Airport security suspect explosive, find haggis

[theHandpuppet]

Edited to add link: http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/airport-security-suspect-explosive-find-haggis-1-3280444

The Scotsman
Sunday 26th January 2014
Airport security suspect explosive, find haggis
(excerpt)

Ian Blake was stopped as he passed through Birmingham Airport on his way from Inverness to see a friend in Dublin...

“I was only going over for two nights so I just had one small bag. As I was going through the scanning device, airport security staff pulled me out of the line and said ‘We think you have a suspected plastic explosive in your luggage, sir’.

“Then they took out the haggis and started examining it. I don’t think it was the plastic wrapping that was suspect, I think it was the actual consistency or denseness of our national dish...

...“The ironic thing was I was also carrying my sgian dubh. It was inside a pair of shoes in my bag. I thought the scanner might pick up the metal on the sgian-dubh but it didn’t. It was just the haggis that they thought might be dangerous.” MORE

The U. S. just lifted its ban on the importing of haggis about three years ago. I think I can wait a wee bit longer for a taste.

[longship]

1. What's worse, TSA searched a Norwegian and found Lutefisk!!!

He was arrested immediately and sent to Gitmo without a trial. Appeals court unanimously said it was justifiable.

(BTW, I am Norwegian and Finn.)

Pickled herring, okay. Lutefisk, inedible.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Have a friend whose family still eats the stuff (lutefisk)

I wonder what might happen to the human digestive system should it be served a meal of haggis and lutefisk? Explosive, indeed!

[Warpy]

5. Zimmer was able to choke it down

I've seen him "never-again" a few things and he spit durian out, couldn't handle it. I doubt he'll ever try lutefisk again. I think you have to be fed it in infancy to stand it in adulthood.

He's a wonder to all the other broadcast foodies because he's a teetotaler, he eats that stuff sober.

I agree with Bourdain that some foodstuff should only be consumed when your stomach will pickle them in alcohol. Haggis is in that category.

[longship]

7. Oh dear, the strict Lutherans are in trouble.

They have to eat the stuff sober -- hint: they're alway sober. (See Babette's Feast for details.)

[theHandpuppet]

8. You have to wonder who first came up with the recipe

I mean, it's labor intensive to make lutefisk! Who in their right mind would go to all that bother to make rotten fish jello?

Haggis pretty much the same, though it has a more handy container, as it were. I just don't have the nerve to try it.

[Warpy]

9. Somebody who'd experienced poor fishing and hunger devised it

when he was looking for ways to preserve his fish for starvation times. Rotten fish jello might have been unappealing, but it wouldn't kill you and would give you the strength to carry on while you hoped you wouldn't have to eat much of it for too long.

Salt was a hell of a lot better preservative and kept the fish smelling as well as tasting edible. Perhaps it was a poor fisherman who couldn't afford salt. He could make lye from the ashes of his fire.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Haggis is great for breakfast, and not strong tasting

I really can't see why people object to it, if they eat meat.

[Warpy]

13. My granny used to get bits and pieces from her brother's butcher shop

and mix them with cooked pin oats and cool them in cans to be sliced and fried up for breakfast. No matter which animal the bits and pieces had come from or which bits they were, it always tasted the same and it was always good.

So my comments about haggis are with my tongue firmly jammed into my cheek. All my granny needed was a sheep's stomach instead of tin cans.

[LeftyMom]

2. Finally the TSA does something useful. Double the haggis detector order immediately.

[valerief]

4. Worth every trillion it costs taxpayers! nt

[LeftyMom]

6. A bargain at twice the price!

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. And the Canadians have banned Marmite, because it has added vitamins

Canada orders Briton to stop selling Marmite and Irn-Bru

Irn-Bru contains the food colouring Ponceau 4R. It is not permitted in foods for sale in Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said in a statement to the BBC.

The colouring has been linked to hyperactivity.

In addition, the agency told the BBC that "drinks and a yeast-based spread" found in the Brit Foods shipment and subsequently on the shelves in the shops were not approved for sale in Canada. The agency did not list specific brand names.

It said the spread was banned because it contained added vitamins "not permitted to be added to spreads" under Canadian food regulations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25867613

This is a culture war. We shall never surrender.

[jmowreader]

14. Google is your friend

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/marmite-and-irn-bru-are-not-banned-in-canada-agency-says-1.1656150

British expats, you can relax. The Scottish soft drink favourite Irn-Bru and iconic spread Marmite are not banned for sale in Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency clarified Saturday, after a shopkeeper made headlines in the U.K., claiming he had been ordered to stop selling the popular British products.
“These products have been available on Canadian store shelves for more than a decade and will continue to be sold in stores across Canada,” the CFIA said in a statement released Saturday.

It was the meat that was shipped without proper documentation that caused the hold-up at the port of entry, not the Gawd-awful abomination that is Marmite.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. The BBC were quoting the CFIA

Their Facebook entry for 24th Jan:

The CFIA determined that the rejected shipment also included other products, including drinks and a yeast-based spread, which do not comply with Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations.

The spread contained added vitamins that are not permitted to be added to spreads under the current Food and Drug Regulations.
...
During the course of following up on the meat products, the CFIA also confirmed that the Brit Foods stores were selling the same drinks and yeast-based spread that were included in the shipment rejected in Montreal. However, because these products do not pose a health risk to consumers, the CFIA did not remove them from store shelves.

All food sold in Canada must comply with Canadian regulations, which may be different from the regulations of the countries where the products originated. Some of these products may be available in different formulations that meet Canadian requirements. Any such products would be allowed to be sold in Canada.

https://www.facebook.com/CFIACanada

It seems they either don't know their own regulations, or have decided to ignore them.

[annabanana]

12. heh... haggis CAN be explosive,

eventually,...

if you know what I mean

[davidpdx]

16. I bet

After reading what it is I can tell you I'd never eat it.