Posted on 02/10/2008 2:26:10 PM PST by the scotsman
'A BILLION or so people celebrated Chinese New Year on Thursday. But it’s fairly certain only one marked the occasion by donning a kilt, playing the accordion and serving up haggis in a sweet and sour sauce to 400 diners.
That man was Todd Wong, a fifth-generation Chinese-Canadian who became interested in Scotland after noticing that Chinese New Year and Robert Burns’s birthday occur within days of each other.
For the past decade he’s organised an annual feast in Vancouver to mark the two events. But from the first intimate dinner, held in a friend’s living room, it has grown to become a huge cultural event with Highland jigs, song and poetry combined with elaborate dragon dances.
While he has never actually visited these shores, Todd fell in love with Scottish culture while studying at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University.
“I was asked to help out with the university’s annual Burns celebrations,” recalls the 46-year-old librarian. “No-one wanted to do it because they didn’t want to wear a kilt. But I took the job on because I thought a Chinese man wearing traditional Scottish dress would make people think again about stereotypes.”
“Along with the First Nations people (native Canadians), the Scots and Chinese are really Canada’s earliest pioneering cultures.“I incorporated the Scottish traditions I’d learned about into the Chinese dinner. A friend brought along a piper and a haggis and we toasted the lads and lassies.”
Todd named the event Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a pun on the traditional Cantonese New Year greeting Gung Hay Fat Choy, and it has grown into a massive cultural phenomenon. He also holds a human curling contest and an Oor Wullie-style cartie grand prix, with the carts decorated in the style of a dragon.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dcthomson.co.uk ...
Being Irish, I can’t understand the interest. Give me something that doesn’t include the animals internal organs! *grin*
Haggis ping! And pass the vodka!
Vodka? Its Dram man, Dram!
Oops, its Dram Lass, Dram!
Thank you, I am a girl :-).
The vodka was just a joke carried over from another thread. I didn’t mean to abuse Scottish culture!
What an absolute waste of good sweet and sour, spoiled by that haggis...
Address To A Haggis
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!
Then, horn for horn,
they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve,
Are bent lyke drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
“Bethankit!” ‘hums.
Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle.
Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a haggis!
If it’s nea Scottish it’s crraaap bttt.
Just teasing you, gonna try haggis this summer in Scotland for the 1st time, how bad can it be?
I knew you were. Best wishes for your trip to Scotland. My parents and my brother have been there, but I've only been to London and environs, and to Northern Ireland, where OldTax-lady's cousins still live. Lots of biscuits and fish, but no haggis :-).
Um, try "really bad if you know what is is, merely too salty if you don't". And don't miss the blood pudding at breakfast either. It's not really pudding, it's more of a disc, kinda like McHash browns.
I went to Scotland for a family reunion last summer, I proposed to my bride on a mountain there. I was afraid of the cuisine, but was pleasantly surprised. A tour guide told me that much Scottish cuisine has been influenced by the French, due to their commnon enemy "those bastard Brits".
If you happen to be in the area of Inverness then give "Johnny Foxes Irish Pub & Restaurant" a try. They have the best haggis and neeps I've had with a really good whiskey sauce.
It's also a fun pub to chat with locals.
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