For those of  a delicate  disposition and for those who might believe some or indeed anything on allaboutthescones, let us assure you that the dragon in the title picture isn’t real. It’s real only in the sense that it does exist. It lives round at the back after having been adopted by the owners of the Soup Dragon café. They adopted it after a festival where it had been destined for the scrap heap. The title picture is merely a confection from the writer’s rather over active imagination. So where are we?

Our kind of place

Ironically, after saying in our previous post that we had never been to Balfron we are back again. At Tír na nÓg,  a holistic healing centre to be precise. In Celtic folklore it is described as an island paradise of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy. Sounds precisely like our kind of place.  All a bit weird but rather wonderful at the same time.

Our Trossachs correspondents had brought us to Tír na nÓg but, of course it was the Soup Dragon Café that was the main attraction. There’s loads of other things here – treatment and consultation rooms, a couple of shops as well as an animal sanctuary and enchanted forest walks.

Wishing and hoping

In the courtyard they have a Wishing Tree. We all selected a ribbon to tie to it. The ribbons all meant different things according to the colour. Pat chose blue which represents ‘spirituality, tranquility and peace‘. I thought I should have green ‘prosperity, abundance, healing and luck‘ but there were no green ones left. Orange stood for ‘creativity, self-expression, joy and vitality‘ but none of them left either … argh! I was taking so long choosing, the lady behind the counter eventually leaned over and said “it doesn’t matter which colour you choose, just make up whatever you like“. Thoroughly deflated I chose blue … same as Pat.

Having tied our ribbons and made our wishes we headed for the café to wait for them to come true. It’s quite a big place and there are tables outside in the courtyard as well. The young girl looking after us was a delight. She brought water for the table without us even asking. This being the Soup Dragon, we thought some soup would be appropriate. She said they were famous for their spicy lentil so that’s what we all had. Accompanied by home baked bread it was delicious. We were really beginning to warm to this place. 

Unanimous

Eventually, after some other stuff to eat, it was the turn of the scones. Pat and I were sharing one between us because the soup and lunch had been quite substantial. Our friends were doing the same. The scones came with nice little pots of jam and cream as well as a wee plastic pot of Danish butter. It would have been nice if the butter had been Scottish but heyho! When you look at all the kiddies starving in Afghanistan we should just be counting our blessings rather than moaning about trifles like butter. The scones were still warm from the oven and tasted wonderful. Just the right consistency and with that slight crunch that we like. A unanimous topscone, well done the Soup Dragon Café.

Curiosity

Meanwhile the café had filled up and the courtyard tables were also taken. Our girl turned out to be the only person there other than the chef. She was coping fantastically well. Earlier I had noticed a rather enticing cake which was labelled “snickerdoodle”. Curiosity sparked, I asked what it was. She explained that it had been made earlier by the chef but that she had completed it with the butter icing. It had to be done. We ordered one slice and four forks.

Then the problem was that two of us had almost finished our coffees but neither wanted another full cup in spite of it being Henry’s, our favourite. We asked for an Americano to share. No problem. However, rather than having us messing around trying to split a coffee she appeared with two small cups, brilliant. We have had some grim waitressing experiences recently so it really was an absolute pleasure to be served by this girl. The snickerdoodle cake was nice but although the icing was expertly done it was a little on the sweet side for our taste. Curiosity satisfied though!

Eternal youth

Gosh, the Prime Minister of Finland may have to resign because she has been photographed dancing. They really need to try a bit of British politics if they want to know what serious partying is all about. Wouldn’t it be great if the world was a bit more Tír na nÓgish and the people were more like the girl at the Soup Dragon. Not sure how much faith we can place in all this candles and crystals stuff but suffice to say that by the time we were leaving Tír na nÓg we did feel a lot more joyous than when we went in. Not sure about the eternal youth … we’ll let you know.

G63 0NF               tel: 01360 440756.                 Dragon Cafe

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