Twelfth annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner at Floata
1 Comment
Bruce Nguyen
February 9, 2010
Mosaic.
Growing up a young immigrant in Canada, ‘mosaic’ was the catch phrase my school teachers would use to define the country’s cultural landscape. Mosaic; by proudly juxtaposing different cultures, my adopted country would create an altogether new composite Canadian identity.
I’m still skeptical on the extent of it all in reality, but what’s clear is with today’s popularity of the california roll, Japadog, and ninja turtles, cultural borrowing and fusion has become rather commonplace. However, I can’t remember when it’s ever been as explicit and downright fun as Gung Haggis Fat Choy.
We even covered the event live on twitter. Missed our live tweets? You can catch up on the conversation here
The event
A portmanteau of the traditional Cantonese new year greeting and that prototypical Scottish sausage, Gung Haggis Fat Choy combines Chinese New Year with Robbie Burns Day to create a new composite celebration of song, poetry readings, and food in order to celebrate the two heritages and raise funds for various charities.
This year marked the event’s twelfth year running and, with over four hundred attendees to this year’s dinner, the costumes, bagpipes, and sing-a-longs were in full swing.
Hosted by “Toddish McWong” and Tricia Collins, the night started with a full bagpipe band, transitioned to poetry readings, both original works and those from Burns, and just kept going from there.
Audience participation was encouraged, with sing-a-longs of “When Asian/Scottish/Chirish Eyes are Smiling” – yes, “Chirish ” – and echoing along with a rap version of Burns’ “Address to the Haggis”.
The menu
The drink list consisted of a variety of Scotch whiskies and Chinese beers. Wines were available too, but understandably none from Scotland or China.
Hosted by Floata Seafood Restaurant, the menu would sound familiar to anybody who has been to a Chinese wedding banquet, with a few key differences of course:
- Appetizer plate of haggis siu mai, BBQ pork, jellyfish, and turnip cakes
- Deep-fried haggis wontons
- Mixed vegetables and winter melon soup
- Haggis lettuce wrap with diced vegetables
- Pan-fried prawns with spicy salt (shell in)
- Peking style gold coined beef
- Buddha’s Feast vegetables with deep fried tofu
- Deep fried crispy chicken
- Vegetarian fried rice
- Coconut or mango rice pudding
The Deep fried haggis wontons being a clear stand-out. In fact, I personally loved all the haggis infused dishes served this night. Yes, I know what haggis is. But I grew up eating chicken feet, tripe, and Hot vit lon / Balut (readers with tender stomachs, do not click that link).
Haggis? No problem, and really very pleasantly savoury.
‘Good food and good fun’ sums up our experiences at this year’s Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner; I’m sure we’ll be back next year.
To learn more about Gung Haggis Fat Choy: The Robbie Burns / Chinese New Year event, visit their website here.
Categories: Chinatown, Events, Food, Restaurants
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That spread looks delicious. No, I have no problem with haggis, tripe, chicken feet or other innards. But for some reason I have never been able to graduate to balut.
Looking forward to next years!