Angela
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One is celebrated on March 17th and the other on March 19th.
The only thing I like about St. Patrick's Day is the food. In terms of "street" holidays I dislike it only a little less than Mardi Gras. When I worked in midtown I wouldn't even go out for lunch if it fell on a weekday. There's a limit to how many people wandering around, weaving, falling down, cursing, fighting, and vomiting I can look at. No one ever vomited on one of my expensive Italian shoes during St. Patrick's Day, in contrast to Mardi Gras, which is why it scores a little higher.
Yes, I like corned beef and cabbage, as a main meal and later in a sandwhich with a nice mustard and some rye bread. The only time I like rye bread, btw. Going to the home of my husband's best friend later on. They celebrate it in honor of his Irish wife.
I've heard the "real" Irish version is somewhat different, but I don't know if that's correct.
Also really like Irish soda bread, at least the sweet kind. Picked some up yesterday. Of
course, I've never met a sweet bread I didn't like.
In my area it's mostly a Sicilian-American thing celebrated with nice desserts, usually zeppole and nice pastries a bit like profiteroles.
When the zeppole (deep fried dough balls dusted with powdered sugar) aren't over fried and too heavy, they're quite addictive:
In Italy, this is also Father's Day, so they go all out, especially in Campania, even though the meal needs to be meatless because it falls in Lent.
Yes, they eat zeppole and various pastries and cakes, but numerous other dishes in various courses, almost always, or so I'm told, including pasta e ceci, fried fish, vegetables and particularly fava beans.
This is an example of what they call a "Tavola di San Giuseppe" or the table of St. Joseph.
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"At the centre of the feast is ‘St Joseph’s Table’, upon which this mountain of food will be arranged. Nothing is placed on the table by chance; every item embodies some emblematic association or auspicious end. Bread takes centre stage, as the most perfect expression of man’s toils transformed into sustenance, and recalling as well the ancient Roman grain festivals once observed at the end of winter. Sweets, particularly fried and cream-filled pastries, mean a temporary reprieve from fasting and abstinence during Lent. Flowers, asparagus, wild fennel and fava beans laid around the table speak to springtime’s imminent return, while lemons, oranges and wine represent the fruit of the preceding season’s labours. Fish-based dishes symbolise Christ, and there is usually no meat present on the table."
It actually is more like an altar from which the people take food. At the end the remainder is given to the guests, neighbors or the poor.
This seems to me a remnant of very ancient feasting celebrations, both in the Neolithic and with the Indo-Europeans.
In the Lunigiana there are bonfires (we do love bonfires), and sometimes pageants, but I don't remember this kind of extravagance. Also, our fritelle are made of sweetened rice and egg and milk mixture, sort of the same recipe as our sweet rice pie, but fried.
St. Joseph is the patron saint of La Spezia so there is a fair every year, which is fun if you like fairs. It's a nice time to visit our area. With all our southern Italian and now Middle Eastern and African migrants, you can get any food under the sun, but Lent is forgotten, and porchetta is probably the favorite food.
The only thing I like about St. Patrick's Day is the food. In terms of "street" holidays I dislike it only a little less than Mardi Gras. When I worked in midtown I wouldn't even go out for lunch if it fell on a weekday. There's a limit to how many people wandering around, weaving, falling down, cursing, fighting, and vomiting I can look at. No one ever vomited on one of my expensive Italian shoes during St. Patrick's Day, in contrast to Mardi Gras, which is why it scores a little higher.
Yes, I like corned beef and cabbage, as a main meal and later in a sandwhich with a nice mustard and some rye bread. The only time I like rye bread, btw. Going to the home of my husband's best friend later on. They celebrate it in honor of his Irish wife.
I've heard the "real" Irish version is somewhat different, but I don't know if that's correct.
Also really like Irish soda bread, at least the sweet kind. Picked some up yesterday. Of
In my area it's mostly a Sicilian-American thing celebrated with nice desserts, usually zeppole and nice pastries a bit like profiteroles.
When the zeppole (deep fried dough balls dusted with powdered sugar) aren't over fried and too heavy, they're quite addictive:
In Italy, this is also Father's Day, so they go all out, especially in Campania, even though the meal needs to be meatless because it falls in Lent.
Yes, they eat zeppole and various pastries and cakes, but numerous other dishes in various courses, almost always, or so I'm told, including pasta e ceci, fried fish, vegetables and particularly fava beans.
This is an example of what they call a "Tavola di San Giuseppe" or the table of St. Joseph.
"At the centre of the feast is ‘St Joseph’s Table’, upon which this mountain of food will be arranged. Nothing is placed on the table by chance; every item embodies some emblematic association or auspicious end. Bread takes centre stage, as the most perfect expression of man’s toils transformed into sustenance, and recalling as well the ancient Roman grain festivals once observed at the end of winter. Sweets, particularly fried and cream-filled pastries, mean a temporary reprieve from fasting and abstinence during Lent. Flowers, asparagus, wild fennel and fava beans laid around the table speak to springtime’s imminent return, while lemons, oranges and wine represent the fruit of the preceding season’s labours. Fish-based dishes symbolise Christ, and there is usually no meat present on the table."
It actually is more like an altar from which the people take food. At the end the remainder is given to the guests, neighbors or the poor.
This seems to me a remnant of very ancient feasting celebrations, both in the Neolithic and with the Indo-Europeans.
In the Lunigiana there are bonfires (we do love bonfires), and sometimes pageants, but I don't remember this kind of extravagance. Also, our fritelle are made of sweetened rice and egg and milk mixture, sort of the same recipe as our sweet rice pie, but fried.
St. Joseph is the patron saint of La Spezia so there is a fair every year, which is fun if you like fairs. It's a nice time to visit our area. With all our southern Italian and now Middle Eastern and African migrants, you can get any food under the sun, but Lent is forgotten, and porchetta is probably the favorite food.