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Burns Night at Main Street Brewing

Tonight we were celebrating Robbie Burns Day for the first time. In Scotland this is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns (born January 25, 1759 to July 21c, 1796). He is author of many Scotspoems and suppera are normally held on or near the his to commemorate his works. This is known as Burns Night, and this year we were at Main Street Brewing to celebrate. Seeing as they now have partnered with Rosie’s Smokehouse BBQ catering, and are able to offer a more fulsome menu to be able to fulfill the food traditions of this day.

The Scottish Parliament considers the annual celebration of Burns Night to be a key cultural heritage event. As per the tradition, the evening begins with the recitation of Burns’s poetry. Sadly, the delegate who was chosen for this task broke his foot and was unable to attend this evening’s festivities, so a video recording sufficed.

The poem “Address to a Haggis” is read, then followed by a ceremonious parading of Haggis around the room for spectators to take in. After a full tour it is cut into it and served. For those unfamiliar “Haggis” is a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with chopped onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt; all mixed with stock and cooked within a sheep’s stomach. However, by its appearance today, they may have taken a more modern approach to this.

The only thing missing tonight was scotch whisky, but a couple of Main Street Brewing lagers would do the trick.

Seats were first come first serve, much like the one night only menu. In fact, we were tardy and missed out on the scotch eggs, as the most popular items of the evening. An order of two hard boiled eggs wrapped in house-made beef and pork sausage, baked in crispy bread crumbs, then served hot with mustard.

Thankfully there were plenty of Burn’s Bakes to go around. This was a play on their regularly offered “Gregg’s Bake”, a meat pie inspired by the ones from a popular UK bakery. Normally stuffed with smoked brisket, but with minced beef and smoke lamb meat tonight, instead. There was even a large “X” across the handpie to mark the Scottish flag.

We were already fans coming in and this was furthered upon first bite. Flaky buttery puff pastry wrapped well seasoned bits of meat, made into a full meal with a side of whisky gravy, haggis, neeps and tatties. The latter two are turnips and potato mashed, respectively. Given the availability and the day, it would have been nice to have haggis incorporated into this and the eggs above.

The main feature is the Haggis and Mash platter. It comes with a similar beef and smoked lamb birdie (meat pie) as above, with haggis, neeps and tatties, and whisky gravy for sides. The pie was gamey with an umami woodsyness. It paralleled the haggis with a slightly bitter, irony flavour. This was my first taste of haggis, it reminded us of blood pudding, its texture like a softened, cream churned ground beef. This was unique and comforting alongside the mixed mashes, like a deconstructed shepards pie altogether. This was a homey plate and one that paired well with our beers.

Not part of the Burns menu, but worth considering is Rosie’s take on the classic bar pretzel. Their version is baked to order so not dense and hard, but soft throughout with a heavy coarse salting. The game changer here is the accompanying beer cheese dip. Served steaming hot, it further warms and softens the pretzel, adding a bold, mellow cheesy flavour with a hoppy snap from the inclusion of Main Street Brewing’s German dark lager.

In short, this was a great time and a great way to immerse yourself in the traditions of another culture. This will have to be an annual tradition for us, now that we got a taste of and like haggis.

Main Street Brewing Co.
261 E 7th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5T OB8
(604) 336-7711
mainstreetbeer.ca

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