Ordered my haggis today…. 75+ pounds of it from Peter Black & Sons

I
like the haggis that Peter Black of Park Royal makes.  It is a
lovely haggis with wonderful spices and Peter's secret recipe, that may
or may not include mince meat (so a friend tells me).

The first
time I tasted haggis, I gagged.  It's true.  I have said this
many times.  I since found out it was from a lard recipe. 
Who eats lard?  It was 1998, at the first Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dinner that a lovely woman named Fiona brought a haggis to our first
dinner for 16.

For the following years, I went on a quest…
searching butcher stores for the elusive haggis, trying different
stores.  Then one year, I bought my haggis at Peter Black &
Sons, located in Park Royal South.  People actually came up to me
and said… “This haggis is good.”  They liked it.  And I
didn't gag… and neither did they. 

The following year,
I left it too late to purchase my haggis.  Peter Black was all
sold out.  I found a butcher store with some haggis.  I
bought them all.  I shouldn't have.  It was back to the gag
reflex. 

So… I made dropped by Peter Black & Sons
early the following December and told them I wanted to place an advance
order.  They told me to come back in early January.  I
did.  And I ordered lots.  They couldn't believe it. 

Today
I had a great talk with the man himself, Peter Black.  I ordered
70 one-pounders for each table + a banquet haggis “as lang's my
arm”.  And I also ordered a bucket of haggis – without the
wrappings… so we could make our won tons and spring rolls. 
Peter told me that he was making the haggis on the weekend, and he was
preparing the spice mixture as we spoke.

He also told me that a
patron brought him a picture of a Chinese guy wearing a kilt, hosting a
Robbie Burns Dinner.  Peter nodded and smilied, saying all the
right multicultural things…  never once saying that he is the
“official supplier” to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner, and that it is
only his haggis that I use to my my special “Gung Haggis Won
Tons.” 

Okay, so it may have been a rare moment of grace
and humility for the man.  But I like him, and I like his
haggis.  And tomorrow I will take him a copy of my new poster for
the 2006 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.  And Peter may put it up
above the little cage he has with the “wild haggis” inside.  Maybe
he will tell people that when the little creature grows up, he will
look like this:

Ha Ha Ha Ha…….  A Wild Chinese Haggis…..  that's me!