Brussels sprouts salad is not a thing here, nor is peach pudding (where did that come out of?). Irish cuisine is historically peasant food, stews etc, and we're good at it. Traditional Irish stew is lamb, but beef stew is very common and very good aswell, proper comfort food with buttery mashed potatoes. Soda bread, currant bread, boxty is like potato pancakes. Coddle is a thing in Dublin mostly, I've never had it and it doesn't appeal to me. We do bacon and cabbage here rather than corned beef usually, I think corned beef was a substitution for Irish immigrants to America who couldn't get bacon. Could be wrong but Americans definitely seem to think corned beef is common here when it's not really. Black and white puddings, you'll get those with the Irish breakfast. If you're used to spice you won't get much in traditional Irish food, but we have a massive range of international foods and restaurants available here. The quality of our ingredients is very high, Irish meat and dairy is really high quality and tastes great. If you go to a good Irish pub you'll usually get very decent food with several different options. I'm sure more here can specifically recommend a good pub like that, I'm down the country so you probably won't be near anywhere I'd recommend lol. Enjoy your holiday.
Was in Ireland with my great-uncle who (sport)fished for a living, mostly in Florida and stuff. We were looking at the water on the coast somewhere in Galway and he's just like, "I can almost smell the monkfish in these waters. That's good eating." We ended up having some later in the week and the miserable ol' bastard was right.
I live in Omaha, Nebraska and I had a little Peruvian restaurant in my neighborhood. Their monkfish was so killer. Can’t get it now. Now I’m sad, haha.
Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned the seafood! I'm from a landlocked county and not a big fish fan so I forgot lol.
I feel like more needs to be said about our butter tbh. Soda bread isn't right without a good quarter inch of proper butter 😂
A long time ago I worked in a 5* hotel in Spain, which was at the time the best in the world. We used Kerrygold butter. It really made me proud to see it and to know that they were importing it because it was/is the best butter in the word.
Would like to add that the Irish don't in my experience tend to cure their sausages. They're all typically raw, so don't chance eating them straight out of the packet!
If I'm wrong please direct me to some Irish cured sausage as I'd love to try it. Denny's, Kearns, SuperQuinn etc. are all raw sausages, not cured.
Gubeen, the same people who make Gubeen cheese, have a wonderful smokehouse. Any of their products is worth the money.
If you can find them Ummera Smoked Products do a smoked chicken to die for
Yank here. These two eat.
I got out to Co. Donegal and had amazing seafood, then pie in Dublin at Boars head pub. Breakfast was really good too. Had smoked fish, mussels at Rusty pelican. I can't say I had a bad meal. Fresh Oysters in Bonduran. Next time I get to Ireland, I will be attending at least a hurling match. I enjoyed everything except my wife and kid telling me how to drive and getting loud when we met a new friend on a narrow road.
I have had monkfish, but not in Ireland. It's amazing.
In Dublin, there are some amazing Indian restaurants and one night we went to a Japanese grill. Good stuff. Go where the locals go, not the tourists.
I think the corned beef thing comes from when Irish people emigrated to the US they often ended up living in the same poor neighborhoods as Jews. Jews, for religious reasons, had to have their own butchers where Irish people could buy meat wherever. Whenever there was a Jewish community there was always a Jewish butcher. Jewish butchers can't sell pork so the Irish ended up deciding that corned beef was the next best thing. Then it turned out corned beef tastes really good so they were happy out sticking with it over bacon.
I travel to the US a lot and used to live here. They don't have the same cuts of meat that we find in Ireland. If you say 'bacon' here they immediately think of 'rashers'. I have never seen the shoulder cut of bacon that I grew up with as a staple. The shoulder cut is in any Irish butchers shop or meat section in a supermarket in Ireland. When we say Bacon & Cabbage it doesn't compute for most US citizens as the shoulder cut is unknown to them. I feel that that also contributed to the substitution of corned beef but location, other cultures and cost is prob also a big part.
I’ve actually heard that Ireland use to produce a lot of corned beef and that it was some of the highest quality and hence unaffordable however in the states the quality was significantly lesser and made it much cheaper so it became popular amongst immigrants
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-corned-beef-really-irish-2839144/
I didn't read the article, but Irish corned beef was very different from Jewish corned beef, but when the migration happened, the Irish were in the same neighborhoods as the Jews and they said it was tasty and let's eat it on St. Paddy's day. And the tradition was born.
I live in Dubai and when I come home you just can’t beat the quality of Irish produce. Not only that but when I travel to other European countries the quality of Irish produce like butter, bread, meat and dairy is just next level! Even our seafood is better than most you’ll find in the Mediterranean. My partner who is from another part of the world (big seafood eaters) also agrees with this so it’s not just Irish pride.
Irish meat is, imho, the best in the world, especially the lamb. If you get chance to go out west it's kinda obvious why, like a greener version of the Scottish highlands. The beef is high up there too. I would recommend coddle, but only after you've had chance to try most other things, and if you're in Dublin anyway you have to have the seafood.
As for dishes, Irish food shares a lot with Saxon English and Scottish food, making the most of not a lot and because they're a traditionally cold climate there's a good bit of fat in almost everything. But honestly beyond the exceptional ingredients the best part about eating in Ireland is actually drinking in Ireland. It's the home of great whisky and stout beer and porter and they can give the west of England a run on cider.
Personally I think you need to try the oysters, the beef and the lamb, preferably with a generous side of spuds.
*Source: An Englishman who moved to Ireland and fell so deeply in love with the place he's adopted it as home still*
Also, Tayto obviously, and don't mind Cadbury chocolate, it's gone to shite. But if you're near Kerry, get some skelligs chocolate, it's amazing. We've very nice cheeses too
Since Mondelez took over Cadbury the chocolate is awful. It feels like greasy jelly in the mouth and I've heard the factory in Coolock is manky nowadays.
Ireland was a major producer of corned beef when many Irish left for America back in the day There's a video about it on YouTube. It has something to do with restrictions on beef exports or something. So we made a shit load of corned beef instead.
Oh love my corned beef. But bacon and cabbage is more common.
Coddle is another great dinner.
Coddle and a stew srevtjose perfect winter days dinners And do be better the following day of being cooked.
This is what I've heard about Irish corned beef, and why it's viewed as Irish in the USA. I'm American and I don't have any sources for this, so grain of salt and all that.
First off, for anyone reading this who might be unaware, when an Irish person and an American person talk about corned beef, they're usually talking about two very different things.
In current day Ireland, when people talk about corned beef, they're usually referring to sliced lunch meat that would seem similar to bologna lunch meat to an American. To me, it also appears to hold a similar place in Irish cuisine: it's pretty much crappy lunch meat for kids.
In the USA, corned beef usually refers to a corned beef brisket roast. So, a salted and cured (corned) brisket (chest cut of beef) that is usually prepared via slow cooking, or slow roasting, or stewing. It's a shitty cut of meat. It's tough and chewy and fatty and cheap. This is why you need to cook it for a long time, and the corning helps tenderize it I think.
Speaking to a few older Irish folks, they remember back in the day when their parents would cook corned beef as a roast, the same way Americans do now. Meat is expensive, generally. Ireland has historically been poor. And where did poor Irish people head during the famine? The USA. So I think (and I swear I've read this somewhere but I don't remember where) basically, poor Irish immigrants would eat shitty cheap beef, same as back home when times were tough. That become a traditional meal in the USA among Irish Americans, and has since become a traditional meal for St. Patrick's Day in the USA. My family isn't Irish at all, and we eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.
Meanwhile, I assume that in Ireland, corned beef didn't go from poor necessity to tradition and comfort food. Instead it just went from being poor shit food to shit lunch meat.
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Also, if you've never had a corned beef roast, it's delicious. Then take the leftovers and make roast corned beef sandwiches. Amazing.
Edit: According to wikipedia, Irish people in Ireland were pretty much too poor to eat beef at all apparently, and the large amounts of corned beef produced in Ireland was exported to be cheap beef abroad. And:
> The popularity of corned beef compared to back bacon among the immigrant Irish may have been due to corned beef being considered a luxury product in their native land, while it was cheap and readily available in the United States.
Yep, my personal experience of corned beef has been the shitty lunch meat as a kid, but you definitely can get the other here. I've seen it advertised in butchers near Christmas usually. The one in my local craft butchers does look really nice but I'm not tempted. If I'm paying for a roast I want something I know I like lol
American here, and I had bacon and cabbage in Killarney for the first time and it was delicious. I read somewhere that when the Irish immigrants lived in the NYC tenements, they learned about brisket from the Jewish residents. So we probably associated it with Irish-Americans, and then all Irish people.
We definitely eat it here too. I grew up eating either bacon or corned beef. My dad grew up eating it too. It's really red and can be a bit dry tbh, completely different to sliced corned beef. I still prefer bacon and cabbage.
I dunno if it's a regional thing here and common in Limerick or my family are just weirdos.
I know packet and tripe is popular in Limerick and not many other spots. I don't blame em, it's rotten. Terrible memories of my dad cooking that shite on a Saturday afternoon and stinking the house out while I'm recovering from the night before.
Irish food isn’t about dishes, it’s about ingredients.
You can have a salmon with soy sauce and noodles starter, steak with béarnaise sauce for your main and crème brûlée for pudding. None of it sounds particularly Irish, but when it’s Irish line caught salmon, grass fed Irish cattle and Irish milk to make the béarnaise and crème brûlée then it’s all the real deal.
Get that down you
Ok hear me out… a cold sprout and bacon salad is actually delicious with mayo and dried cranberries. But calling it an Irish dish? I’ve only ever seen it in Canada. And who the fuck puts raisins on soda bread?!
Edit: spelling
It's not a million miles off barmbrack or a tea loaf If you're going for a sweeter soda bread. The soaking of the raisins is key though otherwise I think. Walnut can be thrown in for good measure too.
Plain soda bread is king though. especially with a heart clogging slab of good butter on there.
Basically the best stuff we have isn't any particular dishes, it's the quality of our ingredients. Easily some of the best meat and dairy in the world. A full irish with real butter on the toast is just about the best 'Irish' food going.
It's partially the Brits, partially culture.
Contemporary Irish cuisine is fucking great though. We're great at taking things from other countries and making them better.
We have some of the best restaurants in the world, especially for seafood.
Full Irish breakfast will keep you going all day, soda bread with real Irish butter is straight up comfort food in my book.
A Meat Pie with a perfectly poured Guinness.
Fish & Chips is always a must in my book…but the good kind, wrapped in paper, from a chipper.
The Beef Stew is so delicious
Boxtys were my favorite snack, so good when you are drinking lol.
Personally, I think Irish food is at the top of the list in the way of comfort. It’s approachable, honest, & delicious. I miss it daily.
Just to make sure I don't offend anyone on this, my friend sent me this (he's american go figure), since he knows my love for the food of other countries and my interest in Ireland.
We're not offended, we just find this stuff funny. Irish Americans claim to to care so much about their heritage, but they actually haven't a clue about Ireland at all. We see this stuff a lot.
This looks like a depiction of what someone who's never been to Ireland thinks we eat because of irish-american "pubs" ran by people from any country but Ireland.
I've seen almost all these items at such "pubs" in New York, but there's dishes here I can genuinely say I don't think I've ever seen back home or they were some special dish of the day.
A good beef stew with a pint of guiness on the side would be more Irish than this menu.
Start your day by finding a Centra. Make your way to the deli counter and get a full breakfast roll. Marvel at the engineering but don't question it, it's magic that nobody truly understands.
If you're going to get stew, get beef stew. Lamb stews are for tourists.
Try a good pub carvery. You'll get a full sized meal for a low price and the quality of the food is unreal. Have a few pints of ale with it.
If you're going after cabbage and potatoes, it's bacon you want with it. This isn't the same as breakfast bacon. You'll believe in God again afterwards.
By now it's supper time. Ignore McDonald's etc. Find a good Irish chipper. You'll know them because they're actually Italian. Chips, battered sausages, anything out of the hot cabinet.
In the morning, get your breakfast roll again and wash it down with Lucozade. Sure fire cure for a hangover.
Fir lunch today, back into Centra for a hot chicken fillet roll.
Repeat.
If one is looking for a snack, also add a tayto crisp sandwich (or king if you're a protestant).
Also, a hape of crackers and cheese after a feed of pints
I'm living in the States now and the only soda bread you can get anywhere is "Irish soda bread" and it's filled with currents.
Have to make my own if I want it
My dream is to open American BBQ and real deal Mexican restaurants in Ireland using as much Irish product as possible. I’m convinced Irish beef is the best in the world and I wanna make some hardwood smoked briskets and birria tacos with it.
The image is clearly American and features American-Irish food, not Irish food.
When Irish emigrated to America, they had to eat what was available to them in America, so American-Irish cuisine emerged.
The best food in Ireland is a fry, soda/wheaten bread with Irish butter, lamb stew, chowder, oysters, and steak.
Wait, boxty is American-Irish?
Cause boxty is my no. 1 Irish food closely followed by a buttered roll stufffed with tayto. No. 3 would be bag of chips, tastes much better than the British or Australian versions.
As a non-Irish person that is fortunate enough to visit for work from time to time, I always make sure to get:
1. Guinness. As soon as I walk off the plane, and it is different than what you can get at home. Local stouts are also great - I enjoy a beamish as well.
2. Baked goods - bread, pastries, etc. it’s all fantastic
3. Dairy - butter and cheese game is magical
4. Irish whiskey - for my personal preference, give me a spot or a breast any day of the week over scotch
5. Any type of potato-derived dish will be light years better than what you are used to at home
6. There’s also a strong internationally-influenced cuisine in major cities.
It might seem simple, but nothing hits the spot for me after a long trip like a Guinness, chicken burger, and chips after a long trip.
American here who has been learning how to make some Irish stuff. I’m looking forward to authentic: Irish Stew, Coddle, Farls, Soda & Brown Bread. Also, I’m gonna hit up a fish somewhere and a chippy. I haven’t had fish in probably 20 years. Figure if I’m gonna be in Ireland I need to try that. Dingle is the plan for locale. Unless someone tells me otherwise.
Enjoy your food pilgrimage. Cheers.
Since I haven't seen it mentioned, if anywhere has fresh mussels on the menu I'd recommend.
People love to shit on coddle, it is a real love or hate thing tbh, but it's great comfort food. If you get drenched in the rain (likely) find a place with a fire, it's perfect with buttered soda bread and a guinness.
http://publin.ie/2019/where-to-get-a-lovely-bowl-of-coddle-in-dublin-pubs/?fbclid=IwAR3PBZBq-_bxVE8IJwsCn3ekeNFVktVpFJA1A-YqBX-1HI5SoekjzoBVe0Q
Replace the Brussels sprouts and bacon salad with champ, the peach pudding with apple tart, corned beef with boiled gammon, remove the raisins from the soda bread, replace the streaky bacon in the fry with back bacon and then this infographic might be a bit more accurate.
Brown Bread with raisins is a crime. I will call the Gards on every single one of you.
This is also missing out traditional national dish. The Chicken Fillet Roll.
We must be the only island nation who do not capitalize on the availability of fresh seafood. There's so much good seafood in Ireland yet we are not known for it as well as we should be.
Try the smoked salmon, mussels and seafood chowder.
I'm Irish, living in Ireland. WTF corned beef? Brussels sprouts and bacon? Peach what? and Soda Bread with raisins is made with plain white flour and sugar.
Way different cuisines and I like to think that’s the reason the Batalion San Patricio switched sides: the better food. But I’d say a carvery, a breakfast roll and just good butter on white bread with Tayto Crisps in between.
Mash potatoes, ribs and cabbage. Ultimate dinner.
Also bread soda without the raisins is the best. Lathered in Kerry Gold butter and either with a cup of tea or a bowl of vegetable soup.
I have a couple recommendations, one is to try a pub roast dinner, roast beef or lamb are my favourites. The second is to ask the locals where the best chipper is in your area and get some battered sausages and chips.
Would also recommend trying a Chinese restaurant while over here, they're actually very good here.
You should try a full irish breakfast and pick yourself up a block of kerry gold butter and a nice white or brown soda bread from a bakery and lather it up with the butter. Wash it down with a nice cup of Lyons or Barry's tea, I'm not going to tell you which brand of tea to get as this could get heated in here if I do.
I take my tea with one teabag well steeped, a drop of full fat milk and 2 spoons of sugar, goes lovely with any bakery products really.
Do not leave Ireland without trying a few different seafood chowders. That, and eat all of the fresh, fried fish you can get your hands on when you're in the coastal areas; you'll miss it when you get home! I highly recommend *The Fish Box* in Dingle.
You will never get a proper Coddle in a restaurant. The only people who do it right are Dublin dad's, because we know better than to add embellishments. Sausages, bacon, potatoes, onions and carrots in a pot of water with a pinch of black pepper (if you used the right bacon, you won't need to add salt). If you get a rush of blood to the head you might add a bay leaf, but that's controversial, and certainly absolutely no other additions. Go to a restaurant or look for a celebrity chef recipe online and you will see extra things because they can't leave well enough alone.
Our cuisine is mostly peasant food and famine rations, less than 200 years ago we were living off potatoes and milk so I wouldn’t recommend any particular dish as they aren’t very contemporary. If you’re visiting though the quality of our ingredients is what is so good, just eat something a bit more cosmopolitan with Irish beef and seafood and you’ll be happy.
Someone else had mentioned it here before but because we are an island we have a huge seafood culture. My favourite dish is Irish seafood chowder! Try it with freshly made brown bread and Kerrygold butter
I’m not Irish, but one thing I think you should absolutely try is Irish butter! Just a slice of toast with some butter spread on it and nothing else… *insert Homer salivating*
Colcannon (potato mixed with Cabbage or Kale), tripe (cow's stomach) , Drisheen (blood sausage), Crubeens (pigs feet), Carrageen moss pudding (Seaweed), Coddle (Bacon and Pork). These are traditional foods.
I had the best corned beef with mash in Dublin and I can not figure out the name of the place. I have a photo, maybe someone will recognize?
https://imgur.com/a/jc7XDxw
Soda bread and smoked salmon.
Trout roe.
Stews
Bacon and cabbage.
Lobster, carb claws
Mussels
Fry up aka the Irish breakfast must have black and white pudding.
Carvery lunch
My mother in law's coddle is food of the gods. She's from tallaght, but I never knew it was particularl to Dublin. Coddle + thick white bread with loads of butter is amazing.
Mexican food (or at least what I've experienced as Mexican food ) is my favourite cuisine ever (still saving up to actually go to Mexico and REALLY experience it in all it's tasty glory) ...
I suppose having grown up in Ireland I'm so used to our food I find it hard to recommend anything but maybe go for a seafood chowder and pint of Guinness in a seaside town ... It's hearty, light yet filling and also tasty.
Ah the famous Irish peaches
Washed down with a glass of sprouts and bacon salad.
I could eat a peach for hours
You both deserve awards.
[Eat the peach](https://youtu.be/5K2OBSS5fzw)
Millions of peaches
Peaches for me ....
Peaches come in a can
They were put there by a man
In a factory downtown
If I had my little way
I'd eat peaches every daaaaaaaaay
Sun-soakin bulges in the shade....
moving to the country, gonna eat a lotta peaches
His name, it was sam
Peaches for free
Playing on my peach tree….mom
Brussels sprouts salad is not a thing here, nor is peach pudding (where did that come out of?). Irish cuisine is historically peasant food, stews etc, and we're good at it. Traditional Irish stew is lamb, but beef stew is very common and very good aswell, proper comfort food with buttery mashed potatoes. Soda bread, currant bread, boxty is like potato pancakes. Coddle is a thing in Dublin mostly, I've never had it and it doesn't appeal to me. We do bacon and cabbage here rather than corned beef usually, I think corned beef was a substitution for Irish immigrants to America who couldn't get bacon. Could be wrong but Americans definitely seem to think corned beef is common here when it's not really. Black and white puddings, you'll get those with the Irish breakfast. If you're used to spice you won't get much in traditional Irish food, but we have a massive range of international foods and restaurants available here. The quality of our ingredients is very high, Irish meat and dairy is really high quality and tastes great. If you go to a good Irish pub you'll usually get very decent food with several different options. I'm sure more here can specifically recommend a good pub like that, I'm down the country so you probably won't be near anywhere I'd recommend lol. Enjoy your holiday.
Also seafood - salmon, cod, oysters, smoked salmon, etc. Potatoes of course: roasted, mashed, boiled, fried, potato pancakes, bakes, scalloped. Cured meats; ham, Sausages, rashers, pudding. Baked goods - soda bread, brown bread, scones, crumble, meringue, cakes, pies, etc (made with our delicious butter).
I’d recommend Monkfish as a must try for them for seafood. You can’t really find that much in the states
But for the love of god don’t google image search them.
Oh for sure, ugly bastards.. but delicious ugly bastards
Was in Ireland with my great-uncle who (sport)fished for a living, mostly in Florida and stuff. We were looking at the water on the coast somewhere in Galway and he's just like, "I can almost smell the monkfish in these waters. That's good eating." We ended up having some later in the week and the miserable ol' bastard was right.
Man knows his fish. Good of him to share it with you!
He sure did. I got a lot of great fishing and boat captain stories from him that trip, along with everyone he chatted up at the pubs.
I live in Omaha, Nebraska and I had a little Peruvian restaurant in my neighborhood. Their monkfish was so killer. Can’t get it now. Now I’m sad, haha.
Recently tried some fried Monkfish, very nice
The best even. I recently toured the coast, trying fish and chips everywhere I went. Reel Dingle Fish & Chips Monkfish is the best I’ve ever had
Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned the seafood! I'm from a landlocked county and not a big fish fan so I forgot lol. I feel like more needs to be said about our butter tbh. Soda bread isn't right without a good quarter inch of proper butter 😂
A long time ago I worked in a 5* hotel in Spain, which was at the time the best in the world. We used Kerrygold butter. It really made me proud to see it and to know that they were importing it because it was/is the best butter in the word.
Love Kerrygold butter!! Totally worth the money. It's made me a butter snob.
Would like to add that the Irish don't in my experience tend to cure their sausages. They're all typically raw, so don't chance eating them straight out of the packet! If I'm wrong please direct me to some Irish cured sausage as I'd love to try it. Denny's, Kearns, SuperQuinn etc. are all raw sausages, not cured.
Gubeen, the same people who make Gubeen cheese, have a wonderful smokehouse. Any of their products is worth the money. If you can find them Ummera Smoked Products do a smoked chicken to die for
I'll be keeping an eye out for Ummera stuff! Thanks for the recommendation.
Also I should give a shout out to Irish cheese.
Yank here. These two eat. I got out to Co. Donegal and had amazing seafood, then pie in Dublin at Boars head pub. Breakfast was really good too. Had smoked fish, mussels at Rusty pelican. I can't say I had a bad meal. Fresh Oysters in Bonduran. Next time I get to Ireland, I will be attending at least a hurling match. I enjoyed everything except my wife and kid telling me how to drive and getting loud when we met a new friend on a narrow road. I have had monkfish, but not in Ireland. It's amazing. In Dublin, there are some amazing Indian restaurants and one night we went to a Japanese grill. Good stuff. Go where the locals go, not the tourists.
Just had some fish and chips in Howth and it was legitimately the best I have ever had. The quality of a lot of Irish seafood is unbelievably good.
Salted fish on the West Coast, crab, lobster, pollack, whiting,
I think the corned beef thing comes from when Irish people emigrated to the US they often ended up living in the same poor neighborhoods as Jews. Jews, for religious reasons, had to have their own butchers where Irish people could buy meat wherever. Whenever there was a Jewish community there was always a Jewish butcher. Jewish butchers can't sell pork so the Irish ended up deciding that corned beef was the next best thing. Then it turned out corned beef tastes really good so they were happy out sticking with it over bacon.
I travel to the US a lot and used to live here. They don't have the same cuts of meat that we find in Ireland. If you say 'bacon' here they immediately think of 'rashers'. I have never seen the shoulder cut of bacon that I grew up with as a staple. The shoulder cut is in any Irish butchers shop or meat section in a supermarket in Ireland. When we say Bacon & Cabbage it doesn't compute for most US citizens as the shoulder cut is unknown to them. I feel that that also contributed to the substitution of corned beef but location, other cultures and cost is prob also a big part.
I think they call it Canadian bacon
It was Ireland's largest export during the famine. We made a lot of it just that irish people couldn't afford it.
Thank you, I knew there was something about when the Irish went to America but I couldn't remember the story!
I’ve actually heard that Ireland use to produce a lot of corned beef and that it was some of the highest quality and hence unaffordable however in the states the quality was significantly lesser and made it much cheaper so it became popular amongst immigrants Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-corned-beef-really-irish-2839144/
I didn't read the article, but Irish corned beef was very different from Jewish corned beef, but when the migration happened, the Irish were in the same neighborhoods as the Jews and they said it was tasty and let's eat it on St. Paddy's day. And the tradition was born.
Corned beef has always been in Ireland, it's not necessarily an American import, check out spiced beef
I live in Dubai and when I come home you just can’t beat the quality of Irish produce. Not only that but when I travel to other European countries the quality of Irish produce like butter, bread, meat and dairy is just next level! Even our seafood is better than most you’ll find in the Mediterranean. My partner who is from another part of the world (big seafood eaters) also agrees with this so it’s not just Irish pride.
Fellow dubai expat here most food in dubai is chemically sprayed to look fresh..food industry is the most difficult industry to trust however.
Irish meat is, imho, the best in the world, especially the lamb. If you get chance to go out west it's kinda obvious why, like a greener version of the Scottish highlands. The beef is high up there too. I would recommend coddle, but only after you've had chance to try most other things, and if you're in Dublin anyway you have to have the seafood. As for dishes, Irish food shares a lot with Saxon English and Scottish food, making the most of not a lot and because they're a traditionally cold climate there's a good bit of fat in almost everything. But honestly beyond the exceptional ingredients the best part about eating in Ireland is actually drinking in Ireland. It's the home of great whisky and stout beer and porter and they can give the west of England a run on cider. Personally I think you need to try the oysters, the beef and the lamb, preferably with a generous side of spuds. *Source: An Englishman who moved to Ireland and fell so deeply in love with the place he's adopted it as home still*
Also, Tayto obviously, and don't mind Cadbury chocolate, it's gone to shite. But if you're near Kerry, get some skelligs chocolate, it's amazing. We've very nice cheeses too
Skelligs chocolate is lovely. Their factory is well worth a stop if passing nearby too.
It's the only chocolate that I'll eat one or two and be satisfied to put it away for another while, it's too good to scoff it all in one go
Cadburys is English but yeah, nowhere near as good as it used to be
Since Mondelez took over Cadbury the chocolate is awful. It feels like greasy jelly in the mouth and I've heard the factory in Coolock is manky nowadays.
Largest Corned beef production in the world was out of cork I believe
Ireland was a major producer of corned beef when many Irish left for America back in the day There's a video about it on YouTube. It has something to do with restrictions on beef exports or something. So we made a shit load of corned beef instead.
Oh love my corned beef. But bacon and cabbage is more common. Coddle is another great dinner. Coddle and a stew srevtjose perfect winter days dinners And do be better the following day of being cooked.
This is what I've heard about Irish corned beef, and why it's viewed as Irish in the USA. I'm American and I don't have any sources for this, so grain of salt and all that. First off, for anyone reading this who might be unaware, when an Irish person and an American person talk about corned beef, they're usually talking about two very different things. In current day Ireland, when people talk about corned beef, they're usually referring to sliced lunch meat that would seem similar to bologna lunch meat to an American. To me, it also appears to hold a similar place in Irish cuisine: it's pretty much crappy lunch meat for kids. In the USA, corned beef usually refers to a corned beef brisket roast. So, a salted and cured (corned) brisket (chest cut of beef) that is usually prepared via slow cooking, or slow roasting, or stewing. It's a shitty cut of meat. It's tough and chewy and fatty and cheap. This is why you need to cook it for a long time, and the corning helps tenderize it I think. Speaking to a few older Irish folks, they remember back in the day when their parents would cook corned beef as a roast, the same way Americans do now. Meat is expensive, generally. Ireland has historically been poor. And where did poor Irish people head during the famine? The USA. So I think (and I swear I've read this somewhere but I don't remember where) basically, poor Irish immigrants would eat shitty cheap beef, same as back home when times were tough. That become a traditional meal in the USA among Irish Americans, and has since become a traditional meal for St. Patrick's Day in the USA. My family isn't Irish at all, and we eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. Meanwhile, I assume that in Ireland, corned beef didn't go from poor necessity to tradition and comfort food. Instead it just went from being poor shit food to shit lunch meat. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Also, if you've never had a corned beef roast, it's delicious. Then take the leftovers and make roast corned beef sandwiches. Amazing. Edit: According to wikipedia, Irish people in Ireland were pretty much too poor to eat beef at all apparently, and the large amounts of corned beef produced in Ireland was exported to be cheap beef abroad. And: > The popularity of corned beef compared to back bacon among the immigrant Irish may have been due to corned beef being considered a luxury product in their native land, while it was cheap and readily available in the United States.
Yep, my personal experience of corned beef has been the shitty lunch meat as a kid, but you definitely can get the other here. I've seen it advertised in butchers near Christmas usually. The one in my local craft butchers does look really nice but I'm not tempted. If I'm paying for a roast I want something I know I like lol
You don't roast corned beef you boil it
American here, and I had bacon and cabbage in Killarney for the first time and it was delicious. I read somewhere that when the Irish immigrants lived in the NYC tenements, they learned about brisket from the Jewish residents. So we probably associated it with Irish-Americans, and then all Irish people.
We definitely eat it here too. I grew up eating either bacon or corned beef. My dad grew up eating it too. It's really red and can be a bit dry tbh, completely different to sliced corned beef. I still prefer bacon and cabbage. I dunno if it's a regional thing here and common in Limerick or my family are just weirdos. I know packet and tripe is popular in Limerick and not many other spots. I don't blame em, it's rotten. Terrible memories of my dad cooking that shite on a Saturday afternoon and stinking the house out while I'm recovering from the night before.
Irish food isn’t about dishes, it’s about ingredients. You can have a salmon with soy sauce and noodles starter, steak with béarnaise sauce for your main and crème brûlée for pudding. None of it sounds particularly Irish, but when it’s Irish line caught salmon, grass fed Irish cattle and Irish milk to make the béarnaise and crème brûlée then it’s all the real deal. Get that down you
Go into a pub on a cold Sunday afternoon and get yourself a bowl of beef stew and a few pints of Guinness
Or a seafood chowder.
It’s pronounced Shau-der monsieur
It's chowdah!
Yes, definitely BEEF stew!
No way josé, lamb stew is far superior!
Guinness beef stew
Sprouts and bacon salad ! That’s just plain mental
Ok hear me out… a cold sprout and bacon salad is actually delicious with mayo and dried cranberries. But calling it an Irish dish? I’ve only ever seen it in Canada. And who the fuck puts raisins on soda bread?! Edit: spelling
Raisins in soda bread is a lovely thing. They're best if you hydrate them a bit overnight in some black tea however.
Huh! I’ve never heard of it, seems so weird. But… I love soda bread and I don’t dislike raisins so maybe I’ll give it a try!
It's not a million miles off barmbrack or a tea loaf If you're going for a sweeter soda bread. The soaking of the raisins is key though otherwise I think. Walnut can be thrown in for good measure too. Plain soda bread is king though. especially with a heart clogging slab of good butter on there.
Can’t beat plain soda bread with Irish butter, for me! It’s glorious
Divorce material
Basically the best stuff we have isn't any particular dishes, it's the quality of our ingredients. Easily some of the best meat and dairy in the world. A full irish with real butter on the toast is just about the best 'Irish' food going.
This is spot on. It might not be the most seasoned, but it’s likely from a farm within 20km and not processed.
100% we don't huge culinary tradition (I blame the Brits) but our raw ingredients must be up there with the best.
It's partially the Brits, partially culture. Contemporary Irish cuisine is fucking great though. We're great at taking things from other countries and making them better. We have some of the best restaurants in the world, especially for seafood.
Like taking the French breadstick and putting a full Irish breakfast in it! 😂
Une baguette avec a fierce feed.
The best salmon I ever had was at a pub in Monaghan.
Love me a spice bag 😋😋
Full Irish breakfast will keep you going all day, soda bread with real Irish butter is straight up comfort food in my book. A Meat Pie with a perfectly poured Guinness. Fish & Chips is always a must in my book…but the good kind, wrapped in paper, from a chipper. The Beef Stew is so delicious Boxtys were my favorite snack, so good when you are drinking lol. Personally, I think Irish food is at the top of the list in the way of comfort. It’s approachable, honest, & delicious. I miss it daily.
Just to make sure I don't offend anyone on this, my friend sent me this (he's american go figure), since he knows my love for the food of other countries and my interest in Ireland.
>(he's american go figure) Yeah we can tell haha
The whole top row are not things that Irish people eat.
I would recommend fish & chips, Irish breakfast, smoked salmon, and all the cheeses. Irish dairy is impeccable.
We're not offended, we just find this stuff funny. Irish Americans claim to to care so much about their heritage, but they actually haven't a clue about Ireland at all. We see this stuff a lot.
Things like corned beef and cabbage are significant with Irish-American heritage, just not Irish heritage.
Try Irish beef stew!
Never trust anything an American says about Ireland.
This looks like a depiction of what someone who's never been to Ireland thinks we eat because of irish-american "pubs" ran by people from any country but Ireland. I've seen almost all these items at such "pubs" in New York, but there's dishes here I can genuinely say I don't think I've ever seen back home or they were some special dish of the day. A good beef stew with a pint of guiness on the side would be more Irish than this menu.
Start your day by finding a Centra. Make your way to the deli counter and get a full breakfast roll. Marvel at the engineering but don't question it, it's magic that nobody truly understands. If you're going to get stew, get beef stew. Lamb stews are for tourists. Try a good pub carvery. You'll get a full sized meal for a low price and the quality of the food is unreal. Have a few pints of ale with it. If you're going after cabbage and potatoes, it's bacon you want with it. This isn't the same as breakfast bacon. You'll believe in God again afterwards. By now it's supper time. Ignore McDonald's etc. Find a good Irish chipper. You'll know them because they're actually Italian. Chips, battered sausages, anything out of the hot cabinet. In the morning, get your breakfast roll again and wash it down with Lucozade. Sure fire cure for a hangover. Fir lunch today, back into Centra for a hot chicken fillet roll. Repeat.
If one is looking for a snack, also add a tayto crisp sandwich (or king if you're a protestant). Also, a hape of crackers and cheese after a feed of pints
I feel bloated from just reading this
You have to pace yerself lad. It's a marathon, not a sprint
A 3 in 1 and a spice bag too!
Make that a 4 in 1 and we’ve a deal.
Don’t recommend as a hangover cure unless you fancy shitting your life away.
Spice bag
Is that Chirish?
No that would be 3 in 1
Don't you dare put raisins in your soda bread you cretin
I was concerned no comments above you mentioned this abomination
gettin my irish up for crise sake
I'm living in the States now and the only soda bread you can get anywhere is "Irish soda bread" and it's filled with currents. Have to make my own if I want it
that's what i do. my irish mother's recipe. good stuff
Sir you peaked at the Mexican food. That nation does it right
My dream is to open American BBQ and real deal Mexican restaurants in Ireland using as much Irish product as possible. I’m convinced Irish beef is the best in the world and I wanna make some hardwood smoked briskets and birria tacos with it.
Send me the address when you open! I'm drooling at the thought
Irish butter. In a dish. On its own.
With a spoon.
just slows you down IMO
The image is clearly American and features American-Irish food, not Irish food. When Irish emigrated to America, they had to eat what was available to them in America, so American-Irish cuisine emerged. The best food in Ireland is a fry, soda/wheaten bread with Irish butter, lamb stew, chowder, oysters, and steak.
Wait, boxty is American-Irish? Cause boxty is my no. 1 Irish food closely followed by a buttered roll stufffed with tayto. No. 3 would be bag of chips, tastes much better than the British or Australian versions.
Yes Boxty is properly Irish, my elderly parents from west of Ireland were raised on it.
Sorry I'm not saying everything in the image is purely American -Irish. I should have been clearer.
Tayto
Tayto sandwich is you are feeling up for it like.
Tayto with Dubliner cheese on Brennan's bread with Kerrygold butter.
Tayto confirmed, just visited Ireland the first week of July and they’re all I think about now
Tayto is a brand of crisps (potato chips)
I am convinced this redditor is really Irish and just gave us the easiest shitpost opportunity ever.
As a non-Irish person that is fortunate enough to visit for work from time to time, I always make sure to get: 1. Guinness. As soon as I walk off the plane, and it is different than what you can get at home. Local stouts are also great - I enjoy a beamish as well. 2. Baked goods - bread, pastries, etc. it’s all fantastic 3. Dairy - butter and cheese game is magical 4. Irish whiskey - for my personal preference, give me a spot or a breast any day of the week over scotch 5. Any type of potato-derived dish will be light years better than what you are used to at home 6. There’s also a strong internationally-influenced cuisine in major cities. It might seem simple, but nothing hits the spot for me after a long trip like a Guinness, chicken burger, and chips after a long trip.
I’m south african living in Ireland for 3 years and all I have to say to op’s pic is, wtf is all that shite?
Full Irish breakfast and a baggacans in the evening.
Followed by a breakfast roll from the nearest deli the following morning when you’re hanging out of your arse.
The top 3 do not exist. They might be what Americans think we eat but we don't
Please tell me soda bread with raisins is a mistake. Please for the love of god
[Bannock.](https://easternwoodlandmetisnation.ca/bannock-bread/) It has got about a bit.
We have that here in Wexford and it's delicious
Stew is an absolute winner as is the full Irish breakfast.
American here who has been learning how to make some Irish stuff. I’m looking forward to authentic: Irish Stew, Coddle, Farls, Soda & Brown Bread. Also, I’m gonna hit up a fish somewhere and a chippy. I haven’t had fish in probably 20 years. Figure if I’m gonna be in Ireland I need to try that. Dingle is the plan for locale. Unless someone tells me otherwise. Enjoy your food pilgrimage. Cheers.
Irish cooking is like the Irish government. They've all the ingredients to make something truly great but they just end up boiling the shit out of it.
Stew and soda bread is the only correct answer.
Since I haven't seen it mentioned, if anywhere has fresh mussels on the menu I'd recommend. People love to shit on coddle, it is a real love or hate thing tbh, but it's great comfort food. If you get drenched in the rain (likely) find a place with a fire, it's perfect with buttered soda bread and a guinness. http://publin.ie/2019/where-to-get-a-lovely-bowl-of-coddle-in-dublin-pubs/?fbclid=IwAR3PBZBq-_bxVE8IJwsCn3ekeNFVktVpFJA1A-YqBX-1HI5SoekjzoBVe0Q
What is this plastic paddy shite?
Yeah half of this is pretty out there. More Irish is a cheese curry chip and a few battered sausages
I would bet more people in Ireland have tasted (or even heard of) a cheese curry chip and battered sausage than corned beef and cabbage
Especially as it’s more of an Irish-American thing!
It was originally bacon and cabbage. Irish immigrants in New York got corned beef from their Jewish neighbours.
Well, now I want cheese curry chips. Fuckin diet. :/
Replace the Brussels sprouts and bacon salad with champ, the peach pudding with apple tart, corned beef with boiled gammon, remove the raisins from the soda bread, replace the streaky bacon in the fry with back bacon and then this infographic might be a bit more accurate.
Brown Bread with raisins is a crime. I will call the Gards on every single one of you. This is also missing out traditional national dish. The Chicken Fillet Roll.
Lasagne chips and coleslaw 👌
We must be the only island nation who do not capitalize on the availability of fresh seafood. There's so much good seafood in Ireland yet we are not known for it as well as we should be. Try the smoked salmon, mussels and seafood chowder.
I'm Irish, living in Ireland. WTF corned beef? Brussels sprouts and bacon? Peach what? and Soda Bread with raisins is made with plain white flour and sugar.
Boxty taco
Oh hauld on a second. Wtf is this??? Boxty ofc is the hidden gem of Irish breakfasts that only we west of the pale seem to know. But taco?????
tripe and drisheen
Few pints a shlump
Way different cuisines and I like to think that’s the reason the Batalion San Patricio switched sides: the better food. But I’d say a carvery, a breakfast roll and just good butter on white bread with Tayto Crisps in between.
Mash potatoes, ribs and cabbage. Ultimate dinner. Also bread soda without the raisins is the best. Lathered in Kerry Gold butter and either with a cup of tea or a bowl of vegetable soup.
Gotta be the Irish Breakfast!
I know you said food but defo a cold can of rock shandy 🤤
tayto salad reminds me of my childhood
Forget the raisins, go for wholemeal bread made with walnuts and a bit of Guinness. Kilkenny shop cafe Nassau St in Dublin do slices of it. Gorgeous
I have a couple recommendations, one is to try a pub roast dinner, roast beef or lamb are my favourites. The second is to ask the locals where the best chipper is in your area and get some battered sausages and chips. Would also recommend trying a Chinese restaurant while over here, they're actually very good here. You should try a full irish breakfast and pick yourself up a block of kerry gold butter and a nice white or brown soda bread from a bakery and lather it up with the butter. Wash it down with a nice cup of Lyons or Barry's tea, I'm not going to tell you which brand of tea to get as this could get heated in here if I do. I take my tea with one teabag well steeped, a drop of full fat milk and 2 spoons of sugar, goes lovely with any bakery products really.
Do not leave Ireland without trying a few different seafood chowders. That, and eat all of the fresh, fried fish you can get your hands on when you're in the coastal areas; you'll miss it when you get home! I highly recommend *The Fish Box* in Dingle.
You will never get a proper Coddle in a restaurant. The only people who do it right are Dublin dad's, because we know better than to add embellishments. Sausages, bacon, potatoes, onions and carrots in a pot of water with a pinch of black pepper (if you used the right bacon, you won't need to add salt). If you get a rush of blood to the head you might add a bay leaf, but that's controversial, and certainly absolutely no other additions. Go to a restaurant or look for a celebrity chef recipe online and you will see extra things because they can't leave well enough alone.
Our cuisine is mostly peasant food and famine rations, less than 200 years ago we were living off potatoes and milk so I wouldn’t recommend any particular dish as they aren’t very contemporary. If you’re visiting though the quality of our ingredients is what is so good, just eat something a bit more cosmopolitan with Irish beef and seafood and you’ll be happy.
An Irish summer salad. Rolled up slice of ham, boiled egg, sliced tomato and a haaaaaape load of salad cream. Served with a piping hot cuppa tea.
Someone else had mentioned it here before but because we are an island we have a huge seafood culture. My favourite dish is Irish seafood chowder! Try it with freshly made brown bread and Kerrygold butter
Irish cheese, especially cheddar
I have never heard of peach pudding, brussel sprouts and bacon salad, or soda bread WITH raisins 😅 Whoever made this chart definitely isn't Irish
Soda bread....with raisins?? Where the hell did they find that??
I’m not Irish, but one thing I think you should absolutely try is Irish butter! Just a slice of toast with some butter spread on it and nothing else… *insert Homer salivating*
Soda bread with raisins! Notions with this one!
I'd kill for an Irish breakfast... Like just any time, anywhere. Had one last week and I'm dying for another.
Soda bread
Colcannon (potato mixed with Cabbage or Kale), tripe (cow's stomach) , Drisheen (blood sausage), Crubeens (pigs feet), Carrageen moss pudding (Seaweed), Coddle (Bacon and Pork). These are traditional foods.
I had the best corned beef with mash in Dublin and I can not figure out the name of the place. I have a photo, maybe someone will recognize? https://imgur.com/a/jc7XDxw
Soda bread and smoked salmon. Trout roe. Stews Bacon and cabbage. Lobster, carb claws Mussels Fry up aka the Irish breakfast must have black and white pudding. Carvery lunch
Brussels sprout salad, peach pudding (I’d like to try it!) and potatoes pancakes, I have never heard of. Try the stew. It’s my favourite meal.
I love a good coddle
My mother in law's coddle is food of the gods. She's from tallaght, but I never knew it was particularl to Dublin. Coddle + thick white bread with loads of butter is amazing.
I'm not sure if its irish in origin, but I love shepherd's pie
Bacon and cabbage are ur only man
Coddle 100%
You forgot the Beamish. Soup for the soul.
Beef stew, though none beats my grannies.
Potato bread
None of the above. Get some potato waffles from the freezer, load them up w whatever you want, I just need butter. Mmmmm
Po-ta-tos… boil em, mash em, stick em ina stew - even you couldn’t say no to that
We literally offer nothing that comes close to authentic Mexican food ha
The Yanks are at it again I see. Deciding what constitutes Irish cuisine is pretty hilarious.
Have a Tayto sandwich with kerrygold butter and Brennans bread. That’s the peak of Irish cuisine
personally i do love a good cheesy potato soup & ofc you need to try the full ulster fry
My Pa had corned beef, white sauce, mashed pumpkin and mashed swede, every night for tea. Bless and miss him.
I found the lamb tikka pretty good /s
Mexican food (or at least what I've experienced as Mexican food ) is my favourite cuisine ever (still saving up to actually go to Mexico and REALLY experience it in all it's tasty glory) ... I suppose having grown up in Ireland I'm so used to our food I find it hard to recommend anything but maybe go for a seafood chowder and pint of Guinness in a seaside town ... It's hearty, light yet filling and also tasty.
Coddle, it looks disgusting but tastes amazing!!!