My Late Spring Vacation - Haggis

No, not Paul Haggis, you wacky Crash fans.

The missus and I have been together for something like six-and-a-half years, married for nearly five of them, and we've been to Scotland together four or five times. Maybe six. I was also in Scotland for a week back in '93, during my semester abroad.

And yet, I'd never tried haggis.

Some people avoid it. After all, according to Wikipedia, haggis is made of the sheep's "pluck": heart, liver, and lungs, then mixed with oatmeal, spices, and other mysteries. Oh, and it's usually encased in sheep intestines.

Really, haggis is just like any of those other "leftover" foods - the innards of an animal, in this case a sheep. After all, it makes sense to use the whole animal.

But people run like hell from haggis. Maybe it's the name. Who knows?

Anyway, I never avoided haggis; I just never tried it.

Well, the missus' father took us out to a nice restaurant in his little town located on Loch Ness, and I ordered the haggis appetizer.

Those are oatcakes on the side of it. Oatcakes are Scottish crackers, only better.

I spread that haggis right on those oatcakes and ate the hell out of it.

Good times, indeed.

The missus has a couple of cousins who work in the kitchen at this particular restaurant, and apparently the chef adds some cream to her haggis recipe. That's less typical, but it sure tasted good.

So what does haggis look like before it's cooked up? We got a few items from the local butcher, and I caught a glimpse of raw haggis for sale. We didn't buy any; perhaps an adventure for another time. But here it is behind the counter...

That's black pudding next to the haggis, by the way.

What does it look like before it's haggis in a butcher shop? A little something like this...