I enjoy the Irish food. Food cooked poorly sucks no matter what cuisine it is. Yell at the individual cooks, don't cast aspirsions on an entire culture.

This.

The "overcooked grey food" stereotype was true in the 1950's, and it was true in the US as well. It's old and tired and annoying.

Jesse-ian Heresy of "Different people like different stuff.

BURN THE INFIDEL!

Are San Francisco Burritos a separate sub category?

I think so.

Have you ever had a steak burrito at, um... this place in Noe Vally (on 24th, across from a grocery store, not too far from Castro IIRC)?

that stuff their tortillas with black beans and grilled steak

Yes. Nummy.

I guess I am taking issue with the descriptor of "grey"

I see that as a different issue. If the food's not grey, that is.

I see that as a different issue.

OK then.

People can like whatever they want. . .except bacon, which is of the Devil.

Also, now I am starving, but I don't know what to eat. None of the cafeteria food downstairs. I am getting the hunger headache, too. So sad.

re Irish food:

Now I want curry fries, which I've only ever encountered in Irish joints.

And there's nothing wrong with cabbage, until you boil it into a noxious grey slime that lingers like skunk in your kitchen.

See, I don't really have a problem dealing with stinky-smelling food as long as it tastes good. I guess I can separate the taste from the smell, except for chitlins. But that's just as much knowing what they are as how they smell, so. . .

I don't really have a problem dealing with stinky-smelling food as long as it tastes good.

Oh, it tastes pretty much like it smells, by that point.

In some ways, demarcating what makes a special regional cuisine is almost impossible because there is a constant shifting, intermingling and transference between cultures.

So curry in Britain may actually date back as far as Richard I (or at least the word may).

Of course there are certain signature dishes for any culture, but when one examines the actual origin of ingredients, then it becomes clear that culinary history is as deliciously complex as any other history.

I mention this because I'm doing research and I have James Trager's book The Food Chronology open on my lap. And the discussion of what is Irish food is sort of falling into my thoughts (though I'm researching food along the silk road, so I'm looking more at things like apples, peaches, noodles, grains that were transformed by contact with either the West [in China] or the East [in the Roman Empire]).

Also, I'm learning why Buddha is in a loincloth in India, but wears robes in Japan and China.