The Scooby Snack: Glasgow in a Bun

Named last year as one of Lonely Planet's top ten cities, Glasgow is arguably Scotland's biggest, fiercest, and most exciting city. Once considered the "second city of the British Empire," it's a town that has ricocheted between economic boom, decline, and back again - and still bears the scars to prove it. These days, although the city is enjoying increased tourism and growing global presence, Glasgow remains a working, drinking, fighting city. Somewhere that, as Gordon Ramsay observes, is "full of people with no other ambition but to live life."

The Scooby Snack is a proud part of this hard-living tradition. Available only from a handful of after-hours burger vans, this monument to meat and grease means business. It's not a novelty item or publicity stunt and you don't get a prize for eating it. It's simply over-indulgence in an casual, distinctly Glaswegian way.

I recently grabbed one from the Street Cafe burger van on Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street.

Fried egg, flat sausage, bacon, cheese, potato scone and a burger patty were served in a floury roll and sprayed with brown and red sauce (it's not for nothing that Glasgow is frequently cited as being among the most unhealthiest places in Europe.)



The result was a mammoth sandwich that was mostly quantity over quality. The burger was of the cheap, fast food variety that comes out of the box, the cheese was processed and the bacon pretty standard stuff. Where it did shine however was in the Lorne sausage and potato bread. Lorne sausage (also referred to as flat sausage) has a much coarser texture than regular sausage, and when cooked properly (i.e not too much) can be exceptionally juice and tender.

Potato bread meanwhile ranks as one of Scotlands greatest exports - floury, absorbant and tasty.

The Scooby Snack is no mean feat. But then again, Glasgow is no mean city.

Partick Farmers Market

Today was my first full day back in Glasgow, and although I had planned a full gastro-tour of my old chomping ground, a late night and way too much Guinness ruined my plans for an early rise (not to mention my appetite.)



One place I did manage, however, was the Partick farmers' market. The market has been running on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month for a quite a few years now, and was a common feature of my fortnightly schedule back when I lived here.

It's typical FM stuff: Pates, cheeses, hunks of organically raised meat etc. Way to many things to spend my money on - at prices that make my overdraft wince. It's also one of the very few places you can get anything resembling street food in the city.

After a quick scout, I grabbed one of these Aberdeen Angus burgers from a stall on the market's fringes. The burger had been pre-cooked on a hotplate, and came simply in a roll with cheese.

The patty was pure quality - a hockey-puck sized slab of meat, well reared and well seasoned, with just a suggestion of pink at it's beefy heart. This combined with a tasty wedge of cheddar that equalled the meat and almost made it more of a beef and cheese sandwich than a burger. The roll for its part was largely non-descript, but did a good job of holding the thing together (don't you just hate it when it falls apart in your hands?)

The result was a decent, all-round burger made with quality ingredients. Enjoyable, reasonably priced (£3) and worth braving the cold. It also gave me an excuse to throw up some FM signs