A Foodie In Ireland

Delicious, healthy food isn't really what came to mind when I first thought of traveling to Ireland.  During my Irish-American childhood, I ate lots of meat and potatoes, and occasionally we mixed things up by having potatoes and meat.  Throughout most of the year, we ate canned vegetables with our meat and potatoes (or potatoes and meat), so I was always excited when summer arrived, because it meant that the farm down the road would be opening their fruit stand.  Luckily for me, my mom enjoyed shopping there and teaching me how to prepare fresh fruits and vegetables.  Overall, though, our diet was very basic, flavored only with salt and pepper (herbs? spices?  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what are they?), and I didn't learn to really "cook" until my late 20s.  Cooking has become one of my true passions, and since I'm now also an avid grower of food, there's plenty of home-grown fresh, frozen, and canned produce to supply us year-round. 

So, the food in Ireland wasn't really a big draw.  Rather, it was something I knew we'd have to consume over there to survive for two weeks and that it might not be too bad as long we could find some good stew.  I wondered at one point how many variations of meat and potatoes we would try and whether or not we would find any (good) salad.  It's not like going to Italy, for heaven's sake, where the food - glorious Italian food - is one of the main attractions.

The first book I ordered to learn more about the type of food we might encounter was, "The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook."  The recipes reinforced the idea that we'd be eating the meals of my childhood, featuring none other than meat and potatoes:  colcannon (mashed potatoes with cooked greens throughout), beef stew, lamb stew, and that sort of fare.  Hearty and sustaining, and probably quite tasty, but not exactly heavy on fresh, leafy greens, curcurbits, or cruciferous vegetables.  That said, there were some recipes in the book that surprised me - Buttered Kale with Chives and Lemon, for instance.  Well, that sounds almost... Italian!  This is sounding promising, I thought.  So I explored further.

Then I was fortunate enough to have discovered Georgina Campbell's "Ireland for Food Lovers." It's a lovely book, and there is also an incredibly detailed, easy-to-use iPad app that I've downloaded for the trip.    Campbell provides county-by-county recommendations on artisanal food producers, places to shop or visit, places to eat & stay, farmers' markets, and food festivals.  The app includes links to any of these places that you desire to read more about, which is very handy. 

The most exciting part - for me - about the resources Campbell has put together is that they identify gems such as local jam makers and cheese producers, organic farm-to-table restaurants and places that serve and sell additive-free, organically-produced wine.  For example, here's an excerpt of a desription of what's grown specifically to be served at a restaurant on one of the Aran Islands:  "Potatoes, vegetables, fruit and herbs are home-grown on this restaurant site - an amazing range including spinach, braod beans, peas, scallions and onions, carrots, parsnips and radishes, fennel bulbs, rocket, lollo rosso, masses of herbs, rhubarb, pears and soft fruits like raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries and blackberries - and even the elderflower cordial is handmade in Cork by Marie-Therese's mother, Breda Leahy."  We're not talking basic meat and potatoes here, my friend.  This is a veritable symphony of produce, not just the same old chord!  Alas, this place isn't on our itinerary, but it's representative of the vibrant food scene that's taken hold in Ireland.

I wanted to share this, because I just wasn't aware until I found Georgina Campbell's book and iPad app that there would be so many amazing food opportunities in Ireland.  This is, in part, why my travel philosophy includes doing pre-trip research (but more on that later).  I've since found that there's even an Edible Ireland website (www.edible-ireland.com), chock-full of links to local food producers, shops, festivals, and markets, as well as restaurants that serve organic and locally-sourced fresh foods.  On the "About" page of the Edible Ireland website, the author writes, "As Colman Andrews says in The Country Cooking of Ireland, “Ireland — for its superlative raw materials, its immensely satisfying traditional home cooking, and its new wave of artisanal producers and imaginative but well-grounded chefs — [is] simply one of the most exciting food stories in the world today.”  Wow.

Here is a link to Campbell's website:  http://www.ireland-guide.com/shop/product.php?item_id=8901.  And to order the book on Amazon, go to this link: http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Food-Lovers-Georgina-Campaperbackell/dp/190316429X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357332132&sr=8-1&keywords=ireland+for+food+lovers
I think you'll enjoy!!

Update:  I just learned about the most amazing restaurant that's right around the corner from our hotel in Dublin:  http://www.cornucopia.ie/  I saw it on www.happycow.net, which I've found to be a great resource for traveling within the US.  Didn't realize they included destinations across the pond.  So excited!