Communique straight from Haggis Land
(from Alexander Hutchinson)
The fame of Gung Haggis Fat Choy is consistently growing. Here is
an example of appreciation from an ex-Scots, ex-Canadian – who really
appreciates the intercultural directions of Gung Haggis Fat Choy –
which celebrates the Chinese and Scottish heritage of Canada +
everything in between & everything beyond!
Please welcome Alexander Hutchinson as a guest on www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com
Mr. Hutchinson has written a poem about Haggis titled “Surprise Surprise” (see attachment).
He has also sent me a cover from his book, and a picture of a haggis
wearing a kilt. (I will have to send the picture to my kilted
mates on www.xmarksthescot.com
It seems a fitting time for Mr. Hutchinson to discover Gung Haggis Fat
Choy and to contact me 40 years after his first arrival in Victoria BC,
Canada – back on August 31, 1966. Victoria is a wonderful city
that plays up its British heritage with high tea at the Empress Hotel,
double decker buses, and all that stuff. However, Victoria is
also the city that at one point had the largest Chinatown in North
America, where my father's father once ran the largest Chinese merchant
store, and where both my father and my mother's mother were botn in
1925, and 1910.
British Columbia is indeed a place where Scots and Chinese have met,
collided, and colluded. I hope to soon be hosting a Gung Haggis
Fat Choy dinner in Victoria sometime soon. And maybe if Mr.
Hutchinson makes the trip to Victoria for his anniversary… we
will have a special little dinner. In the mean time, please enjoy
his letter and his poem.
from the Land of Haggis, cradle of Burns. This is a concept dear to my
heart. As you will see from the attached piece, my poem “Surprise,
Surprise” has been in circulation now for more than 21 years (and a
published version came out in 1990 – I'll attach some images if I can
scan them
don't see why I couldn't add gung haggis fat choy – though there is
already a reference to ancient Chinese practice. – “100 year -old Kung
Po haggis”!
Canada in 1984 – had been living on Vancouver Island since 1966. The
haggis poem was the first piece I wrote on return – and it got a hot
reception.. There is a story about the “invention” of the vegetarian
haggis – but I'll save that for later.
would love to be back on the west coast. Shouldn't be long – I'm due a
visit. I am a Canadian citizen as well as Scottish – my kids are
too. The 40th anniversary of my first arrival is August 31st (Labour
Day 1966). “Good Vibrations” was on the radio all the time..
wha's like us? (“Damn few:and they're aa deid” is the usual answer..)
SURPRISE, SURPRISE
MacSween the corner butcher with confidence displays
for denizens of the city – 'of toons the a per se'-
a vegetarian haggis, rank specimen of his craft.
Just what the creature might contain defeats surmise:
pinmeal and onions, nuts or beans, some dribs and drabs.
No gristle, no suet, no organ meats: no liver, no tripes
no lights, no heart. Instead of a sheep's paunch
potato skins with a saddle-stitch fly. Up the Mound
down Candlemakers Row the fix is in. The makars jump
the peddlers stump, the market splits wide open.
First from a purely culinary point of view – corned, curried
devilled, smoked and kosher haggis; haggis à la king; wee cocktail
haggis; haggis in a basket; haggis on the half-shell; instant haggis;
English haggis; haggis eclairs; Crimean campaign haggis, conceived
in Sebastopol, consumed in Balaclava; hot-cross haggis; haggis in
plum sauce; desiccated haggis; baked haggis alaska; chocolate mint-
chip haggis; non-stick convenient haggis; cucumber and haggis
sandwiches; junk haggis; whole-hog haggis.
Next by haggis of a special bent – weight-watcher haggis;
haggis for the moonstruck; haggis nouveau; haggis grand cru; 12 year
old vintage haggis matured in oak casks; 100 year old Kung Po haggis
drawn from the well without obstruction; “Bomber” Haggis; haggis for
lovers; lite, lo-tar, lo-nicotine haggis; Campdown haggis; drive-in
haggis; hand-raised, house-trained haggis, with pedigree attached;
haggis by special appointment; reconstituted haggis; nuclear-free
haggis; ancient Dynastic haggis sealed in canopic jars; haggis
quickstep; haggis high in fibre; haggis low in the opinion of several
discerning people; a haggis of the Queen's flight; Nepalese temple
haggis (rich, dark and mildew-free); hard-porn haggis;
haggis built to last.
Finally, objects tending to the metaphysical – desolation
haggis; the canny man's haggis; haggis not so good or bad as
one imagines; haggis made much of caught young; unsung haggis;
haggis not of this fold; haggis dimm'd by superstition;
perfectly intuited haggis; haggis beyond the shadow of a doubt;
bantering haggis; haggis given up for Lent; haggis given up for
lost; haggis so good you think you died and went to heaven;
haggis supreme; haggis unchained.
© Alexander Hutchison 1984, 1990
