Blaa, blaa, blaa?

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alpha

The 'Blaa' (a popular and traditional breakfast-time bread found only in Waterford) is said to owe its origins to the 17th century immigrants who introduced this type of bread into the city. The French called it pain blanc which was corrupted by the locals into 'Blaa'.

But Diarmaid Oâ€™Muirithe disputes the name origin and that it is uniquely from Waterford:

'A kind of bread, something like a bap, but lighter. It is circular-shaped. Waterford people say the stuff is uniquely theirs, but that is not true; it was also baked in counties Kilkenny and Wexford in my youth. The Waterford story that blahs /blaas were introduced by the Huguenots who fled religious persecution in France in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and originally called blaads, may or may not be true. I think the word is from the Irish bleathach, a small, flat flour cake.'

The only other foods, that I know, associated with a region in Ireland, is Dublin Coddle, Dublin Bay prawns, and Galway oysters.

oif1983

The Origin of the Blaa
A Waterford pilgrim (whose name has been lost through time) was travelling through the holy land circa 33AD after many adventures and misadventures it just so happened he ended up in Jerusalem on the night before our Lord was crucified. Tired and hungry from all his travels he came upon an Inn where a small feast was taking place being a stranger and with scarcely a few shekels to his name he decided to gate crash the party and hid behind a curtain while the bread was being divided, craftily he slid one hand out from his hiding place and and grabbed a piece of bread. Peter one of the guests (he wasn't a saint yet) saw him and grabbed his hand and with an almighty roar declared "THAT'S BLASPHEMY" to which the DÃ©ise boy responded "go way out of it boy that "BLAAS FER ME" and ran from the room with the sacred bread wrapped up in his blue and white shirt on returning to his native deise he did his best to reproduce that bread and the closest thing he got to was todays famous Waterford BLAA and thats the truth!!!