Sociology of Cultures

My former boss told me a theory out there somewhere that the Irish made bad food as a way of rebellion against the English–i.e. they resented the potato as a symbol of opression even as they were dependent on it–so they ate them, but would only boil them.

This didn’t sound very convincing to me–you rebel against England by making bland, boiled food? Not to mention that it’d be a very good example of cutting off your nose to spite your face–with very little effect on the face. Maybe it was supposed to be subconscious.

It’s also possible that my boss was talking out of his, as the Irish say, arse. He had a tendency to do that.

There’s definitely an essay on vegemite waiting to be written if it hasn’t been already.

I agree with the peanut gallery. I an not Irish, and never had heard that the Irish eat corned beef and cabbage.

I, however, eat corned beef and cabbage regularly, and see no reason why peoples of all cultures should not.

I am Irish-American – my father and all my grandparents were born in Ireland – and we had corned beef & cabbage a couple of times, but on special occasions, it was always lamb. We also had fish every Friday, Vatican II or not, and lots of root vegetables.

My mother is a horrible cook, and except for lamb, nearly everything else she cooked was boiled, even chicken. However, on Sunday mornings, after my older sister and I had to suffer through both church and a spoonful of cod liver oil, my father would make a big Irish breakfast, with eggs, bangers, 2 kinds of bacon, blood pudding (which I thought was actually called black pudding, and I used to love it, but cannot possibly think of eating it now that I know what it is), and ham, all cooked in butter. That’s some good eating.

Well, I left off the tea, but of course we had tea with breakfast! However, I don’t believe we ever had fried bread, but we usually had toast and/or buttered rolls.

When I went to England earlier this year, our typical breakfast included eggs & grilled tomato slices in addition to all the meat.

by the way, how are you posting from the future?

Yet again, an authentic treasure proves to be a lucrative snow-job on the gullible!

No doubt, a century or more of living with the tyranny of railway time makes us hanker after an idyll which is more once upon a time…

by the way, how are you posting from the future?

Local time in Australia. Whoops.

“what do Irish people eat?”

Beckett’s, an Irish pub in Berkeley, has a great tempuraed green beans with soy-ginger sauce. And a nice smoked salmon on Boxty.

I never ate those things growing up in Ireland. But I wish I had.

I have to join your other readers in pointing out that corned beef and cabbage is one of the most wonderful dishes ever invented. The Irish apparently have no idea what they are missing. Quick! Tell them!

A friend of mine once raised a skeptical eyebrow, and smirked a bit, when I told him about that there was a fascinating subfield on the sociology of food. But one only has to think of the place of food in all parts of life, from daily routine to key events like weddings and wakes, to see how rich a topic it is.

I was going to recommend Visser’s books but I see someone beat me to it. Also Reay Tannahill’s book called, I think The History of Food because what we eat has shaped our history as well.

My only contribution so far to the field is a 45 second talk occasionally delivered to Americans explaining that Irish people do not, in fact, eat corned beef and cabbage.

I’ve explained this to people too and they look at me funny. No, I’m not Irish (well ok, my mother’s maiden name was Casey) but I’ve been there several times and I read a lot. As far as answering the person upthread about what the Irish *do* eat: lots of seafood, salmon, lamb, potatoes. And of course many other interesting things. I probably shouldn’t relate how, when I spent a month there, I got addicted to egg mayonnaise sandwiches with onions. For breakfast.

MKK