National Geographic Traveller UK April 2020

THE STRING

Dishes here include pan-fried

Shetland halibut with roasted

cherry tomatoes and sauteed

local greens, and pulled, rolled

Shetland lamb with greens and

lamb bone gravy risotto. There are

also changing specials created by

chef Akshay Borges, who grew up

in Goa and combines his passion

for Indian street food culture and

Scottish cuisine. Three courses

without wine from around £25 per

person. thestringshetland.co.uk

THE SCALLOWAY HOTEL

On the waterfront in Scalloway,

Shetland’s ancient capital just six

miles from Lerwick, the seafood

is the highlight. Shetland lobster

is simply grilled with butter and

served with homemade chips.

Starters include twice-cooked

Cullen skink soule, crispy potato

and smoked haddock sauce, and

pan-seared scallops, conit onion

with a hazelnut and Mull cheddar

crust. Three courses without

wine from around £32 per person.

scallowayhotel.com

FJARA CAFE BAR

Set on the peninsula jutting

over Breiwick bay, just outside

Lerwick, Fjara is an all-day cafe

with a great view. The mussels

— cooked with garlic butter,

shallots, Pinot Grigio, parsley and

cream — are fabulous, served

with homemade bread and chips.

Dinner choices include starters

such as Thai-style seafood broth,

and a ‘sassermeat’ main along

with apricots and pistachios as a

stuing for lamb. Three courses

without wine from around £25 per

person. jaracofee.com

with his wife, Susan Bowie, the local doctor.

Together with his son, James, Tom wrote

the book Shetland: Cooking on the Edge of the

World. At the beach at the back of house we

gather seaweed to wrap around a leg of lamb,

which will be baked in the oven until tender.

“Shetland has always had some

phenomenal natural resources when it

comes to food — pristine seas teeming with

the best ish and shellish; great native breed

lamb, mutton and beef; gloriously loury

Shetland black potatoes. But the advent of

polytunnels and polycrubs has unleashed

a whole range of hitherto unavailable crops

like tomatoes, corn, cherries, strawberries

and more. Even stuck on a rock at 60 degrees

north,” says Tom. In his book, the family

explores ‘foy’, a celebration in Shetland that

usually involves a feast and large amounts

of alcohol. “This was once a marginal,

seasonally impoverished place, and every

meal had to count for both sustenance and

joyful hospitality. It was foy that drew me

here in the irst place and is one of the things

that keeps me here.”

In Shetland, you’re never far from the sea,

its rhythms and — of course — its catch.

Aboard the Sceptre, Ross Robertson at the

helm, we travel out to sea from the twin

Burra islands. This is the smaller of his

family’s boats, the other, the Mizpah, is a

large trawler. “We’re as many as 12 days at

sea with the big boat, landing our catch two

to three times. There are seven of us in the

crew and we keep a man ashore,” he explains.

Today, we’re trying to catch mackerel,

running long lines out from the back of

the deck. It’s a crystal-clear day and there’s

not too big a swell, but the ish are scarce.

“You need a lot of patience for it,” says Ross.

“It just takes a good shoal of ish when the

hooks are going up and down, and you can

ill a ish box in minutes.”

Ross turns his attention to his 150 creels

(wicker baskets) and starts to reel some in.

We’re hoping for lobsters and velvet crabs,

but again there’s not much doing. In total we

land ive mackerel and a few crabs — enough

for us to return to Ross’s house for lunch.

Later, at Frankie’s Fish & Chips in Brae, I dine

on catch landed by the Mizpah: a ‘muckle’

(large) haddock fried in batter, served with

chips and mushy peas — it’s glorious.

At Shetland Seafood Auctions, in Lerwick,

I get more of an understanding of just how

important the ishing industry is here.

There are large boxes of megrim, haddock,

hake and whiting, all on ice and ready to be

shipped out ater being sold.

Across the water from Lerwick is the

little island of Bressay and as I alight the

ferry, Chris Dyer is waiting to take me to

Garths Crot, the home and smallholding he

shares with his wife Afra. Like many other

people in Shetland, Chris has a number

of jobs — he’s an archaeologist working

IMAGES: AUDREY GILLAN

Fisherman Ross Robertson

with his catch of lobster

onboard the Sceptre

RIGHT: Local lamb with a

herb crust at The String

A TASTE OF

Shetland Islands

April 2020 57

EAT