Curry and chips

Having returned from Boston in the aftermath of St Patrick's Day, I found that my favourite pub was still serving the usual faire. The Roisin dubh or Black Rose just 2 minutes walk from Quincy Market serves a feast of Irish and English dishes. I knew that going there on St Patrick's Day was a non starter… I learnt later that the lines were about a hour and a half wait long, that having been said, it would have been worth the wait.

Scanning the menu, there was corned beef and cabbage (no Irish pub is complete without it, even though it is an American dish)… bangers & mash, Fish and chips, Cottage pie (beef), Shepards pie (lamb), meat pies and Irish stew amongst many other menus items.. but then right at the bottom was one that caught my eye….. curry and chips. This dish is popular across Ireland and the UK, almost every fish and chip shop offers it, it's now a sort of a national dish.

The curry is a mix special and no matter where you go, England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, it's tastes very similar. The Roisin dubh's curry, which I just had to have, was… well if I didn't know where I was, I would have said I was back in England. 

It's served just on top of steak fries (as near as you get to chips) as the full meal just like a gravy or chili on fries in American cuisine….. several friends thought it sounded revolting until they tried it and now they are hooked – I knew there was a purpose for me coming over here !!!!

Well if you want to try it, this is a pretty standard recipe --

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 Medium Onion

1 Medium Apple

1 Tablespoon Curry powder

2 Tablespoon Oil

2 Tablespoon Plain flour

600 ml Water (1 pint)

1 Tablespoon Tomato purée

 Lemon juice

 Salt and pepper

Method

Chop the onion and apple and fry with the curry powder in the oil until tender. Stir in the flour, cook for 2 minutes and then remove from the heat and add the water, tomato purée, salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Simmer for 15 minutes, then pour over the chips and serve


http://www.blackroseboston.com/

Leprechauns

As far as I am aware, unlike fairies no supposed photographs of real leprechauns exist, however since it's St Patricks day, some background to them is worth sharing.

A leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán) is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann (mound-dwellers) of Irish mythology.

In Irish folklore, were they originally supposed to be scary or cute?   A little of both.

According to legend, however, leprechauns usually won't trouble you if you leave them alone.

Engraving of a leprechaun circa 1900

The name leprechaun is derived from the Irish word leipreachán, defined by Patrick Dinneen as "a pigmy, a sprite, or leprechaun". A further derivation is less certain; according to most sources, the word is thought to be a corruption of Middle Irish luchrupán, from the Old Irish luchorpán, a compound of the roots lú (small) and corp (body). The root corp, which was borrowed from the Latin corpus, attests to the early influence of Ecclesiastical Latin on the Irish language. The alternative spelling leithbrágan stems from a folk etymology deriving the word from leith (half) and bróg (brogue), because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun working as a cobbler

The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the medieval tale known as the Echtra Fergus mac Léti (English: Adventure of Fergus son of Léti). The text contains an episode in which Fergus mac Léti, King of Ulster, falls asleep on the beach and wakes to find himself being dragged into the sea by three lúchorpáin. He captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release.

Popular depiction shows the leprechaun as being a solitary creature no taller than a small child, with a beard and hat, however while the depictions of leprechauns in Irish oral tradition have varied most accounts had them as humanoid figures, about the size of a mouse, with big feet and perceived as the tallest of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 

The leprechaun’s principal occupation is making and mending shoes, and they enjoy practical jokes. According to William Butler Yeats, the great wealth of these fairies comes from the "treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time", which they have uncovered and appropriated. According to McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an "evil spirit" and a "degenerate fairy" and is "not wholly good nor wholly evil"

 If ever captured by a human, the leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for their release and then he’d trick you into making a fourth wish thereby undoing the first three. Or he may show you the location of a buried pot of gold by tying a ribbon around a tree, for example, but when you came back the next day, he’d have put ribbons around all the trees to prevent you from finding it.

From  Leprechaun  

The idea of the leprechaun as a jolly, itinerant elf is a product of mid-20th-century American popular culture. Leprechauns first entered the American cultural consciousness after the publication of two popular books shortly after the turn of the 20th century: Herminie Templeton Kavanagh’s short-story collection Darby O’Gill and the Good People and James Stephens’ novel The Crock of Gold.

In popular culture, Leprechauns made a resurgence with the 1947 Broadway debut of Finian’s Rainbow, a musical in which a leprechaun and his magical pot of gold teach a racist Southern senator a lesson about tolerance. (Francis Ford Coppola later turned this into a movie starring Fred Astaire.) Leprechauns played similarly mischievous but goodhearted parts in a few films over the next two decades, including a Disney adaptation of Kavanagh’s book in 1959. In the 1993 horror film Leprechaun, a 1000-year-old Leprechaun, is portrayed as nastier and evil in his search for his stolen pot of gold; the Leprechaun leaves a bloody trail wherever he goes. A sequel shot in 1994 continues the horror theme with him trying to find a bride. A gentler Leprechaun is portrayed on the Lucky Charms breakfast cereal, which featured a leprechaun named Lucky as its official spokescreature. It first appeared on store shelves in the early 1960s.

The association between leprechauns and luck may have to do with the traditional belief that leprechauns could prevent farmers from experiencing misfortune in fact some farmers used to make leprechauns offerings of whiskey with the hope of ensuring a good harvest and healthy livestock but chasing after a leprechaun to steal its food  or gold would more likely enrage the creature than bring good luck.

Slainte!

Sharon Springs, New York

With the weather being bright and sunny I decided to head out east on Route 20 and visit the old spa town of Sharon Springs. Sharon Springs is a village in Schoharie County, New York, United States. It is a small town with a population of only 547 (2000 census). Its name derives from the hometown of the first Colonial settlers, Sharon, Connecticut, and the important springs in the village

The Adler Hotel

Thanks to its sulfur, magnesium, and chalybeate mineral springs, Sharon Springs grew into a highly fashionable spa during the 19th century. At the peak of its popularity, Sharon Springs hosted 10,000 visitors each summer, including members of the Vanderbilt family, Oscar Wilde, the ambassadors of Chile, Portugal, Belgium, and Peru, and multimillionaire Cuban sugar planter Tomas Terry. Direct ferry-to-stagecoach lines connected New York City to Sharon Springs, later rail connected the village to New York City and Boston via Albany and Cobleskill.

Sharon Spring's development as a mineral water spa reputedly began when David Eldredge established a boarding house near the springs in 1825. By 1841, the village had become world famous as the social elite came to take the waters. Magnificent large hotels and forest-like parks graced the village landscape. During the second half of the 19th Century, Sharon Springs was home to over sixty hotels and rooming houses accommodating over 10,000 visitors each summer. By the early 1900s, Sharon's indigenous Christian mix had become distanced from the summer clientele with the influx of European visitors, primarily from Judaic tradition.

The Imperial Baths

The spas that led to success also contributed to its demise. The turnover owners, owing to age, financial troubles, and a series of disastrous fires, meant the new proprietors were not as tied to the town. Other  national factors led to a decline, Prohibition was introduced in the 1920s and the Bank Moratorium brought financial ruin to many local residents during the early years of the Depression. Since then Sharon Springs has been declining year after year. Today despite attempts to rehabilitate some of the buildings, the many hotels and bath house slowly riot away a legacy of a once glorious past.

Abandoned Hotel

Another abandoned hotel 

Sign of spring - Red Tailed Kite

Heard a racket outside and went on the porch to find a red tail kite had taken down a squirrel for lunch.... a little gruesome but what a beautiful bird. What amazed me was that he perched on the weather beaten old bird table not more than 15 feet away and was happy to pose for the camera.... he stayed about 3/4 hour and flew off taking the remains with him. Wondering now if he is nesting nearby.

This kite (Buteo jamaicensis) is probably the most common hawk in North America. If you’ve got sharp eyes you’ll see several individuals on almost any long car ride, anywhere. Red-tailed Hawks soar above open fields, slowly turning circles on their broad, rounded wings. Other times you’ll see them atop telephone poles, eyes fixed on the ground to catch the movements of a vole or a rabbit, or simply waiting out cold weather before climbing a thermal updraft into the sky.
 
Most Red-tailed Hawks are rich brown above and pale below, with a streaked belly and, on the wing underside, a dark bar between shoulder and wrist. The tail is usually pale below and cinnamon-red above, though in young birds it’s brown and banded. “Dark-phase” birds are all chocolate-brown with a warm red tail. “Rufous-phase” birds are reddish-brown on the chest with a dark belly.

You’ll most likely see Red-tailed Hawks soaring in wide circles high over a field. When flapping, their wingbeats are heavy. In high winds they may face into the wind and hover without flapping, eyes fixed on the ground. They attack in a slow, controlled dive with legs outstretched – much different from a falcon’s stoop.