Dear Readers,

In honor of the last post, and some of the direct comments I received regarding the meal we had at The Kitchin when we honeymooned in Scotland last summer! When I say this was the best meal I have ever had, I do in fact mean it was the best meal I’ve ever had.

Chef’s Surprise Prestige Tasting Menu with a basic wine pairing, so moving from 1st to dessert:

• Amuse Bouche: A tartlette of smoked trout over a courgette and basil mousse, topped with wasabi pea, or some kind of pea, courgette circlettes, and a wee bit of caviar (Frankie’s first time having!)
  • Paired with Philipponat Reserve Champagne
  • Followed by in-house churned salted butter and baked sourdough

• 1st Course | Pea & Lovage: Chilled pea and lovage veloute, cultured cream, fresh peas.
  • Still drinking Champagne
    • Sopped up with bread

• 2nd Course | Razor Clams (Spoots): Razor clams from eh Isle of Barra (note: this was a first for both of us, and the clams were SO dang tender but the trick is just to warm them up, not cook them, otherwise you get that nasty rubber texture that no one likes in their clams), early season broad beans, Chateau Leoube olive oil, Oscietra caviar
  • Sopped up with bread because that olive oil with dropped pieces of caviar were not to be wasted!
  • Paired with Etna Bianco

• 3rd Course | Veal: Roasted Veal Sweetbreads (note: another first for both of us and utterly scrumptious – they fried it so that it was super crunchy on the outside and very tender on the inside, not rubbery or off putting at all!!!), Eassie Farm asparagus, Newhaven lobster claw, summer truffle
  • Paired with Musar June White

• 4th Course | Langoustine!!!: Creel caught Tobermoray langoustine, spiced langoustine sauce, langoustine mousse, courgette (flower stuffed with the langoustine not on the plate), and basil. (Note: this was by far one of my most favorite dishes of the evening – that flower, that claw meat in the head shell (which I absolutely sucked on because of the butter and juices in it) melted in my mouth…Honestly, I couldn’t speak for a hot second I was way too into everything we were having.
  • Paired with Douro ‘Redoma’ Rose

• 5th Course | Wagyu: Roasted sirloin of Highland Wagyu, braised shin cannelloni, white asparagus, red wine jus.
  • Paired with Pinotage ‘Jean Prieur’

• 6th Course | Yoghurt & Sea Buckthorn Pre-Dessert: Knockraich farm yoghurt mousse, caramel iced oats, sea buckthorn consommé

• 7th Course | Apple: Apple crumble soufflé (note: another first for us, and the way they buttered the ramekin and then put cocoa powder as well to help with keeping the sides of the soufflé nice and tight was amazing, not to mention that an apple crumble soufflé is a heck of a lot harder to make than any other kind of soufflé out there), vanilla ice cream, Macallan double cask 15 year old whisky caramel sauce
  • Paired with Tokaji Late Harvest

And when we thought all was said and done, our waiter Matteo took us to the bar to serve us a little brownie dessert bite, a coffee for me, and a dram of whisky for Frankie. But on top of that, because we were asking him about his own preferred taste of whisky, he poured Frankie a free baby dram of Dalmore 40…it was the oldest whisky Frankie and I had ever tasted and was FAN.TASTIC. The meal, the experience – worth EVERY. PENNY.