The hunt for black market haggis — theguardian.com

On Burns Night this Sunday, people with Scottish ancestry – and some without – will be toasting the poet in the most appropriate way, with a whisky, and the rich and spicily splendid combination of offal and oats that is proper haggis. Everywhere, that is, except the US, where haggis has been banned since 1971, denying around 27.5 million Scottish-Americans access to Scotland’s most famous dish. Despite the best efforts of the lone Lord McColl in the British parliament, who, like many before him, took it upon himself to challenge the US ban this month in the House of Lords, it does not look as if haggis will feature on menus in Miami and Los Angeles this 25 January, a shame, since Burns’ Address to a Haggis makes it sound so appealing: “Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race! … The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill”. [Fair and full is your honest, jolly face, Great chieftain of the sausage race! ... The groaning trencher there you fill, Your buttocks like a distant hill].

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