On the Haggis Hunt in Edinburgh

On the hunt for haggis? Have a look at the best I tried during a recent Edinburgh expedition.

Working on a new (and still kinda top secret) project, I had to head up to one of my favourite cities, Edinburgh, last week. Being there meant I got to forage around for one of my favourite foods: haggis!

Not hip to haggis? You’re missing out. Made of sheep’s pluck (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oats, suet, spice and seasoning, it’s one of the tastiest dishes I can think of. That’s especially the case when the weather’s nippy. To be sure, such was the case during my mid January visit. The temperature hovered around freezing the whole time with more than a smattering of snow coming down with force most days.

So when it came time for me to dine, I tucked into savoured this most Scottish of dishes, on more than a couple of occasions, served in a few different ways and at a variety of venues.

The results? Mostly amazing! I certainly did not grow tired of this offal-ly delicious food. In fact, I brought home a vegetarian haggis to enjoy with Kemey for Burn’s Night without offending her pescatarian preferences.

Burn’s Night is marked every 25th of January. It’s an evening to celebrate the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns. The main course for the festivities is haggis, or in the words of the poet himself, the “great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race!”

Over the next few days I’ll share the best bites of my haggis hunt in a short series of posts. If you’re planning to be in Edinburgh for Burn’s Night, you’d do well to consider one of these soon-to-be revealed eateries for your Burns supper. But Burns Night or not, I recommend having haggis whenever and however you can as long as it’s made properly and authentically.