Burns Night fare: Potatoes "tatties", turnips "neeps" and haggis. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Problem
Everybody knows Auld Lang Syne written by Robbie Burns. Less than a month after the New Year's Eve celebrations, you can celebrate Burns Night. Where can you go to a Burns night? (Answers at the end.) If no Burns night is organized by others is in your area, how do you organize a fun evening for family or friends or a group to which you belong?
Traditionally you would hold a Burns night on January 25th. But you could hold it the weekend before or after, at your monthly club meeting in January. Wikipedia says you can hold a Burns Night any night of the year, or any time of day. The original Burns night was held about five years after Burns death by a group including some who knew him. It wasn't on the right date, which was only discovered later.
You want to hold a Burns Night for family or friends? However, some of them don't or won't drink whisky. What do you do? Serve lots of food, water, and whisky, starting with Champagne and / or a white wine, then a red wine, finishing with an optional whisky.
If the evening is entirely paid for by the host, or potluck you could take:
Scottish Shortbread
Scottish Smoked Salmon (Plain or rolled around cream cheese. We had smoked salmon starter from Aldi. *
Scotch Whisky
Haggis
Vegetarian Haggis
Potatoes (tatties - mashed potato - can be bland unless you add salt)
Neeps (turnips - look pale orange-pink, mild sweet taste).
Planning a holiday this year or next? Include a Burns night.
Shellfish
A good thing I asked, "Is there any shellfish - I am allergic to prawns, shrimps, lobster and so on." The host replied, "Yes, there are prawns in the smoked salmon roll."
I thought he was joking. However, just in case, I cut open the roll. Pale prawns were hidden in the cream cheese inside the smoked salmon rolls. If any of your guests are allergic - or Jewish, warn them.)
I have attended several Burns Nights in London, England, with neighbours who have a husband of Scottish descent, who lived in Scotland several years.
In January 2018 I went to a Burns Night in London with a wine tasting group of about ten people. Some of them are gourmets and gourmands eating and drinking everything in copious amounts; others have restricted diets of food and drink.
An American woman who sat on my left goes on wine holidays every year, to destinations ranging from those in the Americas such as Chile, to others in Europe such as Greece (her favourite). By contrast, a British woman on my sitting on my right does not drink whisky, can drink only one glass of wine a night, and is on an elimination diet to cut out gluten and several other foods.
Poems
How did the host cope? He was not Scottish. He is a man who was top of his year in the group graduating from a wine school. One of his guests was Scottish and read Burns poems. The host provided a book of Burns poems to be read during the dinner, plus some poems by 'Scotland's worst poet' McGonagal (who wrote the Tay Bridge Disaster which he sent to a newspaper and Queen Victoria). The book on McGonagal had a deliberately humorous introductory poem by the late, great British comedian Spike Milligan of Goon Show fame. (You can see interviews with Spike Milligan on YouTube.)
Budget
He had a variable budget for each paying guest. If two or more people turned up and paid (your budget could be £25-50 per person), he added another bottle of wine and another bottle of whisky. If you want the lower budget, you have fewer and cheaper foods and wines. If you opt for the higher budget, you keep the extra whiskies in stock and/or run several events every week at or for wine clubs.
For the lower budget, shop in the UK at Lidl and/or make your own food. Wikipedia gives a complete run-down of your options. (We looked it up on a phone during the meal. Our host plans these events every year. He had bought haggis and other foods from Scotland in previous years. This time he thought he had food as good or better home made.
What went wrong? We as guests forgot to look out our tartan clothes. Somewhere I have tartan items which I bought on the internet for a motivational talk I gave on Bruce and The Spider. I was shocked by the price of tartans in Edinburgh at the usual shops (Edinburgh woollen mills) even in the sale. If you are looking for a bargain, try the charity shops (Americans call them thrift shops) in Scotland or on the internet after Burns night, look for party shops and party goods sellers if you don't want quality goods which fit and last, just something to wear once.
An complete authentic tartan outfit with kilt, sporran, white shirt, sash, socks, matching hat, could cost £1000. It is the sort of thing some Scottish people would have if they had recently been to a family wedding in Scotland.
Here's a checklist for your dinner event:
Pipers or pipe music to start the evening. (Find a recording on the internet.)
Tartan cloth, decorations or poster, or print a Burns poem for every guest or every place setting.
For a wine and whisky tasting dinner, print a list of the drinks and foods with a columns for scoring.
Voting Sheet
You end by reading out the votes for the best whisky, wine, drink or food of the night. At the bottom of the page print the scoring out of 5, 7 or 10 with 0 for inedible, undrinkable, top score for the best, and choose how you will allocate the other marks such as:
1 very poor, 2 poor, 3 average, 4 good, 5 excellent. You then read out the prices paid for all the drinks and the suppliers.
Prices Revealed
If you bought the wines long ago, quote the current price on line. Prices may range from your cheapest local supermarket price, to other suppliers on line. You might find the same drink or food offered at different prices at similar prices, or a a huge range.
If your guest's favourite food or drink is within their budget, they have something to look forward to buying. If the cost is way beyond their budget, they have had a good value evening and a great experience trying something they could not normally afford.
Transport
If you are serving lots of drinks, even with food, your guests may prefer to travel by public transport to avoid drinking, or to order a taxi or other vehicle to go home, or designate a non-drinking driver (or get a friend to collect them). Another alternative is to hire one vehicle to a circular route and drop everybody home.
Cab Home
(In Singapore the uber and Grab work brilliantly. You usually get a nearby vehicle allocated and arriving within five minutes. You pay on line with your credit card in advance so there's no tip so you know the exact cost and you get an automatic receipt for your records. You can even see the route taken by the vehicle so you know if he is nearby or very rarely if s/he turned the wrong way or is lost.)
Websites
Burns Night wikipedia
Meetup (In London, UK and many cities around the world. Find an evening or meet others who want to hold one.)
Look in local newspapers online for events in restaurants and hotels.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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