And another thing…

Hi Tom,

I’ve always wanted to try haggis but never got round to it, living in Birmingham as I am!

Sorry to post off-topic. I thought you might be interested in this since I know you’re strongly supporting the Save General Election Night campaign. I’ve compiled this spreadsheet which combines the latest information from the Electoral Commission with the Tories’ top 200 targets (since they’re the ones supposed to be winning seats at the next election). I’m updating it as more information becomes available. Hope it’s useful.

Thanks,
Andy JS

Here’s the link:
http://tinyurl.com/ye6vutz

Point of order: the plural of haggis cannot be ‘haggi’ any more than the plural of bus can be ‘bi’.

There is no US ban on vegetarian haggis, incidentally. which some of much prefer. Groundskeeper Willie didn’t help haggis’ image -

‘Chopped heart and lungs. Boiled in a wee sheep’s stomach. Tastes as good as it sounds’

And even Dubya Bush had the sense to refuse at Gleneagles -

‘My mother used to say, “What do you want to eat?” and I don’t ever remember saying ‘Haggis, Mom’”

Haggis might not even be Scottish of course. The first recorded instance of the word ‘haggis’ is in an old English recipe book.

Starling fact about Scottish food history: pies were condemned by the Bishop of St Andrews in 1430 as a ‘wicked’ English indulgence.

Back to my organic cereal!

You know, it *is* a serious issue…

Any firm involved in the manufacture of haggis will tell you they’d love a crack at the US ex-pat and diaspora market.

Since lamb offal isn’t used in the US (I believe lungs are illegal in fact), and various other factors, haggis is almost impossible to obtain.
Indeed, I once heard that people were smuggling it over the border from Canada!
If (and it is doubtful) the US Congress and FDA could be persuaded to drop the ban on haggis, the untapped export market of haggis could be tremendous – once you convince people that will happily eat spray-cheese and “chilli-dogs” that haggis is safe to eat, that is.

they look so sad lying on that plate – I’d rather think of them scampering over the mountains.

I wasn’t aware that Haggis was banned in the USA, so turned to Google to investigate.

The first story that cropped up was a news item on the BBC, from January 2008 where the Scottish Government was petitioning for the ban to be lifted.

What have they been doing for the past couple of years?

and advertisement’s for BUPA too

Enjoyed your contribution to DP yesterday and almost agreed with you.

It is interesting that you all skated around the need to get the electorate out to vote in greater numbers to lend greater legitamacy to the present system, and AV will not correct that anomaly

Is there such a thing as a Halal Haggis? Or a Kosher Haggis? Or, indeed, a cruelty free, fair trade Haggis?

OK. Lets be clear about this. That is NOT food. Please keep it North of the border

We’ll have your Malt Whisky though. Keep the blended.

If the aliens ever come and decide to make celestial haggis out of us, (just as we on earth believe it right to eat creatures less intelligent than ourselves), the smokers will be safe.

Who’d eat those lungs?

As a confirmed Southerner I am very fond of haggis. These days I have it sliced and fried for breakfast. If you haven’t tried it you don’t know what you are missing. It’s great.

They look like wild haggis to me. Didn’t this government ban haggis hunting?

Ugh Haggis. when you think where it has been a sheeps stomach and all that. I prefere an egg.

I love haggis, its made in Norfolk and shipped to the Black Watch as it won their blind tasting competition.

Mc Sweens / is my favorite but I bet you have a local butcher Tom.

My understanding was that it’s being lifted…

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/americas-long–wait-for-haggis-may-be-over-1877936.html

Amen to that Liberanos, cough splutter, Amen!

I had haggis and chips from Guido’s in Coustonholm Road yesterday evening after work. Extremely good for £3.50. I prefer good chip shop haggis in batter, but the night before we had Simon Howie’s haggis from Sainsbury’s – half price since after Burns’ Night – done in the microwave, with veggies. Very nice.

Haggis is poor folks food. It uses all the offal and spices it up to disguise the fact it isn’t exactly the best meat you’re eating.

Same principle really as other spicy foods except without the sheep’s stomach in most cases.

You can get it sliced in the butchers, au naturelle, or in a tin. The haggis in a tin is nice spread on toast.

But as my friend Keira Hardie says nothing beats a good haggis supper.

I heard on R4’s Farming Today (this morning) that the skin of the Haggis has been imported from South America since the late 1980s due to the ban from using GB ones.

Following Latin declensions, the plural would surely be hagges.

Haggis soup is good. It’s excellent done in a slow cooker. The only problem, for me, is that whilst local butchers in Caithness may claim to sell freshly killed haggis, they don’t sell organic haggis… plastic skin, sheesh!

MacSween’s for me.

>> Haggis might not even be Scottish of course. The first recorded instance of the word ‘haggis’ is in an old English recipe book.

This is true. It comes from the same source as hack.

I was fairly certain that haggis had a roman origin.

Can you tell I am not very busy this morning?

Don’t think Latin applies here, Tom, but if it did the plural wouldn’t be hagii for god’s sake, it would be, as Alec says, hagges.

Which school did you go to? Clearly not a PFI funded new liebour socialist fascist one!