curiouswombat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
curiouswombat) wrote2013-01-27 07:18 pm
curiouswombat) wrote2013-01-27 07:18 pm
Entry tags:
Burns' Night
Burns' Night was, officially, 25th January - i.e.the anniversary of the birth of the poet Robert Burns. But we usually celebrate it on the nearest Saturday evening, so it was our Burns' Night Supper last night.
When I say 'ours', it is our church that organises what our toastmaster (who is also the Speaker of the House of Keys) calls 'not only the Island's Premier Burns' Night event - but the Premier Social Event of the year'. Perhaps he exaggerates a little - but it is a big event and a chance for us to put on our glad-rags and eat in one of the best hotels on the island.
This year there were about 90 guests, many of the men in kilts, most of the others in Evening Dress, all of the ladies in evening wear, although not all in full-length. And it was absolutely pouring with rain, the wind was a steady 35mph with gusts up to 60 - and the hotel in question is on the seafront.
I dropped S2C, D-d, her partner (useful male from work who is not, she points out, currently a boyfriend) at the door and had to park a little way away - only about 20 - 30 yards as it happens - but I was still soaking wet from the bottom of my coat to the bottom of my dress...
We had to do our utmost to make sure D-d didn't get wet as she was one of the speakers! There are a series of traditional toasts and replies at a Burns' Night Supper and one of these, at a Burns' Night outside Scotland, is 'To Our Adopted Homeland'. This was being proposed by HRH The Lieutenant Governor (the representative of The Queen, Lord of Mann - like the Governor General of Australia or Canada, but on a smaller scale!) - and D-d made the reply on behalf of the Manx - a five minute speech.
She did really well but, sadly, I was so busy listening I forgot to take her picture! However she looked very pretty in a full length red dress with her hair falling in its natural curls.
There is however, as always, a picture of the pudding
S2C and I sat at a table with some people I knew, and some I didn't - D-d and her partner sat at the top table and kept the Governor entertained.
Had I been sitting there too, I wouldn't have got my camera out to take a picture of pudding - but on our table it only occurred to me when one of the couple I didn't know got his out to do just that!
We had pheasant and pork paté for starter, the haggis was duly piped in and addressed in great style by Speaker Rodan, and eaten with neeps and taties (and a very good haggis it was, too), then we had chicken breast with vegetables, followed by a lemon posset with blueberry compote and a blueberry tartlet....
The sticks are chocolate curls. The blueberry compote was separate and I thought it looked prettier before I added it, rather than after. It tasted as good as it looked.
Finally, with coffee, we got chocolate dipped shortbread...
The speeches had to be good to keep us all awake after that!
Unrelated - how wonderful is it that one of the experts on Time Team is called Dr Helen Geake?
And did you know that the reason we serve lemon with fish has nothing to do with flavour, but that in the Middle Ages it was thought lemon juice was the best thing to dissolve fish-bones - so the wedge of lemon was to suck if you got a bone caught in your throat? I learnt that factlet from The Unbelievable Truth on Radio 4 - even their comedy programmes are educational - they just can't help it! They were also taking the micky out of fifty shades of Grey... how wonderful is Radio 4?
When I say 'ours', it is our church that organises what our toastmaster (who is also the Speaker of the House of Keys) calls 'not only the Island's Premier Burns' Night event - but the Premier Social Event of the year'. Perhaps he exaggerates a little - but it is a big event and a chance for us to put on our glad-rags and eat in one of the best hotels on the island.
This year there were about 90 guests, many of the men in kilts, most of the others in Evening Dress, all of the ladies in evening wear, although not all in full-length. And it was absolutely pouring with rain, the wind was a steady 35mph with gusts up to 60 - and the hotel in question is on the seafront.
I dropped S2C, D-d, her partner (useful male from work who is not, she points out, currently a boyfriend) at the door and had to park a little way away - only about 20 - 30 yards as it happens - but I was still soaking wet from the bottom of my coat to the bottom of my dress...
We had to do our utmost to make sure D-d didn't get wet as she was one of the speakers! There are a series of traditional toasts and replies at a Burns' Night Supper and one of these, at a Burns' Night outside Scotland, is 'To Our Adopted Homeland'. This was being proposed by HRH The Lieutenant Governor (the representative of The Queen, Lord of Mann - like the Governor General of Australia or Canada, but on a smaller scale!) - and D-d made the reply on behalf of the Manx - a five minute speech.
She did really well but, sadly, I was so busy listening I forgot to take her picture! However she looked very pretty in a full length red dress with her hair falling in its natural curls.
There is however, as always, a picture of the pudding
S2C and I sat at a table with some people I knew, and some I didn't - D-d and her partner sat at the top table and kept the Governor entertained.
Had I been sitting there too, I wouldn't have got my camera out to take a picture of pudding - but on our table it only occurred to me when one of the couple I didn't know got his out to do just that!
We had pheasant and pork paté for starter, the haggis was duly piped in and addressed in great style by Speaker Rodan, and eaten with neeps and taties (and a very good haggis it was, too), then we had chicken breast with vegetables, followed by a lemon posset with blueberry compote and a blueberry tartlet....
The sticks are chocolate curls. The blueberry compote was separate and I thought it looked prettier before I added it, rather than after. It tasted as good as it looked.
Finally, with coffee, we got chocolate dipped shortbread...
The speeches had to be good to keep us all awake after that!
Unrelated - how wonderful is it that one of the experts on Time Team is called Dr Helen Geake?
And did you know that the reason we serve lemon with fish has nothing to do with flavour, but that in the Middle Ages it was thought lemon juice was the best thing to dissolve fish-bones - so the wedge of lemon was to suck if you got a bone caught in your throat? I learnt that factlet from The Unbelievable Truth on Radio 4 - even their comedy programmes are educational - they just can't help it! They were also taking the micky out of fifty shades of Grey... how wonderful is Radio 4?
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I like The Unbelievable Truth (I like most of Radio 4, to be honest) and often find myself shouting 'That's true!' at the panel. There are some fascinating snippets of information to be found there, including the one about lemon and fish. I never knew that before!
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I am an inveterate Radio 4 listener, too - such snippets as why lemon with fish really are fascinating, as well as fun.
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I've also used haggis to stuff chicken breasts.
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I just saw a series of photos from another friend here about another Burns Night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!
:)
The banquet sounds superb and that dessert....
*drools*
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I'm not sure when the 'Social Committee' organised their first Burns' Supper - but it has been part of the church social life for a very long time - and is attended by a good few people who aren't part of our congregation, but know a good Burns' Night when they see it!
And yes - the food was excellent.
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:)
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Your dessert looks scrummy!
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But the dessert was so pretty it was worth a picture.
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I have never heard of The Unbelievable Truth but I do listen to the News Quiz on Radio 4, which is fun. I download them on podcast so I can listen to them again. It is amazing how much I miss due to interruptions.
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The food at the Burns' supper is always very good - and this year's pudding was a real triumph, I thought.
Mind you, S2C doesn't like lemon apart from with fish - he doesn't like it in anything sweet - so we asked could he have ice-cream. Then the man sitting on the other side of me said 'Ice-cream? I'd rather have ice-cream too, can you ask him to get me some when he comes with that one?' So the two men beside me had chocolate ice-cream instead!
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What an appropriate name!
I had never heard about the lemon and fishbone thingy. That is the kind of trivia I enjoy.
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And I'm really glad that someone else likes the idea of Dr Geake!
The lemon thing is a lovely bit of trivia - the sort of thing I will remember for years, no doubt!
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Your desserts look scrumptious. I didn't know that factoid about lemon, but I do habitually finish my fish by consuming the lemon wedge, and have done ever since I was little. I always thought it was because I liked the taste, but maybe...it's a habit carried over from a previous, medieval life? Haha!
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And the lemn snippet is really interesting, isn't it?
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Or is it that we are conditioned to see it as a perfect pairing of flavours, I wonder?
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We are also bereft of tartan tat - the tables are dressed in blue and white (we are St Andrew's Church after all...) and about 1/4 of the men are entitled to, and do, wear kilts.
We do have a piper - who is, wonderfully, a Mr Shakespeare! But he only pipes in the speakers and then the haggis - so just enough pipe music I think!
But a proper reminder of what a good poet Burns was should be at the heart of the event - rather than the centre-point being the haggis - I absolutely agree. And so I rather think I would have enjoyed your evening a good deal.
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The lemon juice dissolving fish bone fact was one I said was true that the panellists missed! Listening to Radio 4 is one of my 2013 'attemptolutions' - a little less pressure than a resolution I feel - and is one that's going really well so far! I always found myself wishing I'd listened to programmes, and so now I'm making the effort, with the help of the iPlayer, which is a great help.
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I listen to Radio 4 quite a lot - but I do miss the quizzes and other interesting things that they used to have on at 13.30 -14.00 on week days. This was often my driving time from Douglas to one of the outlying clinics - and now that they have lengthened WatO and put the good stuff mid-afternoon I often miss them.
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Was there haggis? I must put that on my bucket list, eating haggis.
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I have one picture I took of her at a distance at the end of the evening but it isn't very good. So I do hope there is an official picture.
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I'm reading "Shades of Grey" by Jasper Fforde. My husband asked me if that was the book that all the hubbub was about. Heaven forbid! I don't knowingly read garbage. This book has nothing to do with the bestseller--including the quality of writing!
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I was tempted by Fifty SHEDS of Grey (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifty-Sheds-Grey-Erotica-not-too-modern/dp/0752265458/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359466709&sr=1-1) - but haven't succumbed yet.