National Geographic Traveller UK April 2020

(Dana P.) #1
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
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