The European Parliament met in plenary session this week and the self-service canteen in Strasbourg was doing a roaring trade.
There was a nice selection of items on the menu and one of the most popular dishes with the hungry masses was the “Irish Hamburger”. It didn’t come with an explanatory notice. But it was a roundy burger, made from what appeared to be beef, and very nice, we hear.
They horsed into it, and as far as we know, there were no complaints afterwards.
And so to Frankfurt on Thursday, when the country waited to hear what the ECB would say about our promiscuous notes.
Very little, as it turned out. In a notable turn of events, the bankers noted unanimously that they had taken note of what the Government was doing with our notorious notes, thus sounding the right note for Ireland.
“Baffling,” declared RTÉ’s anchorman Bryan Dobson after Mario Draghi’s cryptic utterances. Or maybe he was referring to the welcome sight of former TD George Lee, back in the journalistic thick of it at the press conference.
Anyway, the staff and financial correspondents had to be fed and watered while waiting for developments in the ECB Tower.
Ireland figured on the menu here, too. A strange dish was dolloped up for their delectation – a sort of hash of diced veg with mashed spud and mince.
The sign beside it said “Irish Minced Potato Casserole.” The meat content wasn’t mentioned. But as the chefs had unanimously noted its presence it was good to go.
Our food spy says it was “lovely and comforting and savoury”. But those looking for something more authentically Irish headed outside to the open-air market beside the ECB tower where happy locals were dining on Heiße Pferdewurst – Hot Horse Sausage.
Not a burger in sight.
