REESTIT MUTTON
Mutton irst salted in brine and
then hung in the raters (reest),
smoked above a peat ire and let
to dry for 10-15 days.SASSERMEAT/SAUCERMEAT
Spellings vary for what’s
essentially spiced minced beef
beloved by Shetlanders, oten
fried and served on a morning roll.
BANNOCKS
Light and lufy with a sour
taste, bannocks are no-yeast
breads that inspire much debate
in Shetland as to how best to
make them.SEAFOOD
Fish and shellish as fresh as
possible, harvested from some of
the cleanest waters in the world.REESTIT MUTTON AND
TATTIE SOUP
A soup made from reestit mutton,
Shetland black potatoes, turnip,
carrots and onion.Five food finds
on the incredible Viking digs in Shetland,
and a part-time member of both the ire
service and the coastguard, but his biggest
passion is this crot. Here, he breeds heritage
Tamworth pigs and British saddleback boars
— selling the meat to local chefs and cooks
— and sheep he rears for the colour of their
leeces: “There are 60 markings of colour for
Shetland sheep; we’re trying to bring back
the old colours.”
The town of Lerwick is a lovely wee place,
with grand sandstone buildings, streets
bedecked with bunting and cute seafront
houses called the Lodberries. There’s
a cluster of rather chic restaurants and
cocktail bars, cafes, galleries and shops.
It’s a ‘capital’ steeped in tradition, but
with a thoroughly modern side — you’ll
ind heart-warming Shetland food such as
bannocks and soups of reestit mutton, while
the local mussels — fat, orange and juicy
— are some of the best you’ll eat anywhere
in the world. Then, for international dishes
that use the best of the islands’ produce,
there’s The String, where chef Akshay
Borges serves Goan fare, and C’est La Vie, a
French restaurant with chef Didier Piquet
overseeing the kitchen.
It’s in Lerwick that I notice how many
‘incomers’ have settled here, attracted by the
remoteness and back-to-basics lifestyle. In
summer, the long bright nights are glorious,
while in winter your chances of seeing theNorthern Lights are high. The local name
for the Aurora Borealis has been adopted by
Dave Williams, who runs Mirrie Dancers
Chocolatier with his partner, Cathy. A former
army chef, he moved here four years ago and
began making confections lavoured with
local ingredients — sea salt, heather, honey,
whisky, gin and mead. The Raspberry Mirrie
Dancer is tinged with the sparkling green
lustre of the Northern Lights, the Clitop Bar
is lavoured with Arctic thyme and walnut.
As we walk along the clif edge at
Eshaness, the ocean thrashing below us,
Tom explains how cooking here has evolved
to suit the conditions. “Reestit mutton soup
has to be Shetland’s great ‘national’ dish, the
staple of winter dances and events like Up
Helly Aa, the annual Viking ire festival held
every January,” he explains. “It’s basically
a tattie soup, with other vegetables, using
reestit mutton as stock.”
The dish is a winter staple, and on my early
autumn journey across the islands I don’t get
to try it. I lament this miss to Tom. “Ach well,
you’ll have to come back,” he laughs. “For
reestit mutton and a foy.”IMAGES: ©ANDY SEWELLHayhoull B&B in Bigton has double rooms from £80
per night. bedandbreakfastshetland.co.uk
Loganair lies to Sumburgh in Shetland from London
Southend via Aberdeen from £65, and direct from
several UK regional airports. loganair.co.uk
More information: visitscotland.com shetland.orgSheep grazing on the West
Mainland, Shetland
LEFT: Freshly cooked hand-picked
‘wild’ Shetland mussels58 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel
EAT