ok.  If I could have fit any more food in my belly, I would had some of the amazing pulled pork, though we did get to try a homemade marshmellow.  We walked around the city a bit, looking for classic tea cups. We also stopped by a few tea shops, picking up more tea to bring back stateside.  I admit, I picked a few for myself.  

Edinburgh Castle

Intensely eating her gyoza

My Scottish egg

Giving Greyfriars Bobby a rub for luck

The River Liffey

Mariah had also booked high tea at the Dome, which is a restaurant, bar and tea room in an old bank that had an ornate - wait for it – dome – in the lobby. It actually was really cool, and the tea was tops.  Really, I just judge high tea on the scones, and these ones were fantastic (Mariah even gave me one of hers).  We walked around for a bit more, taking in some beautiful views.  Our flight was a bit later this time around, so we actually still had time to have dinner.  We went to a local bar called Holyrood 9A, which specialized in burgers.  This was perhaps the best sit down burger I’ve had in Europe.  Seriously, I’d be there every week if I lived in Edinburgh (not a bad prospect).  I also had my first real haggis.  Actually pretty good, like black pudding.

I was really looking forward to going to back to Edinburgh.  Without the strain of moving and adjusting to a new time zone (and continent), as well as developing our own style of travel, we were able to do Edinburgh justice the second go around.  It’s a great city with lots of personality.  I can’t wait to get back to Scotland, and start exploring the harder to reach spots around the country!

Arthur’s Seat - we checked that hike off our bucket list the first go 

Tot ziens!