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I visited the supposed grave of St. Patrick in Ireland one Sunday afternoon a couple weeks ago. What's left of his bones rests under a massive stone in a breezy hilltop churchyard in Downpatrick, County Down, with a panoramic view of chimneyed village rooftops, green, hedge-lined pastures, and modest grey farmhouses. Afterward, as the sun set through the mist rising from Strangford Lough, we went in search of the favorite hot, cheap fast meal of many folks in these parts: fish and chips.
The chippy we discovered, Joe's Hot Spot in Portaferry, was doing a brisk business and no wonder. Joe's fresh battered whiting was tender but not mushy on the inside and crisp and light on the outside. His location just around the corner from the Exploris Aquarium provides lots of fodder for jokes about the source of his fish, and Joe's heard them all ...
But hang on a wee minute. It's almost St. Patrick's Day, right? I'm meant to be writing blarney about corned beef and cabbage.
The truth is, nobody in Ireland really eats that.
When I asked some friends who grew up in Belfast about corned beef, they just laughed. When I searched for it on the menu of Belfast's historic Crown Liquor Saloon, I found plenty of hearty Irish dishes like steak and Guinness pie, pork and leek sausages with mashed potatoes, lamb stew and liver and bacon in onion gravy, all conveniently labeled "traditional" so tourists like me will know what to eat with their obligatory Guinness. (Personally, I prefer Magner's cider.) But no corned beef and cabbage.
"Historically, for the Irish, beef was a delicacy that didn't come to the table very often," explains Diane Duane of Baltinglass, County Wicklow. Duane is a fantasy and science fiction writer with a serious food hobby, as seen on her extensive Web site, www.europeancuisines.com.
"While cattle were kept here from very early times, they were kept mostly for their milk," Duane said. "For routine eating, pork has always been the favorite."
The popularity of pork explains the wide variety of fresh sausages available at the small butcher shops in Ireland. It must also account for the traditional Irish breakfast, called the Ulster Fry, which includes black pudding (blood sausage made...