St Patrick's day

Happy St Patrick's day. Vancouver doesn't have a lot of history or a lot of traditions. Not like other places. I always say Vancouver's history is the heritage people bring with them when they come here. St Patrick's Day is a fun tradition. If I had know how easy potato bread and soda bread was to make I wouldn't have waited 20 years to make it.

Potato bread is just mashed potatoes without the milk and some flour mixed in. Roughly 2 parts potatoes to 1 part flour depending on the consistency you prefer. Once you mix the warm potatoes with the flour kneed it a few times and roll it out to 1/2 inch think. Then I cut it in squares or rectangles and fry it both sides on the grill. Because I made it a bit thicker than normal I finished them of in the oven.

Soda bread is basically a butter milk backing soda biscuit just a different shape. Usually it's a round loaf with a scored X on the top. I rolled it out into just under 1 inch think then cut them into rectangular portions. Baked them for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, the recipe said 425 but I thought that was a bit high. When they had cooled a bit I cut the top and bottom crust off and sliced them in half making them thinner. You can fry them in oil for an Ulster fry with potato bread, bacon and sausage. I'll pass on the blood pudding.

Traditions are a good thing. Ramadan is a nice tradition. One culture's traditions don't threaten or inhibit another culture's traditions. Diversity is a good thing. When I was young my parents took me to see Fiddler on the Roof at a live play in Vancouver. That play is all about tradition.

Music is a nice tradition. Today I was listening to some of Mozart's concertos for the violin. What a wonderful instrument. When my son played in the Youth Symphony I was amazed to see a handful of wind instruments with a sea of young kids kicking ass on the strings playing difficult classical pieces. Now that is a symphony I thought. The violins, bases, cellos and violas enhance the wind instruments and make a symphony much fuller than just a wind ensemble.

I even like a little TSO. Mixing classics with the modern in a talented remix. It reminds me of how the Scorpions performed Rock you like a Hurricane with the Philharmonic orchestra in Berlin. I was amazed at how well the two different styles blended and complemented each other. One didn't over power the other.

It's also amazing to see the versatility of the violin when used as a fiddle to play traditional Irish music like in Riverdance. The electric violin is pretty awesome too. Indeed music is a good tradition. Fuse rocks.