Scalloway is the former capital of Shetland, a nicely nestled haven on the west coast of the Shetland mainland. My ‘relationship’ to Scalloway is the hotel, Scalloway hotel where I have stayed only once, but this stay made its impact. It is a small, but fine hotel where they put their pride in decorating the rooms with local products and serving great Shetland food. Though not only.
Visit Shetland
As I am planning to go to Shetland later this year I just looked at their web site to-day. And interested in food as I am, I also checked their menu. Always intriguing, especially this time because as I reached the dessert menu there was still another page. CHEESE. They serve cheese, they had their own cheese menu. No less. I was excited, very excited. And what cheeses they are. Not particularly local these, but more or less regional. Shetland is part of Scotland so that is Ok. Just look at this:
All served with home made chutney and oatcakes. The oatcake’s a charming local twist anyway.
More than half of the cheeses from raw milk
At least six of the cheeses are from raw milk. I am so excited and cannot wait to get to the Scalloway Hotel. Some of these are famous as well. And I am not saying those varieties that are pasteurized are no good, far from it; all these cheeses are high quality and artisan. I am just focused on the raw milk ones, though. But still, I have to try the Fearn Abbey. A Brie-style ewe’s milk cheese. Smooth and slightly sweetish. Only the fact they say Brie-style in the menu tells a lot.
Some of these are also on the Neal’s Yard list, which is a seal of quality in itself.
To drink
Not so impressed with the wine list though. Not a harsh word about the new world, but for me they are carrying too much weight in the wine list. I know Britain is closely connected to both Australia and New Zealand, but I would like to see more high quality European wine. Unless they have a special wine list for the few, there is no red Burgundy for example.
I’ll manage to find wine to pair the cheese though, there are some decent whites. I also find the whites to be more exciting than the reds.
I can highly recommend Shetland. If you want to learn more about the islands, go to Shetland.org