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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Silverberg on April 29, 2013 at 4:09pm

Ha! They DO get a bad rep, don't they?! But that's because we tend to fry them (and double fry them)! They are such versatile little nuggets!

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Permalink Reply by Ryan O'Rourke on April 29, 2013 at 4:20pm

The praties are just fine.  They ought to be incorporated generously into a well-balanced diet.  Yes, if one crams cakes and pastries and other high-carb, high-sugar foods down at an alarming rate, problems will arise.  But including generous portions of potatoes (without loads of butter, cheese, salt, etc.) will do a body good.

And from a taste standpoint, like Tiffany has said, they are versatile and can be presented in such a multitude of ways.  

Brings to mind one of the courtroom scenes from the film, "My Cousin Vinny," when the witness said, "No self-respecting southerner uses instant grits."  Well, no self-respecting Irishman / Irishwoman neglects a hearty helping of praties on a regular basis. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Jim Curley on April 30, 2013 at 6:48am

I'm currently reading The Graves Are Walking, a book on the famine. I thought this passage fascinating:

"The Halls, an English couple,who visited Ireland in the early 1840s, went even further than [Adam] Smith, crediting the potato with producing the hardiest peasantry in the world. And, indeed, on metrics of physical well-being like height and strength, the early- nineteenth-century Irishman was a wonder. Half an inch taller than the Englishman and an inch taller than the Belgian, the Irishman was stronger than both. On a Victorian contraption called a dynameter, the average physical strength of the Irishman was 432 lb, compared to 403 lb. for the Englishman and 339 lb. for the Belgian."

In 2002, I visited the Famine Museum in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, nd remember reading that the pre-famine peasant Irish diet of potatoes and buttermilk was a very good one in nutritional terms.

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