A Taste of Scotland!

One of my sisters-in-law is living abroad in Scotland this year. Her job sent her there because she's super-awesome and they needed someone just like that to help them train on new software. She was promoted to manager, like, the second she arrived because her coolness in the workplace shines like a lighthouse on the shore. 

I miss her a lot. 

One of the [few] perks of her living sooooooo far away in a foreign land is that she sent us a package positively bursting with goodies from the land of Scots. Another perk is hearing all the fun words that just don't translate in Scotland... like "spunk." Once my sister in law told some friends in Scotland she likes to keep her nails painted because she liked the "spunk." Spunk in Scotland, though, is a male sexual excretion... so her Scotty friends must have thought "Boy this American girl is kinky!" Hehe. 

But back to the food. She sent us a ton of great stuff which lent itself very naturally to a tea party! So the whole family got together in name of Scottish tea biscuits and we drank tea with our pinkies up while we enjoyed these very Scottish treats. All in all, I am in love with Scotland's processed foods. 

Milk Chocolate Tea Cakes are basically like the Scottish version of Mallow Cups, but BETTER because they have that cakey center. Plus, their packaging is cooler. Suffice it to say that if we had these in America, I would probably drink more tea. 

What is Scottish Tablet you ask? Well, I ate some, as did Daren, and I think Daren's mom, and we are still asking ourselves the same question. It tastes like frosting, but has the consistency of taffy while simultaneously reminding me of condensed milk. Rule #1 about Scottish Tablet? Don't eat it after midnight. You might turn into a gremlin or you might just get a wicked stomach ache that wakes you up in the morning. 

Three bars to a package? For the love of god--why?! It takes one Tablet! 

A little less adventurous, and totally devoured in seconds. But I don't feel like we need a whole lot of explanation because you should know what shortbread fingers are. 

These tasty logs are not like logs at all. They are basically wafers, and they were delicious! Pair these suckers with some tea and you've got a snack that really satisfies. Actually, pair these with basically anything you have a snack that satisfies. Okay, who am I kidding.. I could eat these for breakfast. 

This version has coconut surrounding the caramel goodness. Which was a nice touch. 

Okay, remember how just one photo ago I told you how much I loved those coconut caramel wafers? Yes? Well, I love these EVEN MORE! This was my favorite wafer of the day. I might have eaten the one that someone left after the tea party, too. And I might have coveted my husband's wafer, too. And I might have asked my mother-in-law (who is in Scotland this week!) to bring me some back. 

Bacon Tasty's. 

Yes. Trying a Bacon Tasty is like seeing the bacon light. They taste like pork rinds with a distinctly bacon flavor... but they are a wheat snack. We gobbled up two bags of these in record time. Also, I tried some bacon tasty's with a little blue cheese crumble on top and I have to say, it was pretty delightful. This year for Christmas, I am asking Santa for Bacon Tasty's...since he's likely to stop in Scotland first, anyway, because they are five hours ahead of us. 

Point of fascination about this food (see picture below) is that they are dubbed "Suitable for vegetarians"--say huh?!!! The package also said that it causes excitability in children... I am not sure if that is because they are bacon flavored and that is exciting or because they eat them and it makes them hyper. Also, we couldn't find the calorie count on this bag.... what gives?! I guess Scots think a waist is a terrible thing to mind! 

I don't know if you can see this on the package because of the size of the picture, but it says, "Light crumbly Scottish biscuits that melt in the mouth." For some reason, I just loved the way they worded that. It was a distinct point of fascination for me. But the word biscuit in and of itself is just misleading for me because I thought it was going to taste like a cracker. I was wrong. These tasted like girl scout cookies! YUM! 

And for the record, they totally melted "in the mouth." 

Our Scottish lay out. Fancy, huh?!