If you're planning a trip to the UK, you've probably noticed on your hotel voucher that your room includes a Full Scottish (or English) Breakfast. Breakfast, to me, is the best meal of the day here, although it is no question different from American breakfast. There aren't Lucky Charms or any sugary cereals for breakfast. (Rumor has it Lucky Charms are illegal here, but you can order them online through AmericanSoda.co.uk) Porridge is usually on the menu, along with mushrooms, grilled or stewed tomatoes, fried bread, potato scones and black pudding. My grandfather tried black pudding while he was here, even though I warned him...I don't think it's exactly something Americans might call normal. At breakfast, you might find some kind of fruit, although I think America is bigger about fruit than the rest of the world.

I have a feeling that lunch here is generally lighter fare. Usually I have a jacket potato or some soup. "Jacket," I think, is a fancy word for "baked," although I've heard that some places will take the insides out of the potato and mix them up with the filling before returning it to the skin. Fillings for jacket potatoes include cheese and beans, coronation chicken (which is a bit like chicken curry), chilli, and a number of other things. The Scots truly know how to make potatoes, too, and I can see how a potato famine would do a number on these people. Potatoes are served with every meal, and are incredibly big.

Soup is another thing the Scots have gotten right. Soup here is not like American soup. It isn't Cambell's Chicken Noodle; in fact, it often doesn't have broth (unless the soup is Scotch Broth) and is pretty much just pureed ingredients. In my hall, it's not unusual to find an entire mushroom in mushroom (not cream of mushroom) soup. Sometimes it does need some salt and pepper, but everything here is a bit bland, so salt and pepper have become staples.

Fish and chips are just as big here as in Rhode Island on a Friday. They are very much like Rhode Island's fish and chips, too, but much less greasy. My family was very impressed. I haven't tried them, as I generally try to avoid fried things, but the grilled haddock I had was delicious.

Speaking of chips, chips and cheese is the Brit's version of pizza. Where at Colgate everyone would stop at Slices after a night out, at St. Andrews, everyone ends up at Empire for chips (french fries) and cheese. Not exactly chilli cheese fries you would get in the States, these are more like McDonald's fries with grated cheese on top.

Snack foods in general are a bit different here. I rarely find pretzels, and the times I have found them (in big cities, mainly), they have been made of (surprise!) potatoes. The crisps (potato chips) come in all sorts of weird flavors, like pickled onion, steak and lamb and mint. Chocolate chip cookies are hard to come by, but Cadbury eggs are abound, no matter if it's Easter season or not.

The most different thing of all, however, has got to be haggis. It's infamous, I think, and many people have asked if I've tried it (that's a resounding NO). Basically, it's a sheep's organs all mushed up with other ingredients and shoved in the stomach, and then boiled, usually served with mashed rutabaga (neeps) and potatoes (tatties). Not something for someone even kind of picky about their food.

If you've noticed, I haven't really included poultry on here. I don't think it's eaten quite as much as in the states, which is good in light of the bird flu scare. But we're all avoiding it, either way.