Community Comments – 2011

MOST loyal Scots will be looking forward to Burns Night which is celebrated on January 25 (his birthday) each year.

A little tongue in cheek, we asked readers whether they would eat haggis having described what goes into it and the response was a resounding vote in favour of haggis with plenty of observations about the importance of the celebration to Scotland as well as a couple of hints on how best to serve the dish;

Absolutely! A good haggis drizzled with warm whiskey is delicious

Jan Urquijo

Done properly, haggis very tasty and of course a Scottish tradition

Patricia Strange

Yes, I blooming love it! I live in Spain and there’s plenty of offal based foods here too, if it tastes nice get it eaten.

I bet the squeamish about Haggis are happy to ram sausages and burgers in their faces and they contain some unexpectedly bits of animals too.

Rachel Warnes

Cooked Offal, in my opinion, is probably one of the tastiest, most mis-represented of the basic healthy meat-feasts available. Now, raw fish, included as Sushi is a relatively new attraction – No Thanks, bring on the Offal for me any day.

Tony Benton

Personally I don’t like it, but then again I don’t like offal, of any sort. I don’t think saying you don’t like it is trying to take away tradition, it’s just being honest. There are many foods throughout the world, not all the palatable choice of others.

Lynda Christopher

Love haggis. You’re right they are trying to take away Scottish traditions. Hogmanay on UK TV was a disaster. It was not even worth watching. They are eroding all things Scottish. We are just an exploited English colony. We need to get out of this toxic so called union.

Paul Steel

Haggis was a cheap and nourishing staple when I lived in Scotland and we all looked forward to the day the butcher made them fresh.

Melanie Kitson

Absolutely, dinner of champions!!!

Ian McKenzie

Yep love it. This year I am piping the Haggis in at two local Burns suppers

Craig Badley

Absolutely gorgeous and most are not In sheep’s stomach these days which you don’t eat anyway.

Dave Pealing

Beautiful dish and at a Burns Supper it’s the best dinner ever

Lorraine Wylde

Plenty do. Not me personally but my husband loves it.

Jane Frances

It’s just a big, high quality sausage. Hot dogs contain much lower quality ingredients

David Middleton Grenfell

Yes, and if it is cooked properly it is lovely. Stop trying to take our Scottish traditions away!!

Johan Ross

Most definitely! With whisky sauce or even neat whisky poured over it.

John Bruce

In Germany, Palatinate region, there we eat “Saumagen”. It is similar to haggis, but a stomach of a pig is filled. The filling is the important thing.

Donate Fink

We must never lose these traditions. Whether you like haggis or not it’s a Scottish tradition that should be upheld. Personally I quite like it and I’m English but live in Spain.

Hilary Smith

I love haggis but can’t stand bagpipes!!

Christine Smith

Yes, I blooming love it! I live in Spain and there’s plenty of offal based foods here too, if it tastes nice get it eaten.

I bet the squeamish about Haggis are happy to ram sausages and burgers in their faces and they contain some unexpectedly bits of animals too.

Rachel Warnes

Oh! Yes, my favourite food. If anyone asked me, if you had to!, what is the one thing you could eat for the rest of your life? It would be haggis with mashed potatoes and neeps!

Pamela Murdoch

One of my favourite bar meals was a Haggis loaded Staffordshire Oatcake in The Albion in Chester…famous for being a pub whose interior was vintage 1940s and proudly proclaimed, via big blackboard outside, that it had no TVs, no video games, no chips, no jukebox, didn’t welcome hen or stag two, was family hostile but always welcomed dogs. A good Haggis is wonderful.

Emma Monks

I do mine with a twist open chicken breast filled with haggis oven for 35 mashed potatoes nips and a whiskey sauce.

Juan Gomez Banderas

This is just a small sample of those who responded and overall 92 per cent said that they loved haggis and everything that accompanied it although one or two weren’t so sure about bagpipes and one enjoyed a Vegan version.

We want to say to everyone who plans to celebrate Burns Night “Oidhche Bhlas Burns” (Happy Burns Night in Scottish Gaelic).