here’s the mrs’ corned beef and cabbage which I just consumed.
and it was fantastic.
and by fantastic I mean it was a 7, the highest rating corned beef and cabbage is capable of earning.
please excuse the lack of caps as our keyboard is on the fritz and my tech guru tim blakeley from www.gloucesterbytes.com is ordering the replacement laptop keyboard to get us back on track.
in any case, back to the matter at hand, corned beef and cabbage.
let me first state for the record that there may be no more jealous italian on the planet of the irish on st paddy’s day than this guy.
in the top ten days of my life after my marriage, birth or my girls and every night of fiesta at least half of those top ten are filled with st paddy’s days. either in southie with my boys , down in deep ellum texas with my boy dk or at the rhumb line, st paddy’s day is the greatest excuse to get completely annihilated and sing awesome songs at the trop of your lungs while swaying back and forth arms around your best friends, ever.
that being said, while corned beef and cabbage can be good, it in my opinion can never ever be considered great. to have that at the top of your food pecking order as a nationality is kind of an embarrassment only better than what my jewish buddys eat for their holidays.
I should also insert here that I’m no fan of st joseph’s pasta as cao contributor mya was quick to remind me of in a private message this afternoon but I think most would readily admit that if you put the top ten italian dishes up against the top ten irish dishes you’re probably gonna win at least 9 rounds of that competition.
there are other foods that people rave about to which I usually scratch my head saying, really insert question mark here as I have no ability to make an upper case charachter .
take corned beef and cabbage first. the very best corned beef and cabbage you’ve ever eaten in my book is only worthy of a top score of 7 on a scale from 1-10.
you stack the best corned beef and cabbage and stack it up against a perfectly prepared mrs lobster roll and there’s no way on god’s green earth you could score that corned beef a 10.
I feel the same about reuben sandwiches. my mil and fil rave about this deli in nyc. my fil talks about how this deli serves the most incredible reuben sandwiches. I feel the same way about a reuben. like the very best reuben you’d ever eat couldn’t possibly ever score a 10 on a scale from 1-10.
10’s are reserved for delectable sushi or lobster or steaks or scallops wrapped in bacon. in my book there’s no way in hell a reuben ever earns some kind of praise that merits mentioning. I have had some heavenly cheesecake at some delis down in miami beach so I guess they have that going for them.
what types of food falls into your 10 on a scale from 1-10 range and what type of food do you hear people rave about that you would never consider anything out-of-this-world insert question mark here
Good Morning Gloucester 
I’m Irish at heart, and I love corned beef and cabbage. I’ve never cooked it, but I’ve joined my friends Kevin Burke and Liz O’Connor several times for that traditional dish. Kevin, who is a natural self-taught cook, made the entire dinner in a crock pot. All that needed to be added was mustard (on the side) and some beer to wash it down. Saint Patty’s has some great memories for me from my Irish friends.
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Corned beef isn’t Irish. They generally have ham or lamb on St. Paddy’s day. Corned beef was about all that was affordable/available to the immigrants in New York a century or so ago.
This Irishman wouldn’t eat boiled cabbage if it was the last vegetable on earth!
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Well, if we were at the same dinner table, and you don’t like it….more for me!
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The best food around the North Shore is found at Duckworth’s Bistro. Go try their duck with fennel and apples – divine, beyond a 10!
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my ten is a big, fat, juicy, medium rare burger..i would rather eat that than anything…..yup, even over lobster, if it’s done perfectly.
the food i don’t understand people getting excited about when they see it on a restaurant menu is leg of lamb or lamb chops..nope, don’t don’t get it..to me it tastes like a farm smells…
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Number one in my world would be lobster followed by everything from the ocean. Now, as far as that great Italian food you rate so highly – there’s Pasta A, Pasta B, Pasta C. I’ll take corned beef thank you.
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In my book, foods that can be 10’s: the perfect bacon cheeseburger, a fried seafood platter, boiled lobster with drawn butter (hard not to be a 10, but hold the mayo and bread), roast beef with au jus & popovers.
Foods that can’t be 10’s: corned beef & cabbage, turkey, lasagna, sushi, eggplant, anything with anchovies.
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Irish Americans eat grey corn beef, never red. Irish eat boiled bacon, with all the usual vegetables and potatoes.
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Ill agree with E.J, on what can be a 10 and most of what cannot be a 10. I need to add calamari to no 10 category it can be tasty fried or marinated but it will never make the 10. I add anchovies to my shrimp scampi sauce you would never know they were in there but they add a little extra flavor that I think can qualify as a 10. I am not a big fan of corned beef but I do enjoy a smoked shoulder boiled dinner……still I don’t think it can be a 10 either.
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I think you need to try the Reuben at Halibut Point….it is a 10 with me..I happen to love Reuben’s. (I haven’t had one there in a while, so I hope they’re still mouth-watering!)
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So..(For better or worse)….boiled dinner is um *in my rotation* at least every other week. Kids love it. I love it. In fact….I really love it. And if I make it right…there is enough left over for Sunday morning hash fried up by Steve.
Two things: Gray Corned beef. Always. And No Fancy-Shmancy mustard. Bright Yellow. Only.
My Top 10. The perfect Roast Beef 3-way. Pathetic?…maybe. Yummy? Always. Followed closely by Felicia’s 5 cheese pasta…
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This looks like a giant squid (see the eye) that ejected a cloud of murky potatoes.
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It was actually quite tasty.
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Joey the “Americagaine” don’t know the romance of foods !
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