Tatties and Neeps

First post: Why is the blog called Tatties and Neeps? Well, 'Diary of A Kept Man' was taken, as was 'Bangers and Mash', and 'Fish and Chips', and 'Bubble and Squeak'. Eventually, I found one more UK food slang that wasn't taken and that was tatties and neeps.

I guess this is as much Scottish as British but all 'tatties and neeps' means is potatoes and rutabagas boiled and mashed separately. This is the common side dish, along with a dram of Scotch whiskey, to haggis. Haggis, by the way, is the heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep, ground and mixed with oodles of fat and oatmeal which is then stuffed in the sheep's stomach and boiled. Tasty! That shot of whiskey should make sense now.

I had this dish once but not in the UK. It was at the Five Flies restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa and thanks to 'So I Married An Axe Murderer', I knew what haggis was. For most, that would be reason enough not to get it. For me, there wasn't even a choice.