This will make you hungry!!!

I am not one to eat very ethnic foods. Last year, while studying abroad in Israel, I had a very hard time going to many of the restaurants there because most Mediterranean food has lots of spices and zip to them. It's not that I don't like spicy food, I just can't eat it. My mouth gets insanely hot and dry and I feel like my stomach will explode at any minute. When given this assignment, at first I wasn't sure how I was going to do because a lot of the ethnic restaurants here are Asian or other influences that my stomach can literally not handle. A good compromise was the Irish Lion. It is an Irish restaurant that most people don’t know about. I asked several of my friends in the past week if they had ever heard of it, and while some said yes, absolutely no one knew where it was. It is next to Crazy Horse (about ½ block from the Court House on West Kirkwood).

The décor is very Irish. There are fake animal heads adorning all of the walls, with plaques and posters boasting Guinness Beer and other wall hangings to make Irish Lion more authentic. The menu is also very authentic, more so than the wall decorations, because the food is real. Ireland has always been known for the use of potatoes in its cuisine. This comes from the time when there was the Great Potato Famine in 1849. One of Irish Lion’s signature dishes, it certainly is signature as it has a trademark next to its name on the menu, are the Blarney Puffballs. These little balls are little gooey blobs of potato mixed with garlic and cheese. Garlic is another essential ingredient in Irish cuisine according to Wikipedia.com. A little added touch was the sour cream with scallions on top. As you can guess, the scallions are also important in Irish cuisine. There were many things to choose from on the menu ranging from very traditional cuisine like coddle (layers of boiled pork sausage with sliced potatoes and onions cooked in the stock The only flavoring is usually salt, pepper, and parsley), other stews, many different types of meat, and fish.

I was very lucky when doing this assignment because I went with my boyfriend and a bunch of his coworkers, so there were plenty of people to get different things off the menu. Our waiter was very helpful with telling us what was more traditional fare to order off the menu. The first thing we ordered was the Blarney Puffballs because they were the most authentic and the only thing that my boyfriend and I could eat. I keep kosher, so this assignment was even more difficult without being able to eat any of the meat. A couple of us also ordered what are known as “half yards”. They are literally half yard glasses (basically only 22 oz because they are very thin) with any alcohol you want in them. The guys ordered traditional stout and I ordered Irish cider. The glasses are so long that it is almost impossible to drink it without hitting your neighbor. They also have full yards, but with the policy of “you break you buy it” with the glasses ($70 a piece) it seemed a little too intense to try.

After the appetizer we ordered the main courses. There were so many options to choose from. One guy ordered the Liffey Salmon. Salmon is one of the most common fishes used in Irish cuisine. I didn’t know this at the time, but the Liffey River is a river that flows through Dublin, Ireland. Two people from the group ordered coddle and stew. Both of these soups came with soda bread is an absolute staple of Irish Cuisine. It is just as important as potatoes. The stew also had the main ingredient of lamb which is also very popular and ethnic. Due to the no meat policy, I got the trout entrée. According to Wikipedia.com, trout is more and more popular in Ireland now because obesity has taken its toll of the residents of the country to the high fat content of its very traditional foods. Now more healthy foods, like trout and more vegetable have been added to the menus to help with this issue.

Upon the end of our meal, we heard some loud yelling come from a back table. When we asked our waiter what was going on, he said they were yelling an old Irish drinking toast. He said the basic gist to the toast was “health to the men, and may the women live forever”. We later found out that they didn’t know what they were saying and their waiter had just told them to yell it. The whole evening was very fun and gave me some more insight on a culture that I did not know much about. Hopefully I will be able to go back again soon with more friends so more people can find out about the glory that is Irish Lion.