What's a foodie to do on St. Patty's day?

Relax. There's plenty for an enterprising food lover to enjoy among the Emerald Isle's delights.
By GRETCHEN McKAY
SCRIPPS HOWARD
The banks of Ireland are celebrated for a lot of things, both cerebral and otherwise. Some of the world's most influential writers were born on this third-largest island in Europe, including William Butler Yeats, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, and the country's handmade linens consistently rate among the world's most exquisite. Its influence extends even to popular culture: Bono and his rock band U2 are Irish exports.
But unless you count Guinness stout or Jameson whiskey among the five major food groups, Irish cuisine for most people is, well, something that's pretty tough to get excited about. Ale-battered cod and lamb stew are delicious with that frothy pint, but they're hardly the stuff that drives a foodie crazy.
Even those who specialize in Irish cooking and do it well concede it can be a tough sell beyond St. Patrick's Day, when everybody and his green-beer-quaffing brother wishes he were part Irish.
"It gets such a bad rap," laments Brian Duffy, executive chef of The Shanachie Irish Pub & amp; Restaurant, an upscale Irish restaurant in Ambler, Pa., just north of Philadelphia. "People think everything's boiled, or it's all corned-beef-and-cabbage or potatoes."
The basics
Well, they might have a point. Any Irish pub worth its Celtic salt undoubtedly has corned beef on the menu, and potatoes -- which were introduced into Ireland in the second half of the 17th century and have been a staple on the dinner table ever since -- are also traditional fare, be they boiled, fried or served mashed on top of shepherd's pie.
But while these traditional dishes are a good jumping-off point for diners eager for a taste of the Emerald Isle, they don't have to be the end-all, especially if you've got a creative cook. Which is why when two friends approached Duffy in early 2004 and told him they were looking for a chef for their new Irish restaurant, his only question (and he probably delivered it with a sigh) was this: Do you plan to include corned-beef-and-cabbage on the menu? To his delight, the answer was a resounding "no."
In fact, owners Ed Eagan and Gerry Timlin -- a Celtic guitarist and folk singer from County Tyrone -- hoped their new place would embrace the culinary renaissance that has swept Ireland in recent years and made the most of locally grown produce and seafood. So Duffy, who trained at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia and who has appeared on Food Network's "Date Plate" and "Hot Trends 2005," quickly signed on.
For traditionalists
So as to not disappoint the faithful, the menu includes such popular pub classics as fish-and-chips (Eisc Scealloga), cottage pie (Teachin Pioig) and Ulster Fry (Eireannach Bricfeasta), an Irish breakfast of eggs, black-and-white pudding, sausage, bacon and beans. And every table gets a basket of brown wheaten bread, a dense wheat bread made with eggs and buttermilk from a recipe handed down over the generations to Timlin's Aunt Eileen, who lives in Pittsburgh. It's served with homemade honey butter.
But the Shanachie, which means "storyteller" in Gaelic, also features such unexpected -- and wonderfully tasty -- entrees as mustard-encrusted scallops (Clusaisin Mustaird), jumbo-lump-crab-and-wild-mushroom bruschetta (Fathach Portain Beacan) and Dublin Seafood Coddle (Bia Mara), a stew-like dish made with bay prawns, mussels and scallops in a fish fume and garnished with Irish gravlax. Coddle is traditionally made in Ireland with pork sausage, bacon and thick-sliced carrots. Even boxty, a traditional Irish potato pancake fried on a griddle, gets a 21st-century makeover with grilled vegetables and goat cheese.
These dishes, which Duffy has dubbed "New Celtic cuisine," are a little more European in flavor and full of more "flair" than typical Irish fare. But they're still built around quality ingredients that are indigenous to Ireland, such as salmon and brown crab, farm-raised beef and organically grown vegetables, and they reflect the honesty of preparation that's a hallmark of Irish cooking.
From the past
A few menu offerings even have their roots more than 400 years in the past. His Free-range Roasted Chicken, for instance, is marinated for two days in a mixture of Guinness, honey and mead, a fermented alcohol beverage made of honey, water and yeast that was believed to have been discovered by Irish monks during medieval times. Honey, Duffy points out, was used as currency in the 1500s and 1600s.
Others are Irish adaptations of other foreign cuisines. Duffy's Irish Gravlax, which is served as a garnish on the Seafood Coddle but also tastes great on top of brown bread with a dollop of dill creme fraiche, is a twist on the traditional Swedish and Finnish raw salmon dish, thanks to a shot of whiskey during the curing stage. The aforementioned crab-mushroom bruschetta, on the other hand, which is served atop fried sourdough, is a variation on the classic Italian appetizer.
"We want to bring a whole new idea to Irish food," says Duffy, who spent more than six months researching and developing the menu.