Strangely enough, the French don’t seem to go in much for Rabbie Burns, so at Les Crouquets we’re having oor ain wee Burns Nicht celebration wi a bag o’ haggis crisps an’ a wee dram!

A wee dram an' a bag o' haggis crisps!

In spite of having many of their own colourful & interesting things to eat, the mention of the humble haggis never fails to bring a weird grimace to the faces of our French friends…..lots of preconceived ideas here, methinks, as most of them end up asking us what it actually is!

True it isn’t a particulary attractive looking dish but what it lacks in aesthetics it more than makes up for in rich spicy flavour. The lack of opportunity to buy a haggis in our little corner of the Dordogne means I don’t have my own photo to show the uninitiated what this delicious mix of oatmeal & offal  looks like  but trust me, it’s good!

macsweens haggis

I suppose I could have been a bit more organised and got a couple from Macsweens – based in Edinburgh & haggis maker extraordinaire , they are renowned for having the best haggis ( haggises/ haggi or whatever the correct plural of haggis is!) around!

Then we could have invited some French friends over for haggis, neeps & tatties & gone the whole hog with kilt, dagger and a heartfelt recital of To A Haggis. Personally I prefer Tam O’Shanter … one of his greatest works if you ask me…

Rabbie Burns poems & ballads

…if you haven’t read it, you should. It’s extremely witty with very clever, thought provoking and descriptive use of language, if a bit of a challenge to the non Scots tongue!

Tam O'Shanter

But, I digress… maybe just as well we didn’t invite our friends.

Better to have the French think we Scots are a mad lot than to let them see us speaking to a dish of steamin’ entrails & remove all doubt!!