Irish cuisine on St. Patrick’s Day

culinary cultures, Europe — By Bob Riel on March 17, 2008 at 6:20 pm

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! What better way to mark the day than with a tour of Irish cuisine? Ambrose Clancy did just that recently, traversing the island and sampling a variety of Irish meals. He wrote about his tour for the Sunday travel section of the Washington Post.

The Irish have become prosperous and, of all things, European. I decided a food safari was in order to smell what was cooking. Here is a chronicle of some meals during my recent visit: a sampling of the new and old.

Clancy experienced the new diversity of Ireland at Italian and Indian restaurants, but he also enjoyed a good amount of traditional Irish fare, such as this breakfast:

The next morning, at Darry Ryan’s B&B in the heart of town, the old advice is true; we could eat this breakfast all day. Eggs over easy fried in bacon fat, two small mild sausages, a grilled half-tomato garnished with fried mushrooms, white toast in a rack, brown bread, strong tea.

There’s also black pudding, which I eyeball carefully. You can’t have a proper Irish breakfast without black pudding, a sort of sausage that uses pig’s blood as its dominant ingredient. Added to the blood are oatmeal, milk and bread. It’s baked and then cut in thick circles and fried. The texture is dense; ditto the taste, heavy and unpleasant. I drown it with tea.

And this pub fare for lunch:

In the town of Clifden, set above an estuary leading to the sea, a place where hikers and cyclists make base camp, lunch is at E.J. Kings, a pub of stone-flagged floors and food either simple or full of flair.

The Guinness is creamy, and an open-faced crab sandwich on brown bread, with no mayonnaise but just oil, gives a straightforward tang of the sea. Just as good is a BLT, with crispy rashers (bacon), sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions and a sharp farmhouse cheese making every bite satisfyingly complex. But the star is the chowder, based in rich stock, laced with sherry, cream, onions, potatoes and salmon that adds a touch of pink to the creamy whiteness.