Czech Haggis???

It's fairly safe to say that if you were looking for a place to spend a Robert Burns night, you probably would not start with a Czech Restaurant, but that is where we went tonight to listen to 2 hours of Celtic music, hear Robert Burns poems, and watch some celtic dancing.

Our friend, Lee Riggs, his brother, and a handful of other guys form the band Riggity Jig, which is well known around these parts and so when Walt read that they were going to be at Little Prague celebrating Robert Burns, we decided to go.

Lee Riggs

When we arrived, the band was just getting set up, and naturally they started with a number that featured the bagpiper ... two nights in a row with pipes in them!  My Celtic roots are positively giddy with joy.  (I thought it very strange that this Celtic band was standing under a sign that read Koureni Zakazano! with a bunch of accents on some of the letters in the Czech saying.  We also put our Celtic beer on Krusovice beer coasters.)

After the band had played for awhile, they introduced a man named, I think, Tom McKeith, who read some Robert Burns poems.  I loved the way he read.

In time, the piper left the stage and went to the back of the room, and pretty soon he started playing there, and paraded to the stage in front of a big haggis, carried by the Czech owner of the restaurant, who placed it on a table in front of the stage.

There was some discussion about who was going to cut it.  Tommy had to read the "Address to a Haggis," by Burns, so Lee's brother David did the carving honors.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace As lang's my arm... [omitting 6 verses] Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o 'fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware That jaups in luggies; But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer, Gie her a Haggis!

Next, all who wanted some of the haggis lined up to get a serving.  Walt did, I didn't.  Someone asked me what it was and I said "awful."  He asked "is that offal or awful" and I said "yes."

There was a bit more music and another few poems read and then the piper played Auld Lang Syne and we packed up to leave. 

When we got home, Walt admitted that he had really liked the haggis.   "I guess nobody makes haggis like the Czechs," he said.