“The best thing I ever ate in Edinburgh”, one of my students said to me. Well, I presume this depends on your preferences but the truth is lots of tourists want to taste the famous Scottish breakfast and its “haggis” as soon as they set foot in Scotland.
But what is haggis? If you are a vegetarian you may want to skip to the next paragraph. This popular Scottish dish was traditionally cooked in a sheep’s stomach as this was the historic way of preserving meat. Nowadays haggis is cooked in a synthetic sausage casing and it’s made of the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep or lamb and well-combined with oats, suet, herbs, spices and salt.
If you are still reading, let me tell you that you can easily find the veggie option in many cafès in Edinburgh and around Scotland. In fact, this is the version I tried and it was very tasty. The vegetarian version it’s packed with oatmeal, lentils, nuts, kidney beans, onions and spices.
While in Scotland we headed to the Cafè Class (Home Street, 7) which had been suggested to me by several people in Instagram. This cute little place, based at the West End neighborhood, just counts with a few tables and has a lovely atmosphere. We sat at a table near the window and we ordered our full Scottish breakfasts: one traditional and another veggie. They also served us some toasted bread with butter, water with mint leaves inside (something very typical, by the way) and ordered a pot of tea as well as coffee.
Everything was freshly prepared, portions were substantial and the staff was super friendly. I promise you will go out full from there!
If you are planning to visit Edinburgh you cannot miss this place.
CURIOUS FACTS
Haggis comes in different colours, ranging from light brown to almost black, depending on proportion of ingredients.
You can find haggis-flavoured crisps and chocolate in Scotland. Haggis ice cream is also an option!
Photography: Carlota Fariña
Instagram: #lotainscotland
