Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995                   TAG: 9503160008
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MEAT, POTATOES ARE THE TASTES OF THE OLD SOD

Italian. Chinese. Mexican. Thai. Japanese.

But have you ever heard anyone suggest, ``Hey! Let's eat Irish tonight!''?

Of course not.

That's because what we all eat at home many nights is already Irish, in a way.

``Plain,'' was how Breda Joyce responded when asked to characterize Irish food.

Joyce, who was born and raised in County Mayo, left Ireland 24 years ago when she married. She and her husband, Vince, have lived in Roanoke for nearly 17 years.

But you won't find even the slightest trace of Southern in her accent. Hers remains a lovely brogue.

``It wasn't that we didn't eat well,'' she explains. ``It was just very basic food.''

When Joyce was growing up in Ireland, you were either the child of a farmer or a fisherman.

And that - along with the rigors of Catholicism - pretty much determined the daily meals.

``What you would eat for dinner, we would eat at mid-day,'' says Joyce. ``For breakfast, we'd have oatmeal. Then, at what is your dinner time, we'd have tea.

``And everyone thinks all Irish people eat corned beef and cabbage,'' she says. ``But I never once ate corned beef when I lived in Ireland. Cabbage, yes. Lots of cabbage ...''

Practicality ruled the daily menu. Before there were freezers, she points out, you ate what was available and in season. The daughter of a farmer, that meant Joyce grew up eating more meat than fish.

``But of course we always ate fish on Fridays,'' she recalls, referring to the old Catholic ritual, which today is far less stringent. Today, Catholics are asked to eat fish on Fridays only during Lent.

One of five children - considered a small family by Irish standards - Joyce grew up eating oatmeal and boiled eggs for breakfast. Lamb or beef stew for dinner. Cheese and bread or bacon and eggs for tea.

``And bread. Lots of bread ..."

"I wish I had my mother's bread recipes,'' she says. ``In every Irish home there was always a loaf or two of fine homemade bread.''

And homemade bread is a staple of her own household today.

``When I first got married, I think I could roast a chicken and bake a potato,'' she smiles. ``I really couldn't cook much at all.''

Kroger still astonishes Joyce.

``We couldn't believe it when we saw our first grocery store,'' she recalls. ``Every vegetable you could imagine. And everything was so big. The size of everything. Green peppers. And squash. We never could get things like this when I was growing up in Ireland.''

There were times, she admits, Catholic tradition was broken on no-fish Fridays if someone from the family hadn't made it into town to pick up the fish.

She can't remember having ever eaten in a restaurant growing up. ``The families were large and the houses were small, so eating out wasn't practical.''

Even for holidays the extended families didn't gather en masse as they do here in the United States for Thanksgiving or Christmas. There wasn't room. Relatives visited, of course, but not all at once.

``You pretty much had your hands full feeding your own family,'' Joyce says.

Joyce figures an American visiting Ireland some 30 years ago would have been driven crazy by the repetition of the meals.

``It wasn't unusual to have the very same dish - like a stew - every day for a week. Sometimes more,'' she says.

But what she remembers most is that in Ireland, you did not waste food.

``I still don't. I think it's something they inject into the genes of the Irish,'' she says with a smile.

As for why there are no Irish restaurants in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter - the Irish bars on every corner of Chicago or New York that serve food just to hang on to a liquor license don't count - Joyce has a theory.

``Meat. Potatoes. Vegetables. That's Irish; it's practical. It's also what everyone eats for dinner every night here.

``When they're not bringing home something from Pizza Hut or Kentucky Fried Chicken.''

recipes for:

DIJON-GLAZED CORNED BEEF WITH SAVORY CABBAGE & RED POTATOES

PEG MCMAHON'S IRISH SODA BREAD

BREDA JOYCE'S BEEF STEW WITH GUINNESS AND PRUNES

PEG MCMAHON'S APPLE SPONGE

PEG MCMAHON'S IRISH RAISIN BREAD

IRISH POTATO SOUP

DUBLIN CODDLE

CHAMP

ROAST LEG OF LAMB CONNEMARA

MARY HANLEY'S LAMB STEW

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE