Period Food

[Aonghus]

Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiFDfYByjo8

The women in the video is Regina Sexton - a food historian. She wrote "A little History of Irish Food" - one of the books in my library circulated at a meeting.

The story read in the video is Aislinge Meic Con Glinne, "The vision of Mac Conglinne".

The tale is told in Middle Irish i.e. from a later time period than ours, but the food is very much the same (hence why it is referenced during "St. Patrick's Week").

The story is about a poet (Mac Conglinne) that is beaten up by a bunch of monks for satirizing them. While in captivity awaiting further punishment he has a vision of an angel that tells of a fantastic land made of food. He tells his captors of this vision and they spare him, believing if he were to recite the vision to King Cathal - it will cure him of his gluttony.

King Cathal's gluttony is caused by a demon living in his throat. Mac Conglinne exorcises the demon by administering something akin to the "Ludovico treatment" from a "Clock Work Orange" and all the while relaying his vision - which serves to tease the demon out from Cathal (similar to the banana-lemon cookie method for removing tapeworms).

In any case, the story is considered historically significant, because the "vision" describes a land of food - in other words, it documents what was considered food at the time of its composition, even if it is presented in a fantastic manner at times.

https://archive.org/stream/aislingemeic ... 7/mode/2up

And I just like to point out that on page 35 of this story, kale is referred to as "effeminate"...

Chew on that bit of ancient wisdom hipster foodies!