H is for Haggis (n.)

Ex. “Have you tried haggis yet?”

I’ve done it. I’ve had haggis. I’ve done both the most daunting and the most Scottish thing I could possibly do. Basically I can go home now.

Just kidding I’m totally staying

So I had haggis! It wasn’t as momentous/gross as I expected the experience to be (sorry Scotland but you know). I wandered into the kitchen Wednesday night and my flatmates just said “We’re having haggis tomorrow. We’re doing it.”

I have three flatmates (Hi guys you’re in my blog surpriiiiise): one is from the Netherlands, one is from Norway, and one is actually Scottish. Obviously we look to the Scottish flatmate for advice and counsel on all things Scottish, one of which is how to actually make haggis, because I can’t speak for the rest of us, but I didn’t even know what it looked like before we actually had it on plates in front of us.

To answer basic questions I had before this meal:

What actually is haggis?

Essentially, ground up parts of a sheep that aren’t used for anything else. Yeah that means that. Yeah that too. That is then combined with oatmeal and spices, mostly pepper, and traditionally packaged in the sheep’s stomach, but now is usually in durable plastic wrap. If you think about it, it’s pretty green, as well as being a hearty and cheap alternative to whatever you’re used to eating.

How is it cooked?

The kind we had was inside said plastic wrap. You cover it in tinfoil, put it in a pan and put a little water in the pan. You then stick it in the oven for an hour and fifteen minutes.

How do you eat it?

When it comes out of the oven, you cut open the wrapper, and essentially it’s just cooked mushy ground meat. The traditional haggis meal is “haggis, nips, and tatties,” or in American English, haggis, turnips, and mashed potatoes. 

Haggis, top left; nips, bottom left; tatties, bottom right

However we did find this gem which is now posted on our wall-o-recipes in the kitchen:

Turns out, haggis is super delicious. If you’re going to Scotland and I tell you to have haggis while you’re here, it’s not for novelty value – it’s because good food is good food. 

Sidenote: there’s an “American” section (read: couple of shelves) in Tesco, and they had poptarts. Obviously I had to buy them, seeing as how my flatmates had never had them. They weren’t so keen on them. Maybe because I could not for the life of me tell them what poptarts actually were. At least you can tell someone what haggis is made of.

Oh America. You and your weird sugary wiles.

In more boring news, classes finally started! Being in a full time job followed by what seemed like an endless orientation, it was nice to be in school again. I like school.

I’m taking three classes, all of which are not what I had expected but will most likely be good/for me. For instance, in my Music Technology class I’ll be using a program called Pure Data, which is like a step beyond writing code. It seems like I won’t be using it a whole lot in real life, but I will have all kinds of background knowledge in how audio software got started (read: liberal arts education = seeing silver linings in educational mishaps). I’m taking a Scottish literature class where I will be doing way more reading than I maybe ever have, and it looks to be a challenging but rewarding class (again, thank you liberal arts education). BUT the class I’m most excited for is my Music in Social Contexts class. The thesis of the class is that music is a social activity, and since venue management is basically figuring out how to make the best possible social and musical experience, I’m kinda freaking out.
MUSIC MAJORS: GET THIS

1) I had to pay £15 to use the practice rooms for a semester

2) Faculty doesn’t teach – my advisor gave me a list of names and phone numbers for teachers people generally use AND I have to pay for lessons myself

3) The music building is no longer home and people stare at me like I don’t belong and I don’t know anyone and I don’t have any friends and I don't like it at all

4) The pianos are jaaaaanky. Here’s a picture. 

Maybe they just got bored? Lazy? WHYYY

I miss the music building. Real life needs a cut and paste option.