5 Totally Classic St. Patrick’s Day Foods

1. The Potato
The potato is a starch-filled tuber, originally from Peru (and parts of Bolivia) and was domesticated sometime after 8000 BCE.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
The potato was not an instant hit in Great Britain. Uncooked, the strange new food was bitter. The pious rejected potatoes since they grew underground, Satan’s realm. So they tested it in their original “colony”—Ireland. … By the 1700s potatoes were widely cultivated in Ireland. The moist, cloudy and cool climate was uncannily like the South American highlands of their origin. The typical Irish peasant ate from eight to 14 pounds of potatoes each day, providing 80 percent of caloric intake.
“Nearly the perfect food, potatoes are loaded with protein, vitamins and complex carbohydrates.” The dependency of the Irish on the potato as a staple crop, and a subsequent potato blight, led to the famine and the great exodus across the sea. By one estimation, it is the fifth most important crop worldwide. Its identification with Ireland and the Irish people is a potent reminder of past travails, a symbol to the down-to-earth decency of the people of the Emerald Isle, and a whimsical touchstone in popular culture.
A classic old-timey standby, the potato may be cooked, fricasseed, boiled, braised, toasted, bisected, murdered, drowned, resurrected, eaten raw, eaten dry, accused, judged, hanged, denied by a court of its peers, stoned and combined with all kinds of edibles: beef, chicken, pork, reptilian beef, vegetables, squirrel, Ent, stew of forest, oysters, whales, megawhales, all 25 species of zebra and every other mammal worth giving two hoots in hell for.
2. The PotatoPhoto by peace6x, CC BY-SA 2.0
Look, this is really a one-joke premise: Ireland lasted on the potato and nothing else for several centuries, because the British overlords adopted cruel and oppressive economic policies against the impoverished land of Eire.
Here’s another historical question: can I really make it through an entire list where it’s just potatoes? It’s unfortunate, and unfair, given that potatoes come from South America to begin with. I probably should shut this down right here and right now, instead of continuing this bit. You’ve been a wonderful crowd. Thank you. Thank you. Good night, and good luck.
3. The PotatoPhoto by Ernesto Andrade, CC BY-ND 2.0
Hi, I’m Paste’s Jason Rhode. You may know me as the guy who never shuts the hell up about potatoes, or anything he deems a potato. One time I designated a genuine international crisis as a potato, and the nasally-voiced news media had a field day with it. So maybe I’m the jerk. But all of the people on the street I asked about the potato crisis just nodded their heads, and looked away, as if in great sadness. Thereby proving that I was right, and everyone agreed with me. Check … and mate.