Visit Scotland

Welcome to Glagow, city of well, not much really. At least, not much springs to mind except a welcome of the kiss variety. She fulfils stereotypes in minutes. There are scrawny ginger haired children with bull terriers. There are stalwart defenders and deep fried Mars Bar deniers. We hear rumours of a deep-fried cream egg and my heart palpitates in fear. It's raining. Maybe first impressions would have been better if the sun was out.

But this, dear reader, is where our prejudice must end, for Glasgow is a city of change, spearheading a Northern cultural revolution in it's own special way. This is London in the early Nineties, when foreign food was new and about to become all the rage. There are art-deco tower blocks on nearly every corner. It is unspoilt and innocent - rent is cheap and houses large.

When a city moves this way, there are usually a few bright sparks pushing things forward, and gastronomy seems to be at the forefront of this movement. As things progress, the locals get used to better and better products - they are, after all, in amongst some of the finest food producing regions of the country. A visit to X Farmer's Market was a delight - Scottish raspberries, fruit wines, a range of real farmers selling their own specialist products - Black-Faced lamb, Aberdeen Angus beef, along with cheeses and smoked fish.

This is surely what these markets were created for - some, particularly in London, feel rather like an extremely expensive supermarket. The Glaswegians are warm folk - people enthused about their products, showing a love and dedication that is often lacking.

I met so many great people in Glasgow, producing such fabulous stuff, it would take forever to discuss them all in detail, and to do so in a short piece would be to do them an injustice. Instead, I've planned a bit of a Glasgow Gastro Tour (try saying that after the whisky tasting at Auchentoshan) that you could easily do over a weekend and roll back home a happy chappy. Or chappette, as the case may be.

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