On March 17th, Rikasa, along with everyone else, will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a feast day, meant to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. The term “feast day” denotes the date a Saint died, but it makes sense that with the meaning of the word “feast,” feast days would become synonymous with eating. St. Patrick’s Day is no different. To help with the celebrations, we have a special St. Patrick’s Day menu for one night only this year.
Our special menu is complete with classic Irish meals associated with the holiday and Irish American culture. If you’re looking for a way to connect to the holiday and your Irish heritage, there’s no better place to eat than at Rikasa!
Bangers and Mash
If you’ve frequented Irish cuisine, particularly on St. Patty’s Day, you’ve probably heard of Bangers and Mash. Our dish uses Irish Beer Brats, paired with Mashed Potatoes, Sauerkraut, and Brussel sprouts. It can be cooked a number of ways, but its core ingredients are sausage or a sausage replacement and mashed potatoes.
While this dish is famous in the United Kingdom, it actually has Roman roots, the sausage portion specifically. Sausages were introduced back in the 4th century A.D. by the Roman Republic. They were already being made with links by the time King Charles I was around in 1625 A.D.
The name “bangers” does originate from the UK, specifically during WWI. Meat shortages led to sausages being made with cheap fillers and a lot of water. When cooked on frying pans, they would sizzle and explode, making a loud banging sound, hence the name. Eventually, these bangers were paired with mashed potatoes, a combo popularized in Ireland. When immigrants came to America, it only made sense to have such a popular dish on an Irish holiday.
Ham and Cabbage
Also known as Smothered Cabbage, this dish is exactly what it sounds like. Ham with cabbage, but it also comes with Mashed Potatoes, Sauerkraut, and Heirloom Carrots. With this dish, you have a ton of freedom with how you want to cook your ham, and what form to eat it in. We serve it as a ham steak, but serving the dish with bacon is a common idea too.
This dish has roots in Irish immigrants who came to New Orleans in the mid-1800s. While around that time, Irish immigrants weren’t as common in the American South, many Irish immigrants filled New Orleans. When they came over, they brought a favorite dish called Bacon and Cabbage. It didn’t use the ham or bacon we use today, but Irish Bacon. It resembles Canadian Bacon, which is typically served instead. Irish Bacon isn’t readily available in the U.S. anymore, so the original recipe has been replaced by what we have today.
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Cabbage is a famous pairing to go with meat in any Irish dish, but few types of meat are as synonymous with Irish cuisine as corned beef. Corned beef is a salt-cured brisket of beef. We prepare our dish with Red Bliss Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts.
How did corned beef become synonymous with Irish cuisine? Well, when Irish immigrants first came to New York, they found that the money they made was so much more than what they made in Ireland, they could splurge on meat. The meat they found worth splurging on was the meat from kosher butchers. This means that Irish corned beef is actually Jewish corned beef thrown together with Irish cabbage and potatoes. It was a cultural intersection that continued for decades until corned beef was an essential part of the Irish diet.
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Our Holiday Menu
After learning about the Irish cuisine on our St. Patrick’s Day menu, you should make a reservation to come to try it yourself. There’s no better time to feast on the different dishes we have because of Irish culture than St. Patrick’s Day, and there’s no better place to try than Rikasa.
Our St. Patrick’s Day menu is only for Thursday, March 17th, from 5 PM to 9 PM, so make sure to get a reservation while you can.
