I awoke at 5:40 this morning and the sun was up by a long shot. Love the long days! That means I had about a 9 hour sleep last night! Woohoo!
We made a list of various items we needed and I saw that there was a Marks & Spencer in Dundee so we got ready after a leisurely morning and drove on up. Marks & Spencer became my most beloved UK store from my first trip about 15 years ago! They have everything you need - at least the one in Cambridge did at the time. Food, clothes, health and beauty, and housewares as well. There may have been a place closer from which we could have found our items but, for some reason, I don't feel like I'm in the UK until I visit this store!
What a pretty drive through Kingsbarns, St Andrews, and all the other pretty towns along the roads and over the Firth of Tay. Right after St. Andrews we passed this cute farm larder store and I told Owen we needed to stop on the way back. Finding parking in downtown Dundee was a work of patience but eventually we did find a car park. Then we found the M & S and it did have a few things but wasn’t as big as the ones I’d been in before. Luckily, the car park was right by another shopping center which had a T J MAXX only in the UK it’s called a T K MAXX. I found a few other items there. The cottage doesn’t have many mirrors and the ones they do have are tiny and situated very high! So I found some mirrors I can stand on the counter to do my hair and makeup. It's that short person adjustment again.
On our way back we did stop at the Balgove Larder that I had noticed on the way.
What joy! It was as perfect as the market by Chatsworth in the Peak District of England!
That yellow arrow up there? It is pointing to the savory pies about which I have been salivating for over a decade! Using a hot water crust, these little darlings are filled with all sorts of savory fillings, ingredients which we don't usually see in the US but are everywhere here in the UK. These ingredients would be things like pheasant, game hen, lamb, liver, and kidney. It's not that we don't have these things in the US, I'm just saying that they're usually not the focal point of our mainstream diet. We want ground beef, chicken breasts, and maybe a pork chop or fish. But pheasant? Not usually. It's been my long-time desire to be in a position where I could visit a market such as this, purchase one of those delicious little devils, take it "home" and heat it in a proper oven, add some sides from produce bought fresh at the market as well, and enjoy a delicious meal. sigh!
We did purchase some savory pies, I did heat them in a proper oven, and we did enjoy them immensely!! As we have a local butcher and produce stand in Crail, I will be fulfilling this dream quite a bit during our stay.
This particular store also had shelves filled with all sorts of condiments, dairy items, fresh meat from a butchery, deli cuts, fresh produce, and all sorts of sweets.
As it was lunch time and Balgove Larder also had a cafe, we sat down and had a bite and it was all very good! I'd recommend it for sure! I made a meal out of the chicken liver pate appetizer and the scone of the day - cheddar chutney. My husband had a smoked fish stew and some beef stew, which was served on a plate with excellent boiled parsley potatoes. I'll let my Jane Austen friends give that little mention a proper smile.
It’s after 10 and now I’m ready for sleep! And by after 10 I mean, almost 11! But look outside! It's bonkers!
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