Irish Cuisine...What IS This?

[mollyanne]

Bangers? Black & White Pudding? Brown Break? Bowl Bread? Guinness Cake? Harp Batter Fried Cod? Field Greens...what kind of greens do you eat from a field...4-LeafClovers ? What in the world is this stuff?

I just found a menu in our local magazine for the Hibernian Restaurant & Pub. I've lived here 10 years and never went because the word "Hibernian" puzzled me but my interest is peaked now after reading their menu because it all sounds delicious...well, maybe not the cake ...i know Guinness is beer but I'm clueless what this other "stuff" is:

Appetizer:
Smoked Salmon served with Brown Break, Herbed Cream Cheese, Field Greens, Capers, Onion and Cucumber

Breakfast:
2 Bangers, 2 Irish Bacon, Black&White Pudding, Fried Mushrooms, Roasted Tomatoes, and 2 Fried Eggs served with Irish Bowl Bread

Entree:
Fresh Cod Filets coated in World Famous Harp Batter

2 Entrees I understand:
-Corned Beef and Cabbage topped with Creamy Parsley Sauce, green cabbage & buttermilk chive mashed potatoes
-Irish Stew made with diced beef, onions, turnips, carrots, parsnips and potatoes cooked in a white gravy and served with Irish Brown bread

Dessert:
Chocolate Guinness Cake (i know that's beer but...in cake???)

Would you believe I'm part Irish?
...I think my Mother's lying to me

 

[FrankZ]

Ok.. I'll take a stab...

Brown Break - You sure that wasn't brown bread?
Field greens - whatever greens they pulled out of the field, though it may be their way of saying salad.
Bangers - Sausage
Black&White pudding - Blood sausage.
Irish Bowl bread - dunno.. mayhaps a soda bread.
Harp batter - beer batter with Harp.
Chocolate Guinness Cake - Is there anything good beer doesn't make better?

 

[bigdaddy3k]

Bangers= sausage
black and white pudding is sort of like polish kishka, grains soaked in meat juices and then mashed.

Famous Harp batter, Harp is a beer. This is beer battered fried fish.

Field Greens = fancy salad, you can buy it at a higher end grocery store like Dominicks or Jewel.

You got me on Brown Break and Irish Bowl Bread.

I gots me some Irish too! Flanagan!!!

 

[mollyanne]

Frank...i just double-checked the menu and it does say "traditional Irish Brown Break"...but maybe it's a typo?

Bigdaddy..."kishka"? Please don't confuse the issue . I wonder what kind of grain for the black&white pudding? Quinoa comes in white or brown. I love quinoa! Oh, and I love saying "Finnigan"!

 

[bigdaddy3k]

Kishka can never confuse. Kishka is love.

 

[Robo410]

black and white puding: like a scrapple ... the black puding has meat juices (blood) and hte white doesn't. both are spiced nicely and are very traditional.

 

[mollyanne]

So Black & White Pudding is not really a pudding consistency at all? Sounds more like sausage patties to me. Reminds me of how Yorkshire pudding is not pudding either.

 

[FrankZ]

Usually blood pudding is close to a stuffed sausage.. I have found them to have a bit of grainy texture to them.

 

[mollyanne]

I have a difficult time with the word "blood".
Makes me squimish. Just me.
Maybe I'll have better luck with this: What is Dublin Coddle?

Oh, I think you were right. I think the printer of that menu was having a difficult time reading the original manuscript when typing it up. "Irish Brown Break" and "Traditional Irish Bowl Bread" had to have both been meant to be "Brown Bread". Either that or he was feelin' his Guinness.

 

[buckytom]

frank, big daddy, and robo pretty much have it.

brown bread is the traditional bread in ireland, not soda bread. it's sort of a whole wheat bread round loaf. some people add molasses to make it darker like pumpernickel.

field greens are just young salad greens. it can be literal, or out of a bag from a supermarket, lol. ireland is not the backwards, bog-hopping farmland like many americans picture from old movies, for the most part. hasn't been for a generation or two, now.

bangers are (usually) small sausages akin to american breakfast sausages. everyone's got their own recipe, from spicy to savoury to bland.

black pudding is indeed a sausage, about the thickness of sweet italian sausage or a fat bratwurst. it has meat and blood and some fillers and spices, and occasionally offal, making it a dark brown/blackish colour.

white pudding, another thicker sausage made of meat and spices, also has whole grains like oats or barley in it, making it a pale white or beige sausage.

i'm not sure about bowl bread, but i think it's a bread that's risen and baked in the same earthenware bowl. i'll have to ask some irish friends about it.

harp is the most famous irish lager beer, so it's used in beer batter.

and the irish love to use guinness in everything. they'd run their cars on it if they could, and suckle thier children on the same.

if you are part irish, do yourself a favour and have a true irish breakfast. irish bacon is a little meatier and less fatty and salty, closer to a piece of fatty cured pork loin.

roasted tomatoes, in the vernacular, are lovely. the top of a whole tomato is sliced off, a salty herb mix is packed on top, and it's roasted until cooked through and soft.

fried mushrooms are better described as butter sauteed sliced mushrooms, the accent being on the fresh irish butter. brilliant! (more irish)

and you usually get 2 small bangers, as well as a slice each of black and white pudding that's been griddled just before serving.


dublin coddle is a one pot meal that uses up leftover bangers and irish bacon. the meats are boiled, then veggies and potatoes put in, it's covered in water and boiled for a bit, then uncovered to let it thicken and everything's soft. it's great comfort food.

man, i need to head up to the bronx to macclean avenue for breakfast soon!!

hth.

 

[mollyanne]

..and the irish love to use guinness in everything. they'd run their cars on it if they could, and suckle their children on the same.

if you are part irish, do yourself a favour and have a true irish breakfast.

^haha regarding Guinness, buckytom...and a lot of great info in your post #10 as well as frank, robo, and BigDaddy. Look what I found...2 pics of a traditional Irish breakfast. One is missing the brown bread, the other is missing the mushrooms, and both are missing the Guinness but, wow, thatsa'lotta'food...worthy of mention over in my other thread called "Outrageous Restaurant Portions"...

 

[buckytom]

oh yeah, i forgot the bachelor baked beans (bottom pic on the left of the plate), toast, and home fries!

and if you're from near the border, you have boxty instead of home fries. sort of a potato pancake.

 

[bigdaddy3k]

Bucky, post 10 made me drool.

Molly, Your post made me drool in two ways. Beautiful Irish Girl and fantastic breakfast!!!

I have a friend who hales from Aussie and her nickname is Beanie. She was in a diner, and had breakfast beans and toast spilled all down her back right before a huge business meeting. When she told me about it, I had to try the beans and toast breakfast. IT IS FANTASTIC!!! Over easy eggs, generous portion of beans, seared ripe tomatos, thick toast. Ok, my oatmeal is not cutting it this morning.

 

[Kayelle]

Mollyanne, I had the traditional Irish breakfast several times on my recent trip to Ireland. All of it was delicious except for the "black and white pudding". The white was barely edible, but the black was just nasty!!
Patooie........

 

[LPBeier]

I guess my Irish blarney is not needed here (maternal grandmother). Everyone seems to have it all wrapped up.

 

[jennyema]

Hibernia is the Latin name for Ireland

 

[bigdaddy3k]

I went to school with a girl named Hibernia.

Hibernia May Johnson, she works at the DMV.

 

[buckytom]

that reminds me of an irish joke.

the police pulled over an old irish man a mile after his wife had fallen out of his car.

they said to him, "begorrah, man! didn't you realize that your poor wife fell out?"

he replied, "oh, thanks be to god. i thought me hearin' had finally gone."

 

[mollyanne]

...you all are funny

...and thank you for the heads up kayelle

...anyone ever heard of, or
know what Dublin Coddle is?

 

[DaveSoMD]

When she told me about it, I had to try the beans and toast breakfast. IT IS FANTASTIC!!! Over easy eggs, generous portion of beans, seared ripe tomatos, thick toast. Ok, my oatmeal is not cutting it this morning.

Just don't try making beans on toast with regular packaged white bread, get a good thick sliced crusty white bread, trust me.