Irish Food - It is a whole new story

If you are going to be walking, you must have fuel.

When I first traveled in Ireland I lost 15 or 20 lbs. OK. I walked a lot. I was on a tight budget. I saved part of breakfast to eat at lunch. But the food in Ireland seemed to enjoy a well-earned reputation for being bland and boring.

Not anymore.

BREAKFAST:

Irish breakfasts were (and still are) ridiculously heavy, but delicious. Here is a quick list of a "traditional Irish breakfast":

2 eggs (usually fried)
2 rashers of bacon (more like our ham)
2 sausages (unlike any breakfast sausage you have ever tasted)
1 slice white pudding (oatmeal and pork stuff) grilled
1 slice black pudding (blood sausage - like white pudding, but with blood too) grilled
grilled tomato
2 slices white toast
Irish soda bread (HEAVENLY)
Butter
juice
tea
corn flakes or oatmeal (porridge)

It is easy to see how a traveler could eat all the sausage and such, then butter the bread and save it for lunch.

Now one can get alternatives and there are additionally fruit, yogurt, cheese, and scones served at breakfast. Some places even fix eggs with smoked salmon. Really.

I hate to choose best of anything as we were so well fed and cared for, but I must say the best scones at a hotel were at the West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen. The best B&B scones we found at Ashgrove House B&B in Bunratty. Sheila carried them out to us still warm on the baking sheet! [BTW - we could have stayed with Sheila and Frank forever - lovely, lovely couple!]

Perhaps the most traditional of traditional (except for the eggs - usually fried)

Most scones were so good I was carried away before I grabbed a shot.

Sausages with a kind of souffle of scrambled eggs.

The toast racks always make me laugh - I just think they are odd. Some are even in beautiful porcelain patterns. This is really more than enough breakfast, but we did not stop!

Scones and fruit.

Eggs Benedict (DH is a fan)

My modified Irish breakfast. Have I mentioned the scones?

OTHER MEALS:

Hmmm. "Back in the day" I ate a great deal of soup (as it comes with soda bread and butter) and fish & chips. There was also potatoes, ham, and cabbage (boiled), shepherd's pie (casserole topped with potatoes), lamb chops with potatoes, really awful curry (with potatoes)...um, how about some potatoes with those potatoes?

You do still see a good deal of potatoes (yum), but there has been a huge transformation in Irish cuisine. Maybe it is me - Is the difference simply traveling with grown-ups and credit cards? In any case, we ate like kings. We still had our fair share of soup and brown bread. I don't think there is a better quick and hearty meal. But we also enjoyed other extraordinary food.

Soup with brown bread (and Irish butter)

Chicken "goujons" -a fancy way to say chicken strips, salad, and seasoned potatoes (of course).

Fish and chips and mushy peas (enough fish for two, really).

At our table some were sharing.

Grilled fish on mashed potatoes with a lemon sauce (maybe - my days are blurring)

This may have been a chicken Kiev on mashed potatoes - or some other delicious chicken dish.

THE BEST crab sandwich EVER! Part is missing as I shared with DH, the man who was afraid to order it. This was the freshest crab I ate on the trip. I would go back just to have another of these. [O'Sullivan's Bar, Crookhaven, County Galway]

Seafood platter - DF ordered this and shared the mussels with us. It was yummy.

DH ordered potato ravioli. It was like potato stuffed potato pasta. He LOVED it.

Pasta with tiger prawns. Um, yeah!

Crab claws in butter sauce. Hello!

More fish and chips

Seafood pizza at Dingle Skellig Hotel. Oh, my goodness! Prawns, salmon, crab and such.

We couldn't eat it all.

Ham and cheese "toasty" sandwich and mushroom soup.

Other pizzas were enjoyed, but nothing like the seafood one in Dingle.

Sliders with a cucumber salad.

Nachos (skip 'em) and stir-fried vegetables and prawns.

One of the last meals out - a turkey dinner on a roll...turkey, dressing, sweet relish...needed a little salt. We dined on the banks of the Suir River at the River House Cafe in Cahir.

 DRINK:

We drank a little bit of everything. I stuck with tea for breakfast while DH remained a coffee man. Then it was diet Coke for him and water for me, until time to go to the pub. He's a good fellow and stuck with diet Coke. I tried many drinks - Jameson, Powers, Murphy's Stout, Bulmers Cider and a fruity thing like a wine cooler. The thing is, a band gets paid in the pub only if people purchase drink. So, we were obligated.

I was advised that "them what know" prefer Murphy's to Guinness. I was quite happy with my Murphy's. I tried a Tom Crean and couldn't finish it...I'll have a Murphy's.

That's a huge gin and tonic in the back.

A number of folks were wine aficionados. I generally stuck with whiskey.

See how pretty that Bulmer's is? It was fairly heady as well.

DESSERT: 

The Irish love tarts and ice cream and pavlovas. We did not generally order dessert. But when we did, we were not disappointed!

Creme brulee

The first of many pavlovas

Apple rhubarb tart with whipped cream!

Last dessert served the last night in Doolin - tiny bites - pavlova, cheesecake kind of thing, rich chocolate.

 

NOTE: I will edit this as the locations come to me (or I am corrected by my fellow travelers). Clearly we ate well and had many choices. One of our fellow travelers took photos of the menus. What a brilliant idea! Still, I am not sure my mouth waters as much as with a photo of a slice of soda bread and Irish butter.

And even though I walked an average of 4 miles a day (and some days many more than that), I didn't lose an ounce.