Scottish Food, and I don't mean McDonald's

I've got a request for "More Scotland, while it's still fresh!" but there are a host of other things going on too, which I'll try to capture in a logical and pleasingly readable fashion.
First, an installment of food-related pictures from the Scotland trip.

Here is the first place in Edinburgh I plunked down for something to eat- it took a lot of thought. I would have been ill-equipped to make the decision had I not spent all morning wandering up and around Calton Hill's fresh air. It was a quite respectable pub-looking place that turned out to be a cut above: The Conan Doyle. This is their Cullen Skink.
No, it doesn't involve skunk like it sounds, skink is a word for a style of soup, and this one came from a place called Cullen. Simple enough, right?
Amaaaaazing. Smoked haddock, potatoes, and onions, a creamy soup but not over-heavy like some chowders here in the States can be. Mmmmmm, next time I get my hands on some smoked Finnan haddie (haddock), watch out!

 

This was the smoked halloumi salad I got to go with, which was unnecessary because 1) I was full and 2) the smoked halloumi cheese was the only worthwhile part. Oh well. Win one, lose one.

 Breakfast setting at the B&B in Edinburgh- pretty glassware can make a big difference. Who knew? (Well, I guess Stewarts are an ancient clan...)

 Breakfast surroundings at the B&B in Edinburgh. That is, I believe, one of the reputed Aga stoves? Or am I completely wrong? It looks like I'm wrong by the Google images, but it did look exactly like the stove in the one-room hovel (a 'single-end') exhibited in the The People's Palace (in Glasgow).

And just in case we were wondering, this is the state of beef in Scotland:

 Moving on quickly now to safer topics...
this is a Bedfordshire Clanger: meat pasty with 3/4 mincemeat/ savory filling and 1/4 marmelade/ sweet filling. Too good not to give it a go, right? Definitely the most interesting thing on the menu here at The Dogs in Edinburgh, although in practice it was very heavy and I didn't get half through it. Cool decor, though. This is a huge mural behind the bar just visible in the mirror.

Other updates:

• I took the recommendation of Heidi of 101 Cookbooks and used the Magic Sauce with scrambled eggs this evening for a light dinner. It didn't look too hot, but it tasted good.
• The Lemon Rosemary Zucchini bread? First loaf tasted great, but second had disturbing pockets of what I can only call acridness. A lump of something like sand in texture, but tasting like... well, the word pustule came to mind. Rather than risk other coworkers besides Catherine and me experiencing this, I threw the rest of the second loaf out. If I was a superstitious person, I would be spitting up a storm here to ward away the bad luck. Yeuch.
• Cooking adventures at home since Scotland, including my own Millionaire Shortbread, a rice FAIL, treats at the work retreat, my first ever, of-any-kind, kugel, and a girls' night out for a 7-course meal at Thai X-ing in DC, which was absolutely heavenly.
• Oh yeah, and a solo road trip from Philadelphia through upstate New York to Vermont and back to DC. That was pretty awesome too. :-)
• All this... and more! Coming soon...