Anyone tried haggis?

[Smid]

@Scougs

I wouldn’t say Pakora have ever been the main takeaway food. A lot of places like kebab shops offer them, but they’re very much an after thought or side dish.

The main takeaway would still be the chippy. I won’t say “fish and chips”, because the bewildering array of deep fried offerings in Scotland is very different to the English chippy. Sausage supper, fish supper, pie supper, haggis supper, chicken supper will all compete. Then there are the abominations of the chip steak, king rib, or hamburger supper. (Note: “supper” means “and chips”).

Close in popularity to the chippy will be the doner kebab or the pizza.

Well, maybe it differs in parts of Scotland, and the statistics might have been wrong, but in West of Scotland (Greenock, Paisley and Glasgow) a bag of pakora with sauce was the typical things grabbed on the way home from the pub when I was growing up there 20 years ago. Chip shops themselves (and the commitment to the expensive equipment) have been dying out since the 80’s, possibly for health reasons. You are far more likely to find a kebab shop, with a small fryer, than the buckets of oil of a real chip shop. I think the nations taste has changed since the 80’s too, ethnic food does seem a lot more popular.

If it was type of food, then I’d actually believe if Chinese was listed, there’s far of those around my small home town, in the centre and in the districts. Maybe there’s two chip shops. There was an indian, but it went out of business.

Pizza isn’t as wide spread up there, as far as I can tell. Might have changed with the kebab/pizza/pakora/chips/fried chicken shops, but I’m not sure if there’s even a pizza hut in the 20 miles the house I grew up in, so the chains aren’t there…

And when it comes to actual food, the contents of a chip shop is various. But veggie pakora is likely sold there too. And in the doner kebab shop. And in the indian restaurants. Point being, a single one food is pakora, (vs a bag of chips, which I’ve only ever seen veggies order) and its a particular scottish favourite, you’ll struggle to find it far south of the border and they’ll pass off onion bhaji as it in the midlands…

And of course it does feature in a munchie box, something like deep fried mars bar, either only tried once, or for the tourist: Munchy box - Wikipedia

(Very hard to find the stastitics for the actual most popular scottish food, it’s the usual “how obese are the brits/scots” blame news articles which fill the google list).

[Baron_Greenback]

@Scougs

Then there are the abominations of the chip steak

Woah, hold on there! I’m partial to the occasional chip steak, although I’m not sure what it actually is made of.

[Baron_Greenback]

@Smid

If it was type of food, then I’d actually believe if Chinese was listed, there’s far of those around my small home town, in the centre and in the districts. Maybe there’s two chip shops. There was an indian, but it went out of business.

Yeah, chinese is very popular. Even tiny wee places have one. My town of 5000 has two (also a turkish kebab/pizza place and two chippies, one of which also does kebabs and pizzas). There are about a dozen others in surrounding towns and villages that will deliver here too.

[bump]

@Scougs

It’s meant to be very much eaten together - a forkful of neeps only isn’t great, but together with the tatties and haggis is another story.

I wish someone had told me that! I’ve been thinking for seventeen years that Scots eat nasty mashed rutabagas and liked them.

[fachverwirrt]

@Leaffan

I’ve had haggis in both restaurants here in Canada, and out of the can from specialty shops.

I love it. I tell people who ask that it’s just like a spicy sausage. And really that’s all it is.

Both restaurants in Canada, huh? Is there, like, one each in Toronto and Vancouver?

[Leaffan]

@fachverwirrt

Both restaurants in Canada, huh? Is there, like, one each in Toronto and Vancouver?

Worded a little awkwardly. You get my point though.

[Scougs]

@Smid

Well, maybe it differs in parts of Scotland, and the statistics might have been wrong, but in West of Scotland (Greenock, Paisley and Glasgow) a bag of pakora with sauce was the typical things grabbed on the way home from the pub when I was growing up there 20 years ago. Chip shops themselves (and the commitment to the expensive equipment) have been dying out since the 80’s, possibly for health reasons. You are far more likely to find a kebab shop, with a small fryer, than the buckets of oil of a real chip shop. I think the nations taste has changed since the 80’s too, ethnic food does seem a lot more popular.

If it was type of food, then I’d actually believe if Chinese was listed, there’s far of those around my small home town, in the centre and in the districts. Maybe there’s two chip shops. There was an indian, but it went out of business.

Pizza isn’t as wide spread up there, as far as I can tell. Might have changed with the kebab/pizza/pakora/chips/fried chicken shops, but I’m not sure if there’s even a pizza hut in the 20 miles the house I grew up in, so the chains aren’t there…

And when it comes to actual food, the contents of a chip shop is various. But veggie pakora is likely sold there too. And in the doner kebab shop. And in the indian restaurants. Point being, a single one food is pakora, (vs a bag of chips, which I’ve only ever seen veggies order) and its a particular scottish favourite, you’ll struggle to find it far south of the border and they’ll pass off onion bhaji as it in the midlands…

And of course it does feature in a munchie box, something like deep fried mars bar, either only tried once, or for the tourist: Munchy box - Wikipedia

(Very hard to find the stastitics for the actual most popular scottish food, it’s the usual “how obese are the brits/scots” blame news articles which fill the google list).

You’re right about pakora being ubiquitous in Scotland, and difficult to find south of the border - I just wouldn’t have described them as a number one takeaway. Chinese is hugely popular too, but for some reason didn’t figure in my mental picture of takeaway. I was going for the kind of takeaway you grab after the pub and eat straight from the container while walking down the street, rather than the sort you take home and actually use cutlery and maybe even a plate for.

It’s also true that the genres are all blurring. My local chippy has proper pizza ovens, and recently installed a doner kebab skewer grill thingy. My local kebab shop also has pizza ovens, and does deep fried goods too.

[fachverwirrt]

@Leaffan

Worded a little awkwardly. You get my point though.

I do. I just found the wording amusing.

I’m easily amused.

[bonzer]

@Scougs

It’s meant to be very much eaten together - a forkful of neeps only isn’t great, but together with the tatties and haggis is another story.

This is absolutely key. I’m not wildly keen on the blandness of mashed potato in general and so, if I’m in charge, actually usually only ever have it with haggis. Even then I tend to start mucking about trying to tart up both the neeps and the tatties to try to make them more palatable. (Roast swede/turnip I’m fine with or any other potato recipe, but none of those work in this context.) Always forgetting that it’s the complementary combination of the three together, mashed up on the fork, that makes it. Together with some whisky in between.

Yes, it’s actually the haggis that makes haggis, neeps and tatties yummy.

[Unpronounceable]

@Guinastasia

I would not be surprised if some douchebag comes up with that.

Uh…it’s been available for years. Though, it’s really haggis spice ice cream - they don’t actually add the meat.

[Scumpup]

@Unpronounceable

Uh…it’s been available for years. Though, it’s really haggis spice ice cream - they don’t actually add the meat.

Then it’s not haggis ice cream, is it? Until it has the oats and meat and gets packaged in a stomach, it’s just bad ice cream.

[amanset]

@Scougs

The main takeaway would still be the chippy. I won’t say “fish and chips”, because the bewildering array of deep fried offerings in Scotland is very different to the English chippy. Sausage supper, fish supper, pie supper, haggis supper, chicken supper will all compete. Then there are the abominations of the chip steak, king rib, or hamburger supper. (Note: “supper” means “and chips”).

Not wanting to rain on the parade of the mighty Scottish chippie, but I worked in a chippie in the English Midlands from 1990 to 1992 and the only one of those we didn’t have is haggis.

[Your_Great_Darsh_Face]

Haggis is delicious, mashed swede was a taste I didn’t have as a youngster but acquired well before adulthood, and there’s nothing wrong with a spoonful of whisky in the gravy - only the cooking whisky, mind you.

[Fuzzy_wuzzy]

@amanset

Not wanting to rain on the parade of the mighty Scottish chippie, but I worked in a chippie in the English Midlands from 1990 to 1992 and the only one of those we didn’t have is haggis.

Im not an expert on English chippies but the main difference I found with them was the different types of fish used compared to Scottish ones.
edit: as for Haggis it’s OK. Not as bad as often described but not great either. It would never by my first option for a meal apart from on Burn’s Night.

[Smid]

@amanset

Not wanting to rain on the parade of the mighty Scottish chippie, but I worked in a chippie in the English Midlands from 1990 to 1992 and the only one of those we didn’t have is haggis.

What you call a pie, is not what the scots call a pie:
Scotch Pie

I never really had them out chippies (I think someone put salt and vinegar on them and put me off them from chippies for life), but I think they are one of the few things not typically deep fried…

I’m not sure how popular they are now, but never seen a pizza deep fried in and english chippie…

[BrainGlutton]

@Fuzzy_wuzzy

Im not an expert on English chippies but the main difference I found with them was the different types of fish used compared to Scottish ones.

Why is that, I wonder? English and Scots fish in the same seas.

[Scougs]

@Smid

What you call a pie, is not what the scots call a pie:
Scotch Pie

I never really had them out chippies (I think someone put salt and vinegar on them and put me off them from chippies for life), but I think they are one of the few things not typically deep fried…

I’m not sure how popular they are now, but never seen a pizza deep fried in and english chippie…

Alarmingly, the Scotch pie is, indeed, usually deep fried. At least it’s not battered first. My local chippie actual also has two separate menu items - one merely specified as “Steak Pie”, and the more expensive “Steak Pie (Oven Baked)”.

I’ve always been led to believe that an English chippie will typically have a choice of fish - cod and chips, haddock and chips, plaice and chips and so on, but only really saveloy for a meat product, whereas the Scottish chippie just does fish supper (haddock and chips) or a bewildering array products discussed upthread. But, of course, England is a very big place and there will doubtless be regional variations.

[Scougs]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the website of my local chippie. You have to input a postcode to get to the menu - just use something like the Scottish Parliament, which is EH99 1SP.

Note the existence of deep fried pizza versus oven baked pizza, and similar for pies.

Scottish Chippie Menu

[Motorgirl]

I’ve had haggis a few times. Once at the NH Highland Games and a handful of times in Scotland.

The haggis at NH Highland Games was, I assume, lung-free. It was served out of steam trays buffet-style and as very soft and organ-y. Tasted quite a lot like liver. My take on it was “meh.” I didn’t hate it, and was glad I’d tried it. Loved the neeps, though!

In Scotland I never had it by itself, but as an addition to other things, including as a stuffing for chicken, on a burger and of course as a little fried patty with eggs.

I liked it a lot better in Scotland, but I can’t say it was so much the inclusion of sheep lung as better applications of the stuff. I find it nicer as a component of a dish than as a big solo blob.

To sum up, I like haggis. But I also like blood puddings, skirlie and plenty of other things others may not like.

[Motorgirl]

Oops - forgot I had haggis on one of these too