Culinary Ireland 2006

Slainte! I couldn’t resist the urge to recreate the “got milk?” campaign whilst having a pint of stout with my hearty Dublin coddle and Irish soda bread. Coddle is a traditional dish filled with pork, potatoes and onions, and a well-made soda bread is wholesome but surprisingly light.

Sheep often provide a combination speed zone (traffic calming, they call it in Ireland) and welcoming committee as you make your way through the rocky twists and turns whilst exploring Ireland’s rugged western reaches. When they’re not busy calming the traffic, these sheep provide milk for some spectacular farmhouse cheeses and butter. And, yes, that IS a road!

Seafood at the Galway Market is as fresh as it comes. Periwinkles, cockles, mussels, welks, turbot, plaice, rock salmon, haddock and monk fish are just a few of local catches.

The English Market in Cork City is testament to the Irish passion for fresh, locally produced meat, seafood, poultry, milk products, fruit and vegetables. It’s a great place to begin building a fine meal. The original market on this site dates back to 1610, and the name refers to a time when the Irish were forbidden to enter the city, and English settlers loyal to the crown were the only ones allowed to shop here.

In Cork they butter the eggs while they’re still in the shell! This practice of polishing freshly-laid eggs with butter creates an egg with a creamy texture and lightly buttered flavor.

Ireland’s fertile lands provide prime grazing for cattle and sheep, as well as a rich medium for growing a variety of fruits and vegetables. Her waters—rivers and lakes as well as the surrounding seas—contain an abundance of fish.

This trough, well and hearth are all that remains of a 2,000-year-old kitchen in County Cork’s Drombeg Stone Circle. Stones were heated in the hearth and rolled into the water-filled trough. When the water came to a boil, joints of meat, most likely venison, were placed in the water, where they cooked in about three hours.

In the final stage of production, Ireland’s famous Cashel Blue cheese is wrapped in the familiar gold foil and sealed with the label identifying it as an authentic Irish farmhouse cheese.

These waters on Ireland’s western coastline teem with some of the world’s most varied and fresh seafood. What you might not expect is the array of seaweeds that are also harvested in this area. Varieties include carrageen, dulse and sloke, which are used in both savory and sweet dishes. Over the centuries the Irish have used seaweed for both food and medicinal purposes.

Parnell Square, with its exquisite Garden of Remembrance, is flanked by the impressive Dublin Writers Museum (to the left of the church). The museum is housed in an 18th century Georgian townhouse formerly owned by the Jameson family, of Irish whiskey fame. The stone basement of the museum is the location of Chapter One, one of Dublin’s finest restaurants and a must-eat-here! stop on my trips.

© 2008, The Hungry Passport