Football fan’s Scots-Brazilian snacks become culinary hit for World Cup

A football fan who combined Scottish and Brazilian dishes is seeing his culinary creation become a surprise hit, as the two nations prepare to face off at the World Cup.

Retired engineer Jimmy Main, 75, brought together haggis and coxinhas, a popular Brazilian snack, in celebration of both nations.

Coxinhas are teardrop-shaped dumplings, comprised of dough, breadcrumbs, and are generally filled with chicken.

Mr Main swapped chicken for haggis in a bid to create something unique and packed full of flavour.

His “haggisxinha” creations aim to celebrate both cultures and were heavily inspired by his Brazilian wife, Luciana Main, who taught him the recipe.

He has since turned the idea into a business venture, having converted half of his garage, dubbed the “man-cave”, into a kitchen, with full adherence to health and hygiene standards.

Mr Main, of Easterhouse, Glasgow, now sells his product to a number of restaurants and shops around Scotland, and sometimes makes up to 10,000 haggisxinhas a day.

He said: “It all comes down to my wife, who is Brazilian.

“She had been in Scotland for some time, and due to a visa requirement, she has to go back to Brazil and reapply from there.

“But during her time here, she would cook coxinhas, and I thought it would make a good business venture. So I started making them and supplying people who were having parties, and I was very surprised once I got started, as I discovered how many Brazilians were actually in Scotland, and the business grew, and eventually had to invest some money into a machine to make the coxinha, and they became very popular.

“Scottish people have started to like it and have ordered some snacks back and forward. I’ve ended up selling snacks to Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling and mainly here in Glasgow.”

Jimmy Main, 75, was inspired by his Brazilian wife to create his haggisxinhas (Ryan McDougall/PA)

Mr Main advertised his creations over social media, quickly amassing more than 70,000 views on Instagram alone.

Mr Main said: “I decided to do a small promotion video and put it on Facebook and Instagram, and it’s exploded – so much so that I can’t cope and I’m going to have to move into larger premises where I have the facility to freeze the food, bag the food, and then transport the food.

“It’s been very successful at the moment, and with the World Cup coming up, people are showing an interest in it, because we’re going to be playing Brazil, and that Scotland’s going to be playing Brazil, and I’m really looking forward to that. I support both teams, so may the best team win!

“I hope that as people sit down to watch the Scotland v Brazil game they’ll get torn into the haggisxinha.”

When he first came up with the idea, he asked his wife for her opinion.

“She thought it would be a good venture, and to give it a try,” he said.

“She’s always been very supportive of me, and likewise.

“I love the help she gives me. She’s very considerate, and she’s a very helpful, loving person. I’m very lucky.”

The pair first met while Mr Main was on holiday in Chile. They kept in touch and started their relationship afterwards.

She later came to visit him in Scotland in 2020 with her children, and once the lockdown began, she was left unable to travel back to Brasil for a time, so they made the most of it and decided to get married, having recently celebrated their five-year anniversary.

Mr Main uses a number of cooking machines to help speed up the production of his haggisxinhas (Ryan McDougall/PA)

Mr Main said they are hopeful she can get a visa to grant her the right to live in the UK, having previously been rejected as a result of Mr Main being retired.

Now that he has started his new venture, he hopes the income he generates from his haggisxinhas will be enough to convince the Government to allow her to stay with him in his Easterhouse home.

He commented: “She was refused a visa simply because I’m retired, and during us pursuing a visa it was very difficult because I’m a pensioner.

“I live on a pension, but my house is bought and paid for, and to make up the shortfall of my income, is basically why I started the business.

“So if I have a good, healthy bank account and I can support my wife and my stepdaughter, hopefully they’ll be in Scotland soon to help me expand the business, keep it going, and potentially, if it grows big enough, I can hire some more people.”

He laughed: “I’d like to give Linda McCartney a run for her money!”

To support Mr Main’s business venture, click here.