Saint Patricks Day is celebrated every year on March 17. The holiday got its name from Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, who is believed to have died on March 17, 461 AD and is credited to have spread Christianity to Ireland.
This holiday is filled with tradition, and the food is no exception. This is why we, Natalie Abdon (9) and Stella Taylor (9), decided to buy, bake, and try foods commonly eaten on Saint Patrick’s Day.
First up is potato cake. Potato cake can refer to any potato dish, but in our case it was more of a fluffy and thick consistency. It’s mainly made from mashed potatoes and is commonly eaten for breakfast.
We got this as a side and it tasted pretty much as expected, just a thicker version of a french fry. Something that stuck out to us when eating potato bread was that the top was fried a little extra which made the perfect clash between crunchy and soft textures.
Next, we tried bangers and mash. Even though this is a traditional British dish, it is also eaten quite often on Saint Patty’s Day. It consists of sausage (the “bangers”) and mashed potatoes (the “mash”). To try this we went to Molly Malone’s Irish Pub & restaurant.
The meat part tasted just like a regular sausage to us, but it was the mashed potatoes that threw us off. I think it’s a very specific taste and you have to either grow up eating it or have an acquired taste to love it. I see why it could maybe be good, but it just was not for us.
Now onto in our opinion the best section: dessert.
First in the dessert category is bread pudding.
Despite the offputting name “bread pudding” (two words we never thought we wanted to hear in the same sentence) this dish is not only delicious, but easy to make. It’s usually made from stale or leftover bread which is then combined with milk, eggs, sugar, and spices like vanilla or cinnamon. Toppings like chocolate chips, dried fruit, whipped cream, and even caramel sauce are oftentimes added.
This bread pudding was amazing. When we ordered it, we expected it to be what the name said–pudding with bread. However, we were pleasantly surprised. It was this really sweet bread covered in whisky sauce and strawberries and then filled with chocolate chips and blueberries.
Chocolate butter pastry pie–a dessert that tastes just as good as it sounds. It’s made from a flaky crust with a rich chocolate filling. We decided the best way to eat this pastry was to make it ourselves. Using condensed milk, different types of cream, eggs, and many other ingredients, we created probably one of the best desserts we’ve had.
We really did save the best for last. It was almost like a mix between cake and pie. The inside tasted just like a regular chocolate cake, but the crust added a unique crunch to it. The main selling point for us was all the powdered sugar we added. While it may not have been the healthiest, it truly did taste better than any chocolate cake we’ve ever had.
Trying these foods that are traditionally eaten on Saint Patrick’s day was an experience we won’t forget. Before this, we had never even thought of trying Irish food, partly because one of us is a picky eater and also because it just never crossed our minds. So doing this broadened our horizons on not only food, but also culture.
