WEDNESDAY-Edinburgh - Haggis, Neeps, & Tatties

The culinary pinnacle of the trip and a milestone in my tastebuds was due to occur in Scotland. You know I speak of none other than... HAGGIS.

I can think of few food items as feared as haggis. Fruit cake isn't really scary, just funny and not very good usually. Sushi, oysters-on-the-halfshell, and other raw meats don't agree with some people's palates. But when it comes down to genuine fear of eating something (other than like... bugs) the only other dishes I can compare it to are lutefisk and Chinese thousand year old eggs (neither of which I've dared to eat, so far).




Here's a slightly less vomitous picture of haggis than you might normally see. Haggis is a mixture of minced organ meats from a sheep, beef suet, oatmeal, onions, and seasonings. This unholy abomination is stuffed into a sheep's stomach, and simmered for a few hours until it's 'done'. It's essentially a sausage. A sausage shaped, and nearly the size of, a rugby ball.




Well, friends and neighbors, I did it. I ordered the traditional haggis meal with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes). The haggis is the very dark brown stuff -- I think you can pick out the neeps vs. the tatties. I accompanied it with a glass of single malt scotch in a manner that would have made Robert Burns proud. I felt perfectly prepared to ingest one of the most awful meals I'd ever had. I was going to do it with grace and style.




The haggis was good. Really, really pretty darn good! Haggis has a very rich and beefy flavor, despite being sheep organs. The oats inside are steel-cut oats that have an awesome chewy bite and a nutty flavor. The oatmeal makes a nice bridge between the haggis and your glass of single malt scotch so that that the two seem perfect partners! Above all, haggis is very peppery. It's spicy in an old-school way that brought to mind old recipes for preparing game. The more I ate of it, the more I liked it!!!

The potatoes were tasty and the turnips (also a first for me) were really good too - sort of a cross between carrots and butternut squash -- the flavor of squash with the texture of roasted carrots.

So, if you get the chance, get the haggis!!! It's really good!!!