Do you ever have those days while on vacation that just seem like you are not the sophisticated traveler that you thought you were or that next time the government is just going to say, No, you cannot leave the country because you are such a bad example to the world? Yep, I have those days, and I am *hoping* that I am not the only one. This is an example of a portion of one of those days, and it involves myself, my husband (Brandon), his mother (Tater) and Lulu...
It was a lovely spring day when we decided to visit Floors Castle. We arrived around lunchtime and noticed that there was a café a the garden center called the Terrace Café. That was a good thing because we were hungry (as usual!). The café turned out to be a lovely little place, bustling with smartly dressed people eating yummy looking food. One thing that I always notice in restaurants in Scotland is that they sound different from restaurants in the US. I believe that this sound is china teacups and saucers clinking together. You definitely don't get that sound from the giant plastic cups in US restaurants! So, here we are at this lovely café with smartly dressed locals and their clinking teacups and I already feel slightly out of place. As an American abroad, I always feel slightly underdressed and obtrusive, like there is something setting me apart that makes people look and say, "oh, it's an American, I hope that they are not too loud and don't eat with their hands!" The restaurant staff greeted us warmly and led us to a table overlooking a field of what appeared to be decorative grasses and wildflowers (I'm not a gardener, so I am not too familiar with plant names). They handed us our menus, and this is when it began, our journey into a day where we were, if not Ugly Americans, we were Clueless Americans.
The clue to this was when Lulu looked at the menu and promptly decided that everything was too expensive. You see, Lulu is a small woman with a big appetite. That appetite however, is only apparent when presented with a $4.99 all you can eat buffet at Ryan's. If you are not from the US and are reading this, or have never experienced an "all you can eat" buffet in the US, take a moment to Google Ryan's buffet and look at images, and it will give you an idea of the abundance of food. At a buffet such as this, Lulu can easily consume 4 desserts (2 before the meal and 2 after), and at least one large plate of food, but probably 2. However, the higher the prices go on food, the lower her appetite goes. With the exchange rate between US and UK currency at that time, she was not hungry then entire trip to Scotland. So, she promptly decides that the best course of action, since she is not hungry, is to order a green salad and a glass of milk. After looking over the menu, Brandon and Tater were both interested in the Coronation Chicken, although none of us had ever heard of this and had no concept of what it was. Our server that day was a young man, who I believe was just being trained for the job because there was another server assisting him at times. Brandon and Tater ask the young man "What is Coronation Chicken?" I must say, at this point the server looked a little baffled that we would not know this and responded "It is chicken in a sauce." Hmmm, ok we still didn't really understand, so Brandon asked "How is the chicken prepared?" The young man said, "Well... It's cooked...with a sauce." I think at this point he was thinking "How could anyone not know what Coronation Chicken is?!?" Well, we didn't. I was a little leery of this exotic food, so I went with the mushroom and spinach tart, Brandon and Tater both ordered the Coronation Chicken, and as mentioned, Lulu ordered the green salad...and milk.
At this point, thankfully, they brought us some lovely homemade bread, and it was delicious. A little bit later, our food started arriving. I need to add a caveat here. Brandon is a picky eater. He believes that mayonnaise was invented by the Devil. So, first comes my spinach and mushroom tart, and it looked lovely. Then Lulu's green salad and milk. It was exactly as advertised, a green salad. She was a bit disappointed when she saw this, not really believing when she ordered it that it only greens. Then comes Brandon and Taters food, and I have to admit, when they sat it down in front of Brandon, my first thought was, "Why did they give him potato salad?" Brandon picked up his fork, thinking that there was a chicken fillet underneath whatever was just brought to him, and moved it around, trying to find the chicken. There was no chicken fillet. Brandon asked the server "What is this?" and the server, looking at him wearily, said "That's the Coronation Chicken". Then it struck me, "Oh! It's like a chicken salad!" (This is what we in the US refer to chicken mixed with mayo and other ingredients. Well, needless to say, Brandon was crestfallen. I love mayo, though and quickly offered to change plates with him. It wasn't the servers fault, after all, that we didn't understand what it was. That dilemma solved, we moved onto eating. As can be imagined, Lulu was not quite satisfied with her plain green salad and milk, and I have to admit at this time, we were teasing her that the cook had went out in the field by our window and picked grass for her plate :) To improve the taste of the salad, Lulu decided to apply some of the course salt that was in a bowl on the table. She did so and then took a bite. She chewed for a minute and said sadly "Now it feels like it has sand on it!" Even though Lulu was not quite satisfied with her meal, the rest of us were very happy with ours, and Coronation Chicken has since became one of my favorite dishes to eat when I visit Scotland.
The servers and staff of the Terrace Café were very friendly and patient with us, and I would happily go back again. I would highly recommend stopping by the Terrace Café if you are in the area. The website is:
http://www.roxburghe.net/plant-centre/plant-centre-terrace-café
Until next time,
