St. Patrick's Day Dinner with James Joyce 

Thursday, March 17th, 2005

Molly’s Pisto Madrileno

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Sea Scallops and Oysters

with Irish Whiskey and Horseradish Sauce

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Lamb Kidneys with Sherry Sauce

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Cottage Fruit Cake with Madeira

Coffee or Tea

A fat goose lay at one end of the table and at the other end, on a bed of creased paper strewn with sprigs of pars­ley, lay a great ham, stripped of its outer skin and peppered over with crust crumbs, a neat paper frill round its shin and beside this was a round of spiced beef.  Be­tween these rival ends ran parallel lines of side-dishes:  two little minsters of jelly, red and yellow; a shallow dish full of blocks of blancmange and red jam, a large green leaf-shaped dish with a stalk-shaped handle, on which lay bunches of purple raisins and peeled al­monds, a companion dish on which lay a solid rectangle of Smyrna figs, a dish of custard topped with grated nutmeg, a small bowl full of choco­lates and sweets wrapped in gold and silver papers, and a glass vase in which stood some tall cel­ery stalks.  In the centre of the table there stood, as sentries to a fruit-stand which upheld a pyra­mid of oranges and American apples, two squat old-fashioned decanters of cut glass, one containing port and the other dark sherry.  On the closed square piano a pudding in a huge yellow dish lay in waiting and behind it were three squads of bottles of stout and ale and minerals, drawn up according to the colours of their uniform, the first two black, with brown and red labels, the third and small­est squad white, with transverse green sashes.

“The Dead”, Dubliners