I ate haggis and lived to tell….
January 25, 2008 by Noreen Crone-Findlay
Filed under weaving and handweaving and looms
Today was Robbie Burns day, the celebration of the birth of the Scottish Bard, Robert Burns…….
With a name like ‘Crone-Findlay’, there can be no doubt about our Celtic/Gaelic heritage. (Yes, Crone is my ‘real’ birth name, courtesy of my Irish granddad, and Findlay is courtesy of Jim’s Scottish granddad).
Earlier this week, we went to a Robert Burns celebration, which was FABULOUS!
Now – For years, we have avoided anything that remotely resembles a haggis…. long ago and but not so far away, one of our neighbours had a Robbie Burns celebration and made the haggis himself.
OH, oh oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!
It was G H A S T L Y! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! It was a genuine gagfest right up there with the infamous ‘vegetarian potroast’ that another friend lovingly prepared for us.
That culinary disaster has been known as the ’snotroast’ ever since and became the benchmark fort truly revolting inedible cuisine. (We’re mostly vegetarian, but really like fish and once or twice a year, turkey figures large on our menu).
Anyhow, at this Robbie Burns celebration, the ritual of the bagpiper and recitation of the ‘Ode to the Haggis’ was incredible! (and besides, all those men in kilts is enough to make any woman with Celtic blood in her veins fairly swoon)
It was very stirring, to say the least…. quite magical!
Well… when the haggis was brought to our table, Jim (my husband) took one sniff and turned fairly green. He tried to eat approximately 4 molecules of the haggis, and then turned purple.
I sniffed it and went: Hey! This doesn’t smell half bad at all!
Not a hint of snotroast!
I took a serving and LOVED IT!
I went back for seconds.
Jim’s jaw dropped in amazement….
I went back for thirds….
and Jim almost carded me to check my ID to see if the woman sitting next to him was the same one who’d been dreading the haggis all week……
yep.
Loved that haggis. Will wonders never cease?
BTW…. in the pic, that’s a plaid scarf I wove in homage to the family clan tartan.
Here’s to Aulde Lang Syne!
