CFUN 1410 AM: Toddish McWong visits “The Best of Food & Wine”

It was a good interview today at noon on 14 CFUN's “The Best of Food & Wine” with hosts Kasey Wilson and Anthony Gismondi.

They are a lively twosome and really play off each other.  They each asked questions about the dinner and its origins.  They asked how many Chinese and Scottish attend the dinner.  I had to say about half and half… with another contingent of people who have both Scottish and Chinese parents, or are in relationships with one or the other.

“How do the Chinese like the haggis?” asked Kasey.

“Well… they didn't… they would really leave most of it on the table,” I explained.  “So we started creating “Haggis won-ton” and “haggis spring rolls” and they started saying 'this is pretty good!'”

“We serve the traditional haggis at the same time as a vegetarian lettuce wrap, and tell people to put in the plum sauce, the vegetarian mixture and the haggis, then fold over the lettuce and eat it like a hamburger without the bun.  And they like it!  They say they never knew haggis could taste so good, and eat it all up!”

But of course every dish is not haggis.  We have 8 other non-haggis dishes, starting with hot and sour soup, ginger crab, mushrooms and vegetables, sticky fried rice, shrimp balls, vegetarian lettuce wrap. dessert.

Anthony asked about the price of the dinner, and I told him that $60 + service charge got you a regular seat, but $70 got you a closer seat to the stage + 2 bottles of wine at your table.

“That's a good deal,” stated Kasey, she said she would love to have wine to wash down the haggis.

“What kind of wine are you serving,” they asked.

“We haven't picked it up yet… we are looking for BC wines made by Chinese-Canadians or Scottish-Canadians, because we really like to emphasize the Chinese and Scottish heritage of BC at our dinner.

“Maybe our listeners can help you find some good wines… they must be some Scots in the Okanagan,
offered Kasey.

“There's Howard Soon of Sandhill,” I said referring to the first Chinese-Canadian winemaker in BC.

There you have it – the food and wine of Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner, featured on The Best of Food & Wine, with Anthony Gismondi and Kasey Wilson.