What’s on the Menu? Eating in Ireland

By JONATHAN BEAUMONT
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“I want to eat something genuinely authentic when I’m in Ireland, not just ordinary stuff.” 

“What’s the food like there?”

“Can I get my favourite brand of chips?”

“Do they have sodas?”

“What’s the quality of the food like?”

“I hear their food isn’t like ours—is that true?”

“I’ve heard Ireland doesn’t have much variety in food—is that correct?”

“Where’s the best place to go out for breakfast?”

“Are there Starbucks and Burger King in Ireland?”

“I am interested in cookery courses in Ireland. What should I do?”

Yes, no, sometimes, definitely, definitely not, and it depends!

Ireland is actually a foodie’s paradise—speaking from experience, this writer is on a “seefood” diet; I see food. Yum! If we didn’t have a good range, I’d probably have emigrated years ago.

Let me explain. 

The above are but a few of the questions I am regularly asked when planning tours with folks from abroad. That’s understandable. They say travel broadens the mind, and in advance of travel, the more research done, the better prepared the mind is to be broadened. Food is but a part of it, but a very enjoyable one at that.

First, in common with Europe in general, the standards regarding additives and ingredients are the highest in the world, which means that even the cheapest quality food is still better (or perhaps, less bad) than its equivalents elsewhere. In particular, the United States has far less stringent regulations on everything from growth hormones in cattle (not allowed in Europe) to genetic modification, artificial colour in confectionery, artificial preservatives, to the types of weed killer or fertiliser that may be allowed to come into contact with crops for the food chain. Many practices relating to milk production, from raising the cattle to cheesemaking, additives to milk, and the raising of poultry are banned outright here.

The result is fresher, more organic food. 

So what’s to be had? Are you hungry yet?

First, let’s look at the first question above—what REALLY is fully traditional? Truly Irish? It’s not corned beef and cabbage, that’s for sure. That’s an American-New York thing, practically unknown here. 

You will find no restaurant here that prepares meals historically accurate to what your emigrant-ancestors ate before they left here in the 19^th century for Canada, New Zealand, the USA, or Australia. That is because we were a very poor country. Unless you were one of the rich in our major cities, who could import such exotic things as pineapples (once seen as a symbol of status), your diet here was extremely limited indeed.

The rural poor (with a lifespan rarely beyond their forties) had almost a staple diet of potatoes going back to the 1600s. An aside here—potatoes are not “native Irish” at all—they originated in South America, and were brought to Europe in the middle ages by explorers. The British explorer Sir Walter Raleigh owned some land near the Co. Cork town of Youghal, where he planted a crop of them experimentally in the 1580s—and they grew well. The rest of the potato story, of course, is history—eventually to be tragic history, too.  But for the purposes of this article, we’ll allow them as Irish!

The ancient Celts, of course, if we want to go back that far, wouldn’t have had any idea what a potato was. Bread was their staple. So, we’re getting back to our traditional foods here.

Let us for a moment consider the surroundings of the rural Irish (90 percent of us prior to the 1850s), the climate, and what would or would not grow. Forget about anything that needs a lot of sun to ripen. Thus, no citrus fruits, no grapes, no fields of huge golden corn on their cobs. What we had were cereal crops like wheat, oats, and barley. Root vegetables grew well, provided you had decent enough drained soil (and it is a wet country). Turnips, carrots, and parsnips grow well here, as do cabbage, leeks, and onions. Fruit was rare—things like oranges couldn’t, can’t, and wouldn’t grow here. But we did have apples. So in season only (late summer), stewed apple and apple pie with pastry.

Eggs were a valuable source of protein. So were our native wild pigs before we hunted them to extinction about 1,200 years ago. At an early stage, we domesticated goats, sheep, and cattle. These provided milk and wool as well as meat. We also domesticated chickens, and we always kept ducks, mostly for eggs. In the past, we tended not to eat chickens so much as in their natural state they are pretty scrawny, not like the fattened ones we raise today. Ducks, though, were roasted and eaten.

Cooking facilities were primitive too, and spices and various natural marinades and flavourings were absent due to lack of appropriate ingredients. 

So the two main types of food preparation were baking on a griddle over an open turf fire, or throw everything in a pot of water and boil it to a mush—this is what Irish stew is! Yes, I was brought up on it too, and as the autumn nights draw in, there is nothing more satisfying after a darkening afternoon playing with a grandson in a freezing gale on a nearby beach …

Now, this is why there is no restaurant that offers a truly authentic Irish menu. Imagine it:

Starters: None

Mains: Irish stew (ingredients: whatever’s in the kitchen, but you’ll have to ask Margaret)

Or: Baked wholemeal brown bread with butter (optional)

Desserts: (Apples (September only) / apple pie. Cream with it, if there’s any left. Margaret?

Drinks: Water, milk, black tea, whiskey

I’m thinking they wouldn’t be in business too long.

What about frying, sautéing, and spices, herbs, flavourings? Salt if you want, and usually parsley. Sometimes garlic. That’s about it. They tended not to use frying pans so much. If so, eggs and bacon or chopped potatoes (or course!).

So, as we became more affluent, we started importing foodstuffs from elsewhere. Nowadays, you’ll get pizzas all over the country which you’d go far to equal. We love Asian food, from Thai to Chinese to Indian to Pakistani—you will get world-class restaurants. Vegetarian or vegan? I do not know, personally, of a single restaurant anywhere here that doesn’t have really good veggie options. Twenty years ago, it would have been a lettuce sandwich but not now. You like Lebanese food? Italian? French? Sure, no problems.

But there’s more, actually. As we emigrated in large numbers to different countries from the 1840s onward, we encountered all sorts of cuisines in fascinating varieties in the melting pots of the world. There cannot be an ethnic food on the planet that cannot be had in Britain, North America, or Australia. So our emigrants came home with new recipes, new ideas. We were introduced to what our uncle in Wisconsin ate, our aunt in London, our nephew in Melbourne, and our travelling cousin based in Canada, who spent so much time in South America. Barbeques, spicy flavourings, the lot, all came here.

And after a lifetime of tea, bread, and plain custard, boy, did we embrace it!

So what is a typical menu in a restaurant or pub? They will typically have at least one or two poultry, red meat, fish, and vegetarian dishes. Pizza is very common. Most fish in restaurants is salmon (both farmed and wild), Atlantic cod, hake, monkfish, sometimes mackerel. If you order “fish and chips,” it’s most likely cod.

Steaks tend to be mostly fillet (tender, but most expensive), sirloin, or T-bone. The quality is extremely high; the cattle are not allowed to have anything injected into them—they are naturally fattened to give a perfect texture, and no funny stuff may be sprayed on the fields they graze in. You’re not allowed to raise them in battery-box-type housing—they have to be out there eating grass. Grass + rain + fresh air + cow = perfect steak. Want something stuffed with hormones and steroids? Wrong continent!

Poultry is the same. They have to be raised in healthier surroundings and fed properly—not the contents of the nearest litter bin. So, if you like duck in particular, you’ll tend to find it leaner and very flavourful. My American friends, in particular, tell me that the chicken they have here is very different (in a good way, according to them) to what they have at home. 

It’s the same with desserts. We have variety—sticky toffee pudding (don’t get me started on how GOOD that is), pavlovas, and the like—but, of course, the staple remains the traditional apple pie and cream. People often comment that we seem to use less sugar. This is true. For example, we do not put sugar in bread or milk. To do so, it would have to be marketed and described as something else. Bread with any sugar added is cake!

So, you don’t want a whole meal, just a snack. Stop off at a petrol station by the road. The sandwich you’ll buy, cereal bar, or chocolate, must by law comply with the same stringent food regulations, so even these are of a high quality. Many such roadside places have delicatessen counters with good -quality food “to go.”

“Ah!” I hear you say, “NOW I’m seeing something we have at home!  I’ll have a KitKat and a can of 7-Up, and maybe we’ll nip over to McDonald’s across the road?” (Or Coors Light or Bud in the bar at night).

Well, even these must be manufactured, either here or elsewhere in Europe, where standards are as ours. The lot. If they taste the same as in Wyoming or New Brunswick or Manchester, that is by accident rather than design—see what I mean? That type of snack will never truly be called “health food.” And no matter where you get them, they will contain all sorts of artificial colourings, preservatives, and ingredients. But less of them here, or different ones.

I mentioned McDonalds and Burger King in the above. Do we have them? Yes. Not when I was a child, but they’re everywhere now. 

But again, there are differences. As before, the ingredients and processing rules are not the same as elsewhere. But apart from that, much the same as worldwide. One thing that I am aware of though, is that especially with folks from the USA, many people tend to prefer meat cooked very much more rare than we do. In a restaurant, with a steak, that’s fine—but with burgers themselves, either in a restaurant or a fast food place, they will only serve them well done, brown in the middle. It is illegal to “half-cook” a burger due to food hygiene regulations. So if you like your meat red in the middle, be aware.

Starbucks? Sure. But a word about “coffee culture.” In Ireland, traditionally, apart from the famous Bewleys in Dublin, we did not have a “coffee culture.” When I was growing up, the nearest coffee shop to me was probably in France. As our economy expanded in the 1980s, driven by technology company growth, we had many people arrive here to work in that line of business. Many came from the USA, India, and Malaysia—who all drink coffee.

So along came Starbucks. Not to be outdone, the British coffee shop chain, Costa Coffee, moved in. Certainly not to be outdone, we now have our own (Irish-owned) coffee shop chain, appropriately called “Insomnia.” So, when you’re here in Ireland, please support the local industry and buy Insomnia.

Alien as “coffee shops” were to us, we have taken to them like a duck to water. Many Irish people, me included, now spend more time in them than in pubs. (Yes, I was in my local one today) …

What we DID have, instead, were cafes. That would mean tea and sandwiches. Our per-capita tea consumption has always been high—at times, the highest in the world. I believe my late grandmother spent most of her 85 years either sleeping, drinking tea, or filling the kettle … Tea shops tended to open mid-morning and close mid-afternoon. Not early morning. Not late night. You’d get the occasional exception maybe in a big city, but as you’ll see now, we have no culture of “going out for breakfast.” We have that at home, then go out. Or, if you’re not a “morning person,” it tends to be more “out of bed and onto the bus to work.”

As a result, many folks from countries where the day starts a lot earlier than it does here, the USA being a good example, tourists will go out looking for “breakfast” at 6 or 7 in the morning. Ain’t gonna happen; if there is a coffee shop nearby, it might open at 09:30 (as all four in my town do). Not 6, not 7, not 8. Dublin is different, as are several other very major centres, but that’s the general rule. Prepare accordingly—breakfasts in your hotel are generally 07:30 onward.

Now—what have I not covered? Cookery courses!

Talk about keeping the best to the last …

With high-quality food, high-quality ingredients, and a national interest in all sorts of cuisines, it stands to reason that we punch well above our weight in famous chefs, high-end restaurants, and cookery schools. Look at the awards around the door or foyer in many restaurants and you will see they are coming down with awards. Awards from The Irish Restaurant Awards, Lucinda O’Sullivan, and enough Michelin stars to paper the walls with.

You can come here and actually base a holiday around cookery courses and schools. (Like to do that? Give us a shout here at Irish by Ancestry!) To give an idea—and there are so many of these that I’d be into Chapter 17 before describing them all—you can visit small local places where homemade food is what they do, or take part in courses aimed at everything from the novice beginner to the experienced. I knew one very high-end New York chef who came here to attend a course for people of his high skill level. He left very satisfied.

Check out, for example, the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co. Cork, presided over by several of Ireland’s most famous TV chefs, Rachel and Darina Allen, and others. They get guest chefs in too, from all round the world. They have been on the go some forty years now. They do everything from an afternoon showing you how to bake scones, to a 12-week high class organic food course, covering every form of food preparation from cakes to five course dinners. They have a large organic farm there too.

Near Dublin, Howth Castle hosts an excellent, yet much lesser known, range of courses. Among other things they specialise in Creole styles, despite this not being at all common in Ireland, either in restaurants or home dining. You learn in the original castle kitchens, in a building that dates back to the Norman invasion in 1177. The original family there owned the place until only a few years ago—it is they who established the school.

Ballyknockan Cookery School is in rural Co. Wicklow, just south of Dublin. It is based in an old traditional farmhouse, and specialises in baking using fresh ingredients. If you taste bread made there, you won’t be in Wicklow anymore; you’ll have died and gone to heaven!

One of the best, in my opinion, is Dunbrody Cookery School in Co. Wexford, presided over by the excellent chef Kevin Dundon. You can stay there too, again in a beautiful old 19^th century large farmhouse, and your cookery or baking course is in the original premises where you’re staying!

Across the island, north and west as well as the few examples above, there are numerous places where you can take courses and stay either nearby or on the premises.

But, I hear you say, you’d rather just taste the proceeds? Check out the Irish restaurants listed in the Michelin Guide, the Irish Restaurant Awards, Georgina Campbell awards, Food Awards Ireland, and the like.

Better still, just ask in any local area. You’ll probably see a place with a queue outside it on a Saturday evening. Ask in your hotel (many of whom are very top class themselves), your bed and breakfast, or google eateries in the town you’re staying in. You will not be disappointed.

Bon appetit!

Jonathan Beaumont is Irish by Ancestry’s destination expert, historian, and tour guide. He has published seven books on Irish social and economic history, and transport history, with three more in preparation. In the tourism industry, he has been leading tours for some twenty years. He collaborates with television producers where historical context is needed in preparation for TV programmes, and is heavily involved in several groups that assist tourists coming to Ireland, in particular those tracing their Irish roots. Naturally, he still finds time for the occasional pint of Guinness, and playtime with his grandson.