Mussels with stout beer and other Irish delights
Planning a city break? Ireland is a very good idea; you can eat and drink extremely well here. From Irish beef and seafood to chutneys, cheese and ice cream. Not to mention the island’s craft beers, ciders, gins and whiskeys. These are the five must tastes from Irish cuisine.
Irish combo: Oysters and stout
The unspoilt coastline around Galway is home to the world-famous Galway oyster, available only during the season from September to April. And what better to wash down this delicacy with than Irish stout? Although Guinness, a dark, dry stout, is most closely associated with Ireland, many other brilliant stouts are brewed on the island. Porterhouse Oyster Stout, for example, is a dark and aromatic favourite from Dublin, Export Stout from Boundary Brewing originated around Belfast, and Cork is home to Murphy’s.
The classic: Irish Whiskey and Irish beef
Dublin has long been known for producing the island’s most famous whiskeys (that’s right, with an extra ‘e’). Jameson is probably the best known, but at the end of the 19th century there were countless whiskey distilleries, particularly in the Liberties district. Many distilleries were forced to close because of the civil war and Prohibition. Fortunately, Irish whiskey is thriving again, with new brands on the rise such as Teelings, Pearce Lyons & Slane Irish Whiskey, to name just a few.
Irish beef, of course, should not be missing from this list. Typical Irish dishes with a long tradition use beef as their base. The popular winter dish Shepherd’s pie is a great example: leftover pieces of meat combined with vegetables and topped with a crust of mashed potatoes and a little cheese. Another classic is Irish Beef Stew. The main ingredients are simple: potatoes, vegetables and lamb or beef—but the composition varies enormously between cities and villages, and even from family to family. Rich and hearty, it is the perfect comfort food during the winter months, with or without Irish whiskey.
Sweet delicacies: Fifteens and Yellowman
Alongside its savoury cuisine, Ireland is also known for its sweets, with each region having its own speciality. ‘Fifteens’, for example, is a popular sweet treat from Northern Ireland. It is unique to Ulster and is rarely found elsewhere on the island. According to local legend, it is called this because the recipe requires fifteen of each ingredient, including biscuits, marshmallows, glacé cherries and desiccated coconut. Another example is Yellowman, or ‘yellaman’, a yellow honeycomb with a toffee-like texture made in Northern Ireland. It is made from brown sugar, golden syrup, butter, vinegar and baking soda (although some recipes vary slightly). Large pieces of yellowman are smashed with a hammer and eaten in uneven shards.
Irish mashed potato dish: Colcannon
Colcannon is another heartwarming traditional Irish dish. This creamy mixture of mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage is made with Irish winter vegetables. Colcannon is traditionally eaten around Hallowe’en, based on the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. It marks the beginning of the darker half of the year and a time when the boundary between our world and the spirit world could be crossed more easily… Oeoeoeoee exciting!
Bread tradition: Bread with ‘black butter’
Ireland knows good bread; all over the island you’ll find freshly baked soda bread, potato bread, wheaten bread and ‘barmbrack’, a sweet yeast bread studded with raisins that is also eaten during Hallowe’en. A small ring is baked into every báirín breac or ‘barmbrack’, intended to predict the future of the person who finds it in their piece. If you find it, it means you will get married within a year. In Ireland, this bread is also often eaten with black butter and an apple cider purée with spices such as cloves, cinnamon, star anise and allspice berries.
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