We asked our daughter to bring us back just ONE food item from New York City on a recent visit: Irish soda bread from Zabar’s deli on the upper west side of Manhattan. The soda bread isn’t even on their bread menu, but they keep some under the counter for those in the know. If the nice elderly Jewish ladies with the sharp elbows and pile driver handbags allow you to approach the counter at all. In this case they did, and she brought us a treasured loaf. Heaven. Lightly toasted with a schmear of whatever your cholesterol count is allowing you to have on your bread these days: even better.

But is it traditional? According to the Society for Preservation of Irish Soda Bread
- the answer is a definitive no. Not only does the Zabar’s version have raisins, but it also appears to our taste buds to be made with at least some rye flour and has a definite rye/caraway Jewish NYC vibe. Not that we’re complaining.

In our family the favored versions have always had raisins, so we will likely continue our heathen ways and add such contraband to our loaves. As for the Irish whisky, orange zest, jalapenos and other “mix ins” the Society finds so disturbing, we’ll ingest those separately, beginning with the whisky.

Click here for an Irish Soda Bread recipe.

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On the eve of Saint Patrick’s Day, in order to miss the crazy crowds drunk on green beer (are we officially old!?), our friend kindly opted to prepare us a delicious, nay splendid, Irish-American boiled dinner.

This was not a throw-together dinner; this was cooked on the stove all day with loving care gooooood.

Corned beef, gently and thoughtfully seasoned along with boiled cabbage, carrots, new potatoes and turnips and a wonderful, crumbly, dense as-it-should-be Irish Soda Bread.

The luck of the Irish to ya!

Traditional Irish Soda Bread from Bakingsheet

New England Boiled Dinner from Simply Recipes

An interesting article on the history of Corned Beef in America.

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