I love food! I mean, who doesn’t? Sweet food, spicy food, Mexican food, Chinese food, the list could go on forever. We all have our own preference or favorite dish. My favorite is corned beef and cabbage. Being of Irish American descent, this dish was tradition in my house on St. Patrick’s Day. Just mentioning corned beef and cabbage brings me back to my childhood, watching my mother prepare it and waiting to taste the salty meat that as a child I called the “stringy meat.”
Every year my mother would prepare the dish and everyone would sit down and enjoy it together. By everyone I mean my parents, my four brothers, four sisters and myself. As my mother was preparing the meat and peeling and cutting the vegetables, the rest of us would help
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Now don’t get me wrong, as a child I wasn’t always fond of the vegetables that came with the meal, but that delicious, tender meat would always make me wait with …show more content…
However, there is considerable debate about the association of corned beef with Ireland. (Kurlansky, 124) Some say the reason why people eat it in the U.S. is that many of the Irish who emigrated here did so during the 1840's, and were very poor. Among the poor Irish at this time, the big festive meal you ate on holidays was ham or bacon with cabbage, and when they came to this country, they either couldn't find exactly the right kind of bacon or couldn't afford it. Corned beef was the closest thing they could find, so they had that instead. Although the exact beginnings of corned beef are unknown, it’s said to have come about when people began preserving meat through salt-curing in Keighley, West Yorkshire. Ireland produced a significant amount of the corned beef in the Atlantic trade from local cattle and salt imported from southwestern France.(Mandelblatt 63) Coastal cities, such as Dublin, Belfast, and Cork, created vast beef curing and packing industries, with Cork producing half of Ireland's annual beef exports in 1668.( Gallaghery, Mac Con Iomaire, Padraic 9) In Ireland today, corned beef is mainly geared toward tourist consumption and most Irish in Ireland don’t identify the ingredient as native cuisine. (Brown,
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The introduction of transoceanic steam ships also meant that the immigrants could come speedily, in a matter of ten or twelve clays instead of ten or twelve weeks. For a generation, from 1793 to 1815, war raged across Europe. Ruinous as it was on the continent, the fighting brought unprecedented prosperity to the long-suffering landsmen of Ireland. After 1815, war-inflated wheat prices plummeted by half. Hark-pressed landlords resolved to leave vast fields unplanned. Assisted now by a strengthened ...
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Jeffrey Pilcher declares that Mexicans are a people of corn, that “despite centuries of efforts to change them, Mexicans remain a people of corn” (Pilcher, 6). The native and indigenous people of corn formed identity as a society. They made tortillas with corn, and gradually began to add different kinds of meats, vegetables, and spices. Every society creates for themselves a unique set of cuisine to feed and please others. But people’s needs constantly change and the diet that is established for each society is divided through class. Besides this being a harsh reality, this is problematic because of the disparity between the rich and the poor. But even though this was the case, Mexico’s food culture was able to preserve and refine a lot of its cuisine despite evolution and struggles to maintain original forms. Thus, it can be said that the history of food in Mexico is one that is profoundly and intimately tied to the country’s developing national
Spencer, Colin. The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism. Hanover, NH: U of New England, 1996. Print.
Every year on St. Patrick’s Day after the parade my mother makes corn beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread for friends, family and neighbors. My grandmother used to make this for the family no matter if it was a holiday or just a normal Saturday, and ever since she passed we honor her and our Irish background with this dish every Saint Patrick’s Day. My Grandma was you...
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Home :: Irish Quality Food Awards 2014. 2014. Home :: Irish Quality Food Awards 2014. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.irishqualityfoodawards.com/irishqualityfoodawards2013/shortlist-2013. [Accessed 31 March 2014].
My favorite meal is the chicken fettuccini pasta. I chose this dish because I can never stop eating it. The meal is made up of warm tenderized chunks of chicken, delicate smooth creamy white sauce, and many varieties of sliced up vegetables. However, when I was a child vegetables has always been difficult to eat. It prevented me from enjoying my favorite meal because I would always have to take out the mixed vegetables in the meal. As a child I 've tried avoiding vegetables, but was found throughout the school cafeteria 's food, my mother 's cooking, or many fancy restaurants. There was nowhere to run. Over the years, my mother knew I was struggling to eat vegetables. She worked very hard by coming up with her own recipes in order for me to eat healthy. From mixing in the vegetables into the meals I usually eat or to trick me into eating meat but was actually vegetables. Soon later I came to realize how much effort she has put into the meals. All those hour and hard work my mother put it allowed me to enjoy my favorite meal again.
There are so many reasons I love to cook, cooking is one of those things that just comes naturally for me, and I think I inherited, because I can cook almost anything and nail it on the first try, much like my grandmother. But the main reason I love to cook is because it keeps me stress free. For example when I am cooking I have very little time to think, because the cooking is challenging my mind and taking my mind off the stress of everyday life.