A couple of weeks ago some friends and I headed to Skipness, on western Scotland’s Mull of Kintyre, for a 30th birthday party, or as a Glaswegian taxi driver put it: “a real test of friendship”. A train ride from London to Glasgow, followed by a mad rush to the bus station and a bumpy three hour ride up the Scottish coast did seem like a bit of a challenge, but when we got there we understood why he’d chosen this spectacularly isolated location. Where else can you find an abundance of firewood to cook a whole deer in the ground, dance a ceilidh in pitch darkness, eat the freshest of oysters, get windburn and see 10 rainbows?
Nick had procured, skinned and butchered a deer. The aim was to cook it in a pit oven. This method of cooking is called Hāngi by the New Zealand Māori and is also used at Hawaiian luaus and for the clam bakes of New England. I did gather some firewood but unfortunately missed the digging of the pit, as was meandering up the lane picking blackberries. Read the rest of this entry »
