Eat

While Scotland has suffered from the stereotype for dreary food, things have changed now with numerous quality Indian, French, Italian and Modern Scottish options on offer. In fact, in parts of the country such as Edinburgh, it has become quite difficult to get a really bad meal.

• Cullen Skink - A hearty and delicious fish soup made from smoked haddock, potatoes, cream, and shellfish.
• Seafood - Scotland produces some of the best seafood in the world. Its langoustines, oysters, scallops, crabs, salmon and lobsters are prized by the finest chefs all over the world...and hence are mostly exported. Try half-a-dozen fresh oysters followed by langoustines in garlic butter mopped up with a chunk of organic bread at the Three Chimneys in Skye. Heaven on a plate. If youre lucky enough to be near the coast you can buy freshly caught seafood at very good prices just go to the docks and wait, its worth it.
• Sizzling Sirloin of Scotch Beef - The five best beef breeds in the world are Scottish, the best-known being Aberdeen Angus. The others are Highland, Longhorn, Shorthorn and Galloway. There is a vast difference between how beef cattle are raised for the lower-cost end of the market and the top end of the market. Slap a sirloin of Aberdeen Angus on a hot grill and find out why.
• Game - Scotland has game aplenty, from pheasants to venison. An inexpensive Highland autumn favourite is pheasant layered with a few strips of bacon and baked with seasonal vegetables.

Haggis - Scotland's national dish does sounds quite disgusting to foreigners because of its ingredients, but doesn't really taste as bad as one might think. Haggis is made up of chopped heart, liver and lungs of a sheep and then cooked in a sheep's stomach bag. Nowadays, you can buy and cook Haggis in plastic bags. It is served with turnips and mashed potatoes (often referred to as "neeps and tatties").

• Porridge is an oat meal the Scottish eat at breakfast, usually with salt as topping, although it is not the everyday breakfast anymore.
• The square sausage, another common breakfast favourite it is a flavoured thin square of beef (steak sausage) or Pork (lorne sausage) fried or grilled, often served in a roll.
• Scotch Pie is a much-loved local delicacy. Originally containing mutton but now usually made with an undefinable meat. Good ones really are good - slightly spiced and not greasy. Try one from a branch of the ubiquitous Greggs bakery shops.
• Scotch tablet is another local delicacy. It is, very similar to fudge - but is slightly brittle due to its being beaten for a time while it sets! Great for any cold hikes you may be planning.

The Deep Fried Mars Bar, regarded by many as an urban myth, does exist in Scotland. An NHS survey reported that roughly 22% of fast food joints and fish and chips shops in Scotland sell the item, at roughly 60 pence a go, mainly to school children and young adults. You will have to ask them to put one in the fryer, though. A chippy in Stonehaven claims to be the birthplace of this, er, delicacy. Another equally improbable artery-clogging treat is deep-fried pizza.

• Vegetarian food isn't as hard to find as you would think, with virtually all restaurants and cafés offering more than one vegetarian option. Vegan food is harder to find, but not impossible. Edinburgh especially has a good number of exceptional vegetarian restaurants.

Drink

Scotland (especially the highlands) is famous for the hundreds of brands of Scotch whisky it produces. It seems to the visitor that every village makes its own particular brand, so much so that somebody compared a tour of the highlands as being similar to "driving through a drinks cabinet"!

Bars are the places you meet people and where you have a good time. More than in other countries, bars are very lively and it is easy to get to know people when you're travelling alone. The Scottish are very welcoming, so it's not unusual that they will buy you a beer even though you just met them.

The legal drinking age is 18 years old, and many pubs and clubs will ask for ID of anyone who looks younger than mid-twenties.

• Beer - beer, especially the ales, is measured in pints. One pint equals just over half a litre (568ml). Scottish micro-breweries are doing quite well, possibly thanks to the "Campaign for Real Ale" in recent years.
• Iron Bru - a highly popular, fizzy, bright orange-coloured soft drink that is supposed to be the best cure for a hangover (be aware that it is loaded with caffeine and is acidic enough to clean coins!). Supposedly it is made from Iron Girders ! To provide a balanced view however, it should also be noted that Coca Cola will clean coins as well.
• Whisky - Scotland's most famous export (note the lack of an 'e' that makes Scotch whisky unique!).
• Mead - a honey liqueur.

All content courtesy of Wikitravel