>>>>>>>>>>>>Enjoy a Guinness or two. :)
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>The worst beer I ever tried ... < gd&r >
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Whoah! You must have tried Guiness Stout. Try Guiness Draught it is much lighter and easier to drink. I had the same opinon till I realized there was a difference... which isn't all that apparent.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness#Varieties
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Guinness Extra Stout is very bitter and something that I do not enjoy! It comes in a six pack of small bottles. The Draught comes in a four pack of cans or six pack of bottles. The Draught from a keg is very tasty and for some reason a pint of Guinness from a Pub in Ireland is even better! :)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Good man! I tend not to drink beer from kegs unless I'm at a brew pub that knows what they are doing. Normal pubs and restaurants don't seem to maintain the system well and I get headaches and a stuff nose. One of our brew pubs in Vancouver does a Guinness draught clone... can't tell the difference.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>There used to be an Irish pub in Chicago that was SO determined to be authentic they bought an actual Irish pub and shipped the whole works to Chicago. Furniture, fixtures, decorations, everything. Everything but the barmaids.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It's the only place I've ever *enjoyed* a Guinness.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>There was just an article in the Tribune the other day about Irish pubs in Chicago. (Gee, I wonder why?) It focused on a few that try to offer food that is a bit more upscale than one usually associates with Irish pubs. Among them was a new restaurant/pub where every piece of wood in the place came from Ireland. I wonder whether that might have been blarney ;-)
>>>>>
>>>>>The article also mentioned that corned beef is not really an Irish food. It said it was adopted by Irish immigrants in the U.S. because it was the closest thing they could find to Irish bacon. The owner of one of the featured pubs said she knows it isn't Irish but people expect it so she serves it anyway. She also said she draws the line at green beer.
>>>>
>>>>That's the FIRST time I've ever heard anything like that, and I'm from the capital of Ireland. And to suggest that "corned dog" is anything like bacon suggests that you guys have never tasted bacon.
>>>
>>>
>>>We may be using the same words in different ways. Have you eaten American bacon? And what is your definition of corned beef. (Not sure who let the dog in).
>>
>>US bacon, as I understand it, is the fatty streaky rashes. Here you can buy those, or the meaty "Back" bacon, or with the back and streaky still attached to each other. Still a 1000 miles from the aste, consistancy, texture of corned beef. "Corned dog" is the Scouse (Liverpudlian) expression for it, as in contempt for it.
>>
>>Corned beef I know as like Spam, but very fibrous and less homogeneous therefrom, made of cheap cuts of beef, shredded and mshed up, larded with fat, and, I dunno, maye some addition of cereal for binding/bulking. It's years since I've had it or even looked closely at it, and that was usually in a hash. Essentially, a kind of pate.
>
>Corned Beef comes in different cuts of meat. You can get Brisket, bottom of the round, Top of the Round and Eye of the Round. The latter is my favorite.
>
>Some Corned Beef comes in a plastic package, and can be heavily streaked with thick layers of fat. I avoid that at all cost! It is better to go to a real butcher shop for Corned Beef and avoid those plastic packages!


Proper corned beef is beef brisket with the fat trimmed off and then injected with salt and other spices. You then cook it long and slow until it can be cut with a fork. It's still not to many people's liking, but that's how it's done right. With cabbage and potatoes, of course. My personal variation is to boil some peeled carrots in there too. A little sage and thyme. Presto!