Haggis and kilts? No Yanks

[Ian.MacAllan]

Seems rather pointless to me to go to a Burns Dinner and then not partake of a Burns Dinner. . . .

Travelling to other countries at considerable expense for no apparent reason but to complain that they're not like home is an established tradition in the USA. Mark Twain, among others, described several instances of it in the 19th century.

. . . Apparently, kilts at a Burns supper are not mandatory by any means and indeed (so I'm told by many on this board) lots of people wear pants. Including Scots. . . .

I've seen several pictures and statues of Burns in breeches, but none in a kilt. Considering the effects of the acts of proscription it seems likely to me that he may never have worn a kilt.

As for haggis, I have eaten it only once and I did not enjoy it. Like country cooking in general, it was overdone and overspiced. But I'm willing to try it again, at the hands of a different chef. Like composite dishes in general (e.g., hash, stew, soup, salad) the merits of a particular instance depend much more on the skills of the chef than upon the name or even the recipe of the dish.

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