PIPING IN THE (CHINESE) NEW YEAR HOW VANCOUVER’S CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION IS PROMOTING INTERCULTURALISM IN CANADA’S WESTERN METROPOLIS http://www.maisonneuve.org/index.php?&page_id=12&article_id=2030 Christopher DeWolf writes about the different ways Chinese New Year is being celebrated in Vancouver - but I will just get to the good stuff here. Click on the links to visit the full article at Maisoneuve Magazine. GOOD ARTICLE!    more »

Last was indeed the best ever Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner. Every year has a different quality, different performers, different guests, different co-hosts and different suprises... We celebrate the diversity of a "gung haggis" world - full of intercultural fusion, no longer confined to self-contained boxes of multiculturalism. Max Wyman, one of Canada's leading cultural advocates and critics, as well as head of Canada's UNESCO program, was very excited about last night's dinner event. He first told me, then shared with the audience, that it was wonderful to see Canada's amazing cultural diversity expressed through the arts. All the hard work setting the ground work helps to make it possible for us to show case our Asian Canadian and cultural fusion artists. PICTURES of Rick Scott, Harry Wong, LaLa, No Shit Shirleys, Joe McDonald & Bravewaves, Prem Gill, Mayor Sam Sullivan, Joy Kogawa, Faye Leung... LOTS of PICTURES!   more »

For people wishing to come to Gung Haggis Fat Choy... there are still tickets available at the door. The Firehall Arts Centre has now finished their part in handling advance sales. We thank them for graciously handling advance sales for us. There will be tickets at the door. But there are only about 30 seats left   more »

Here's a picture of me in today's Metro News for January 20, 2006 A friend just sent me this on e-mail - now I have to go out and find a copy. Story by Jared Ferrie.   more »

Thursday afternoon I met with Metro News reporter Jared, Dragon Martials Arts store on Pender St. at the Chinese Cultural Centre. This is where I purchased my Lion Head mask. I never ever imagined that the combination of Chinee Lion Head maskwith a red kilt would become such an iconic symbol of "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" cultural fusion.... but it did. The image has become copied and blogged around the world... from Calfornia to Canton, from Nova Scotia to Scotland, from New Jersey to Simon Fraser University. Friday morning I am expecting a phone call from the hosts of the new CBC Radio program "Freestyle."   more »

Arrive Early: The doors will open by 5:15 pm. All seating is reserved, and all tables are placed in the order that they were ordered.... Expect the unexpected...   more »

Listen on Friday, Thursday Jan 19th, somewhere between 7am and 9am on 690 AM CBC Radio One for co-host Margaret Gallagher to give away tix as part of "690 to Go" as she gives away tickets to the "city's hottest events." This will be the third year Margaret has given away GHFC tickets to CBC listeners. We must be hot! We think Margaret is hot. Margaret has both performed and co-hosted for Gung Haggis Fat Choy in past years. Margaret guest paddled in our dragon boat entry in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in 2005. We always sing "When Chi-rish Eyes Are Smiling" - only for Margaret.   more »

The Scotsman, international journal for the Scottish diaspora has published a story about Gung Haggis Fat Choy. Journalist Christina Harper interviewed myself and bagpiper Joe MacDonald. GOOD STORY with PICTURES!   more »

Description of special guests attending the dinner including Vancouver, Mayor Sam Sullivan, Lion's Bay Mayor Max Wyman, Joy Kogawa, Libby Davies...    more »

January 16th Press Release - description of event + pictures "Toddish McWong" (aka Todd Wong) finally invaded Scotland via radio waves on November 28th 2005 on BBC Radio Scotland. He was interviewed by host Maggie Shiels for the show Scotland Licked. Maggie loved the concept of haggis stuffed won-ton, and even enticed McWong to performed "The Haggis Rap" on radio - his rap adaptation of Robbie Burns immortal "To a Haggis."   more »

Todd Wong appears in 4 different events listed this week in the Georgia Straight's Time Out section. 1) HAGGIS AND CHOPSTICKS, 2) GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY WORLD POETRY NIGHT 3) JANICE WONG + panel discussion Author reads from her book Chow From China to Canada: Tales of Food and Family, 4) GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner    more »

List of performers with discriptions and weblinks: Rick Scott & Harry Wong, The Shirleys, Brave Waves and Joe McDonald, LaLa, Joy Kogawa, Jeff Chiba Stearns   more »

GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY For most of the year, Todd Wong is a community activist who works on issues such as Chinese head-tax redress and the preservation of the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa. Once a year, however, the mild-mannered Wong transforms into Toddish McWong, the host and organizer of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a celebration of Chinese and Scottish culture in honour of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day, which occur a few days apart. PICTURE + Short Story...   more »

Ordered my haggis today.... 75+ pounds of it from Peter Black & Sons

I like the haggis that Peter Black of Park Royal makes.  It is a lovely haggis with wonderful spices and Peter's secret recipe, that may or may not include mince meat (so a friend tells me).

The first time I tasted haggis, I gagged.  It's true.  I have said this many times.  I since found out it was from a lard recipe.  Who eats lard?  It was 1998, at the first Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner that a lovely woman named Fiona brought a haggis to our first dinner for 16.

For the following years, I went on a quest... searching butcher stores for the elusive haggis, trying different stores.  Then one year, I bought my haggis at Peter Black & Sons, located in Park Royal South.  People actually came up to me and said... "This haggis is good."  They liked it.  And I didn't gag... and neither did they. 

The following year, I left it too late to purchase my haggis.  Peter Black was all sold out.  I found a butcher store with some haggis.  I bought them all.  I shouldn't have.  It was back to the gag reflex. 

So... I made dropped by Peter Black & Sons early the following December and told them I wanted to place an advance order.  They told me to come back in early January.  I did.  And I ordered lots.  They couldn't believe it. 

Today I had a great talk with the man himself, Peter Black.  I ordered 70 one-pounders for each table + a banquet haggis "as lang's my arm".  And I also ordered a bucket of haggis - without the wrappings... so we could make our won tons and spring rolls.  Peter told me that he was making the haggis on the weekend, and he was preparing the spice mixture as we spoke.

He also told me that a patron brought him a picture of a Chinese guy wearing a kilt, hosting a Robbie Burns Dinner.  Peter nodded and smilied, saying all the right multicultural things...  never once saying that he is the "official supplier" to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner, and that it is only his haggis that I use to my my special "Gung Haggis Won Tons." 

Okay, so it may have been a rare moment of grace and humility for the man.  But I like him, and I like his haggis.  And tomorrow I will take him a copy of my new poster for the 2006 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.  And Peter may put it up above the little cage he has with the "wild haggis" inside.  Maybe he will tell people that when the little creature grows up, he will look like this:

Ha Ha Ha Ha.......  A Wild Chinese Haggis.....  that's me!