Food & Wine Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Keep walking to Edinburgh’s Johnnie Walker Experience

6th May 20266th May 2026 funtime65

Now I’ve had my share of distillery tours and that has taken me to keep walking to Edinburgh’s Johnnie Walker Experience.

The JWE for those who know the Scottish capital and Princes Street, and even those who don’t, occupies the old House of Fraser store.

Where whisky fans are kept walking and drinking through more than 200 years of Scotland’s most popular dram.

Now we’ll not try to bottle the history of whisky into this post.

And better visit the Scotch Whisky Experrience next to Edinburgh Castle on the Royal Mile for that.

Nor will we bring into the distillery and face to face with pot stills.

You can visit the any of the hundreds of whisky manufactures, big and small, across Scotland.

Bells and whistles

Instead take in the Johnnie Walker Experience in the hands of actress Rachel and guide Grace.

For the best bells and whistles interactive tour of the life and reach of the grocer from Kilmarnock in the west of Scotland.

Everyone’s whisky takeaway, of course, will be different but ours was an explanation of the distinctive square bottles.

To increase the amount of bottles that could be transported on ships from Britain to North America.

Of course, it’s what is in those bottles that is always more interesting.

And which makes listening to the science bit in any ways palatable.

Band of gold

To get you started JWE ask you to take a quiz in reception.

To find out what flavours suit you for your cocktails.

You get three and depending on the colour of your band it should reflect your tastes.

Although guess what, there is no whisky police to say what you can and can’t put in your whisky.

And this traditionalist was happy to try.

A pineapple-infused highball alongside a smoky bay leaf flavoured smoky whisky and spicy old-fashioned.

Tour de force

Now at the end of your 90-minute tour you will arrive, unsurprisingly, at the merch shop.

Where you can also buy the uisge beatha and at a 10% discount although at a ceiling of £400.

Which means you won’t be able to get a cut on the £15,000 bottle of 1978 Isle of Arran whisky.

Although you’ll be disappointed anyway as I’ve raided the Scary One’s House Refurb Fund.

KEEP WALKING

America, Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Trump rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky

1st May 20261st May 2026 funtime65

And because we (and King Charles) have his ear Donald Trump is rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky.

The US President is the toast of his late beloved mother Mary’s Scots homeland today after lifting prohibitive tariffs on uisce beatha.

Because he told us of ‘Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon.

‘In that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used.’

A toast to Trump

This year’s blond: ‘The Donald’ in New York

All very timely too as Favourite Cousin, New York Kath and Kentucky Cousin-in-law Mark fly in to see us in North Berwickety.

And we will be breaking out the Woodford Reserve he first introduced me too, and in front of tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby too.

The truth is that almost everyone who has enjoyed a drap of Scotch will also be drinking in the best of Kentucky too.

Because ex-bourbon barrels are used to mature over 90% of all scotch whisky today.

We have, of course, the half-Scottish 45th and 47th President to thank for cutting the cost of our national drink.

A New Deal

But it his predecessor, the 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt who made it all possible.

When he stipulated as part of his New Deal that all bourbon whiskey barrels must br single-use barrels.

Which created a supply of barrels for Scots to pounce on to store their liquid gold.

And so Kentucky barrels became the standard containers for Scotch ever since.

Gracias amigos

Best family bar none: Johnnie Fox’s in Dublin mountains

Enhanced further by Spain’s decision in the Eighties that all sherry must be bottled on home soil, taking their casks off the market.

The rest as they say is history and science.

And for that bit we’ll turn to the whisky attraction experts this week.

The distilleries, the Scotch Whisky Experience on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and the Johnnie Walker Experience, on the capital’s Princes Street.

And now that The Donald is channeling his Scots half we humbly implore that he looks again at the ban on Scottish sheep lungs.

An integral part of our national dish haggis.

Because we know he takes calls from journalists… and reads Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel.com.

SLÁINTE AND MEET YOU IN THE BAR

Countries, Culture, Deals, Europe, Food & Wine, Music

Efharisto Rhodes you are Colossal

21st April 202621st April 2026 funtime65

Efharisto Rhodes you are colossal and as we say Yassas at the end of our loveholidays odyssey we reflect on the legends we have met.

Michael, the pick-up driver who took us on our first night to the Amphitryon Hotel.

May you make enough from your driving and your day building job to realise your ambition to settle down and slow down in your 40s.

Manolis, our bar manager who patiently and smilingly put up with this Bandanaman mangling his language.

To you and those who fed us so fully a Yamas (or cheers).

Over an ouzo with the best Greek traditional band Bouzouki playing in the background.

Yamas to new friends

To the new friends we met, the Three Yorkshiremen and Jay, Cherry and Jane.

And thanks for the offer of your room on the day of your check-out Jane.

Only I am still haunted by another invitation from my Athens odyssey.

And Toy Boy Brian, OK, he’s a fellow Sixtysomething like myself but travels the world selling vintage toys.

And meets celebs and gets the VIP treatment, hence him meeting the Bandanaman.

Then, of course, the army of cats who responded to our cheery kalimera.

Even when noon had passed and it should be a kalispera.

Especially Symi2, our forever friend who took residence of our laps.

And whose picture will now occupy a place on our crowded fridge.

Legends carved in rock

It is back now to chilly North Berwickety in Scotland where Rufus Rules now has a lot of living up to and explaining.

But not before a nod to the legends who come out at night.

Now Rhodes is clearly not shy of gods carved into rock.

But Nicklas and Despina are the god and goddess of rock at the Legends Rock Bar in Old Rhodes town.

Downing shots as they serve and producing a bottle of Bunnahabhain smoky Islay whisky and testing me on my Scottishness.

By asking me to pronounce it which incidentally is Bunahaveain.

And all the time Nikos the singer, of course, belts out the standards from across the rocky lane.

Reading the words perfectly from his screen which is no mean feat when it’s Cher’s warbling.

Kalinihta and dreams of gold

I leave with a kalinihta and breathe a sigh of relief that I have not said anything inappropriate.

As happened when I greeted the concierge in Rome with a buona notte e sogni d’oro.

But come to think of it, good night and dreams of gold does sound a fitting farewell to Helios, the Sun God’s island, Rhodes.

Your friendly neighbourhood Bandanaman is travelling with loveholidays and EasyJet from Edinburgh.

And staying at the Amphitryon City Hotel, 800m from the Old Town.

All for £1,028 for two, B&B and evening meals, for a week with airport transfers.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Made in Scotland from girders for 125 years

25th March 202625th March 2026 funtime65

It’s our other national drink Irn-Bru and it’s been made in Scotland from girders for 125 years.

The bronze-coloured soft drink is so much part of Scots’ blood that brewers Barr have come up with a novel idea.

With a drop-inn parlour where you can have your love of ‘ra Bru‘ inked into your arm or wherever you want to mark it.

The story goes that Barr, then a makers of corks, tinkered with the idea of a tincture.

After seeing Irish immigrant steel workers sweating it out and refuelling with beer.

On the rebuilding of Glasgow’s Central Station.

Which, of course, is the focus of more refurbishment after the destruction of Union Corner by a fire this month.

The Irn Age

Spell it out: Part of the Scottish landscape

Glaswegians of a certain age will, of course, recall that the Victorian B-listed building opposite the train station was adorned for years.

With signage of an Indian boy in a turban advertising Irn-Bru.

The Bru has prided itself on its promotions over these 125, second only to Coca-Cola, but first and ahead of them in sales in Scotland.

Traditionalists will fondly remember, for instance, the athlete on the bottles and then cans.

That being 19th-century Highland Games athlete of note Adam Brown.

But the Bru has moved with the times and we’ve travelled with them.

And it is barely remembered now that the strange misspelling has only been around since after the Second World War.

Prior to which it was Iron.

Barr had become worried over changing food labelling regulations after the war.

With the mysterious orange elixir containing only the minutest traces of iron and not being brewed.

Raising the Barr

For all of us who jealously protect our favourite brands (think Tayto in Ireland) we have our own in jokes which we can share.

Anywhere we meet fellow Scots and flush out the authentic ones.

By asking the likes of ‘I’m Thirsty, I’m very thirsty too… so here’s a drink that’s made for you, Barr’s Irn-Bru.

Of course, each generation has its own favourite ad, the young boy who lifts a girder after drinking the Bru.

A skit on The Snowman movie and the recent Fanny gag.

And it works too in American English as well as Scots English.

By gum

Now where once you would struggle to get the Bru beyond the northern bit of this British island it is widely available now.

With our other national drink even sponsoring that most northern English of sports rugby league… and you’re welcome.

Whether though, you’re prepared to mark yourself with an Irn-Bru tattoo really depends on how much it’s in your blood.

And pretty much every Scot does have it in under their skin.

But it is worth a try although maybe not say it tastes like bubblegum.

Unless you want to invite some kind of unpronouncable slur spat back at you.

Countries, Food & Wine, Ireland

How to drown the shamrock on St Paddy’s Day

17th March 2026 funtime65

You no doubt have already but here’s how to drown the shamrock on St Paddy’s Day.

Because it is a thing where you drink the last shot of the night through the flower.

Although maybe make sure you take the soil off it first.

You might not immediately shamrock as something you might eat.

Although it would not be the first edible flower.

And long before it became a bougie thing to do.

The Dutch were eating their tulips to stave off the Hongerwinter of 1944-45.

Eat your greens

If you want to get an authentic taste of the Irish sod.

Then you can always meld its most famous vegetable with its national flower.

In Keogh’s Shamrock and Sour crisps, which are described as herbal and garlicky.

But if you want to go even further why not put a twist on this Shamrock Pesto Pizza from Parade.com.

With some real edible shamrocks for garnish.

While for dessert then we lift our hat to their Leprechaun Hat Reveal cake.

Which they promise us reveals green shamrocks hiding inside a white cake.

And drink your greens too

Of course no Paddy’s Day would be complete without a booze theme.

And you should demand that the bartender put a shamrock on the froth on your stout.

Or you can do it yourself.

Alternatively you can get the crème de menthe, Midori or any apple-green liquor.

And mix up a cocktail or give yourself a Shamrock Shots chaser.

However you celebrate a Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit from all of us either Irish or in the Irish diaspora.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Whisk yourself off to Britain’s best hotel

13th March 202613th March 2026 funtime65

Want to know where the best hostelry is… well, we suggest you whisk yourself off to Britain’s best hotel.

Maybe not where you expected but whisky island Islay is The Times’s choice of best inn on our islands.

With Ardbeg House, attached to one of the ten distilleries on the island.

Which means there is a whisky home for every 300 of the isle’s inhabitants.

And which is why it’s a magnet for those of us who love the uisge beatha, or water of life, the Gaelic euphemism for whisky.

Gael force

And big reveal here, that’s probably as far as my mastery of the Scots language stretches.

Not that you need it on the Inner Hebrides but it does help you feel more of an islander.

And which is why we bring my old schoolfriend and Gaelic scholar and wordsmith Martin around with us!

That and the fact that he was our friend Stewart’s best man when he married his Japanese sweetheart Hisayo back in the day.

With the wedding party all decked out in kimonos.

And us breaking bread and sake and wine and, yes, of course whisky at the Ardbeg.

Drams are made of this

The Ardbeg boasts 12 bespoke bedrooms and suites inspired by the distillery’s history.

With the owners promising that each has a secret miniature dram tucked away for you to find.

With clues to local myths embedded in the artwork, and subtle touches that nod to the island’s characters and folklore.

Several of the bedrooms can be set up with a king bed, or twin single beds in the Fèis, Creation, Legend, Wild or Rebel rooms.

Four rooms boast a separate sofa-bed – the Legend, Monster, Untamed, and Invention rooms with a third person costing an extra £65/night.

Signature dishes and nips

Of course you’ll be wined and dined with the best local produce.

Which means the Signature Restaurant.

With its pan-fried Islay sea trout, Ardbeg smoked venison pie, Islay cauliflower schnitzel.

Local hand-dived king scallops, and Islay duck cannelloni.

While the Islay Bar is the holy of holies for Ardbeg’s distinctive smoky, peaty whisky.

And altruistically they serve the best offerings from the other Islay distilleries.

As well as craft beers, small-batch gins, and island-made produce.

You can bus it, ferry it with CalMac or fly with Loganair with our friends at the Islay tourist board always there to help you.

Superior rooms at Ardbeg House are from £297 per room per night and £341 per room per night for premier suites.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

An Edinburgh beach resort that is the home of ice cream

11th March 202611th March 2026 funtime65

Bergamo’s is bellissimo, America’s awesome and the Caribbean’s chilled but it’s an Edinburgh beach resort that is the home of ice cream.

If you’re in and around the Scottish capital just now, then get yourself down to Oscar’s Gelato in Portobello.

And sample from any of their 30 flavours from Biscoff (not a clue) to Bubblegum, in the best ice cream store in Britain.

Or their Best Open Flavour pistachio sorbet and Best Sorbet lemon and butter sorbet.

Although we all scream a different sound for ice cream, and our choice would be rum’n’raisin or strawberry.

Oscar’s ceremony

The choice of Oscar’s, which has been drawing in gelatophiles from far and wide since 2020, is fitting.

As Portobello has long held a special place in the ice cream world.

As it was here at 99 Portobello High Street that the 99 ice cream originated.

Back in 1922 when Stefano Arcari responded to a visiting Cadbury rep.

By breaking a large Flake in half and sticking it in an ice cream.

All of which fills the residents of my old stomping ground with pride.

Ice cream Porty

Alas, Cadbury doesn’t give Porty the credit it deserves.

And get this they would rather big up a rival claim, the Italians of mountainous Veneto.

With a rather more dramatic and histrionic story.

Italians party like it’s 99

That the 99 honours the final wave of Italian First World War conscripts.

Born in 1899 and referred to as ‘i Ragazzi del 99‘ (‘the Boys of ’99).

With the chocolate flake said to remind ice cream sellers of the long dark feather cocked at an angle.

In the conscripts’ Alpini Regiment hats.

All of which seems a little far-retched.

Countries, Culture, Food & Wine, UK

The world’s oldest check tartan really is English

9th March 20269th March 2026 funtime65

Geordies are oft tagged Scots with their heads bashed in… now add to that their claim that the world’s oldest check tartan really is English.

The back story is that we’ve just spent International Women’s Day with The Scary One and her mum in their English homeland.

In Alnwick in Northumberland, only an hour and a half from our North Berwick home on Scotland’s south-east coast.

And learning about how fluid our stories are, with Northumberland having changed hands countless times in Borders skirmishes.

Which must explain how check tartan plaid first showed up in the third-century AD before more northern peoples took it on.

On track in Alnwick

It has in truth been a two-way street between Scotland and the north-east English county.

And our venture into the Alnwick institution that is the repurposed train station and now bookshop/cafe, closed after the war, Barter Books … and which reveals all.

The best story: With the Scary One and her mum

With iconic Scots Oor Wullie and The Broons showcased on the shelves and Billy Connolly to the fore.

Read all about it

On the shoulders of giants: The greats of literature

Barter Books is of course, more than a second-hand bookshop.

One of the biggest in the country and expanded since it first opened 35 years ago.

With its most notable addition its renowned buffet from a room they never even knew they had but fell upon a dozen years after first opening.

And which we sit in today by an open fireplace and historical pictures from Northumbrian yore with The Top-Hatted Station Master purveying the scene.

The rest is gravy: The famous roast beef sandwich

It is here that we sit eating our roast beef and onion gravy sandwiches, recommended as indeed Barter has been by Daughterie, and coffee stout.

Everybody screams for ice cream

And if that doesn’t fill you up you can reward yourself with ice cream, cakes or speciality coffees from Paradise, the former Stationmasters office.

We are glad to have got a table at all as Barter Buffet can become busy and visitors have been known to queue to get in.

Perhaps it is because regulars to BB, 45 miles north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, clearly linger over their food, with a good book from the shop.

Of course, in the best company, it would be rude to read although when the conversation drifted I took in the artefacts, the top-hatted lamp shades.

And the pictures of what look like Scots but are really Northumbrians in those 3rd-century black-and-white check tartans.

Wham bam Bamburgh

Now you can easily spend the whole day, and Barter is open every day but Christmas Day, but any day tripper must take in the dramatic Bamburgh Castle before heading home.

Of course, we haven’t left ourselves enough time, and anyway we must always leave ourselves another reason to return and we will.

But before we go we take in the celebrated wooden-panelled Copper Kettle cafe in the quaint village.

And high teas with pots of tea that would sate any hungry hiker and scones and jam reserves or cake treats.

Countries, Culture, Deals, Food & Wine, Ireland

If Ireland did boozy St Patrick’s Day breakfasts

1st March 20261st March 2026 funtime65

If Ireland did boozy St Paddy’s Day breakfasts… well, they do, and the Ruby Molly has promised to get the party started early.

So early, in fact, that they’re starting the night before on March 16, with what they’re billing a Pre-Parade celebration.

The action gets going with an hour of free welcome drinks between 4pm and 5pm and a Dublin feast of food.

Featuring those Irish classics Guinness, Jameson whiskey and, er William Grant.

See they do cater for their diaspora from Scotland.

While it wouldn’t be Dublin if there wasn’t a singalong.

And the Ruby Molly has Jerry Miles to entertain you while you scoff your specially curated menu inspired by Irish classics.

Tour de force

You’ll be perfectly situated for the Dublin Grand Parade, just ten minutes from the hub that is Temple Bar.

And the Guinness Storehouse within strolling distance for the best panoramic views of the city from the Gravity Bar, and best pint of plain.

Although family loyalties will always mean we point in the direction of the Liffeyside institution that is the Workshop bistro bar, next to the Tara Street Dart (or train) station.

While if you’re wanting some culture, or just get away from the crowds for a breather.

Then Trinity College and its Book of Kells and the National Gallery are havens of peace.

Of course, it’s no coincidence that the Ruby group dedicated their hotel to arguably Dublin’s most famous citizen, one Molly Malone.

Molly’s Dublin

As its location in Oxmanstown on the north of the river is solid market trading land.

Where you’d not be surprised to find Mrs Brown or her boys.

Once the site of an abbey, the rediscovery of parts of its vault in the 1880s, 7 feet under the street, adds to the mystical allure surrounding the hotel.

Drawing inspiration from the vibrant covered market of 1892, Ruby Molly channels former market trader Anna Lawlor’s story.

A place where farmers sold their fresh produce.

Including the much-coveted strawberries that adorned the tables of Dublin’s finest hotels.

And well-endowed Dublin lasses sold their cockles and mussels, alive-oh.

Rates from €345 (16–18 March). Images and further details available on request.

Caribbean, Countries, Food & Wine, Music

Dub jammin’ with Celtic reggae

11th February 202611th February 2026 funtime65

It’s one love that Jamaicans and the Irish share which is why we brought our evening of travel networking to a bass jumpin’ climax Dub jammin’ with Celtic reggae.

Two islands forged in struggles against the British Empire it was natural that the Godfather of Reggae Bob Marley should gravitate towards Ireland.

And play his last outdoor concert at Dalymount Park in Dublin in the summer of 1980.

The One Love or An Afternoon in the Park gig on July 6 of that year.

I’m all right, Jack: A pirate of the Caribbean

When he braved his failing health to play before a packed stadium, generously charged as little as I£7 to see a global superstar.

Back in the day when any superstar would bodyswerve Ireland in favour of Britain.

The Irish, of course, never forget and Bob remains such a hero today that the Bohemians football club commemorated the concert with a special football shirt of the Great Man.

Let’s get together

Whisper it but our tickets were even cheaper for our celebration of all things Bob, Reggae and Jamaica.

With a home-grown Celtic Reggae band at the Botanical Garden Opium at the end of our annual Meet the Media networking travel fair.

And don’t worry, nothing that strong was inhaled!

Jamaica has become a growing market, for the reasons of kindred links, love of music, drink, partying and sun… well, OK, only one of the two islands has that.

And, of course, we have road tested the Caribbean and its Celtic roots for you and can vouch that we’re all brothers by another mother or sisters by a different mister.

Now having chewed the fat, or the jerk chicken, with our friends at Tropical Sky and toasted their 20 years in business with Appleton rum.

We got the skinny too on the best offers out there.

Isle sign up for a couples break

And were taken especially by the Couples trips particularly as I went Single Pringle without my partygoer back in the day while she ducked out to stay home with the kids!

And so Couples Tower Isle is an idyllic five-star all-inclusive seven-nighter from £1,629pp including flights.

With a stunning private island just a 100 yards boat ride away.

Now because only the best do for Herself Couples Tower Isle looks just about suitable.

With its four swimming pools, three Jacuzzis and a large beachfront.

We’re gonna jam it with you: The Great Man

The Oasis Spa Villas offers a private sun terrace, a personal plunge pool, and unlimited spa services customised for you by the spa concierge.

And there are complimentary excursions including Dunns River Falls, Sunset Catamaran Cruise and a trip to Margaritaville.

Unlimited scuba diving for certified divers or a beginner’s course with introductory dive.

Yes, or Irie, as they say in these parts, dive into Jamaica, pick up their distinctive vibe and recognise it in your Scots and Irish Celtic roots.