new Things I Ate in Cambodia: Happy Burns Night

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Happy Burns Night



Burns night is today, that annual celebration of Scotland's premier poet. An excuse to listen to bagpipe music, drink Scotch, and eat bizarre Scottish foods, it's an (obviously) unmissable holiday. To pay homage to the great man without actually having to eat any sheep stomach, have some thematic links.

The Haggis Challenge

An intrepid British Guardian writer attempts to make a haggish with, well...expected...results. The photos are particularly charming.

American haggis supplier!

New Jersey's Stewart's Scottish Market has haggis, black pudding, and other UK delights for your perusal. Order five, give them to your friends!

Address to a Haggis

Here's the man himself's opinions on the majesty and wonder of haggis. I feel ya bro, I feel ya.

A step by step video guide to a Burns Supper.

Watch carefully and hold your own! Be sure to hire a good bagpiper. It may help if you live somewhere very far away from neighbors.

And finally, an exceedingly awesome joke, ganked from TwelfthOfNever's journal.

"Tony Blair is visiting an Edinburgh hospital. He enters a ward full of patients with no obvious sign of injury or illness and greets one.

The patient replies:
"Fair fa your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin race,
Aboon them a you take your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm,
As langs my airm."

Blair is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient.
The patient responds:
"Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit."

Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the PM moves on to the next patient, who immediately begins to chant:
"We sleekit, cowerin, timrous beasty,
Thou needna start awa sae hastie,
Wi bickering brattle."

Now seriously troubled, Blair turns to the accompanying doctor and asks "What kind of facility is this? A mental ward?"
"No", replies the doctor.
"This is the serious Burns unit."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

bada bing