Yes
MaryZ, Irn Bru is a Scottish fizzy drink that embodies just about all that is bad about the Scottish diet - the only thing it doesn't contain is fat! It is full of sugar, artificial colouring and general rubbish - and it is worshipped by many Scots, along with such delights as cheesy pasta, a revolting packet mix for macaroni cheese that comes out
bright orange.
Black pudding is, IMO, more of speciality of the north of England - you could probably get umpteen varieties of it in butchers in the Lake District. The Scots have probably embraced it because it is bad for you! It has also been taken up by some chefs - part of the "it's cool to eat poor people's food" brigade, if you know what I mean. For example, lamb shanks used to be, as they say in Glasgow, cheap as chips, but since Jamie Oliver made them fashionable they are now unaffordable by the people who used to buy them. In France you can get "boudin blanc", which is a similar thing to black pudding, but (obviously
) white. In Stonehaven (home of the deep fried Mars Bar....) you can get battered pudding. I think this says it all about the Scottish diet.
But as I have said, there is a sharp contrast between what most people in Scotland eat (see above) and good Scottish cooking, which is served up in many wonderful B & Bs, hotels, etc - things like venison, pheasant, cranachan;
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usrecipes/cranachan/ Cullen skink, salmon, etc. And, as you say, some very good ice cream is made locally - in Aberdeenshire we had the Mackie farms, whose ice cream is really delicious, and there are other local brands in Galloway, East Lothian, etc.
It's not all bad - but I have to admit that a lot of it still is!
Rosemary
