[Sca-cooks] Spices and the Irish Common folk

[Sue Clemenger]

Not just a lot of seafood gets exported <g>.  During the Potato Famine in
the 1800s, Ireland actually produced enough food to feed everyone living
there, but much of it was exported by the landowners (gotta make a profit,
you know....)
One of my sincere regrets was not being able to get some good seafood when I
was in Dublin, but the restaurant I'd wanted to visit was closed for
renovations, and I wasn't there long enough to hunt down another one.
Closest I came to it was eating fish-and-chips on the ferry between Holyhead
and Dublin.  I did have the most amazing Indian cuisine there, though.
Twice.  <weg> Curry heaven!  And some interesting potato dishes (for
breakfast).
In this discussion about foods-Irish-historical, I'd like to point out that
there would have likely been distinct differences in what was eaten,
depending on when/where you lived.  I'd imagine that early in SCA period, if
you lived in/near the towns established by the various Norse
invaders/settlers, your foods would have reflected those cultures.  Ditto,
if you lived in the area around Dublin, later (known as "The Pale"), which
was strongly English-influenced.  My persona is 14th century Irish, living
in Dublin, and I'm using English sources for my Lenten fast, since Irish
sources are so lacking....
Colcannon sounds wonderful....*sigh*
--Maire, counting the days until she can have dairy again....

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 10:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spices and the Irish Common folk


>
> On Mar 24, 2006, at 11:53 PM, Susan Fox wrote:
>
> > \You have to look at the cultural perspective.  These folks were
> > raised on
> > stories like the Tain Bo Cuailnge, where cattle = wealth.  Also
> > take into
> > account that seafood is often associated with Fast Days, and
> > therefore fish
> > = deprivation, no matter how lovely and fresh it is.
>
> Not to mention the fact that a lot of Irish seafood is exported (I
> hear you can't get a decent Idaho potato in Idaho), and then the fact
> that tenant farmers were told, for a couple of hundred years, what to
> grow, which presumably changed Irish eating habits considerably. Not
> that this last would pertain to seafoods, but it might apply to meats
> to some extent.
>
> > At least the Irish hospitality industry is beginning to get the
> > clue to
> > emphasize the real strengths of local cuisine in order to attract
> > tourism
> > and other business contacts to their area.  But that is NOW, and we
> > are
> > studying THEN.
> >
> > Selene C.
>
> It's nice to see them with a relatively booming economy... oddly
> enough, my Mom still claims that the best hamburger she ever had was
> in Dublin.
>
> Adamantius