Kieran

How the Irish Invented Slang

How the Irish Invented Slang A few weeks ago, I heard Daniel Cassidy on the Last Word with Matt Cooper. It was a lively interview, and Cassidy’s premise – that many American slang words originate from the Irish language – was an intriguing one.

I ordered the book, and it’s arrived. It’s more scholarly that I would have expected from the interview (turns out that Cassidy is a professor and founder of the New College of California), and the historical as well as etymological background is well-drawn. What’s really astonishing is that so few words in English dictionaries are credited to Irish (most of Cassidy’s English words are listed “origin unknown,” and when you think about the huge diaspora, it’s a certainty that the Irish would have contributed words to English.

Some examples from the book:

  • Baloney – Béal Ánna, meaning silly, foolish talk
  • Boss – Bás, meaning boss, best, very good
  • Brag – Bréag, meaning a lie, exaggeration, deception
  • Cop – Ceap, meaning a protector or chief. The verb “ceap” has meanings including to catch or intercept.
  • Daddy – Daidí­
  • Gab – Gab, a chattering mouth
  • Goon – Guan
  • Hick – Aitheach, meaning a peasant, a churl
  • Jazz – Teas, meaning heat, passion, excitement
  • Lucre – Luach Áir, meaning reward of gold
  • Shack – Teach, meaning house
  • Shanty – Seantigh, meaning old house
  • Slob – Slab, meaning mud or a dirty or slovenly person
  • Smashing – ‘s maith sin, meaning “it is good”
  • So long – Slán

There are many more, and I highly suggest the book. At the very least it’s bound to lead to some interesting conversations!

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Chocolate Coffee Bean Crunch

Chocolate Coffee Crunch Ice Cream For today’s Irish Times article, I wrote about our team in prodution (the photo below shows Cian, Christophe, and JP), running things in August, and of trying to squeeze in new flavours in our busiest time of year.

Production StaffThe recipe came from an idea from Cian, our Dingle shop manager, who helped as we worked through it. It’s very tasty!

Cian’s Chocolate Coffee Crunch

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 1 3/8 cups cream
  • 1 1/8 cups milk
  • 1/4 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
  • 1/3 cup espresso beans
  • 2/3 cup 70% chocolate (100gm)

What to do:

  1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
  2. Crushed Coffee BeansBreak the coffee beans into smallish pieces using the bottom of a bowl or a food processor.
  3. Mix the crushed beans into the chocolate and spread on a baking tray to harden.
  4. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.
  5. Bring the milk to a simmer.  Remove from the heat.
  6. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
  7. Pour the mixture back into pan, add the vanilla bean and place over low heat. Stir until the custard thickens (around 70C).
  8. Immediately place in the refrigerator until cool.
  9. Remove the vanilla bean.
  10. Cut the hardened chocolate into small pieces then use a spatula to separate from the baking tray. Stir into the custard.
  11. Whip the cream and fold into the mix.
  12. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.

Technorati tags: , , , , ,

Kenmare Horse Fair

Kenmare Horse Fair I spent today out and about in the Kingdom, and happened unwittingly onto the annual horse fair in Kenmare. What a picture of contrasts! The pristine town was packed with a very different crowd from the usual, and the rambunctious mood of a traditional fair (that’s quite rare to come across nowadays) clashed with Kenmare’s 5 star image.

Kenmare CattleTraders lined the streets hawking work boots and power tools, and many of the town’s shops closed for the day.

Tourists seemed somewhat befuddled by the crowds and mayhem, but many were visibly pleased by the animals on show – from ducks to cows to ponies.

One would think from this photo that members of the Tidy Town Committee will have nightmares for weeks to come…

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Dingle Film Festival

Ryan's Daughter For those of you who need an excuse to visit Dingle, there will be a film festival in town from the 6th – 9th of September. Opening the festival and serving as adjudicator will be Sir Alan Parker. There’s a lively lineup of shorts and feature films as well as workshops. Definitely worth checking out! Website here.

Technorati tags: , , , , ,

Bakaliowe Ice Cream

Bakaliowe Ice Cream For this week’s column in the Irish Times (in today’s issue), I decided to write about our multicultural staff, especially in our Killarney shop (photo below of some of the team). As part of the piece, I included this recipe for Polish ice cream, given to me by our Killarney shop manager, Sylwia. The test batch was very tasty, if you like fruit and nuts!

Bakaliowe Ice Cream

Killarney TeamIngredients:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 1 3/8 cups cream
  • 1 1/8 cups milk
  • 1/4 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup dried fruits
  • 1/2 cup almonds and other nuts

What to do:

  1. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.
  2. Bring the milk to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
  3. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
  4. Pour the mixture back into pan, add the vanilla bean and place over low heat.
  5. Stir until the custard thickens (around 70C).
  6. Immediately remove from the heat, and place in the refrigerator until cool.
  7. Remove the vanilla bean.
  8. Stir in the fruits and nuts.
  9. Whip the cream and fold into the mix.
  10. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.

Technorati tags: , , , , ,

Ice Cream in Space?

Sean and Cian Bungie My brother Sean and Cian, our temporary Dingle Shop Manager, decided in a moment of madness to bring ice cream into space.

BungeeWell, maybe not space, but about as high as you can get in Dingle.

At the moment, we have this crazy bungee contraption in town that basically hurls you a hundred meters into the air.

Credit to Sean, who is afraid of heights. Not only did he muster the courage to do it, but he sweet-talked the ride operator into letting him bring along ice cream.

There were a few mishaps, but perhaps it’s better to show it than explain it because there is video footage of the event, and I’ll post it just as soon as I can. It’s pretty funny…

I’m kind of jealous and might have to have a go myself this evening…

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Bank Holiday Madness

Killarney Shop Sorry I haven’t posted for the past few days, but this is our busiest time of the whole year.

Killarney Shop 2

The August Bank Holiday weekend is always madness, and my brother and I have been in the Dingle and Killarney shops from morning until night. It’s really the peak of the whole season, and from here, we slowly begin the return to quieter times and a more normal life.

However, it’s fun when the shops are so crowded. There’s a real buzz, and today the sun came out in earnest, and the Killarney shop was hopping. I snapped these photos in an attempt to show what we look like in high season!

Now I must go back and scoop some more ice cream!

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Nell’s Fruit Cup

Nell's Fruit Cup For my first article in the August series for the Irish Times (today’s paper), I decided to write about Nell Grandfield (picture below, from an old postcard), who was making ice cream in our Dingle shop from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Nell outside her shope

I often think how we’re so proud of our gourmet foods in recent times, and are so snobbish about the old fashioned ways.

Yet, if you think about it, virtually all Irish farmers were organic 50+ years ago, before pesticides really came in, and there were many, many people making small batches of what we’d now consider artisan foods. Of course, they didn’t have access to the wide range of ingredients we do, and perhaps not the level of outside influence, but you can’t hold that against them.

Many of the top chefs are now extolling the virtues of buying organic and buying local from small producers. If you think about it, that’s what everyone was doing in the days before the big supermarkets. So either people in the food business back then were all ahead of their time, or we owe them a bit of credit, or both…

Nell’s Fruit Cup

Ingredients:

  • Nells Fruit Cup1 scoop vanilla ice cream (recipe here)
  • 1 dash of raspberry cordial or coulis
  • A couple tablespoons of fruit salad or fruit cocktail
  • A wafer, cut diagonally

What to do:

  1. Scoop the ice cream into a glass dish
  2. Spoon over the fruit
  3. Add the raspberry sauce
  4. Top with the wafer
  5. Enjoy it!

Technorati tags: , , , , ,