'It's so delicious!' I took the Edinburgh food tour that's converting Americans to haggis

His name is Carlos Anton Moya, and he’s from Galicia.  He has a long ginger-tinged beard, an accent that see-saws from Spain to Scotland, and he totally adores this country. 

There are parallels with his homeland. The bagpipes (known as gaita, over there) for one thing, and the climate. 

After visiting Edinburgh on holiday, nine years ago, he moved here and is now the manager of the Capital’s branch of Secret Food Tours - the leading global tour company, which is based in Shoreditch and now organises tours in 70 cities across the globe.

It turned over £20 million last year and they’re planning to extend the offering to 140 cities globally. 

Food tours are big business.  Thus, I’m giving one a whirl, and experiencing being a visitor to my own city. 

Today, he will be leading me, and three others on this experience, which takes up to 10 people, costs £89pp, and lasts about three hours.

We meet at noon outside St Giles Cathedral, where Moya waits with his bright orange umbrella. 

He usually wears a kilt for the tour, but it’s a bit too chilly today. 

There are other guides in the square, with flags, or signs. I’ve never noticed them before.

“Are you in competition with each other?” I ask Moya. Apparently not, they’re very friendly. 

There were more people booked on our tour today, but he says there are always drop outs, usually due to missed flights or changed itineraries. He says that 90 per cent of his clients are from the US.

Indeed, I’ll be hanging out with husband and wife, Brianne and Colin Duffy, and Colin’s sister, Renee Duffy. The couple are from Florida and Renee is an Amazon lawyer in San Francisco.

They’re in Edinburgh as part of a European trip, which will also involve Iceland, London, Paris and Ireland.

This lot always do a food tour first, whenever visiting a city. 

“It’s a great way to orientate yourself,” says Brianne, who’s in charge of the itinerary.

This tour combines a bit of history, as well as the eating.

After Moya, who also writes children’s books, tells us about the Heart of Midlothian and the Mercat Cross, we cut down a couple of closes. Where are we going?

It turns out it’s The Doric Tavern. It’s been a while. This used to be a regular drinking haunt of The Scotsman journalist colleagues.

We will be sampling a velvety bowlful of Cullen skink. Perfect, on this bone shiveringly dreich October day.

“I don’t even like fish, but I love this,” says Brianne. “Totally cosy food.”

Next, is - ta-da - the haggis. 

Obviously, this is not my first rodeo. However, this will be the first taste for these Americans. It’s still banned in the US.

“Yet, we have Red 40,” says Colin, in reference to the allegedly very dodgy red food dye that’s still used across the pond.

Moya says that he has converted loads of Americans to haggis, on this tour. If they’re not keen, he’ll try to convince them to take a tiny bite. Most say it’s like ‘meatloaf’. The idea of offal is what usually repels people in the first place. As Brianne is originally from Jamaica, she’s not squeamish, since a staple dish from that island is tripe and beans, which she loves.

Also, the group told me that they’d just spent a couple of days in Iceland, where she was the only one brave enough to eat their local delicacy of fermented shark. She enjoyed that, too.

At The Doric Tavern, they’re unusual in that they make their haggis from beef. It’s stickier, and pepperier than my usual, but really satisfying, with large dollops of neeps - or, as Moya translates for the US members of the group, ‘rutabagas’  - plus tatties and whisky gravy on the side.

Moya asks the group if they’ve heard of Robert Burns - they haven’t! - and explains Address to a Haggis. He used to recite this poem as part of the tour, but got complaints from restaurant staff that he was being too noisy and dramatic. See, his blood runs tartan.

Renee isn’t eating any, since she’s a vegetarian, but Colin and Brianne have decided that they want to move here. Not just for the haggis. They all love the cold weather.

Our next stop involves a route via Market Street, where Moya tells us why the thistle is the national flower of Scotland,  a bit about The Balmoral and its links with JK Rowling, and points out Martyrs’ Monument, which resembles the Washington Monument, on Calton Hill.

We pop into Mimi’s Bakehouse. We’re having scones, otherwise known as biscuits in the US.

They originated in Scotland in the 1500s, and Moya shares that Mimi’s is a successive winner of Scottish Baker of the Year 23/24. They create these offerings especially for the food tour, so they’re super fresh.

We have fruit or plain varieties, still warm from the oven, and served with mixed berry jam and clotted cream.

Brianne is very certain that cream goes on first, and I’m with her on that. I can’t believe this same argument is happening in the US.

Once we’re in the thick of a carb slump, it’s just a minute up the road to Jeffrey St Whisky & Tobacco. We get a comfortable seat, beside the pipes, at the back, and three drams to sample.

There’s a Glen Scotia, Glenlossie and a Highland Boundary. They’re all very easy to quaff and accessible. I’m enjoying them, though the others don’t seem totally sold.

Our next consecutive stops include ones for fudge (not Scottish, but we take advantage of free samples at The Fudge Kitchen anyway), cranachan ice-cream and a coffee stop at viral cafe, The Milkman, which is like Instagram catnip. That was already on the Duffy’s list, since they’d seen it on social media. That’s along with Alby’s, Panda & Sons, Lannan, Makars Mash Bar, The Alchemist, and others. I have no idea how they’ll get through all that. They should stay for an extra week. Or, yes, move here. We have all the cold weather they could ever want.

The tourists, with their unbridled enthusiasm, have renewed my love for my city. As has Moya.  

According to him, when you’ve lived somewhere for a long time, you tend to take it for granted. 

He definitely doesn’t, which is why he’s officially the most Scottish man in all of Scotland. 

www.secretfoodtours.com