Monthly Archives: June 2022

Scones, Uncategorized

Platinum Jubilee

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Don’t think you could ever call us Royalists. That system of privilege and patronage seems better suited to a bygone era and totally at odds with modern day life. Odd as it may seem, we have actually met most of the Royal family (all except Andrew … phew!) and they all seem like really nice people. We’re pretty sure they do not want to spend their lives under the microscope of public and media scrutiny so why oh why are we allowed to do it to them? The fact that the Queen is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee is, of course, a personal triumph for her but given that all other news has apparently been cancelled we’re glad it only happens once every seventy years.

We’ll do anything!

Not wanting to appear too curmudgeonly, however, we ordered a Platinum Jubilee box from Haar At Home in St Andrews. Haar is a restaurant run by Masterchef Finalist, Dean Banks and we use it from time to time. You order it online and then it just appears at the door. It’s a kind of magic! The box had all sorts of stuff – smoked trout, a variety of cheeses, olives, chutney, pickle salad, chorizo, cheese and leek bread, caviar  … and, wait for it, scones with jam and clotted cream. Okay, okay, it’s pathetic, we’ll do anything for a scone.

There was far too much just for just the two of us so we had the pleasure of the company of our Trossachs correspondents to help us out. They did an excellent job though the meal was not without its difficulties. Do any of you have problems accessing your caviar? We did! caviar from Haar for the Platinum JubileeTry as we might we simply could not open the tin … imagine, so near yet so far. It became hilarious as the four of us came up with ever more incredulous ways of tackling it. Eventually the answer was to go to the garage and get a set of grips. The tin had to become pretty mangled before the top reluctantly popped off. Was it worth all the effort? Yes, everything was lovely and well worth the platinum amount of money we paid for it.

Uncategorised

Anyway we know that none of you are actually interested in our caviar traumas … just scones, right? scones for the Platinum JubileeWell, they came with a generous tub of strawberry gin jam (I wasn’t driving) and another of clotted cream. The scones were really nice but a little on the big side for our taste. The chances of Charles being on the throne for seventy years are slim to say the least so none of you will ever get to sample a Platinum Jubilee scone ever again. Devastating, we know! In these circumstances we didn’t think it appropriate to categorise them. Good fun though!

meal from Haar for the Platinum Jubilee
In case you are wondering, this is what our Platinum meal looked like

What comes after Platinum?

Ordinary, Scones

Caffe Barista

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I regard Angus as my home county having spent my early childhood in Glen Isla. These days, however, I am only in Angus on rare occasions. That said, here we are today in Caffe Barista in Arbroath. Many a summer holiday was spent here in the caravan park but today we are just passing through.

Declarations

The town is well known for its smoked haddock … the famous Arbroath Smokie. Wonderful on its own in much the same way as you would eat a kipper or alternatively it could be used to make that soup of all soups, Cullen Skink … yum. Arbroath, of course, is also a great place to declare things. In 1320, in Arbroath Abbey, a group of Scottish nobles did just that.

The Declaration of Arbroath
Declaration of Arbroath ritten in Latin and sent to the Pope. They knew how to declare things back then

The intention was to assert Scotland’s status as an independent, sovereign state and defend Scotland’s right to use military action when unjustly attacked. Oooo, do we hear echoes of Ukraine?

Little did they know that a few hundred years later, in 1707, Scotland’s nobles would sell the country down the river in return for English bribes. Heyho, here we are, another couple of centuries on, still struggling to reverse that ludicrous decision.Internal view of Caffe Barista, Arbroath

Guys and Dolls

In Caffe Barista the declarations were of a different type “Hi guys, how are you today? What are you having guys? Was everything okay guys?” Pat, more of a doll than a guy, weathered the onslaught manfully! We just wanted a cuppa and a scone to share. The choice was plain, plain or plain, so plain it was!

It came with butter and jam from somewhere that couldn’t be determined. A scone at Caffe Barista, ArbroathThis being Angus, it was ironic that we had just driven through mile after mile of strawberry and raspberry fields and yet the jam here came prepackaged in plastic, probably from some foreign land. The scone itself was reasonable enough but a country mile away from a topscone. We left suitable refreshed with “Bye guys” ringing in our ears.

blackboard at Caffe Barista, Arbroath
A rare opportunity to combine scones and telephone boxes
Bailing out

It is also ironic, given that in 2014 we were told there was only a dribble of oil left, that the UK government is yet again being bailed out by Scotland. It’s late conversion to a windfall tax on energy companies will raise billions, 95% of which will come from Scotland. Things have got so bad for Boris we wouldn’t be at all surprised if, one day, he simply walked away. However, he could also be developing a Putinesque inability to foresee his own inevitable downfall. The latter is perhaps the most likely.

World records

We cannot leave Arbroath without mentioning the world record held by the local football club, affectionately known as the Red Lichties. In the Scottish Cup of 1885 they beat Bon Accord of Aberdeen 36-0. They had a further seven goals disallowed for offside. Of course that means that Bon Accord must also hold a world record but nobody seems to mention that?

Anyway must get back home and start planning our Platinum Jubilee celebrations??

DD11 1DP        tel: 01241 872664        Caffe Barista

///taken.voter.transit