The Thirst for the Irish

should we be as obsessed with Irish food as we are with Irish men?

Disclaimer: This started as a very well-intentioned way to deepen my understanding of Irish culture and quickly went off the rails.

Upcoming, we’re back to: kitchen utensils 101, what it’s really like to cook on reality TV, whether or not my color analysis should inform my diet, and butter.

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Dear reader,

I’ve been obsessed with the Irish ever since I had my first sex dream about Cillian Murphy. In my defense, I had binged three seasons of Peaky Blinders in a week and forgotten about his appearance in The Dark Knight Rises.

I am not alone in my interest in Irish men and history. In the past year, there has been, what some are calling an “Irishification of culture”¹:

• the Internet’s boyfriends (Cillian, Barry, Paul, even Colin outside of his Penguin suit) are all Irish

• one of my favorite podcasters, Juliet Litman, referred to The Troubles as the “new World War II” in reference to the popularity of featuring this phase in Irish history in cinema and literature

• my esthetician told me that she woke up in a bush the day after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Staten Island

With everyone buzzing about everything Irish, I wondered, why does no one talk about Irish food? Is it really just meat and potatoes? So, I reached out to

Kitchen Press by Ali Dunworth

, an Irish food writer, ordered a few cookbooks and ingredients, and set out to learn more.

In the process, I learned that hot Irish men and the food of their motherland have a lot in common: more complicated than upon first glance, make you feel warm inside, and are just scrumptious.

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A Long Tradition of Hearty Food and Men

“Because Ireland was not Irish for so long,” said Ali, “things were passed down through story, song, folklore, music.” Given the context of famine, colonization, and poverty, it is no surprise that the cuisine that developed was simple, nourishing, and drew directly from available ingredients. Soda bread, for instance, is a unleavened bread that does not even require an oven, only a fire. Let’s just say these two started a fire:

Irish stews were popular because sheep were kept for their wool and milk, so when the meat made it to the table it needed a long cook. Other things that keep getting better with time:

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Refined Techniques (and Cheekbones)

In recent years, as the economic and political situation has stabilized, more chefs have returned from abroad to open restaurants at home that celebrate their beloved cabbages and humble spuds. In addition, Ballymaloe, a cooking school founded by

Darina Allen

(“Ireland’s Julia Child”), has become an institution — everyone from Kate Winslet to David Tanis to

Ballerina Farm

has learned essential techniques of the slow-food movement).

Instead of flying to Ireland (a bit out of budget for this post), I made a riff on a classic (a Cabbage & Bacon Filo Pie from Cook by Graham Herterich). It was creamy and crispy, soothing with a bit of spice, and simple with a bit of flair.

Darina Allen’s own Carrageen Moss Pudding was a delicious experiment with an ingredient I had never heard of before — a red algae that I sourced from a store that has a whole section for folk magic. The algae functions as a thickener and stabilizer for the pudding — resulting in a pleasant jelly texture and a slight umami flavor. I covered it with stewed plums and cardamom, whipped cream, and a sprinkling of brown sugar.

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Delicious Recent Imports (and Exports)

In 2006, staff at Sunflower Chinese Takeaway in Dublin, created, imho, one of the greatest fusion dishes of the century: the spice bag. Fried chicken, chips (fries), five-spice powder and curry powder, onions, and peppers, shaken up and served in a bag. I love spice bag (at Molly’s). Paul Mescal loves spice bag. You will love spice bag.

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If you’re feeling voracious…

and looking for Irish content to pair with your food, I recommend:

• (Book) The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (thank you,

  Katie Knecht
  , for this excellent rec!): a coming of age story about a boy in Ireland coming to know himself, his family, and his country. You will laugh. You will cry (unless you are heartless).

• (TV) The Lovers: a hilarious, cross-border love affair between two unlikable, morally ambiguous people. I did get AMC+ just to watch this, and have continued to ingest British content ever since.

• (Movie) KNEECAP: the origin story of the Irish-speaking rap group who inadvertently became the figureheads of a Civil Rights movement to save their language. One reviewer described it as “Like Sing Street on ketamine,” and they were not wrong.

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Other Stuff & Things

• Actually considering buying the Croc x Haribo clogs. I love them (?).

• Wondering why Delta is trying to limit my LTV by killing me with in-flight Shake Shack on-board (it’s a BOGO, too!).

• Considering purchasing a wheel of parmesan (plus a few cases of Champagne, perhaps another shoulder of Jamón Ibérico) if tariffs are imposed on imported goods from Europe.

• Worrying that my love for produce is another example of the groceries-as-luxury trend, but more worried that the rising cost of groceries will make produce inaccessible to many, and cuts to federal funding for local produce in schools will be bad for producers and students. I’m also curious about where funding for agricultural innovation will be coming from, given the drop off in federal programs and lag in VC funding.

• Seriously enjoying my cream cheese and tomato on plain from Apollo Bagels’ new outpost in Williamsburg. I did not wait in line. I will not wait in line. But I will get it again.

• Whipping out my ice cream maker at the first sign of spring and looking for suggestions. Black sesame? Rhubarb? Mandarin?

Sláinte!

Sophia

1. And merely hours before the scheduled send of this edition,

Anne Helen Petersen

put out her own deep dive into the Irishification of pop culture!