The Savory City

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Burns Night

Last night I attended my very first Burns Night! A Burns Night is a special dinner celebration of the life and works of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns. Some people even dress up in traditional Scottish costumes, which is really cool. A traditional Burns night includes a lot of entertaining speeches, some bagpipe playing, and recitation of some Burns poems. The Auld Lang Syne (which Burns wrote!!!) is sometimes also sung at the end.

The dinner itself consists of haggis, tatties (mashed potatoes) and neeps (sweet turnips). For those of you who may not know what haggis is, I'll give you a really appetizing description in just a moment. For now, you can look at a picture. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera. But here's a picture of haggis I found. The ones we had last night weren't nearly as big as this one, but you get the idea. Ten points for you if you don't already know what haggis is, but manage to guess correctly what's inside.




Anyway, our dinner was held at the nearby college's dining room, where all of the visiting students in my program have our meals. The formal evening started out with pre-dinner sherry in the sitting room. It's a nice chance to socialize and meet the other guests before dinner. The dinner bell rang and we all went downstairs to the dining room.

Before dinner started, the president of the junior common room made a little opening speech. He thanked everyone for coming and he jokingly told us not to get too excited for the dram of whiskey that was set before each of us. He said to save it for the toast that was to come later on. Then someone read the Selkirk Grace:
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.

After this we enjoyed a prawn salad appetizer. Finally it was time for the Entrance of the Haggis. A bagpipe procession leading the haggis on a silver platter circled the room. Someone then performed Address to a Haggis, which was very entertaining. He then followed tradition by taking out a giant knife and stabbing the haggis in front of him. We all then toasted with our dram of whiskey.

Finally it was time for the haggis itself. For all of those who may not know what haggis is, it is a dish containing a sheep's heart, liver, and lungs. It is minced, stuffed, and cooked with onion, oatmeal, stock and spices in the sheep's stomach. It sounds gross but I was feeling adventurous and tried it. It was actually pretty good! It looked like a water balloon filled with ground meat and it tasted like a heavy meatloaf. The haggis was also served with the traditional "neeps and tatties" or turnips and potatoes. See? I told you my description was going to be appetizing!!!

If you ever get a chance to try haggis, I recommend you go for it. Even if you end up not liking it, you can always tell your friends you tried it.