Edinburgh, Scotland Nearby our hotel is the beautiful National Portrait Gallery, always worthy of a visit.
The building itself is a treasure, and a place any artist would be proud to be displayed.
Unlike yesterday’s museum, the faces here march in chronological order, telling the stories that made Scotland what it is. Now, you may not know much Scottish history, though rulers like Charles I, James I and Mary, Queen of Scots may ring a bell. To assist, several explanations and a chart are provided here, though you can just ignore them and move on. Robbie Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott are noteworthy as we move to the 19th century, and there are other faces that look familiar.
A more modern section is a bit less serious, and features literary and theatrical lions.
To be even more current, I will share a few of the faces I personally admired on our travels here.
We made a brief stop at the King’s Gallery, directly across from the awful new Parliament, and in front of Holyrood Palace. The gallery has rotating exhibits of a sampling of the riches owned by the Crown. Today it was Renaissance drawings, which were nice, but not too inspiring. The small gallery building was very handsome, though. My particular favorite thing was the door handles, done as views of small brass people observing art. That’s what I would steal.
Don’s Food Corner
We saved our splurge dining experience for our last meal on this trip, namely, a high tea experience at Edinburgh’s fanciest hotel — The Balmoral. This hotel is so rich in history and appointments it almost makes the Intercontinental where we are staying look like a Motel 1.
Tea was served in the Palm Court, a beautiful room that featured all the hallmarks of (excessive) luxury. Massive displays of fresh flowers. Crisp linens on the table. Silver polished to the nines. And a harpist playing soothing music.
On the menu were 85 different teas to chose from. Jo had a decaf black tea. I found white silver tip tea, which is a rare and very delicate tea that I first experienced in Nepal. For a second pot of tea I switched to Chinese white peony, which is another delicate tea that I grew to like when traveling around India, but which has been impossible to get in the U.S. because of trade issues with China. The tea service was quite dramatic.
This was actually a pretty heavy meal and we took two doggy bags of leftovers back with us. The doggy bags were beautifully packaged boxes.
This tea (meal) started with small cups of soup. Then, a three-tier display of goodies arrived. Little savory morsels on the top tier. A selection of delicate, but rich, sandwiches on the center tier. And scones on the bottom tier. (More about them later.)
After the remains of that course were removed, a platter of sweets were brought. It was all too much and we only sampled one of the four different delicacies before having them wrapped up to take back to the room with us. (This will be breakfast tomorrow.)
For a detailed description of what was on the menu, see the accompanying photo of the menu.
And now the scones that were on the bottom tier.
When they arrived, I got nervous. They were small and I was afraid that such small scones could end up being over-baked, dry and crumbly, especially when I saw how deeply colored the exteriors were. Then . . . drum roll . . . they turned out to be the best of the trip. A very solid A+. The scones I had dreamt of. A slightly crispy exterior. An interior that was perfectly dense and also “light” and moist. It was a magical experience. Even the clotted cream seemed superior to anything we’ve been served over the last 26 days. Nice jam as well.
Perfect scones. And a perfect ending to a pretty great trip through England and Scotland.
So happy that you finally found the perfect scones!!!!
It was a cliff-hanger!
My big question, is the perfect scone made with egg and cream?
Don responds:
That’s a good question, and I hope to answer it after some experimentation when we get home. I’ve seen recipes for scones that either include and not include egg/cream. I think if too much of this component would make the scone cakey. On the other hand, an all-butter scone would tend to be hard, dry, and crumbly, especially if it isn’t fresh from the oven. I think one very critical aspect is the amount and temperature of the butter and the technique used to incorporate the butter into the mixture. I’ve seen recipes for scones that freeze the butter, grate it on the coarse grater on a box grater and then toss the slivers into the flour. I that would make a flakey scone, which is wrong. The scone, as I’ve come to appreciate them, should have a dense interior, strong enough to support the clotted cream and jam without the thing falling apart in your hand. The interior should also be slightly moist and evenly baked edge to edge. That would be tricky to achieve. The oven has to be hot enough to get the scone to rise, but not too hot so that the edges get overbaked while the center dries out. What you really want is a thin crisp outside and a dense, but slightly moist interior, evenly baked without hard edges. The exterior “skin” is achieved with a diluted egg wash or a combination egg/cream. That’s what gives the scone a shiny exterior. The Balmoral scone had that down perfectly. It was actually pretty breathtaking compared to the dozens of scones we tasted over the last several weeks. In the end, however, the perfect scone has to attended to by a master who has made a lot of scones. Like a lot of baking, the master is able to assess the variables and adjust accordingly. Variables like the humidity and temperature of the day, the percentage of protein in the flour, the fat/water percentage of the butter (or cream), the amount and brand of the baking powder, the amount of egg, if using, the impact of fruit that might be added and, perhaps most important, the temperature of the oven. You have to know your oven for good baking results.
I would not have appreciated the magnificent quality of the Balmoral scones if I had not made a recent study of so many others. And magnificent they were. But today when trying a leftover scone from yesterday it was like leaden glue. I guess the message here is to eat it when fresh.
Have good flight home. I hope all of the necessary air traffic controllers are on duty.
Fingers are crossed!
That tea looks amazing! Glad you had such a nice meal for your last one and the best scone as well!
Finally, you found your perfect scone. Otherwise I was going to call ICE not to let you back in the country. LOL!