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This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “InterCHANGE,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10, and heard filling in on Newstalk 1130 WISN. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their baby daughter, Kyla Audrey, in Franklin.
Culinary no-no #46
By Kevin Fischer
Sunday, Mar 16 2008, 08:29 PM
St. Patrick’s Day menus across America will be dominated by corned beef and cabbage, potato dishes, stews, and fish and chips. Chicken and beef entrees will incorporate sauces from Guinness and Irish Mist.
I love it all but the fact is if you’re hoping to re-create a traditional Irish St. Patrick’s Day menu, none of that stuff will do.
The combo of corned beef and cabbage was concocted in America.
According to Nation’s Restaurant News, “In Ireland it's more common to eat 'boiler bacon,' which is brined pork shoulder, more like American ham. But when Irish immigrants arrived in New York, corned beef was the closest thing on hand.”
If you ‘re dining out on St. Patty’s Day and order Irish stew, the odds are it won’t be Irish stew even if it says Irish stew on the menu.
Nation’s Restaurant News reports Los Angeles restaurateur and Ireland native Gerry Gilliland says a real Irish stew is greasy with a lamb bone boiled with potatoes and onions. In her restaurant, she uses beef that’s been braised in Guinness with carrots, parsnip and rutabaga.
"What we do is not a traditional Irish stew because Americans wouldn't like that," she says.
Care for some black and white pudding?
Paul Wilson of Boston’s Black Rose Restaurant and Pub says it’s part of a popular, traditional breakfast in Ireland.
Barley, bread, and seasonings are used to make the white pudding along with bacon, onions and herbs.
What makes the pudding black?
Pig’s blood.
Try asking for that at Mo’s tomorrow.
Wilson says if you want to prepare a traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal, “Don’t go with the typical corned beef & cabbage or the 'boiled dinner'. Do something different. Get a decent piece of gammon (it’s a cut of ham). Instead of doing chunks of cabbage, sauté it a little, put some mustard cream sauce over it. Instead of regular potatoes, try some colcannon."
Travel writer Stuart Buchanan MacWatt recalls a St. Patrick’s Day dinner he had in Kilkenny, Ireland, distinctly remembering the steak and kidney pie. I will post the recipe and his article but the ingredients include:
Two lbs. round steak of beef.
Half lb. beef kidney.
Two tbs. flour.
3 ounces lard or vegetable shortening.
Six medium sized onions.
Two tbs. brown sugar.
Six slices Irish or Canadian Bacon.
Four field mushrooms, or one Portabello mushroom.
One pint of Guinness, or Murphy's Stout.
A good sprig of fresh parsley, chopped.
Shortcrust pastry.
Salt and pepper to taste.
A well-filled glass of Irish Whiskey.
All of this traditional Irish fare may not sound all that appetiizing, but the fact is Irish cuisine is no longer bangers and mash and lamb casserole.
Vincent Fanari runs the Plough & the Stars in Philadelphia. He says some of the best restaurants in Ireland have calamari tabbouleh on their menus.
And again, from Nation’s Restaurant News:
“Dublin has become a very, very cosmopolitan city," John Conolly, the 34-year-old chef and owner of Connollys Restaurant in Los Angeles, says of his hometown. "There's Indian food and Mexican food. When I was growing up, paprika was about as spicy as it got. All you did with garlic was kill a vampire. Now my brother in Ireland talks about using cilantro."
Whatever you eat on St. Patrick’s Day, you certainly will be following Irish tradition if you down a Guinness and/or Irish whiskey. Some traditions never die.
Here are articles I used for this Culinary no-no:
Rebirth of Irish cuisine stirs up ballyhoo in dining circles
My St. Patrick’s Day dinner in Kilkenny
Interview with Paul Wilson of Boston’s Black Rose Restaurant & Pub
PREVIOUS CULINARY NO-NO’S
1) Ketchup on a brat
2) Green peppers on pizza
3) The dirty martini
4) Fruity brats
5) A Bloody Mary after dinner
6) Women “manning” the grill
7) Eating pizza at Festa Italiana, brats at German Fest, or tacos at Fiesta Mexicana. (Be adventurous. You can have those items anytime).
8) Eating a cream puff as though it was a hamburger.
9) Taking your own bottle of sauce when invited to a barbecue.
10) Touching the grill if you’re a guest at an outdoor barbecue.
11) Coaching the host on how to grill.
12) Some regional flavored ice cream…..like black licorice.
13) Taking the husks off before you grill corn on the cob
14) Being afraid to chill red wine
15) Pizza on the grill
16) When serving exotic or strange dishes to guests, do not tell them exactly what it is. Instead, use a more inviting term (caviar) rather than being blunt (fish eggs).
17) In late summer and early fall, this time of year, don’t buy zucchini. Somehow, someway, you will find zucchini or zucchini will find you.
18) Showing disrespect to your restaurant server.
19) Eating out on a Monday night.
20) Pumpkin beer.
21) Mail-order turkey.
22) Grilled cheese is just for kids.
23) Dining in the dark.
24) Ketchup on spaghetti
25) Sneaking healthy foods into treats to get your kids to eat it.
26) Do not throw away culinary gifts received in the mail because you don’t like them.
27) Do not feel guilty about eating Oreos. (Oreos are not to blame for out of control obesity).
28) Doing something so totally ridiculous that you are desperately forced to call the Butterball Turkey Hot-Line for assistance.
29) Don’t forget the sweet potato January-October.
30) Using resource guides from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s on gracious living to plan holiday parties
31) Eating cranberries, the best of the super-foods, only during the holidays.
32) Egg nog that isn’t spiked.
33) Putting hot spices and other weird stuff in chocolate bars and hot cocoa.
34) Don’t disregard fruitcake.
35) Sparkling wine on New Year’s Eve ain’t champagne.
36) Ordering a Coors Light or any facsimile when at an outdoor open-air bar on a tropical beach.
37) Smoking bans in restaurants and bars in Wisconsin.
38) Goat burgers and healthy items at tailgate parties.
39) The restaurant of the future, with all kinds of cameras trained on you for....research.
40) The Budweiser Chelada
41) Replating
42) Sour cream on potato pancakes, as opposed to applesauce
43) Meatless Monday's
44) Digital dining
45) Tips on what not to do to your waiter
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