Irish Food 101

This week we talk all about what foods to look for when you visit the Emerald Isle. We list our favorite chocolate maker, tell a few stories about things that happened in Irish pubs, and share which is our favorite breakfast fish. 

Join us for our chat about food in Ireland!

Want to know more about us and our travel services? Find us at:

www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

www.facebook.com/LittleRoadsEurope

We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

www.OrsiniVirtuosi.it

Transcript

FOOD IN IRELAND podcast notes

Note: This is not a complete transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode. 

INTRO: 

Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

Today we’re talking about Irish foods - what to look for, what to eat, and what to drink!

We’ll discuss: 

- what foods we like to bring home from Ireland

- what 

- and what’s our favorite fish for breakfast

[music up] 

This is Matt Walker… and I’m Zeneba Bowers 

We’re recording our chat here while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us - complete with church bells, cats meowing, motor scooters and whatever else 

So join us as we talk about Irish food… here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”

For those of you who don’t know us: We are professional musicians and also travel writers and consultants, living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years. 

If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and now here on this podcast.

So let’s get to chatting about food in Ireland!

Most important meal of the day: 

Irish breakfast - a few weeks ago we talked about Scottish breakfast in our Scotland for Beginners episode (check it out!), and Irish breakfast is similar - but let’s go through it:

“Full Irish” or “full fry”: Eggs, toast potato of some type; and Meat: bacon, AND sausage, AND black and white pudding (talk about Clonakilty puddings, refer to that episode), beans, tomato

- Smoked fish (salmon etc), other fish dishes (esp. at seafood restaurant/lodgings) 

Other alternatives - pancakes, oatmeal, fancier plates in certain places (like eggs benedict) 

Fruit, yogurt, oats, honey - often local products

- Our traveler itineraries specify lodgings with great breakfasts

Lunch/dinner:

Not just fish & chips

Brown bread - served with everything (including breakfast)

Cheese: ask for local cheeses (like Gubbeen in SW)

Sausages & potatoes

Talk about potatoes! Colcannon, champ, mash, chips (fries), crisps (chips)

(Even w Chinese takeout, option to have chips instead of rice)

Steaks: prized Irish beef - Beef stew (w Guinness!) (also w potatoes!)

Shepherds Pie (also potatoes!), “Chicken Supreme”

Gastro pubs serve “fancier” plates: Pork belly, chicken dishes, fancier fish dishes, burgers

Almost always some type of curry dish - remnant of Brit colonialism

Seafood of course: 

Fish: Even inland, never far from the sea: Seafood chowder! Varies by region

Lots of fish plates - 

Fish & chips obviously (we send our CLIENTS to what we’ve considered the “best” after dozens of visits all over Ireland)

Smokehouse fish - places all around coast: Union Hall, Connemara (ancient methods)

Salmon, trout, haddock, sardines, mackerel, etc  (Zen doesn’t like)

Also all around the coast in certain assorted harbor towns: Lobsters

[Story: Don’t name the lobsters… “There goes Harry” - Lobster Pot ]

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —

That reminds me that we need to stop for a word from our sponsor - - - -  just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors - instead, today’s show is brought to you by: A Good Idea. 

And today’s Good Idea is: Check your voter registration status, and go out and vote! 

- MN just had a special election - people turned out despite sub-zero temps

But most elections happen in fall, so plenty of time to check on it and make sure you're sorted.

and…That’s it!   … So anyway, where were we?

BTW, that was another of our arrangements we did for Ireland-themed episodes - it’s “Molly Malone”, but weirdly I arranged in that weird sort of… Cartoonish Khachaturian 

Molly Malone in that song is about a woman selling fresh shellfish… [which segues to …]

Shellfish in Ireland: Scallops, crab claws - … oysters - Galway Bay … Mussels - Bantry Bay

Seaweed - different uses - used as gelatin, but vegan

Vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian clients can eat well!

Desserts! Most common: Sticky toffee pudding, Banoffi pie 

DRINKS:

Irish coffee - Doolin bar story (whipped cream, heated glasses, coffee w brown sugar, whiskey, €50 note story

Beer obviously - Guinness (Murphy’s, Beamish), Smithwicks (from Kilkenny now made in Dub)

Typical bars have a couple of yellow beers on tap - Carlsberg, Heineken (but, why?) HARP

Ou can ask for a half&half, Harp & Guinness

In Northern Ireland, there’s Bass (British - DO NOT ask for a black & tan)

Craft ales - local taps vary all over country, varying in styles

Ciders: don’t have to ask for “hard” cider, it all is -  sweet to dry -

Whiskey - distilleries everywhere. Newer: Gin, distilleries doing both or specializing in gin.

As we wrap things up here, we want to get to our ASK US ANYTHING segment, where listeners…

One of you recently asked:  “WHAT DO WE BRING HOME FROM IRELAND?”

Irish Brek Tea - Bewleys, whiskey, ciders & beers

Canned fish (“tinned”)

Seaweed products

Candies (Athlone Sweets)

Honeys, jams (to US, esp unusual flavors like quince; we don’t do, now that we’re here)

Euthymol

Cheeses

OUTRO: 

I think that wraps up our chat - If you enjoyed this episode today, please give it a like or a good rating, and tell your friends about us…  Thanks for joining us to chat about eating well in Ireland!

We talk about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast - anecdotes from our travels, tips for traveling well, and slice-of-life stories - and we post a new episode each Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads… SLAINTE!