Ireland, the land of potatoes? The cliché has a hard tooth. Moreover, in the Irish language, there are more than 40 words to describe the varieties of potatoes or the different ways of cooking them.
And one of the potato temples is none other than the only amusement park on the island: Tayto Park, which takes its name from a diminutive of potato… and especially the name of a very popular brand of crisps in Ireland.
Twisted Chip is a firm favorite here at Tayto Park
What’s your go-to-chip?#taytopark #needtoknow pic.twitter.com/2O45AQ9vmK
— Tayto Park (@taytopark) July 25, 2022
These teenage girls, for example, have just picked up their free package at the exit: “At the cinema, my thing is a big bag of crisps to share… And not popcorn!”, launches the first. “100% agree! Bread, Tayto, crush well and bite!“, raises another. And a third to try:”Makes me want to eat a chip sandwich with a cup of tea!“.
For others, the importance of the potato in everyday life has not really been understood: “For a long time I said I didn’t like Tayto because I wanted to be different, but that’s stupid!”says a woman. “Actually, you didn’t know it was a stereotype until you left Ireland. In Canada, people kept telling me, ‘Emma, you’re still eating potatoes!’ And me? I said of course! It’s our culture, it’s local, it’s cheap? so it is sure that we eat a lot!“, pleads a middle-aged woman.
The potato is also a historical attachment. In the 19th century, when a fungus wiped out a large part of the potato crops, thousands of people died of starvation. At the time, an average Irishman ate 6.5 kg a day! “It is our basic starch. Pasta is for the Italians, potatoes for the Irish. At home, it’s not a meal if there isn’t one. We love our potatoes!“, assure families met in this amusement park. “It’s true, you can eat them boiled, in fries, in potatoes, in crisps, whatever you want! Growing up, we didn’t always have meat, but with a few potatoes, we were never hungry!”, smiles a mother.
Potatoes are so popular here that during Lent, a holiday when Catholics must live soberly to be closer to God, some Irish people choose to forgo crisps. There remains one last little pride for the Irish: the potato is the first vegetable to have grown in space.