Americans of Scottish extraction - not allowed to eat haggis?

[bassybill]

It's Burns night, after all. Would you be eating proper Scottish haggis if you were allowed to over there? Or would the sheeps' lungs put you off?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21128089

[tastybasslines]

I'm a Glaswegian living in CA.

I've tried Haggis twice, and it's most definitely not for me, with out without sheep lung.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by tastybasslines

I'm a Glaswegian living in CA.

I've tried Haggis twice, and it's most definitely not for me, with out without sheep lung.

Yeah - from that article, it seems like its the lungs content that stops it being available over there. Heart and liver, no problem.

I spent a really weird but fun night in a bar on Santa Monica Blvd. a few years back - the only people in there were me, my gf and a mad Glaswegian barman. He got us drinking Red Bull and Jagermeister all night. It wasn't you was it?

[Stewie26]

Funny you should mention Haggis. I have a friend who's the plays bag pipes for a cool pro band named "Bad Haggis"
He had to explain to me what haggis was. I said no thanks to eating the stuff.

Side Note: If you want to hear some awesome Celtic fusion here is a link to Bad Haggis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yymez...ture=endscreen

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by Stewie26

Funny you should mention Haggis. I have a friend who's the plays bag pipes for a cool band named "Bad Haggis"
He had to explain to me what haggis was.

I'm not Scottish (i.e. I wasn't born in Scotland) or of Scottish descent, but I do like me some haggis - it's very tasty stuff. I can get it down here in England in most supermarkets these days.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Can't beat the great chieftain, though I do find it funny that its banned in the US.

[tastybasslines]

Originally Posted by bassybill

Yeah - from that article, it seems like its the lungs content that stops it being available over there. Heart and liver, no problem.

I spent a really weird but fun night in a bar on Santa Monica Blvd. a few years back - the only people in there were me, my gf and a mad Glaswegian barman. He got us drinking Red Bull and Jagermeister all night. It wasn't you was it?

Near the pier? Ye Old's King Head?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/ye-olde-king...:British%20Pub

I used to have a raucous good time there. They have a fantastic Beatles cover band there on the regular for many, many years. Also, one of the places you want to go for football (not American). I haven't been there in many many years since I don't drink anymore.

[tastybasslines]

Originally Posted by Stewie26

Funny you should mention Haggis. I have a friend who's the plays bag pipes for a cool band named "Bad Haggis"
He had to explain to me what haggis was.

I used to go out with this 4.0 GPA blond girl from UCLA. When we were dating, she asked me what a haggis was. I told her that it is a rare Scottish mountain goat that lives way up in the highlands and that over the years, it's adapted and it's 2 left legs are shorter than it's right legs so it can run around the mountain top better. She fell for it hook, line and sinker. "Oh really? Wow.." It took every ounce of me to keep in the laughter, but couldn't and I just burst out laughing.

[MAJOR METAL]

One of the funnier exchanges I have heard regarding haggis :

"Ramirez: Haggis? What is haggis?
Connor MacLeod: Sheep's stomach, stuffed with meat and barley.
Ramirez: And what do you do with it?
Connor MacLeod: You eat it.
Ramirez: How revolting!"

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by tastybasslines

Near the pier? Ye Old's King Head?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/ye-olde-king...:British%20Pub

I used to have a raucous good time there. They have a fantastic Beatles cover band there on the regular for many, many years. Also, one of the places you want to go for football (not American). I haven't been there in many many years since I don't drink anymore.

No, it wasn't there. The bar I went to was about two miles east of there, about halfway back to where the 405 crosses SMB, on the north side. Can't remember the name of it.

EDIT - found it. McCabe's.

http://goo.gl/maps/v98tW

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by tastybasslines

I used to go out with this 4.0 GPA blond girl from UCLA. When we were dating, she asked me what a haggis was. I told her that it is a rare Scottish mountain goat that lives way up in the highlands and that over the years, it's adapted and it's 2 left legs are shorter than it's right legs so it can run around the mountain top better. She fell for it hook, line and sinker. "Oh really? Wow.." It took every ounce of me to keep in the laughter, but couldn't and I just burst out laughing.

Ha! I like it. But I guess although we're all "Bilateria" in terms of symmetry, natural selection can do some funny things to that. Take a look at any bottom dwelling fish where they've evolved to have both eyes on one side of their head. That always freaks me out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatfish#Evolution

No matter how weird your imagination is, nature will always have come up with something weirder. Sci-fi writers have always struggled with this. The first time I saw "Alien", I sat thinking "Pfft - so what else is new?" Still a great movie, though.

/biology lesson

[DeathFromBelow]

Originally Posted by tastybasslines

I used to go out with this 4.0 GPA blond girl from UCLA. When we were dating, she asked me what a haggis was. I told her that it is a rare Scottish mountain goat that lives way up in the highlands and that over the years, it's adapted and it's 2 left legs are shorter than it's right legs so it can run around the mountain top better. She fell for it hook, line and sinker. "Oh really? Wow.." It took every ounce of me to keep in the laughter, but couldn't and I just burst out laughing.

Hah!

[Avalon]

Hey Bassy Bill, (or anyone else who knows the answer to this) I shall find myself in London during the first week of February and was wondering what establishment I might stop by to try out some real haggis. I have a pretty broad palate when it comes to trying new things, so I shouldn't think that the sheeps lung would be too offputting for me. The only meat that i have ever disliked is tripe (stomach). However, it might not have been properly prepared since it was at a Korean Hibachi place and I cooked it myself.

Now, I do understand that traditional haggis is served in a stomach, but I think I can get passed that. As I've seen it, most people are just eating the pudding from the stomach and not the stomach itself. I have eaten scrapple (a Pennsylvania Dutch meat scrap pudding of sorts) and I find it quite tastey. Assuming you have tried it, would haggis bear any simlarity to scrapple?

So anyway, any thoughts on what establishment I should look for while in London?

[Phalex]

There's a band that plays around here called "Enter the Haggis". Kind of a rockin bagpipe thing.

I've never tried eating lung. (When I go hunting the idea is to destroy them, so even had it occurred to me, it probably wouldn't have been practical)

My dog loves smoked bits of lamb lung. It's a commercial dog treat here, apparently the one thing they can sell the lungs for.

[Jools4001]

I'm not Scottish either and although I quite enjoy a nice haggis, I didn't eat any on Friday night.

I did drink a lot of Balvenie though does that count?

My head has just about recovered, my liver will catch up eventually.

[delta7fred]

I was on a business trip in Edinburgh one Burns night and thought it would be downright disrespectful not to have it, with neeps and taties of course.

When it came there was also a double scotch with it. I protested to the waiter that there was a strict "no alcohol on the meal bill" policy with the company I worked for. He reassured me that the scotch was part of the meal and definitely would not appear on the bill. Probably the nicest tasting blended scotch I have ever drunk.

[seanm]

I've had haggis in Canada, but to be honest I don't know exactly what was in it. It was great every time.

[tekdiver500ft]

Not "allowed" to eat haggis??? No, we're allowed to eat haggis. We can't buy it with lung so we must make it ourselves (I do), but we're allowed to eat it. Personally, I love it, but I was trained as a chef at the Marine Hotel in Troon, so I know how to make it properly.

[Phalex]

No mint in haggis is there?

[tekdiver500ft]

Originally Posted by Phalex

No mint in haggis is there?

No...

Okay, I admit it, you lost me on that one. Unless it's a reference to where I live.