Scottish Cuisine, Whisky, and Global Impact
Scottish Cuisine: A Culinary Journey
From the sea and the rivers came fish, and from the land they got fruit, vegetables, and meat. And they got oats from the land too. They made their bread from oats, and they made porridge from oats and water for a hot breakfast. People still eat all of these things in Scotland today, but they eat new things too. From 1900 on, many people began to come to Scotland from countries like Italy and India, and they brought different food with them.
The Richness of Scottish Food
There is a lot of good food in Scotland. It is famous for its fish, like salmon and haddock, and for other food from the sea. Fish farming is very important for Scotland; it gives work to about 6,000 people and brings lots of money into the country. Then there is Scottish beef – the best beef in the world, the Scots say – and haggis, made from meat, oats, and other things. Scottish raspberries are also very good; the Scots like to make a dish called cranachan with raspberries, oats, and whisky.
Luxury and Disparity
People with lots of money can go to a hotel like Gleneagles, near Perth – perhaps the most famous hotel in Scotland today. It has 232 bedrooms, three golf courses – and some of the best Scottish food. But good food is not a part of life for everybody in Scotland, and some poorer Scots do not eat very well. British men usually live to seventy-seven years old, but in some parts of Glasgow, they only live to fifty-four. Better food is very important for Scottish people today and tomorrow.
Whisky: The Water of Life
The word ‘whisky’ comes from the Gaelic ‘uisge-beatha’ – the water of life. Whisky – also called ‘Scotch’ – is made in a distillery. There are more than one hundred distilleries in Scotland – some near Edinburgh and Glasgow in the south, one on the island of Skye, and three on the Orkneys in the north. There are nine on the small island of Islay. About half of the distilleries are near the River Spey, east of Inverness; many visitors like to visit the distilleries there and try the different whiskies. Visitors to Edinburgh can visit the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre near the castle.
The Purity of Scottish Water
Whisky is good, but another drink in Scotland is better: water. The whisky is good because the water from the hills is good. On a hot day, a drink of Scottish hill water can be the best drink in the world.
Scotland and the World
Scotland is a small country. Only five million people live there. But for millions more across the world, Scotland is very important. Why is this?
The Scottish Diaspora
In the 1800s, many people left Scotland and went to other countries. People in the Highlands left their homes and villages because they were very poor and hungry. Sometimes the rich people there wanted them to leave. Many others from the south of Scotland left because they wanted a better life in a new country. Between the 1820s and 1914, more than two million people went from Scotland across the seas to the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. More went in the 1920s. Today there are six million Scottish Americans in the USA. Every year many people walk through New York on 6 April – Tartan Day. A lot of Scottish Americans go back to Scotland as tourists. They want to find their past and to understand it. So Scotland is important in the story of other countries too.
Notable Scots: Bell and Carnegie
Two great Scots in the USA are Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) and Andrew Carnegie (1837-1919). Bell made the first telephone. He began the Bell Telephone Company in 1877, and by 1885 more than 150,000 people in the USA had telephones. In 1915 he made the first telephone call across the United States from New York to San Francisco. After he died in Canada, at the age of seventy-five, all the telephones in North America were quiet for one minute to remember him.
Andrew Carnegie’s family left Scotland when he was eleven and went to the USA. Carnegie worked hard, and by the 1880s he had many businesses and was very rich – the richest man in the world. When he stopped working, he gave his money to other people. Carnegie’s money built schools, universities, and other buildings in the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. Today his money still helps millions of people around the world every year.