Diary of An Irish Woman

musings of an irish lady now living in America.

Monday, March 17, 2008

for the love of all that is holy please use vinegar!

So today is St Patricks Day - the Irish Saint (not born in Ireland as we had actually kidnapped him from Wales or there abouts to mind sheep). And in America to celebrate they have parades with hornpipes and kilts (both Scottish and not Irish) and also they have Corn Beef and Cabbage for dinner to celebrate.

Why? Corn Beef and Cabbage is about as Irish as spaggetti and meatballs.. Couldnt we do this with Baileys and IceCream. Or even a shot of whiskey and a baked potatoe. Even thats more friggin Irish than corn beef and cabbage. The Irish in NY turn of century wanted to eat something nice around Easter. Normally its lamb or a cut of nice beef. Not having farms to go eat off in Yonkers, Hells Kitchen etc they turned to their neighbors to see what they were eating. Aha - corned beef (beef cured in salt), nowadays brine. Lets boil that and eat that to celebrate. And somehow this pretty tasteless dish has become the sign of food of Irish on St Patricks Day.

And they don't even use vinegar in boiling the cabbage so never mind you have a meal that's meat soaked in brine, with mushy cabbage and boiled potatoes but also everyone is farting to a bandplay afterwards.

So toot on dear America. I didn't eat corn beef in Ireland for Paddy's Day and not going to start now.

Tonight I'm going to cook Spaghetti Bolognese. (With spaghetti and not rice in case anyone knows my stories from Ireland.) Might as well. Its as Irish as corned beef is.

3 Comments:

At 8:53 PM, Blogger beckah said...

next year i'll totally celebrate with some bailey's & ice cream in your honor :) love b

 
At 2:43 AM, Blogger jazz bird said...

Bleh-- I never understood the whole corned beef and cabbage thing.

Funny about the spaghetti bolognese. I thought of your mother's as soon as I read it :)

 
At 8:22 AM, Blogger Amanda said...

LOL We know corned beef and cabbage isn't Irish but we ate it anyway because I like it! And my cabbage wasn't mushy but my potatoes were boiled SO :oP LOL. But I do absolutely love Bailey's, maybe I'll have some of that tonigt in my Waterford crystal gobblets that I picked up from Ireland myself. I'll celebrate kidnapping St. Patty tonight.

 

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