DelBloggolo: THE CLASSIC AMERICAN DISH

Monday, March 23, 2015

THE CLASSIC AMERICAN DISH

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One night, Mrs McMillen answers the door to see her husbands best friend, Paddy, standing on the doorstep.

"Hello Paddy, but where is my husband? He went with you to the beer factory"

Paddy shook his head. "Ah Mrs McMillen, there was a terrible accident at the beer factory, your husband fell into a vat of Guinness stout and drowned"

Mrs McMillen starts crying. "Oh don't tell me that, did he at least go quickly?"

Paddy shakes his head. "Not really - he got out 3 times to pee!"

Corned beef and cabbage, of course!

For so many years, as a non-Irishman, being curious about things Irish, married one, and found out they weren’t telling us everything we needed to know.

For instance, you’d think that the Irish held their first parade in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day, but they didn’t! No, they got their parade tradition from the American Irish, yes, those who emigrated: to America where in 1762 held their first St. Patrick Day Parade in New York City!

Now don’t go all out of joint bejesus, this is fact, and fact it is that that is not all. No, the Irish have been hiding the facts about the old sod from us non-Irish. Please be seated for the next paragraph on this fascinating expose’ on the Irish culture in America.

When before the turn of the last century, the Irish were coming to America in large numbers, I would say ‘droves’ but they sailed here instead. Yes, and to cap off injury with insult, were forced to live in large areas with other undesirables, namely Italians and Jews. It is here where we examine another myth far worse than St. Patrick being Irish. It seems that pork was the preferred meat in Ireland and coming to America, pork was prohibitive. The Irish being poor, would on occasion go to Jewish delis for sandwiches of corned beef. Beef was inexpensive here in America and the Irish figured it out that corned beef was an excellent substitute for pork. The Jews taught them that adding cabbage to the boiling of the corned beef flavored the vegetable and along with a potato or two and some carrots, you could feast rather cheaply my friend!

Wait, it gets even more interesting, the hero of this all, the central figure so to speak, St. Patrick, was not Irish (Oh the Saints save us!) but a Scotsman whose parents were of Roman Ancestry. Scandalous in its own right! It seems that St. Patty was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery, in Ireland and for about 6 years then managed to escape and became a Christian who devoted his life to ridding Ireland of pageantry. That thing about snakes and Ireland, well he never did that either. There were no snakes in Ireland at that time, and snakes are not native to the old sod. The snakes are a metaphor for pagans. His driving out the snakes was really driving out the pagans.

With all this misinformation handed down through the years, I am beginning to wonder if St. Patrick was really Jewish?