News Release |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DATE: March 9, 2018 |
CONTACT: Kathy Romanowski 7166355577 |
THE LUCK OF THE IRISH LIVES ON AT TOPS | |
Williamsville, N.Y. – As the saying goes, we’re all a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day so why not embrace the many Irish traditions associated with this holiday, from food to folly, to the fullest! From taking part in St. Patrick’s Day parades like the one in Rochester, NY on Saturday, March 17 that TOPS is proud to sponsor, to eating corned beef and cabbage and washing it down with green beer, like most holiday’s, St. Patrick’s Day is chock full of delicious food based traditions. Here are some fun facts that you may not know about the foods we feast on to help celebrate the age old holiday that dates back to 1737 when the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held in Boston, MA. Soda Bread: In the early 1800s, the Irish typically made due without a lot of the luxuries that the rest of Europe enjoyed, one of which was yeast. Irish bread makers, however, were resourceful and so they relied on baking soda as a leavening agent and combined it with flour, buttermilk, and salt to create soda bread in cast-iron pots. With additions like butter, sugar, Craisins, and seeds, today’s version is what some traditional Irish lads and lassies might call railway cake, but we call it soda bread. (Source: thedailymeal.com) Corned Beef and Cabbage: While this isn’t a traditional food you’ll find dished out in the taverns in Dublin, it is something served up in many homes across the United States on March 17. So why is it that as American’s Corned Beef and Cabbage is our “go to” meal to celebrate the holiday? According to delish.com, during the time of the Irish immigration to the U.S., first generation Irish-Americans were in search of the comforting tastes of their homeland which meant boiled bacon. As immigrants, however, they were too poor to afford the high price of pork and bacon products so instead, they turned to the cheapest cut of meat available: beef brisket. Given that New York City was a melting pot for immigrants from around the world, rather than boil the beef, the Irish adopted cooking methods such as brining (salt-curing) from other cultures such as the Eastern Europeans. Where does the corn come in, you might ask? Well the dish really has nothing to do with actual corn. This actually refers to the corn-sized salt crystals used during the brining process. The corned beef was paired with cabbage, as it was one of the cheapest vegetables available to the Irish immigrants. Green Beverages: While many will don their finest green apparel on St. Patrick’s Day, some choose to imbibe the green too! A tradition started by Americans is credited to Professor Thomas H. Cutin, a physician who made green beer in his New York clubhouse dating back to 1914. However there are some sources that note that the Spokane Press used a headline that stated “Green Beer be Jabbers” (an excited swear). According to the Spokane press the First Avenue Bar would serve the beer to patriotic Irishmen and anyone else who wanted to drink a green brew. (Source: vox.com) The tradition didn’t really catch on however until the mid-1950’s. A nice twist on a non-alcoholic green beverage is the Lucky Leprechaun Lime Drink. Simply combine 1 quart of TOPS lime sherbet, 0.5 cups softened frozen limeade concentrate, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 (12 ounces) cans of lemon-lime carbonated beverage, and 1-2 cups of ice. The Luck of the Irish: You might be surprised to learn that this familiar phrase does not have Irish roots at all. In fact, According to Edward T. O’Donnell, an Associate Professor of History at Holy Cross College and author of "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History,” the term has not an Irish origin but “a happier, if not altogether positive,” American one that derives from an old mining expression. And the luck of the Irish will be with you long beyond March 17 thanks to TOPS Monopoly® Collect and Win returning to TOPS for its 9th consecutive season! Beginning March 11 and running through June 2, 2018 (or while tickets last) TOPS is excited to bring the FULLY CHARGED TOPS Monopoly® Collect and Win game to consumers with over $42,000,00 in prizes and money-saving coupons. Thanks to many key product vendor sponsors, these savings are above and beyond the everyday great values and we’re excited to pass these offers along to customers. There is an incredible line-up of fully charged prizes that will energize your life. You can feel the surge of winning with a chance to win a $250,000 smart home, $100,000 His & Her High Performance Cars, a $50,000 Rockstar Backyard, a $35,000 Tech Toy Chest, and Florida Family Vacations or Caribbean Cruises, to name a few of the fully charged jackpot of prizes! Inside each game ticket, customers receive four game “markers” as pieces of one of the 19 opportunities within the game board. Customers collect the appropriate markers on the game board to complete the picture and win that prize. Within each ticket are also instant wins of cash up to $10,000, Tops gift cards, grocery products, and money-saving coupon offers. Continuing this year is an online version of the Tops Monopoly® Collect and Win Game. Each game ticket may also include one game marker with a special twelve digit code. Customers can visit www.TopsMarkets.com and enter their code for a chance to win prizes ranging from $1 and $2 in Tops BonusBucks to $2,500 cash. All online codes entered will also have a chance to win $5,000 in Stockpile gift cards that can be used to purchase stocks of their choice. New this year, game participants will find lucky tokens inside hundreds of thousands of game tickets! Save these tokens and every week during the TOPS Monopoly program, check the front page of the TOPS weekly ad to see if one of your lucky tokens matches that week’s featured deal. Redeem your token at checkout to unlock the extra savings! TOPS Monopoly® Collect and Win allows customers to play every time they check-out at a Tops Friendly Markets location. Customers play the Monopoly® Collect and Win game by obtaining a free game board at any Tops Markets location; upon checkout, game tickets are provided. One game ticket is given for every purchase with a BonusPlus card, with additional tickets provided based on the purchase of more than 3,000 specially marked items in the store. The sooner you open your game ticket, the sooner you can start to redeem great prizes! # # # About Tops Friendly Markets Tops Markets, LLC, is headquartered in Williamsville, NY and operates 169 full-service supermarkets with five additional by franchisees under the Tops banner. Tops employs more than 14,000 associates and is a leading full-service grocery retailer in New York, northern Pennsylvania, and Vermont. For more information about Tops Markets, visit the company's website at www.topsmarkets.com.
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