Shout out for Burns Night in the pub

krappyrubsnif

It’s Burns Night on Saturday 25th January, and the White Lion will be going the Full Tartan with a piper, haggis (optional) and whisky on the night. I understand several regulars on this board will be going along, so here’s a call-out to others to join - you don’t have to be a professional Scot to enjoy it. It’s always a bit of fun. Kilts optional.

The deal is that the WL will offer a special Burns Night menu from 5pm with either haggis (plus neeps and tatties we trust) for those so inclined or a steak for the haggis-averse, plus a double dram of whisky, cost £25. (Haggis, by the way, is delicious.)

The piper in full tartan should show up around 7.30pm, the haggis will be piped in. The ceremony continues with the Address to The Haggis (“Great Chieftain of the Pudding Race....”), the Stabbing of the Haggis and the Address to the Ladies, etc.

Ali and I plan to deliver the Address to the Haggis between us.

I am hoping that many of the glorious "Stroud Green Poetry Group" will attend in honour of the Scottish Bard, and together with others we should be able to command a fairly large table, hopefully others on SG.Org may wish to be sociable and join us. Let me know if you do, though obviously most people would want to book in twos. You can book here: https://www.whitelionn4.com/whats-on

I am not, by the way, being hired by the WL to promote this, it’s just a good opportunity to get a few people together, professional Scot or not. And I do like a good Burns Night.

Arkady

I'm going to one on Friday - two nights in a row might kill me. Also, I have plans involving Star Trek: Picard. Sounds fun though - good luck!

AtomGallery

sorry to be a pedant but a dram is a double and a nip is a single so a double dram would be quadruple .. heres hoping!

krappyrubsnif

@AtomGallery well spotted and you are quite correct. Indeed the blurb on the WL website has been considerably tightened up in the last couple of days, to change the start time, add live music and specify a 50ml dram. It now reads:

THE FINER DETAILS:

From 7pm we are hosting Burns Night. The evening includes a steak supper from £25pp. this includes scottish accompaniments and a 50ml dram of your choosing from one of the four regions of Scotland. whiskeys include Talisker, Auchentoshan, Glefiddch and Glenmorangie. from 7.30pm we will be entertaining our guests with a piper to bring the night into full swing, which will lead into our theatrical event of the evening: the ode to the Haggis from 8pm. Live music by Dan Olsen will be from 9pm.

Strangely, haggis is not specified (neeps and tatties are though). Needless to say I will not be attending unless haggis is on the menu. I'll be seeking assurances.....

Sutent

Is vegan haggis available?

krappyrubsnif

All the haggises have been reared on rain-fed peat hillsides.

krappyrubsnif

Haggis is confirmed, also vegetarian option, though not vegan. And steak.

Gloria

A humanely debeaked organically reared free-range haggis is a thing of beauty. The piping hot chopped viscera melding with the pepper, pin oats and suet encased in a sheep’s stomach makes one of the finest offal eating experiences there is. Saying that I cannot resist kidneys, be they lamb, calf or rabbit, done pink, leaking out their juice and still wafting a faint smell of piss. Although... I do think a wonderfully caramelised thymus gland sizzled over charcoal in the Spanish assador way takes some beating. Well done to the WLM for keeping with the wonderful radical tradition of the Burns Supper. “That Man to Man the warld o'er, Shall brithers be for a' that.”