Bully Beef v. Corned Beef

 vs. 

So my fellow Jamaicans who have studied/lived in the US for a while can probably relate to my introduction to St. Patrick’s Day – more affectionately St. Patty’s Day. I experienced this event for the first time during my freshman year in 2007, and, initially shared the joy because the day occurs during the best month ever – March.

                In my excitement I agreed to go home with a friend to experience the St. Patty’s Day parade in downtown Cleveland then back to her house for a dinner of corned beef and cabbage with boiled potatoes. So watch my Jamaican-wired brain get hyped up for corned beef, which translated to bully beef instead of the cured beef as is the literal translation.  

                The parade was exciting with the source of Irish pride coming more from the drunken members of the crowd as oppose to the 50-strong band of bag pipers. We got back to the house and I’m starving so I show up first at the table. The mother runs to get the food from the oven.

                She put three containers on the table. One with boiled potato halves, another with strips of beef and boiled cabbage quarters and then tossed salad. Naturally, the Jamaican response would be “To rhatid”, which is the exact one I gave. Luckily, my friend, who had currently been dubbed as a Jamaican-by-association by myself and the other Jamaicans, incorrectly translated the expression to her family as one of excitement instead of disappointment. Love her!

                In place of the sweet buttery, melt-in-your-mouth taste and feel of bully beef was the saltiness of the brisket. And here is where I remember asking a Grace Kennedy representative to my primary school, “Why not just label it ‘Bully Beef’?”Back then, of course, the young man could not give an answer but of tradition. Aren’t the beauty of words and their effect(s) expectation on a heart longing for a hint of the familiar and in a new place an intriguing occurrence?

                Well, next step: trying to make packaged ground beef as appealing as the trapezoid of bully beef from the Grace can. Here is one of the results of the brainstorms:

1 Packet of ground

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp heavy Mayo

¼ Habanera or Scotch bonnet - diced

Pinch of brown sugar

Sauté with green/yellow/red peppers, onions and Roma tomatoes

Mixed with boiled elbow pasta or potato cubes as a salad; white rice or fried dumplings 

Hopefully it looks something like the real deal, like below:

 Figure 1 Bully beef w/veggies and fried dumplings…as provided by the DC area…yes!

Down with misnomers! Yay for buttery, beefy goodness!

Eat well, till likkle lata,

Gill-Bread.

Gillian.millwood@live.com