Intermezzo #1: Irish food

Ice cream from Murphy's in Dingle.  Foreground: Honeycomb caramel and Guinness. Background: brown bread and chunky peanut butter.

I think it’s time to come up for air on the (somewhat) daily postings, because there are some topics I’d love to talk about outside of the daily travel blogging.

First and foremost: don’t let anyone try to tell you that good Irish food doesn’t exist, that it’s simply a spinoff of English food, or, worse yet, that it’s all deep fried.  This couldn’t be farther from the truth. 




All you need to do is seek out the restaurant reviews, ask someone on the street, or even just look around and see which eateries are full of locals.  When you do, you’ll find a wealth of fresh seafood, delicious soups and soda breads, enticing fusion cuisine, fabulous pizza, beautiful cuts of meat, and, yes, even top notch fish and chips (it has its rightful place on this list, but it is far from the only food option.)  If you can’t or won’t eat fried food, I can assure you that you’ll still be a very far cry from going hungry in Ireland.


The sheer number of sheep and cows happily grazing alongside the roads here should tell you all you need to know about the quality of the meat here.  Hint: they’re free range and grass fed by default. 

Menus proudly proclaim serving 100% Irish beef, and many restaurants will list their suppliers for produce, meat, seafood, dairy, and so on.  There is a deep pride here in self-sustenance and supporting local agriculture.  Why not, when there are so many incredibly fabulous options from which to choose?

I didn’t have too many expectations, though I’d seen and read that I was in for some great seafood at the very least.  We made only two reservations in advance, both at seafood restaurants (Out of the Blue in Dingle, and Fishy Fishy Cafe in Kinsale.)  Bearing this in mind, Irish food has really impressed me.

Some examples of dishes we’ve had:

• Scallops with sauce béarnaise and horseradish red cabbage salad
• Seared pork belly with roasted apples, carrots, and parsnips
• Warm salad of butternut squash, bacon, and arugula, sprinkled with toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds and tossed in a light buttermilk dressing
• Black pudding with wild mushrooms and baby beets
• Monkfish medallions in a black peppercorn sauce and with a sweet baby beet slaw
• Sautéed crab claws in garlic butter sauce
• Guinness and beef stew
• Guinness and brown bread ice cream (!!)

Some of the food highlights:

• Delicious breads: There are so many different kinds of brown soda bread alone!  Practically every café, pub, and restaurant serves brown bread, and, with the exception of two places we ate, all made it in-house.
  
  

  

  Carrot cumin soup and brown bread at Pay As You Please in Killarney.

  The variety of flavors and textures is vast, ranging from paler, softer, and sweeter varieties containing more white flour, to darker, heartier, and denser versions with higher whole wheat content. 
  
  Some incorporated molasses or honey, and others were embedded with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. All were delicious, whether buttered, dunked into a soup or stew, even plain.  Many cafés and B&Bs make their own scones and white bread – also fantastic.

• Hearty (and, yes, healthy) soups and stews: There are a broad variety of vegetable soups.  (And most of the time if you ask what the "soup of the day" is, the answer is “veg”.) Carrot and parsnip, pea and mint, or even just the mystery vegetable soup comprised of whatever miscellaneous bits are left over. 
  
  The soups we encountered were typically broth- (rather than cream) based.  Interestingly enough, vegetable soup is also typically pureed.  Likely this is because it’s more conducive to the success of the whole “let’s take whatever odds and ends of vegetables we’ve got turn them into a soup” bit.
  
  On the “pub grub” menus you’ll often spot Guinness and beef or lamb stew.  Thick and rich meals unto themselves, they’re chock full of potato, carrot, and generous hunks of meat.
  
  And, of course, seafood chowder: varying from being entirely broth-based, to a mixture of broth and cream, to full-on cream and butter (straying into less healthy, but certainly tasty, territory here). 
  
  
  

  

  Seafood chowder at An Canteen in Dingle

  
  These are not like the clam chowders back home; look for smoked salmon, cod, haddock, hake, mussels, clams, monkfish, and more – all in one bowl, served up with soft brown bread and butter, spiced perfectly with tarragon, coriander, and occasionally mint or oregano.  It’s absolutely distinctive – there’s no confusing this with “New England” style.
  
  
• Stewed and cooked fruits: Prunes in lemon tea, rhubarb chutney, pear with cloves and ginger, cinnamon peaches, and so on.  Often paired with a spoonful of creamy yogurt or a splash of milk.  I never thought to combine warm rhubarb and yogurt, but I definitely plan to make this when I get home, particularly as we get into autumn weather.
  
  
• Warm salads: It makes sense that someplace with a cool and rainy climate would emphasize comfort food like baked goods, soups, and stews.  But what about a warm salad? 
  
  

  

  Foreground: Warm salad with butternut squash, bacon, greens, and parmesan at An Canteen in Dingle. Background: Seafood chowder.

  
  We’ve seen a lot of these here, and love them so much that we’ll be taking the idea home with us.  These often pair bacon or pork belly with greens, nuts, seeds, squash, and/or wild mushrooms.
  
  
• Nuts, seeds, grains, and cereals: I was surprised by the popularity of muesli.  Many of the B&Bs we’ve been to here have their own homemade versions.  Supermarkets actually have more than one kind, and it isn’t even in the health food aisle!
  
  Muesli is one of my favorite breakfast cereals – typically a mixture of whole raw oats, nuts (almonds, walnuts, and/or pecans), seeds (often sunflower), and dried fruit such as raisins and figs.  I always assumed muesli was a “health food” since it’s usually found at natural markets in the US (and many people haven’t heard of it).  I love it unsweetened and with a bit of milk.
  
  Also at the B&Bs and grocery stores: nut/seed mixes with sunflower, pumpkin, poppy, flax, and linseed.  These are meant to be eaten alone or sprinkled on cereal.  Again, something which would be more likely found in a “health food” aisle, not part of a normal breakfast lineup in the US.
  
  

  

  Creamed oatmeal at Roadford House in Doolin

  Finally, oatmeal, both thick cut and the smoother "creamed" kind.  Lots and lots of tasty, warm cereal goodness.  Here it’s even okay to have it with a little shot of Bailey’s.  ‘Nuff said.
  
  
• Potatoes: Perhaps the obligatory Irish vegatable, we were nonetheless surprised the first time we went out to eat and a beautiful dish of mashed golden potatoes was brought with our meal. 
  
  Since then, fried, mashed, and/or oven-roasted potatoes were the omnipresent complimentary side dish which magically appeared alongside any entrée (though carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, parsnips, and turnips all made their own appearances from time to time.)
  
  
• Seafood: Yes, we expected this.  But there are a few differences to wrap your head around when it comes to how available and affordable fresh, delicious seafood is here.
  
  

  

  Smoked salmon and eggs at Pax House in Dingle

  
  Even in Seattle, a place known for its top notch seafood, you would most likely only order fish in certain restaurants.  I doubt you’d go out to the bar around the corner to get crab claws, lobster, or oysters on the half shell.  If you saw any of these items on the menu of the dive bar or pub down the street, you’d probably steer clear and just get the nachos or hot wings.
  
  In Seattle (and maybe just even in the US in general?), seafood is typically something you get at a seafood restaurant (or steakhouse, or, at the very least, an above average restaurant so that you don’t get sick.  Otherwise, you make it yourself.
  
  Things are a little different in Ireland.  I had incredible crab at a pub in a small fishing village.  Their oysters weren’t half bad, either.  Salmon, hake, tuna, trout, shrimp, mussels, and more – all possible items on a pub menu.  If you’re on the coast, it’s fresh – as in “just caught that day”.  The fisherman who caught that fish might just be sitting next to you.  They know how to prepare it to let the beauty of the flavors shine through, and the quality is superb.
  
  

  

  Salmon at Roadford House in Doolin

  
  Then there’s portion size.  In the US, fish portion sizes are fairly small for the high prices associated with seafood.  Here you may spend 24 euros on a fish entrée at a restaurant, but you will get a lot of fish for that money.
  
  We were very surprised to be able to get half a lobster here for 14 euros.  You could spend more on a burger here in some restaurants.  When I got a plate of steamed mussels there were probably about 50 on the platter.  We paid about 10 euros, and not a single one was unopened.  They were also some of the best steamed mussels I’ve ever had, served simply with a basil-infused broth.
  
  So, seafood is plentiful, fresh, and relatively affordable.  You don’t have to go to a fancy restaurant to get it.  You can walk 5 minutes to the nearest pub and not be doing too poorly at all.
  
  
• Beer: Yes, there’s some good stout here.  But how about some microbrewery craft beers and ciders?  Absolutely!  Stonewell Medium Dry cider stood out as being phenomenal, and I also enjoyed a great traditionally brewed ginger beer.

So far, here are some of our favorite places to eat:

Dublin

- Cornucopia (Vegetarian/Vegan/Gluten-free)

Galway
- Kai Café (Irish)
- Ard Bia at Nimmo’s (Irish)

Doolin
- O’Connors (Pub grub) – Amazing crab claws in a garlic butter sauce.  Also noteworthy: Guinness beef stew.
- Roadford House (Irish)

Dingle
- Out of the Blue (Seafood) –Top pick for seafood in Ireland.
- An Canteen (Irish) – Affordable and delicious.
- Murphy's (Ice cream) - Flavors include honeycomb caramel, brown bread, sea salt, crunchy peanut, Valrhona chocolate, and Guinness, just to name a few.  No extra charge for a cone.  I highly recommend pairing the Guinness and caramel.  This place was so good that we went three days in a row, and I'm not normally huge on ice cream.

Killarney

Amazing pizza from Pay As You Please

- Pay As You Please (Pizza) – As the name implies, there are no set prices: you pay what you think your meal was worth.  Some of the very best pizza we’ve ever had – on par with Seattle's own Veraci pizza.
- Murphy's (Ice cream)

Clonakilty:
- R Café (Mauritian-influenced Irish)

Kinsale
- Fishy Fishy Café (Seafood) – Some of the best oysters and mussels I’ve ever had.  Tied with Out of the Blue, and better than Jim Edwards.

Kilkenny

- Kyteler's Inn (Pub grub)  – Very good Irish stew, but the desserts are just okay.  Above average pub food and a great atmosphere make this a win for me.

So, what do you think – is that at all like what you expected to hear about Irish food?  I can guarantee you that if you’re traveling here, you’re in for a treat.  Be sure to budget some extra money for a nice meal or two; I daresay you won’t be disappointed.

(Edited to add: I now realize I've left out a few things, including the most important meal of the day (breakfast), and tea! I'll either come back to this post later, or - uh oh - there might need to be a second food post after all.)