<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/stpaddys1.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4619" title="stpaddys1" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/stpaddys1-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>My original plan on Day 172 was to show up at an Irish local pub at 7 a.m. for their advertised "authentic Irish breakfast".

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I've never eaten an authentic Irish breakfast before.  I've had Irish breakfast <em>tea</em>.  But that doesn't count.

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I can't even tell you what comprises as Irish breakfast.  I did not google it, because if it contained anything unpalatable to me, I would have talked myself out of it.  And I wanted the <em>experience</em> of an authentic Irish breakfast.  Whatever the heck that entails.

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Good thing I called the pub the night before because their flier was incorrect.  Start time 8 a.m.  I guess a lot of people must take off work for St. Patty's Day.

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Plan B:  authentic Irish dinner at a<strong><a href="http://www.madchefgastropub.com/" target="_blank"> nearby pub</a></strong> deemed by me as "most unlikely to attract every college kid on Spring Break getting lit on green beer".

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Problem with Plan B:  Only 2 options for dinner.  Corned beef and cabbage (can you spell u-n-p-a-l-a-t-a-b-l-e?) and shepherd's pie.

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I LOVE shepherd's pie!  Except this one contained lamb.  I have a problem eating cute animals.  (PETA, no hate mail, please.)

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David aka Captain Adventure, on the other hand, has no problem with ingesting cute animals, so he ordered an authentic Irish dinner of shepherd's pie along with a Guinness mixed with hard apple cider stuff that he thinks tastes good.

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I asked I could steal a piece of Irish soda bread from the corned beef and cabbage dish to accompany my thoroughly unauthentic grilled chicken salad mixed with greens, feta, pine nuts, and golden raisins.

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The server happily accommodated me.

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And let me tell you, that authentic Irish soda bread was homemade from scratch and DELISH!!!

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What did you partake in on St. Patty's Day this year?

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