Champ (food)
Champ is an Irish dish of mashed potatoes with scallions, butter and milk.
Description
Champ is made by combining mashed potatoes with chopped spring onions, butter, milk, and, optionally, salt and pepper. It was sometimes made with stinging nettle rather than scallions. In some areas the dish is also called "poundies".Champ is similar to another Irish dish, colcannon, which uses kale or cabbage in place of scallions. Champ is popular in Ulster, whilst colcannon is more so in the other three provinces of Ireland. It was customary to make champ with the first new potatoes harvested.
The word champ has also been adopted into the popular Hiberno-English phrase to be "as thick as champ", meaning to be stupid, ill-tempered or sullen.