Fullerton Arms, Ballintoy 02-2019

After watching the sun setting around (unfortunately it isn't over) Giant's Causeway, the last dinner was tossed up between Fullerton Arms and Tartine at the Distillers Arms. Both menus sounds nice, but Fullerton won because it had local mussels, a fireplace and a local pub feel to it.

It was a quiet evening and the roaring fireplace set a lovely scenery (although maybe too hot to sit at that table). The TV above distracted a little by showing The Simpsons and then wacky YouTube video TV. But it's only minor. There's a Game of Thrones door in homage to the mother of dragons, and an Iron Throne to sit on in the next room also. An older couple from near Belfast engaged us in next-table conversation and were very friendly.

In true Irish pub meal style, the meal sizes were very large. I was disappointed they didn't have any local cider. They told me all were local, and the one I got was from Cork. Sorry, that's not local. The staff also weren't ones to give out smiles at all.

- Strangford mussels Jawbox (Jawbox Belfast gin, ginger, coconut cream) £8.95 for small - the mussels themselves weren't special. The flavour was ok but they were just too small in terms of meat. However the sauce was delectable almost curry-like and worked nicely with the surprisingly sweet wheaten bread it was served with (cooked with sugar or honey probably);
- Steak & stout casserole (puff pastry lid, french style peas) £10.95 - the puff pastry was ok, soft underneath and crisp on top, adequate without being great. But underneath the chunky steak pieces (with variable tenderness) soaked in a warming stew with the dark beer flavour coming through. Really excellent traditional cuisine I was looking for;
- Side of rocket & pine nut salad (free with the main casserole) - an excellent fresh large salad topped with generous amounts of goat's cheese.

I'd come back to try the Guiness pork belly ribs and the seafood chowder. They use a lot of local produce. They also gave me 20% off the food for no good reason - "just because we are nice" they said. Just wonderful overall.

Harry's Shack, Portstewart 02-2019

Harry's Shack is located along the beach in Portstewart. It's a drive away from town which means I suppose it is quieter (although I'm sure in summer it is rammed). Cars drive onto and park along the beach. The winter winds were blowing sand across the ground, but the blue skies, sun shining and cloud formations made up for it.

It wasn't warm enough to eat outside and the inside had a lovely strong smell of fish & chips, a nice looking and obviously popular dish.

- Seafood chowder (smoked cod, hake, haddock, mussels, new potato) £11 - chunks of fish with a smoky and creamy sauce. I don't think there were any mussels. Unfortunately I hoped for much more liquid and even some bread to mop up with, but not so. It was nice, but the fish & chips would probably have been better value, if you don't want liquid and something slightly soupy;
- Local sole on the bone (pickled cucumber, cornichon, caper, cockle, almond butter, pink fir potatoes) £15 - the local cod drew me in to at least something domestic and it was a real winner. The fish was cooked perfectly with soft succulent meat sliding off the bones. Did they give me two fish? I think so. The topping was a flavoursome blend of salty capers, tiny salty cockles, rich butter, crunchy tangy bits of pickles and was so very good. The potatoes were a side addition and fine.

A lovely location, a sunny beach and very good tasting local seafood. What more do you need to go?

Ursa Minor, Ballycastle 02-2019

Winter seems to mean a lot of food places are closed. Finding lunch along the Causeway Coastal route was actually unexpectedly difficult (and because I'm picky and want select places only). Mary McBride's bar wasn't open for lunch and being renovated, Morton's fish & chips wasn't open until 3pm, and so hopefully a simple bakery would be open.

Luckily it was and it had a cafe area for sitting down, reading their books on food, healthy living and photography or history, and just enjoying being alive.

The coffee was apparently bitter, which was disappointing.

- Lime leaf & miso noodle broth £5 - a warming bowl of noodles with quite a bit of tangyness, but less miso flavour. The noodles were too soft and way overcooked unfortunately. It's odd to have bread served with noodle soup, but I happily ate it;
- Roasted winter tomatoes, Irish cheddar, coconut bacon, with sorrel oil on toasted sourdough £6 - a wonderful open sandwich bursting with flavour from the strong cheddar, the sweet and remarkably (first encounter) with coconut bacon, and the lovely rich tomatoes and green oil. All on top of a crispy piece of sourdough. Definitely great. I could have had another.

The light rye sourdough to takeaway (they sliced it for me too) is a truly outstanding loaf. The bread has excellent chewy texture and a strong amount of sourness. I was glad it was available. I wonder if this is probably the cheapest healthy meal in a cafe anywhere in the UK.

Morelli's, Portstewart 02-2019

We were recommended Maud's icecream by a girl at Sixt and I had also read about it. However all the Maud's we came across along the Causeway Coastal route (Portstewart, Larne, Ballycastle) were all closed for winter. What a disappointment.

A waiter at Harry's Shack asked why we wanted to go there when Morelli's is better? A fair question. They even had Guinness flavour.

After discovering Maud's in Portstewart was definitely closed, we wandered to Morelli's. It was a cold sunny day, glorious for eating icecream and watching the ocean.

Morelli's didn't have Guiness flavour and just looking at the fluoro colours, I would usually be turned off. But there weren't many other options (there was another icecream place a few doors away, but we didn't look there).

Coconut and chocolate were both ok. Not bad by any means, but neither were very strongly flavoured. They were very very creamy in texture.

I'd try for Maud's next time.

Neptune & Prawn, Portrush 02-2019

Winter in Northern Ireland doesn't necessarily mean cold (12C days in February) but it does mean a lot of the restaurants are closed or only semi-open. Within Portrush itself, I had heard of (and been recommended by the Sixt customer representative at Belfast International airport) to try Ramore's 3rd floor (adults only but likely not open) or the 2nd floor (children also but good food). Sadly only their ground floor was open that day with a rather unexciting menu. Along that port area, also the Harbour Inn was only serving drinks and their food area wasn't open. Quiet season I suppose.

Across the way was Neptune & Prawn, known for some seafood with Asian twists. To be honest the menu didn't sound the best (how hard it is to find a good seafood restaurant in the area surprised me) but there weren't many other alternatives. It's rarely a good thing when a(n Asian) menu has one type of dish/sauce and an option to serve it with different proteins. I stuck to the dishes that had some N&P mentioned in the description.

- Salt & Chilli Neptune Prawns £12.95 - actually a very flavoursome dish of prawn crackers, crisp well seasoned prawns with firm bitey meat and an unexpected chilli and oil underneath with mayo;
- Lamb shank massaman (traditional Indian dish served N&P style, peanuts & cucumber salad) £14.95 - this was a creative take on curry served Peking duck style. The large shank had a solid amount of relatively tender meat. The thick curry was earthy although not heavily spiced. It tasted similar to katsu I thought. And had some potato and a kind of crunchy pulse also. The spring onion and cucumber added freshness and the chutney topped it off. Actually very good. If I had stomach space, I would definitely have ordered rice to finish off the sauce.

It's a nice setting with friendly (and quite attractive) staff. I would eat here again.

Cuchullin Restaurant, Isle of Skye 01-2019

For our one evening in Portree, after scouring lots and lots of menus and searching for somewhere on Skye that is actually open in January, I settled upon Dulse & Brose. The menu had some local ingredients that I was looking forward to. Unfortunately they had other ideas, telling us at 7.15pm that they had closed their kitchen for the night.

And so the only place open and willing to serve was Cuchullin. Not a problem, it was warm and friendly and served by 2 lovely local lasses and their smiles.

- Steamed mussels (shallots, garlic, white wine broth) £13.5 for large - mild flavour;
- Battered haddock with Rooster chips £13.5 - very good fish although the batter was a bit soft. The Rooster chips (whatever they are) were outstanding skin on versions. The best I had in all the Scotland meals;
- 8oz sirloin steak (tomato, portobello mushroom, rooster chips, pepper sauce) £21 - after driving around and seeing local cattle I thought it was worth trying steak. One lass could tell me it was local (Scotland) but not if it was local (Skye). Hmmm. The meat was cooked to a nice rare for me as requested and although it wasn't very tender, the flavour was excellent with assumably just a bit of salt and pepper.

It was a good meal in cosy surroundings in a place that was willing to serve the winter visitors. Thank you.

The Oyster Shed, Isle of Skye 01-2019

In the small town of Carbost, there is a seafood place (this one), a brewery for whiskey, and a coffee shop that is closed for winter. Otherwise there's also the special views of the water, particularly enjoyable when eating fresh seafood at The Oyster Shed.

The shed itself has a variety of things to order from oysters in their farm shucked, to lots of different types of terrines made from each seafood type, and some other bits and pieces including frozen local meats.

- Oysters £8.5 for 6 - really good flavour, salinity and hint of metallic. The texture has a touch of bite and the size is medium;
- Scallops £10 for 7 - very large scallops, cooked perfectly with salt and butter. Tender, juicy and the best of the lot;
- Lobster tail £13 - a small tail that must shrivel a lot when cooked in the garlic butter (or they gave us a very small one) that tasted ok but wasn't as good as the scallops;
- Crab claws £6 for 6 - very cheap for these boiled and served cold bits. The meat was unexpectedly firm and quite dense. Not my taste.

The oysters and scallops are worth going back for. I'd probably try the langoustines next time too, since they are a local Skye specialty.

Artisan Gelato, Edinburgh 01-2019

On a freezing 2C day, there is nothing better than gelato. I was the only one who thought this way and ended up here after a quick search for places around my Airbnb.

They serve an exceptional gelato. The pistachio was a perfect colour and flavour. The dark chocolate with orange wasn't one I've seen elsewhere, but a favourite chocolate of mine usually. It could have used a touch more orange, but that's just being picky. 70% dark is also the right amount of dark.

It was texturally great with no ice crystals. And of course in the cold it didn't melt at all.

It isn't cheap by any means, but it's very good.

Merchant Chippie, Glasgow 01-2019

For some reason Scotland seems to like deep frying stuff. There's the usual fish and chips, but also Mars bars, pizza and all sorts of sausage and pudding. Additionally that Scottish favourite haggis gets the deepfried treatment, which is a different mode to the standard serving on this. 

For another reason I don't know, the chippies seem to be run by Italians. Go figure.

Merchant is one of the highly reputed one's in Glasgow and in fact was the only place in Glasgow to be in the top 50 for the UK and they even state they were awarded best in Scotland. Not a bad set of accolades.

It's a simple small cafe where everything is breaded and fried, whereas the chips are fresh cut potatoes sitting in a giant vat.

- Haddock in batter supper £5.8 - a nice fish with a mild flavour, where the predominance was the wispy crisp slightly thick salted batter. The chips (which are the "supper" part) were soft rather than crispy, but at least they are actual potatoes freshly cut;
- Lemon sole £6.5 - this was too thin and so the fish got lost amongst the friedness;
- Black pudding £2.9 - had an unusual flavour of cloves. Definitely not what I expected. Like good Scottish pudding there was mostly meat and not much chunks of fat;
- Haggis £2.9 - mild flavour overall.

It's a good fish and chip. I'd stick with the classic haddock, being the cheapest and the best part of the meal.

Clachaig Inn, Glencoe 01-2019

There's a few token stops between Glasgow and Fort William. Real Food Cafe and Green Welly both in Tyndrum are two, but it's too close to Glasgow to be worth stopping for lunch I think. Then comes Glencoe and the recommendation of Clachaig Inn. I'm still not sure how to pronounce it. And the girl serving us sounded Portuguese and so she wasn't sure either. I wanted to try their gin but obviously not with driving straight after. Oh well.

The main dish on the menu that excited me was the game pie. With that many different meats listed, I wonder if it's just a random variety of offcuts from somewhere. But then where are the original pieces going?

- Highland Game Pie (rabbit, venison, pheasant, mallard, partridge, pigeon, cooked with blackberries, tarragon, juniper berries & Clachaig gin) £13.95 - lots of different meats with varying textures, some soft, some chewy. Strong berry and pepper taste overall. The pastry was thin, crisp and not flavoured. It was the disappointing part. Potatoes were fine. The mash was some combination of carrots and pumpkin I think.

A good stop close to Fort William. I'd happily go back to try some of their other things. If there are better stops in Glencoe, I'd be keen to know them.