A Chinese Meets the Haggis

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 95, 18 April 1941, Page 5

A Chinese Meets the Haggis

JURING the P.E.N. Conference in Edinburgh, we had quite a round of entertainment. It was at one official banquet that I tasted my first haggis, that Scottish dish which is merely a’ name to most of us. Sitting next to me was a young Chinese writer, who spoke. very little English. With that courtesy, that graciousness which is characteristic of the well-bred Chinese, he accepted every dish that was handed to him, and also the various wines which came with each course. He had. quite a circle of these glasses around his plate, but he ate and drank sparingly, a little cautiously, I thought, as if uncertain as to the effects of the various Western foods. He was very interested in the haggis, for we had been told that the haggis — I think they even called it the Royal haggis -- would be served with the usual ceremonies. This was the highlight of the feast. The dish of haggis was piped in. The pipers walked in front, with the pipes skirling, and the white-capped chef bore the strange dish on a platter behind and they marched right round the room. Then each guest was served with a portion, and I saw the young Chinese looking very suspiciously at his piece. I don’t know what haggis is really made of, but someone told me it was mostly blood and oatmeal. Pig’s blood, I think they said, but I’m not quite sure. I regret my ignorance on the subject. Anyway, it’s a kind of sausage, rather rich and greasy I found it, and the traditional manner of eating it is to wash it down with neat whisky, so I was told. As this was the most important national dish of the evening, the young Chinese apparently felt that he must eat it, and between tiny bites of haggis he sipped the neat Scotch whisky, and I have never seen a more heroic attempt to conform with the custom of a foreign country.-("Shoes and Ships and Sealing-Wax,’ by Nelle Scanlan, 2YA, March 25),