It Must Be At Least 50 Years Since I Ate A Buckling,

so imagine my surprise when I saw some for sale in Friendship yesterday,

my mother and myself used to enjoy eating buckling and Arbroath smokies, Dad was not so keen, the problem was that they then became not very popular, our 3 local fishmongers in Croydon where we lived started to stop ordering them and soon, about the early 1960's that was the end of them for us (where my apartment is in Beckenham I cannot think of any local fish mongers just the big stores, TESCO et al) also I remember Golden Jubilees, but had only seen and eaten them in Scotland, they and smokies are both smoked haddocks, bucklings are smoked herrings,

the hotel we stayed in at Auchmithie was on the top of this hill above the harbour,

by a strange twist of fate a few years later on a fishing holiday with Mum and Dad, we stayed at where the Arbroth smokie was "born" a tiny fishing village called Auchmithie, a small fishing village, 3 miles north of Arbroath, it was a long walk down to the harbour and the fishing was not great, but pleasant enough,

we then made our way to Lunan Bay, above, the hotel there had it's own private stretch of the river Lune, we caught more than a few trout there, oh happy days,

but back to the Friendship buckling, it was in oil, but even that did not hide the flavour of all those years ago, with brown bread and butter and a cup of tea, what a perfect way to start the day, a little expensive but next time we are in Friendship a couple of tins will find their way into my basket!