# Scotland's Haggis Surrenders - Norway wins disgusting food crown **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941 "2005-11-20T16:27:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/41 "2005-11-21T14:27:45Z")
Pre-Mad Cow I was able to have real haggis at a Burn’s Night Dinner here in VA. It wasn’t as bad as one might suspect from the ingredients, but then again maybe the 27 toasts of single malt Scotch that preceeded dinner may have changed my perceptions a little. Now, the pseudo-haggis that we had after the import ban took effect…that was…well, the word to describe how _bad_ hasn’t been invented yet. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/42 "2005-11-21T15:07:21Z")
> [@astro](#): > > You’ve been served! > > [Yummy for your tummy!](http://www.gardkarlsen.com/family/smalahove_served.jpg) I’d only serve this to my guests if I could put in animatronics and make it sing. Or maybe whimper. ---
**Author:** ![Nimue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Nimue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nimue)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/43 "2005-11-21T17:22:21Z")
Haggis is delicious! Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. We served it as a starter at our wedding and sent the American guests home addicted to it. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/44 "2005-11-21T17:34:05Z")
My brother once brought home canned haggis from his trip to Scotland. To this day I still think there must have been a labelling error at a dog food factory somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/45 "2005-11-21T19:35:09Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Pfah. I laugh at your sheep’s heads and rotten shark, and give you [_casu marzu_](http://food.oregonstate.edu/ref/dairy/trofimov.html). It’s basically pecorino cheese that has been digested by barn fly maggots for months. Oh, and you _eat the living maggots_ - which are apparently quite energetic and may jump into your eye - along with the maggot-shit-that-used-to-be-cheese. > > Blurk. I think we have a winner! ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/46 "2005-11-21T19:43:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > What, couldn’t be bothered to read the whole thread? Sorry, sport. My bad. I unconsciously filter out posts by anyone who overreacts to accidental duplication. Seriously, sorry. But chill out already. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/47 "2005-11-21T20:09:36Z")
> [@Balduran](#): > > My brother once brought home canned haggis from his trip to Scotland. To this day I still think there must have been a labelling error at a dog food factory somewhere. Oddly enough, I know there is (or was) a company in Chicago that cans and sells its own haggis. My google-fu has turned up references to said company, but no names or whether they still make the stuff or not. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/48 "2005-11-21T23:42:55Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > I highly, highly recommend [Conecuh sausage](http://www.conecuhsausage.com/our_products.php). Excellent sausage still packed in intestine. You can tell by the satisfying _snap_ you get when biting into one. Mmmm-mmmm-mmmm. Thanks for the recommendation, Ogre. I’ll have to see how it compares to my local Hungarian sausage shop. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/49 "2005-11-21T23:42:57Z")
While eyeballs and tongue aren’t my favored cuisine, the pictures of sheep’s heads on a plate are just making me hungry. You could get plenty of meat off that skull. Maggots, however, or rotten shark… _puke_ ---
**Author:** ![Nimue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Nimue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nimue)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/50 "2005-11-22T00:54:18Z")
> [@Balduran](#): > > My brother once brought home canned haggis from his trip to Scotland. To this day I still think there must have been a labelling error at a dog food factory somewhere. Dude, you can’t judge haggis by a canned version any more than you would chili or beef stew. You could make the dog food comment just as easily about Dinty Moore, after all. If you’re really interested, there are probably places local to you that make haggis. (For example, I know of two off-hand in this area.) Check with local butchers for starters. And keep in mind not every freshly prepared version is the same, either. Some are quite peppery, some are much more livery… These I do not like so much. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/51 "2005-11-22T01:42:48Z")
I ate haggis today. Ha! Still alive, you see. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/52 "2005-11-29T01:12:09Z")
This whole thread and nobody mentions “purist chitlins”? (There are people in the south and I’m sure other parts of the country who eat chitlins [hog intestines] that have not been cleaned out, which means the semidigested food of the hog’s last meal [or as it’s known in the vernacular, hogshit in formation] is cooked along with the rest.) I accidentally had fried chitlins once, thinking they were fried sausage (it does exist). The scary thing was- they weren’t bad. (These weren’t the “purist” variety, though.) The film version of _Angela’s Ashes_ has a great scene involving the family’s sheep head Christmas dinner; the father pops the eyeball into his mouth. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/53 "2005-11-29T02:07:00Z")
I don’t know what it is called, but the Innus of the lower north shore of the St-Lawrence river and Labrador consider it a delicacy : take a dead caribou, open its belly and drink/eat the content of its stomach. I know it is green and the smell is… special. I just wrote my brother who spent more time than me in that area for the name. Hopefully, he will provide it shortly. ---
**Author:** ![False\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/54 "2005-11-29T02:20:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Having had haggis in Scotland, I must say, it’s quite inoffensive. It helps if you’re not squeamish about eating organ meat. > > I mean, lookie here. I’ve got a package of Scott Petersen hot links sitting in the fridge. Cripes, I knew sentencing guidelines were getting harsh in California, but sausage? Or is that how he got rid of Laci? Tasteless humor aside, I’ve done the cobra-wine thing in Vietnam as my disgusting food pinnacle, and for anyone who’s read Tony Bourdain’s take on this, he has it right on. The heart wasn’t bad, but the mixed bile and maotai (rice alcohol) was nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/55 "2005-11-29T02:44:50Z")
I’ve heard that “crunchy duck”, a fertlized and almost ready to hatch duck egg, is considered a delicacy in some Asian countries. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/56 "2005-11-29T03:42:01Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Link via Fark > > [It must be autumn: Norway feasts on sheep’s head](http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=257043) Can’t believe nobody has done this yet . . . Sheep’s heads Sheep’s heads Roly-poly sheep’s heads Sheep’s heads Sheep’s heads Eat them up, yum! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/57 "2005-11-29T05:17:29Z")
Does fish sauce count as a food? It doesn’t have quite the visual punch of, say, a sheep’s head, but it smells eerily like cat piss and ends up in most of what my roommate cooks. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/58 "2005-11-29T07:17:36Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Did you see the [“after” photo?](http://www.gardkarlsen.com/family/smalahove_just_eaten.jpg) > > I hope I’m never that hungry. Jesus, that looks like something you’d find in a demon’s hangout in Diablo. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/59 "2005-11-29T13:40:25Z")
All this yummy food ought to be washed down with a nice refreshing cup of _luak_ coffee. It’s just like any other coffee, except that the beans have been preprocessed through the digestive tract of a kind of civet cat before being roasted and ground. Supposedly it is delicious… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941/60 "2005-11-29T23:06:38Z")
> [@detop](#): > > I don’t know what it is called, but the Innus of the lower north shore of the St-Lawrence river and Labrador consider it a delicacy : take a dead caribou, open its belly and drink/eat the content of its stomach. I know it is green and the smell is… special. I just wrote my brother who spent more time than me in that area for the name. Hopefully, he will provide it shortly. Sorry to quote myself, but my brother replied with the name : “touk-ouskash-ken”. My preparation seemed to be off (since I had been working from memory) : you take a freshly killed caribou, remove its stomach with its content (usually partially digested lichen), tie a knot at the esophagus or the duodenum, fill it with the blood of the animal then hang it for three days behind the wood stove and then serve the content on caribou steak. Apparently, it is an acquired taste. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scotlands-haggis-surrenders-norway-wins-disgusting-food-crown/331941.md?page=4)