Irish restaurants lives

At the beginning of my stay in Ireland I met Dublin restaurants, but not as a customer. I was looking for a job. I needed a job immediately. So I decided not to wait for the reply to my emails or notification from the job centre. I started to walk from one restaurant to another and ask about a job. During two weeks I visited almost all the restaurants in the city centre. At that time I came across many types of cuisine and culinary tastes of the Irish people.

What surprised me most? There was a large number of Italian restaurants and big influences of Italian cuisine on the modern Irish cuisine.

When I read about Ireland, every guide talked about Irish or English cuisine as the most popular in Ireland, but it isn’t true. In every Irish Pub, in the menu, you can always find at least one Italian dish. Sometimes in the Pub menu there are just two or three Irish meals, the rest of the dishes are Italian. This regularity is not only in Dublin but also in provincial Pubs. If you want to eat a typical Irish meal in the Pub, you will order this dish which doesn’t seem too much Italian or you will order classic fish and chips.

 

There are many Italian restaurants in Dublin. Three years ago there was about one hundred. There are good places to try good cuisine and you can also find good Italian wine and coffee there. I have one close to my home. In addition, there is amazing espresso in Dublin. 

  

The second European cuisine very popular in Ireland is the Spanish one. The Irish love Spain and everything what is from Spain. They spend holidays in Spain, learn the Spanish language, like to enjoy with the Spaniards. Spanish restaurants are always full in the evening. I'm not surprised at this because Spanish restaurants employ the greatest Spanish chefs. 

 

 

Asian restaurants are the third most popular type of restaurants in Dublin. There are typical national restaurants. Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian restaurants are very popular but you can also find very exotic restaurants. Asian restaurants are often at a very high level and are open even in small towns.

The best Vietnamese restaurant I have ever been to is in a small village Ashford, outside Dublin.

The Irish love the spicy taste of Asian cuisine. Now during the crisis many restaurants are liquidated but they are still opening new Asian buffets and have lots of customers.

 

If you want to find a Polish restaurant in Dublin, you can visit just two bars in the city centre but very simple and very expensive dishes are served there.

Dublin Bay chowder with scampi

In every good restaurant in Dublin you can find scampi or Dublin Bay Prawns in the menu. It is the same shellfish. Scampi look like a prawn but it is not. It is a slim, orange-pink lobster which grows up to 25 cm long, and is the most important commercial crustacean in Europe.

I tried scampi during my first dinner in a restaurant in Dublin. It was my second day in Ireland and we celebrated my arrival.

I ordered the strangest dish in the menu as a starter. It was Dublin bay chowder with scampi. I was very much surprised when in my soup I saw familiar to me ingredients and I asked the waiter which one were scampi. He pointed at pink prawns. At that time I thought that scampi is the Irish name for prawns. I'd probably be in this belief if I hadn't attended the Dublin Bay Prawn Festival. A lady explained to us that scampi are a type of lobster, and she was proud of Dublin cuisine. Scampi are served in hundreds of sophisticated ways but my favourite is Dublin bay chowder with scampi. 

Dublin Bay Chowder

For two

2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp each minced green onion, celery, fennel
1 tsp tomato puree
200 ml clam juice (or mild fish stock)
100 ml milk
½ cup medium shrimp (peeled, deveined, tail removed)
½ cup bay scallops
1 tsp each fresh chopped parsley, dill
pinch cayenne pepper
salt & white pepper to taste
1 Tbsp heavy cream


In a heavy saucepan melt butter. Add green onion, celery, fennel. Sweat until translucent. Add flour. Cook 4-5 minutes (do not allow to darken.) Add tomato puree.
Add clam juice. Bring to boil. Lower heat to simmer. Add seafood. Cook 1 minute.
Season with white pepper, cayenne and salt.
Add fresh herbs and heavy cream. Simmer 1 more minute.

Serve in warm soup plates with crusty, warm bread.

 

Whisky Chocolate Cake

The second popular alcoholic drink in Ireland is whisky. There are three main distillers of whisky in Ireland: Dublin's Powers, Cork's and Bushmills from County Antrim. There are also varieties of whisky: Paddy, Redbreast, Green Spot and Tullamore Dew. Those are not so well known except for Ireland.

I don't like whisky but I know some people who love this beverage and who know much about it. I saw a big collection of whisky from many Irish and British distilleries. The owner of this collection offered us one of the oldest vintages of Tyrconnell whisky. He also showed me how to taste whisky and told me about the flavour content in that glass. Tyrconnell has an oily and wooden flavour and excellent light whiskey called Millar's, named after an old Dublin tipple,, is produced from it.

After that meeting I know a little more about whisky but I don't like it too much. I drink whiskey only when I am offered this beverage. However, I have found many recipes with whisky. My favourite dish with this expensive drink is Whisky Chocolate Cake. You will see the recipe below.

½ kg dark chocolate

½ kg biscuits

2 eggs

100 gram of butter

6 tbsp. of castor sugar

8 tbsp of whisky

3 tbsp of double cream

100 gram of whole hazelnuts

200 gram of crushed hazelnuts

100 gram of glace cherries

Whisk the eggs and sugar together. Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan and fold in the egg mix.

Mix in the crushed hazelnuts and fold in half the whiskey. Line a greased cake baking dish with crushed biscuits. Pour the chocolate mixture into the dish. Place in refrigerator overnight. Mix remaining whisky with cream. Remove cake from refrigerator and pipe top with the cream. Decorate with whole hazelnuts and cherries and serve.

Mint sauce

In Poland mint is used only as a remedy for stomach disorders or as addition to beverages or food decoration. In Ireland I discovered many other culinary uses of this herb. I often use mint sauce to lamb but I often experiment with mint and I add it to some Polish dishes.

There are around seven types of mint, three of which are more commonly used in cooking.

These are spearmint, peppermint and pannyroyal.

Spearmint is used for medicinal purposes and to stimulate appetite. This mint is used in sauces and jellies to flavour meat.

Peppermint has a high menthol content, and is often used as tea and for flavouring ice cream, confectionery, chewing gum, and toothpaste.

Pennyroyal was commonly used by the Greeks and Romans. The ancient Greeks often flavoured their wine with pennyroyal. A large number of recipes in Roman cookbooks of Apicius call for the use of pennyroyal, often along with such herbs as lovage, oregano and coriander. Although it was still commonly used for cooking in the Middle Ages, it gradually fell out of use as a culinary herb and is seldom used so today.

In Ireland mint is generally used to prepare mint sauce. Mint sauce can be made in many ways, but the basic recipe combines the flavour of mint with vinegar and sugar. The following mint sauce is classically used to accompany lamb or mutton.

3/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves

2 tsp caster sugar

1/4 cup boiling water

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

Dissolve sugar in water. Place mint leaves with water and blend until fairly fine. Pour into serving bowl. Add vinegar. Add more sugar or vinegar to taste. Will keep about 2 or 3 weeks in refrigerator.

Oysters

I love shellfish and since I moved to Ireland this love has grown deeper. There is a wide selection of fresh shellfish the whole year. In the north of Dublin I discovered a fishing port. This port is located on the Howth peninsula.

There are many shops with really fresh fish and shellfish. I often visit this place and do the shopping.

When I lived in Poland, I tried just a few kinds of shellfish. In Ireland I have come across more sea animals. Here for the first time I tried scallops, octopus, lobster and oysters.

Oysters now are my favourite type of shellfish. I like eating it raw. My Polish friends are disgusted by my liking but it is their problem. 

 

 

I tried Irish Oysters for the first time during a trip to Galway. In Galway every year there is Oysters Festival and every restaurant and pub serves Oysters. Some restaurants prepare special menu with this shellfish as the main ingredient but Oysters are often served raw with lemon. So, for the first time I tried raw Oysters. That was a really strange experience to eat something that is still alive but I like challenges. 

 

I laughed to my friends that I went back to the times before the discovery of fire.

The Irish love Oysters and they have many sea farms with this shellfish. In September in the whole country there are many Oysters festivals. The main one is in Galway. That is great time and Oysters are the best then.

The Irish PR invented new Irish breakfast. It is a plate with raw Oysters, lemon and a glass of Guinness, but you can see this breakfast probably only on postcards.

Irish breakfast

My first meeting with truly Irish cuisine was when I started working as a breakfast chef.  I was very surprised when I saw the menu. There were ten meals to choose but only two were healthy and light. I was scared.  The head chef showed me Full Irish Breakfast. There was a plate with fat and fried food, even tomatoes were baked. I was really surprised. I know, in Poland we serve heavy breakfast but with a wide selection of vegetables and fruit. Irish breakfast is not only heavy but also unhealthy.  After the first day in that restaurant, I understood why so many Irish people are so obese.

Irish breakfast is the result of famine in Ireland. Farmers normally ate only one warm meal a day in the morning before work. Breakfast rich in fat and calories was a source of energy until the evening, when they returned home to eat an evening meal.

The traditional Irish breakfast consists of  some components which are fried in  deep fat  or baked in the oven. Traditionally the most common ingredients are

fried or grilled bacon, also referred to as "rashers" or "slices", baked beans,

black or white pudding, fried mushrooms, sausages, fried or grilled  tomatoes and hash browns. Eggs, fried, poached, or scrambled are very important ingredients of this breakfast.  Full Irish breakfast may be accompanied by  strong Irish Breakfast tea such as Barry's Tea, Lyons Tea, or Bewley's, and it is always served with milk. Fried potato bread, or toast, is often served as an alternative to brown soda bread or French toast.

This meal is very fat and high-calorie - not least because in recent times, there has been a variety of mutations, such as the vegetarian version. Juice and porridge are also not traditional for this type of breakfast. They have been served since the 1950s of the twentieth century. Due to the relatively time-consuming procedure for preparing breakfast, in recent years the fast food version has become  very popular: a roll (which looks like a small French stick) filled with the selected components of the traditional Full Irish Breakfast. This sandwich can be purchased at many bars, grocery shops and petrol stations.

In restaurants, pubs, cafés, bars or even petrol stations you can find Full Irish Breakfast. However, in travel guidebooks or on postcards from Ireland you can see pictures with other Irish Breakfast – a plate full of oysters served with a glass of Guinness. So, I have looked for this type of breakfast in restaurants and pubs but I have never found it. The Irish have a great sense of humor and a good knowledge of marketing strategy.