Posts Tagged ‘Scots’
Culture vs. Congress: Overturn US ban on haggis!
Scottish officials are attempting to persuade American politicians to reverse a 40-year ban on the haggis.
Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Government’s Rural Affairs Secretary, has invited a delegation of American politicians to Scotland in the hope of persuading them to overturn the ban.
The iconic Scottish dish is been barred in the US for more than 20 years because its food safety department prohibits the use of sheep lungs in food products.
The US could provide a highly lucrative market for Scottish haggis producers, particularly in the run up to Burns Night, the traditional celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns…
Mr Lochhead said: “We want to capitalise on the diaspora of Scots in the US and many of them would enjoy the opportunity to indulge in authentic Scottish haggis to accompany their neeps and tatties on Burns Night.
“Scotland’s produce is amongst the best in the world and I’ve asked US Department of Agriculture officials to come here to see for themselves the high standards we have in animal health and processing.
This didn’t affect me personally – back when I lived in the Boston area. For all the whining of the Department of Agriculture and the other bureaucrats who march in lockstep against the import of traditional foodstuffs was meaningless when local butchers and meat markets produced their own haggis. I haven’t Googled it; but, I imagine I still could order one online for Burns Night.
This crap goes on and on – whether halting jambon from Spain or prosciutto from Italy, herbs and spices from the Caribbean and Africa, there always is a producer of plastic American food who claims the need for protection – or just good old Xenophobia getting in the way of choices.
Brits believe the hills are alive with haggis
One in five people in Britain thinks that haggis, the traditional Scottish dish made from the lung, liver and heart of a sheep, is an animal that roams the Highlands, according to a survey on Friday.
Commissioned by the online takeaway food service Just-Eat.co.uk, the survey found that 18 percent of Britons believe that haggis is a hilltop-dwelling animal.
Another 15 percent said it is a Scottish musical instrument while 4 percent admitted to thinking it was a character from Harry Potter…
Even 14 percent of the…Scottish people polled said they did not know what haggis was.
It could be like learning what goes into a hot dog. You really don’t want to know.
Scots troops in record ice cap crossing
Fridtjof Nansen’s original expedition
A team of Scottish soldiers has completed a treacherous crossing of the Greenland ice cap in record time.
The group of regular recruits and members of the Territorial Army followed a route first conquered 120 years ago and rarely attempted since. When famed Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen led his team across in 1888 it took roughly 43 days. The Scottish team completed the 450 mile trip in 27 days.
Their aim had been to do it in 30-35.
They were the first in 20 years to complete the crossing.
The crossing truly is “one of the great crossings” and kudos to the brave and capable men who accomplished this feat.
My kind of soldiers.
