Anthony Bourdain explores Glasgow, Scotland: its independence debate, its violence-reduction history, Indian food culture, and Highland game cooking.
Key Takeaways
- Violence reduction works best when treated as a public health issue addressing root causes like early childhood experiences.
- Glasgow's cultural identity blends toughness, loyalty, and humor, challenging its outsider reputation.
- Scotland's independence debate reflects deep, ongoing tensions about identity and governance.
- Scottish food traditions reflect a mix of local ingredients, historical trade, and immigrant influences.
What the video covers
- Bourdain opens with a pint in a 1510 Glasgow pub and reflects on the city's character as a gutsy, historically rich place.
- The 2014 Scottish independence referendum is discussed: 55% voted to stay in the UK, while strong pro-independence sentiment persisted, especially among young voters.
- Glasgow is described as divided between the affluent west end and the rougher east side, with a tough local culture of loyalty and resilience.
- Detective John Carnochan describes the Violence Reduction Unit, which treated violence as a public health issue and focused on early-years intervention, cutting violent crime to a 40-year low.
- Bourdain notes that statistically a visitor's risk of violent attack in Glasgow is very low, and reflects on the city's humor and self-deprecation.
- Glasgow's Indian food scene, shaped by East India Company trade routes, is highlighted through meals like lamb curry and chicken tikka masala.
- The episode features a deep-fried food challenge, with Bourdain reacting to Glasgow's signature fried dishes.
- Bourdain travels to the Highlands to join a grouse-hunting trip, discussing the land's history of clan ownership and today's concentration of land among fewer than 500 people.
- The hunt includes stalking grouse and deer, with a guide explaining the preparation and the tradition of the season.
- The episode closes with a traditional Highland game dinner featuring grouse with bread sauce, clapshot, and game stock, reflecting on Scotland's food traditions.
Chapters
- 00:00Opening Pint in a 1510 Glasgow Pub
- 03:43Glasgow's Independence Debate and Identity
- 05:46East vs. West Side and Local Culture
- 07:46Detective Carnochan and the Violence Reduction Unit
- 09:46Indian Food and Glasgow's Reputation
- 13:29Glasgow's Humor and Deep-Fried Food
- 25:50Highlands: Land Ownership and Grouse Hunting
- 38:20Highland Game Dinner and Traditions
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
everything changes nothing changes at i took all walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] drinking at 4 30 in the afternoon it's the perfect time the light is just
Speaker A
right it's important also it's not too crowded it's quiet you can have a drink in a pint a dignified fashion free of care hey son no thank you thank you so much so you're on holiday uh sort of is your first time in glasgow
Speaker A
no i've been a number of times before i haven't been in uh this pub before though oldest in 1510 was the building 15 10.
Speaker A
[Music] for my very first time [Music] it was glasgow my favorite city in scotland one of my favorite cities on earth i was going to say one of my favorite cities in europe but is glasgow europe i don't think so it feels somehow
Speaker A
older than that [Music] to many outsiders glasgow is seen as a hard scrabble even fearsome place a place that history has moved on from but there is definitely a sense here that something different is around the corner what will be one of
Speaker A
the most important events in scottish and british history more than 4 million people will decide whether scotland should stay in the uk or become an independent country [Music] [Music] but in the end 55 of scots voted to stay
Speaker A
in the union that left almost half the population still hungry for independence and with 73.5 percent of teenagers voting yes england had its undies very much in a bunch over the possibility of an unraveling of the union with scotland
Speaker A
it's an idea that is overwhelmingly popular in this city above all others [Applause] glasgow is a gutsy city i'm told there's gonna be big changes a different outlook regeneration let's tell you the cries of yesterday [Applause] why does the possibility of independence
Speaker A
have such a powerful hold on glasgow the past glasgow has long endured among other things a reputation for being the most violent area in the uk it's a familiar cycle analogous in many ways to what we see elsewhere
Speaker A
hard times disappearing manufacturing base unemployment a general sense of apathy that the government can't or won't fix what's broken that in the corridors of power in london in edinburgh they just don't give a [ __ ] about glasgow
Speaker A
especially glasgow's east side like a lot of cities like most cities in fact glasgow is divided the river clyde divides the north and south sides but the bigger more tangible divide is between east and west the west things are expected to be well
Speaker A
nice nice cars nice families all the nice stuff that affluent supposedly brings [Music] east side that's where you grow up hard where things are rougher where you've got according to popular legend to fight to live every day in scotland if you're a young boy in
Speaker A
scotland and you're nine or ten and you're coming home from school and a big guy beats you up and you run home with your mum crying you know what she'll do she'll give you a cuddle and then she'll tell you to get
Speaker A
back out there and get them don't let anybody ever do that to you and if you need to get a stick get a stick if you need a brick get a brick don't let anybody do it to you that's
Speaker A
what we do and it makes us dangerous enemies are resourceful enemies but it also makes us very loyal allies [Music] detective john carnation 38 years on the job much of it as murder police on the east side he's seen it all confronted with violent
Speaker A
hooliganism the traditional approach has always been to get out there and bust some heads make some stats put up some numbers lock up some perpetrators but after decades of dealing with generation after generation of violence much of it gang-related he took an
Speaker A
unusual and controversial new tactic along with a colleague john established a special unit within the strathclyde police called the violence reduction unit and focused their efforts on the social problems that he felt led directly to violent crime his peers unsurprisingly were dubious
Speaker A
but as of 2014 scotland is at a 40-year low in violent crime retired from the force karnaschan now advises law enforcement around the world when in town though he likes to come here typical scottish fair mother india for a lamb curry simmered in spicy
Speaker A
tomato gravy served with traditional scottish naan bread [Music] i knew glasgow was traditionally a tough town mm-hmm i've always seen plasma as a warm welcoming place it's always been one of my favorite places in this part of the world to visit so do
Speaker A
you think the town's reputation is deserved or is this a no i mean in terms of the level of violence the fights are the facts that that's that's there but statistically if you don't live or come from glasgow your chances
Speaker A
have been a victim of a violent attack in glasgow it's something like point zero zero zero i've never ever ever felt and i've done a fair amount of really a fair amount of stupid behavior here uh fair amount of drinking
Speaker A
um a fair amount of of you know putting myself in this sort of you know situations that they advise visitors to a new town i've never ever felt uncomfortable here on the other hand i could be i could be
Speaker A
i could be wrong in that after a few drinks i noticed that i don't understand anyone so they could be making various threats of violence to me at the bar and i could just be smiling and nodding indian food is of course huge here as it
Speaker A
is everywhere in the uk you could venture a guess that it's the cold damp and often dreary weather that causes the heart to yearn for spicy food from hotter climates but it's more likely it began with the trade routes established
Speaker A
by the east india company in the 17th century and returning sailors and that whole takeover india thing all i can say is pass the josh so how do you reduce violence i mean traditionally we just need more police get out there crack some skulls
Speaker A
throw some more people in jail and problem solve yep that's a good number of americans probably still believe that very much we we're very fond of throwing people in prison uh to suggest otherwise would be seen as coddling criminals absolutely and it was
Speaker A
the same here we want to make a blind about a difference to the levels of violence we started to think about an entirely different way violence is a public health issue we all have the capacity for violence people learn how not to be violent
Speaker A
and that's why early years is important because things that happen then will affect their whole life course about how they make decisions about themselves and how they judge how they judge risk no matter how good the police service is
Speaker A
it will just contain and manage the problem it won't make it better first of all it's not what i'd expect to hear from you know somebody who's spent about 38 years with murder police presumably busting heads and arresting people
Speaker A
um that we should hug these little bastards yeah absolutely that we should make them feel like they're worth something i mean i get it i believe it absolutely but everything you've been saying is no way to run for office in my
Speaker A
country you shouldn't [Laughter] but i mean if you say like this is going to take a generation they go politicians don't know about generations right the next election for goodness i'm worried about the newscast on monday at six o'clock
Speaker A
headlines yeah absolutely the truth is we don't have it like here either tony we don't have it sorted here but we're on a journey so what's going right here come on let's face it this is one of the most
Speaker A
awesome cities anywhere people that's how it's going individuals starting to get together celic this is [ __ ] we kind of keep doing this let's try something different [Music] look i don't want to give you the impression that glasgow is an
Speaker A
impoverished wasteland filled with violent hooligans and gang members an impression shared by many candy-ass europeans for sure and a reputation that many glaswegians are only too happy to perpetuate let's face it detroit or new orleans most american cities make this town look
Speaker A
like club med by comparison glasgow remains the region's no [ __ ] zone what i find most endearing in this town is that if you're a native you're probably an expert at taking the piss a high-level style of ball busting that
Speaker A
approaches an art form around here well let's get to it back at work again [Music] no one excels more at deflating the pompous making fun of self-importance turning even the darkest tragedy in a comedy than the glaswegians that's if you could understand the
Speaker A
bastards [Music] this can be a challenge particularly after a few pints of heavy or a couple of bottles of buckfast [Applause] a glasgow has a reputation as a hard drinking two-fisted town yeah i've always found it to be
Speaker A
this funny very very funny town i mean this everybody's a natural very dark humor if you say in america my father's died people immediately are so sympathetic in glasgow if you say my father's died glaswegians say what size was his shoes
Speaker A
we have that janey godly grew up in the east end married into an organized crime dynasty worked as a bartender became a very famous playwright author and stand-up comedian i thought i'd meet her here at rogano's a very old school
Speaker A
institution [Music] jamie's working some goat cheese thing with figs for me scottish oysters are an irresistible impulse they are magnificent by the way what a lot of people abroad don't understand is the women are the backbone of many of the
Speaker A
communities because the men were always drunk um and working in the shipyards and dying young and that still exists tony the age expectancy is still 55. in fallujah iraq it's 65.
Speaker A
wow it's pretty extraordinary thing yeah i know and there's still a lot of crying there's still drugs there's still a lot of alcohol problems but i think the fact that we are a bit shy helps us because we had the commonwealth games
Speaker A
here and i love that everybody tried not to shout in the street and swear and sell stolen goods in public i love that they all had this covert operation of let's be nice for a week i love that
Speaker A
main course janie goes for the pan-fried grill but me i can't pass up ocean liner continental classic from days gone by like the fabulously unfashionable tyrannosaurus rex of seafood dishes lobster thermador [Music] without irony the lobster is scottish as
Speaker A
is the cheese the eggs everything really though do you have anything to say on the glaswegian diet the diet that means the story is that the the uh health-wise as far as heart problems right behind tonga for all-time worst least healthy it's a
Speaker A
bad thing it's really weird because when i was a kid we were poor we ate fish butter beans potatoes then we would have liver and onions and potatoes and cabbage and peas and then somewhere from the mid 70s
Speaker A
onwards it just became crap and now you've got a generational woman who don't know how to make a pot of soup to be a real glaswegian tonight housewife you have to be able to make a pot of soup
Speaker A
i can't make soup the joke is apparently i'm good at sex sex takes five minutes soup can take days and it smells [ __ ] my husband's never asked for soup so that works [Music] there's a terrific music scene in
Speaker A
glasgow the pubs are among the finest anywhere they say glaswegians have more fun at a funeral than people in edinburgh have at a wedding that does invite from time to time admittedly a fair amount of knuckle-headed behaviors if you're
Speaker A
looking for a beer and a beating glasgow will happily provide it the toughness thing is no joke if you ever tried to choke a small glaswegian into unconsciousness as i have long story let me tell you it's like
Speaker A
wrestling with an angry fire plug it's nearly impossible also it hurts access to guns is extremely difficult here so scottish hoodlums unable to dispatch their victims with the kind of speed and efficiency as we enjoy in the good old
Speaker A
usa has had traditionally to resort to the knife to do its maiming and killing the old country way one person at a time the stabbing might not get more than a few lines down the column in the glasgow
Speaker A
papers because in this city of violence ordinary stamping is hardly news anymore where knife violence is an affliction there must be a cure meet mark davies he began his career working as a bouncer in some of the east
Speaker A
side's toughest drinking establishments where he had plenty of opportunities to hone his skills now he runs tactical edge teaching close combat and knife defense to uk special operators and security companies come at him with a knife the overwhelming likelihood is that it will
Speaker A
soon be hanging out of your ass generally these courses start come at me with a knife and a guy comes at you like it's friday it's friday the 13th yeah and pretty much nobody outside of friday the 13th
Speaker A
in my experience has ever come at anyone like this um if someone does come they're rushing at you and with multiple yeah manic frenzy of multiple uh jabbing or slashing movements yes your attacker has been affected by adrenaline
Speaker A
in such a state the forebrain has started to shut down yeah so no longer really capable of cognitive thought so you tend to get these repeated lines of attack you know if they're going for the stomach it tends to be a sewing machine kind of
Speaker A
action is your first order of business deflecting or getting the damn knife away from them right i'm either going to gain control of the weapon or go to a returning blade technique where i can control the weapon and return it
Speaker A
to sender right yeah show me okay [Music] the thing about knife defense is there's no there's no magic bullet any technique can fail any technique can go wrong and if there's multiple opponents it can get a bit difficult as well
Speaker A
[Music] yeah the sort of thing yeah right so if we've got the knife held up close okay yeah so my clap pull hit now i'm going to force this thing back into your sternum repeatedly what we call the woodpecker
Speaker A
right yeah okay so you know two hands on kick first boot back and forth right charge that's it short so atm mugging okay i'm gonna pin your hand to me sorry i own the weapon right and i'm gonna slap backwards into the
Speaker A
groin yep so i'm gonna hit come up grab yeah no i'm going to introduce point a we're going to be yeah that sucks now when i do that a few times it's like taking a baked potato in the microwave it's going
Speaker A
to be really hot you want to let go so back back back back again it's a little bit more closing and right fishes everybody doesn't see it yeah so clear the weapon just shift it aside name in the balls
Speaker A
that was an educational prompt really enjoyed that huh [Music] last night in glasgow and enough with the deeper issues now i want to go no deeper than the bottom of a bubbling cauldron of hot grease it's out there
Speaker A
it's calling to me i want it now a happy place from my past where once i frolicked young and carefree in the field of fry-elated arts the university cafe where i learned at the foot of the masters the dao of hot fat and crispy batter
Speaker A
yes they do a deep-fried mars bar here and deep-fried pizza been there done that but carlo here and his twin brother have been keeping the vorekia family tradition alive since 1918 and it ain't about no mars bar [Music]
Speaker A
i'm tempted to just go completely nuts for all of the things that i like like pie beans and chips like i don't even know what kind of pie but i want it the macaroni and cheese is tempting i guess i'm doing couldn't resist that
Speaker A
geez bino i don't even know what that is but i i kind of want it ooh sausage roll i do like a good sausage i order the fish and chips and some haggis paddock battered and floating adrift in
Speaker A
a sea of mysterious life-giving oil the accumulated flavors of many magical things as it bobs like noah's ark bringing life in all its infinite variety deep fried haggis my personal favorite sinister sheep parts in tube form in this case and if you
Speaker A
don't like chopped up liver and lungs and all that good stuff believe me the curry sauce sets you right the combination of french fries or chips in the local dialect with curry sauce and with cheese is perhaps a bro too far
Speaker A
guy fieri in a kilt but what the hey i'm pretty sure god is against this oh yeah definitely oh that's good it doesn't eat well with a fork you really got to pick this up i'm so ashamed [Music]
Speaker A
um oh yeah clean living [Music] that's really one of life's great pleasures don't let them tell you otherwise they're lying about you mr haggis [Music] there was no more unfairly reviled food on earth than its ingredients are in fact
Speaker A
no more unusual or bizarre or unappetizing than any hot dog you ever ate you know how many anal plants are in a chicken nugget i don't know and i'm not suggesting there are anal glands in a chicken nugget
Speaker A
would you be surprised if there were we'll get to the bottom of this back to you wolf [Music] heading north out of glasgow scotland quickly becomes something else a savagely beautiful harsh but absolutely mesmerizing landscape that seems to have changed not at all for
Speaker A
thousands even millions of years and across loch marie and accessible only by boat one of the great isolated estates letter u it's the favorite retreat of my friend adrian gill more widely known as a.a gill he's the much feared and widely followed
Speaker A
restaurant critic for the london sunday times a regular columnist for a spectrum of magazines author traveler and one of the finest essayists of our time letter u as it stands today was built as a shooting lodge deer stalking like they do here
Speaker A
is something from another era but it persists in places like this which both protect and cull deer populations if you are like us of course two murderous aristocrats looking to put some venison on the table you need help professional help and
Speaker A
estates like letter u come with a stalker stephen miller has been working here for eight seasons now both protecting the animals who live on it and helping people like us in the arduous and delicate task the sneaking up on them
Speaker A
we would as gentlemen of leisure require a cook and adrian has recommended the supremely well-suited fiona culinaine who excels at this kind of scottish traditional game cookery for dinner it's grouse shot then hung until the already funky game bird gets
Speaker A
pleasingly ripe the birds are rubbed inside and out with salt and pepper some fresh thyme jammed in the cavity browned in the pan plenty of butter to baste with in traditional game bird cookery of the british isles bread sauce
Speaker A
is a must we don't do this in america but here it's essential basically it's milk simmered with flavoring agent like an onion pk nutmeg and bay leaf then thickened with raspings of bread grouse barted with bacon then roasted in
Speaker A
the oven nicely rare to medium rare they're removed to rest and the pan deglaze with red wine game stock is added and the sauce reduced topped with watercress alongside some parsnips and beet root so explain what we're eating because
Speaker A
this is as classic as it gets right and this is this is specifically scottish this is a grass which is the only the only truly wild game bird in britain they're the most highly priced as a sporting bird they're the
Speaker A
most difficult shoot but more importantly they're the most prized to eat and this bread sauce thing what what is that bread sauce which is so you really have to grow up here to love this it's like pottage it's a
Speaker A
it's a socks it's a very it's a very old dish and it but it goes very well with the the grouse they're a very gamey meat it's a very grown-up taste that is that is slightly slightly repellent but it it is within that it is
Speaker A
particularly alluring right it's and there is something also sexual about it that people don't often talk about right so good i i went to a vegetarian school my parents sent me to a vegetarian boarding school and i said for nine years
Speaker A
the year after i left i was a vegetarian nine years as a vegetarian that's unthinkable to me and then i decided not to be and i made the decision that if i was going to eat meat again that i had to be prepared
Speaker A
to do the whole business right you got to be accountable for all of it for all of it so i started getting fish with the guts in and gutting them and then and then you go and then and then in the end you get
Speaker A
someone says well come on you know you want to eat it come and kill it and you go well then i have to do that as well and when i started doing it was like coming home and that's the thing with being on the
Speaker A
[Music] hill until the 19th century the scottish highlands were seen by many as a mysterious hostile and dangerous land populated when populated at all by scary-ass barbarians descendants of the terrifying picts tribes so ferocious so extravagant in their violence and
Speaker A
toughness that even the roman legions decided not to mess with them and instead built a wall hoping to just keep them out and away from civilized society later hunting estates like this were home to tenant farmers who scratched out
Speaker A
a living growing oats and potatoes owned by landed gentry by various royals the highland clans mackenzie mcdonnell and macleod to name a few later by newer money fabulously wealthy foreigners today around half the land in scotland is owned by fewer than 500 people
Speaker A
it's an anachronism dismaying to some i grant you but seductive as well because who wouldn't do this if they could enjoy this kind of rugged solitude from the comfort of a warm inviting 17th century lodge warm one's legs by the fire play a
Speaker A
little snooker enjoy a fine single malt or two a substantial game meal maybe another whiskey perhaps contemplate the mysteries of the universe under a starry sky then to sleep into the arms of morpheus to rise in the morning as bringer of
Speaker A
[Music] death [Music] stephen and adrian keep calling it the hill but that ain't no hill i ever seen it's a behemoth an endless range of behemoths one mountain giving way to a moor giving way to another mountain then more then more
Speaker A
there might be a hill somewhere in there but it's probably between mountains after a five mile uphill walk and though i am to be modest in the best shape of my life of late it's a daunting hike the climb gradual
Speaker A
then steep the footing ranging from rocky to spongy and wet mile after mile me trying to look cool make it seem like this is nothing unusual but really i'm dying [Music] we walk the highlands for hours our stalker stephen finally identifies a red
Speaker A
stag of suitable age and size one ready in the parlance to be taken off the hill getting in a range without scaring him off however is another challenge just to come live we need to circle around the mountain to
Speaker A
close the distance there's not a lot i can do you know you've got to get past them right okay so we go slowly just pretend we're hikers at the moment he hasn't even got a bobble hat what if you put a bobble hat on but do
Speaker A
you think you're a hiker just in front into the can you see the [Music] angles [Music] stick it nice and steady it's unsafe remember take your time [Music] uh [Music] that's a nice dog 10 points is that good
Speaker A
he was never going to get any better you want to use your knife [Music] for shooting your first red stag in scotland we all get blooded it's best if you close your eyes oh okay and and the rule is you have to
Speaker A
leave it on yeah all day when's it going chops [Music] as getting vehicles up here would be both difficult and destructive the estate has maintained the tradition of using highland ponies to retrieve the stock deer they're bred to be strong and trained to
Speaker A
do this work they'll likely make it back sooner than we will thanks chaps we'll catch you later on at some point good boys i thought coming up my legs burning i can't wait till that nice easy downhill walk back
Speaker A
but as i soon find out the walk down is even harder knees screaming face crusted with dried blood i'm looking forward to a warm fire a strong whiskey and some good country ass cooking [Music] so would you fancy with a venice steered
Speaker A
with wine they always marinated juniper and all of that you know super simple okay we'll do that the venison is seasoned with salt and pepper and rosemary seared in duck fat and then into the oven a pan sauce made from the fond red wine
Speaker A
and deep game stock sweetened with currant jelly and finished with a mellowing knob of whole butter served with clap shot basically mashed turnips and potatoes that's it that's the end of the season usually the girls will begin you start killing the girls you have to
Speaker A
traditionally wear the the zipper mask the leather mask to do that and and you and you send them notes beforehand saying i'm watching you i know where you [Music] live [Music] we deserve this well we'll work for that
Speaker A
huh yeah literally the the greatest feat of strength of my entire life never at any time in my entire life have i done anything remotely so physical over a sustained period of time really never look how well you know
Speaker A
at no point previously in my life would i have been able to do it thank you guys cheers best of health folks it's a lot safer now that we're not online [Music] i came to scotland this time to shoot an
Speaker A
animal in the heart to take part to be fully culpable in a practice nearly as old as these hills he walk this country stalking an animal across the rocks and wet heather you feel little less change from how your distant ancestors
Speaker A
must have searched for their food with a rifle with a spear with a club i dragged my knuckles up a hill and like my eight like predecessors returned tired happy and covered in blood everything changes nothing changes at all
Speaker A
[Music] so [Music] [Music] you
Topics:Anthony BourdainParts UnknownGlasgowScotlandScottish independenceviolence reductionHighlandsgrouse huntingIndian foodtravel documentary











