Ireland Cusine

Lucas and I have been a little preoccupied updating our other blog with our Ireland pictures and stories, so this blog got put on the back burner for a little bit. Now that we are on the last Ireland post there, I thought I would post some of the Irish food we tried while visiting. Our biggest meal of the day, everyday, was breakfast. Each of the Bed and Breakfasts gave us a choice of a full Irish breakfast or a continental breakfast. We went with the full Irish spread everyday and thus saved ourselves from having to stop for lunch because the breakfast kept us full until (at least) dinner.

Each morning, the table was set with fine china, delicious raisin scones, fresh orange juice, and tea or coffee. And this was before we placed our order (note: all breakfast costs were included in the Bed and Breakfast room rate. Really, staying at Bed and Breakfast vs. a hotel is the way to go in Ireland)! While we sipped our tea and orange juice, our full Irish meal was being prepared just steps away in the home kitchen.


A typical full Irish breakfast contained poached eggs, sausage, bacon/ham, tomato, black and white pudding, and some form of potato. On the side, bread and toast were served, plus cereals, yogurts, and plenty of Irish Kerry Gold butter (which you can buy here in the states--and it is good!). Fresh fruit was also a common start to the meal as the hot portion was cooking.



At Petra House, we could order variations on the full breakfast, such as the combination of scrambled eggs, potato waffles, and tomato below:


One of my favorite parts of the meal was the Irish soda (brown) bread. At Petra House, we could smell Joan baking it at night and it was always so good with the Irish butter. I plan to try and make some Irish soda bread of my own sometime soon, and will post the results here. Joan's recipe is actually published on the web, so I think I'll give that a try first--that way I can see if it tastes the way it is supposed to!

Since breakfast was always so filling, our next meal of the day wasn't until dinner. For dinner, we had a mixed bag of cultural tastes--from Indian to hamburgers to Irish traditional fare. It seemed to us that the main places you could get the traditional Irish dinners were aimed directly at tourists. While we did eat at one of those places once (because we were in Ireland and were determined to have and Irish dinner, darn it!), the other nights we ate at places recommend by others or that happened to catch our eye. The first night in Ireland, in fact, we ate at a little Indian restaurant called Agni, in Swords (near Dublin). It was excellent. I had the aloo tikka for an appetizer and when they brought it out I had to take a picture because I was not used to having a dish that fancy brought to my table! Aloo means potatoes, and these were seasoned and fried, then served with a mustard and oil sauce. They were quite tasty. I've looked up recipes to try myself, but the process seems a bit daunting. We'll see if I can motivate myself to try them this summer...


As for the traditional Irish meal, Lucas selected Irish stew and I had Shepherd's Pie. As I mentioned, they were from a bit of a tourist trap restaurant, so while we were feeling authentic, the quality itself wasn't the best...

Irish Stew

Shepherd's Pie

Overall, we enjoyed the food. By far, breakfast was our favorite meal, but even if the food hadn't been so good, the atmosphere and genial owner's at the B&B's would have made up for it. Now that we're back, I need to start cooking again...