As you may know, St Patrick’s Day is coming up on Monday. As a fan of Ireland and almost everything Irish (I’m sorry, Father Ted. I have tried, but I just do not like your show), I thought I would help you out with your preparations this week. I have gathered together some Oirish things that have caught my eye and today, the focus is food. You’re welcome.
First up, the incredible Leprechaun Trap Cakefrom Megan, who blogs a lot of very cool stuff (not just Oirish cakes) at Not Martha.
1. Attract your leprechaun with the lure of gold (and help him out with a pretzel ladder). [image from Not Martha]2. Hide a pretzel trap under the gold, so the wee fella falls through. [image from Not Martha]3. Enjoy the magical rainbow cake, with or without your leprechaun. [image from Not Martha]Next, St Patrick’s Day Pancakes from the FashionPlaytes blog. Whilst they are not so quirky, they are very easy to make and I have never seen a batch quite so green…
Yikes. [image from Fashion Playtes]And of course I had to look on etsy, just in case. I found these disturbingly named Irish Car Bomb Cake Pops from the shop Bella Roca Cakes. I then discovered that (maybe you already knew this?) the Irish Car Bomb is a drink that was invented in an American bar – by dropping a shot of Baileys + Jameson whiskey into Guinness. And I just gave an involuntary shiver as I wrote that. According to Wikipedia, you have to drink it quickly so it doesn’t curdle. Or you could just get these cake pops instead – they don’t curdle and they include chocolate.
Much nicer than the real thing. [image from Bella Roca Cakes]Last, but not least, in case you want to keep your o’snacking healthy – here’s a “pot of gold” for you. But I’ve got to say, I’m more likely to be your friend if you make the leprechaun trap cake than this vegetable combo (although I do like carrots and they are good for your eyes, apparently).
The serving suggestion is to place the “pot o’ gold” at the end of a “rainbow” of vegetables, with a “cloud” of ranch dressing. To be sure, to be sure. [image from Spoonful]Bon appétit! Or, as they say in Ireland, bon appétit!
I wrote last week that some friends from Ireland were visiting Australia for the Lions tour, spending this past week here in amazingly sunny Sydney. I haven’t yet processed my feelings about the match on Saturday night, where I was the lone little Wallabies supporter in a block of hundreds and hundreds of Lions fans, but I’ll try to write about it another day.
Anyways, my lovely friend Gavan brought me out a bag of treats from Ireland as an international gesture of goodwill. I’m not sure who started this crazy contest – I have been known to send over hideous Austrayan goodies (mostly to remove them from our shops) from time to time – but this bag o’ crap from Dublin’s finest tourist store has really raised the bar. In fact, it has inspired me to put together a Diddly Dee Oirish showbag for next year’s Easter Show in Sydney. It will go off like a leprechaun in a pot of gold, so it will.
Here are some pics of my gifts – do let me know if you would like to borrow anything…
The bag. Off to a very good start.Complete with a tin whistle playing leprechaun, if you don’t mind.They really would work with any outfit.Roll on, 17 March…Probably not so lucky if you actually eat them.An unexpected warning on the bag of ShamRock lollies.
I’ll stop there, even though I’ve only covered maybe half of the contents of the bag. But you get the idea. Although, I do need to add one more highlight – I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Tayto, the Irish crisps that backpackers miss so much that they have their family post out boxes to them (well, they used to, until an entrepreneur started importing them to Australia and charging extortionate prices for a taste of home). Anyways, the flagship flavour is cheese & onion and they’re pretty much a national treasure. So, what else to do but release a limited edition treat – embed the chips into chocolate bars and sell them to the general public. I’ve tried it and it’s pretty much as horrible as you might imagine: some things were just not meant to be, Tayto.
Limited edition indeed.
Huge thanks to my friend Gavan for this bag of treats – I don’t know that I’ve ever had such a thoughtful/generous/funny/scary/sickening gift all in one bag. Now the stakes have been raised, I’m off to find some hideous Australiana to further advance global cultural understanding and tolerance. Or something like that.
So, here’s my last travellin’ post for a little while. A collection of some of the pics from my final days in Ireland – after a fortnight of mostly perfect weather, these last few days have been rainy and pretty chilly, so it’s a good time to head home to the sun. Always tough to leave here, but I have had a fantastic holiday and it has been great to be able to catch up with old friends and check out some of my old haunts. There’s a line in that John O’Donohue poem (‘For the Traveller’, which I posted a few weeks ago) about old friends making it seem like nothing has changed since you were last with them, and that is exactly how it’s been. Whether it’s five years or ten years since I’ve seen some of my Irish mates, they’re the kind of friends who fit like a glove. Some people don’t have any place that feels like home – I know I’m super lucky to have two. Waa waa waa – here are the photos!
Beautiful day for a run in Phoenix Park, Dublin. I tried to get a photo of the herd of deer that live in the park, but from this distance they looked sort of like a pile of logs, so I didn’t think you’d believe me anyway.Phoenix Park – it’s one of the largest enclosed parks in Europe. Yes, I did double check that fact online.About 30% of the Phoenix Park is covered by trees, which are mainly broadleaf parkland species such as oak, ash, lime, beech, sycamore and horsechestnut. Yes, that’s from the PhoenixPark.ie website too.Now THAT’s a Banoffee pie. With about 10cm of cream on top, at Avoca cafe.The first rule of Cake Club? Talk to everyone about Cake Club, I’d say.Ah, modern pharmaceutical art. From an exhibition at a Wexford art gallery.It’s a Jedward chocolate bar. A twin bar, to be precise. The side of the packet says, “FULL ON, CRAZY, JEADLEY!” Yes, really.Some of the locals saying hello in Wexford.One of the many pretty thatched houses in Kilmore, Wexford.Kilmore, Wexford.Great name.Ah, country life. Stuck behind this big guy for around 20 mins as it made its way along the narrow roads to the farm.It’s real and it’s in Dublin. I was too scared to go in, though, so I can’t tell you any more about it.
Here are some pics from our morning walk in Dun Laoghaire, back in Dublin. (You pronounce it Dun Leary, in case you’re ever in town and want to sound like a local.) Really though, no one could really blame the non-Irish for mis-pronouncing Irish words and names – things here are rarely as they seem, so I generally ask before I try to pronounce. For example, test yourself on these Irish girls’ names: Caoimhe, Cliona, Ailbhe (yes, that’s right: Quee-va, Clee-na, Al-va); and then there are these Irish boys’ names: Daithi and Feidhlim (yep, Dah-hee and Fail-im). There’s also a boy’s name that sort of sounds like you’re clearing your throat – Cathal (sort of Co-hol). Sometimes I used to think that my Irish friends were making the names up just so they could giggle as I tried my best to sound authentic.
An overcast day at Dun Laoghaire.Dun Laoghaire walk.Sure, just more ancient ruins on an emerald island.
And although he isn’t part of the natural beauty around Dun Laoghaire, I couldn’t resist this pic of Crocs Man, in the window of one of the shops there. Unfortunately, he’s not for sale. Although he probably wouldn’t fit in my suitcase anyway, so I think it’s for the best.
We’re over in Galway for a couple of days and here are some snaps from today. The county is in a bit of a state as they drew in the All-Ireland hurling finals last weekend and they have a re-match on next weekend. It’s a very big deal. We are staying at a fabulous hotel here in Galway – it was designed by famous Irish milliner Philip Treacy (you may know him as the guy who created Princess Beatrice’s hideous hat) and is very quirky.
Wandering around Galway…Nothing says ‘welcome to the G Hotel’ like cupcakes. And they were delicious.G Hotel’s reception hall & bar feels very Willy Wonka. Or Legally Blonde.The strangest hotel hallway I ever did see. Pretty much pitch black, but for the little lights near the floor. (And this was taken during the day.)
And probably my favourite pic for the day is this slightly dusty looking politician who didn’t bother making too much of an effort for his campaign posters. I know ‘action speaks louder than words’, John, but so do photographs.
John’s the man. This sign was in a house window, along with a little kitten.
![First up, attract your leprechaun with the lure of gold. [image from Not Martha]](https://everydaysparks.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/leprechauncake.jpg?w=840)
![2. Hide a pretzel trap under the gold, so the wee fella falls through. [image from Not Martha]](https://everydaysparks.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/leprechauntrap.jpg?w=840)
![3. Enjoy the magical rainbow cake, with or without your leprechaun. [image from Not Martha]](https://everydaysparks.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/leprechauninside.jpg?w=840)
![Yikes. [image from Fashion Playtes]](https://everydaysparks.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/greenpancakes.jpg?w=840)
![Much nicer than the real thing. [image from Bella Roca Cakes]](https://everydaysparks.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/irishcakepops.jpg?w=840)
![The serving suggestion is to place the "pot o' gold" at the end of a "rainbow" of vegetables, with a "cloud" of ranch dressing. [image from Spoonful]](https://everydaysparks.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/potogold.jpg?w=840)
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