Are Irish food and restaurants underrated

Alun · 22-07-2015 5:01pm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

No. Fceking. Way. Amazeballs. of course you have to have Handkäs mit Musik with your Ebbelwoi.

Absolutely! Almost as 'explosive' a combination as Federweiße and Zwiebelkuchen

dr.fuzzenstein · 22-07-2015 7:32pm

Alun wrote: »

Absolutely! Almost as 'explosive' a combination as Federweiße and Zwiebelkuchen

Hence the "music" :pac:

Asmooh · 22-07-2015 7:36pm

Actually, the food in Ireland is really bad compare to the main land, not just in restaurants also in the store.

meeeeh · 22-07-2015 7:56pm

I think beef and lamb in Ireland are awesome, pork is ok and majority of chicken is bloody awful. I especially don't get the obsession with chicken breasts.

I've eaten in some very good Irish restaurants but mostly it wasn't a 20 euro dinner special. And I had some really bad meals, mostly big portions from the jar type food. It is also very hard to get good pizza. But I also had bad food in Italy and whoever claimed the food on german autobahn is good wasn't stopping at the same places as I did. Typically for Ireland, we were in Cork this Saturday and had great brunch with very good ingredients and then on the way home we had some food first frozen and then fried into oblivion so it lost all taste.

What I miss the most in Ireland is decent fruit (and tomatoes). I am sure it is partly due to the climate but the supermarkets on continent would never get away with selling such rubbish imported fruit as they do here.

dr.fuzzenstein · 22-07-2015 7:59pm

Asmooh wrote: »

Actually, the food in Ireland is really bad compare to the main land, not just in restaurants also in the store.

Well, the actual food is fine, you can get nice beef, chicken, lamb and very nice fish if you know where to look. The dairy stuff and the eggs are good too. There is some really nice honey about the place and I'm buying organic veg in a shop in Ennis that is very tasty.
A lot of stuff doesn't grow here and has to be brought in, so that is only as good as where it came from.
In the end it's what you pay for. If you buy your meat in the bargain section of a big supermarket instead of your local butcher, of course it will not be anywhere near as good.

As for the chicken, buy organic, free range or corn fed. If you buy an 1800 gram chicken for €4.99, you have to remember that this chicken had to be hatched, reared, cared for, fed, slaughtered, processed, shipped and sold for less than that, because that price has a profit built in.
And stop buying separate chicken breasts. I get the whole chicken, strip the breasts, legs and wings, use the rest for stock, marinate the breast and make a curry that way, with legs and wings in the oven.
If you're buying breasts only and cook an Irish curry with McDonnell's curry powder, of course it will be awful.

MissFlitworth · 22-07-2015 8:55pm

It's a mixed bag I think. There are an awful lot of places (and I mean full towns rather than restaurants) I wouldn't be bothered eating out in here and I'd rather bring lunch with me on a cross country drive than chow down on the Cuisine de France specials that are open to you in a lot of places. And the bad pub food and the lack lustre cafe food and the very expensive but not very good restaurant food. But then I find that in a lot of countries. I've had some *awful* meals out in Germany (seriously, stop putting a tinned pea/carrot mix into Mexican food or throwing a bunch of bad veg in an oven dish, covering it in bechamel and trying to hide it through the power of Auflauf), Switzerland & Northern Spain (the only countries I've spent enough time in to spot a pattern in bad food.) Seriously had a plate of manky awful chorizo over chips that was the 'special' of a fancy enough Tapas bar that turned me off chorizo for a year. And my middle name is practically chorizo. And it was the 3rd meal in a row out that ranged from 'hmm...no thanks' to 'gross'.

I do think things are getting better here in terms of food you eat out. I'm based in Dublin so that's where my main experience is and we have many, many excellent restaurants and different cuisines available. And I can shop seasonally for fruit & veg. I think that's gradually radiating out from Dublin, Cork, Waterford and other hotspots of awesome food into the rest of the country.

meeeeh · 22-07-2015 9:40pm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

As for the chicken, buy organic, free range or corn fed. If you buy an 1800 gram chicken for €4.99, you have to remember that this chicken had to be hatched, reared, cared for, fed, slaughtered, processed, shipped and sold for less than that, because that price has a profit built in.
And stop buying separate chicken breasts. I get the whole chicken, strip the breasts, legs and wings, use the rest for stock, marinate the breast and make a curry that way, with legs and wings in the oven.
If you're buying breasts only and cook an Irish curry with McDonnell's curry powder, of course it will be awful.

Oh I agree you can get good whole chicken. Especially in summer I like to buy legs or drumsticks because they bbq really well but it's hard to get decent ones, at least where I live. And I don't fancy buying four whole chickens to have enough legs if I have some people coming over.

Shenshen · 23-07-2015 8:06am

Alun wrote: »

Absolutely! Almost as 'explosive' a combination as Federweiße and Zwiebelkuchen

I've made do with Lambrusco as a poor substitute for Federweisser whenever I made Zwiebelkuchen here

pwurple · 23-07-2015 9:15am

Dear vegetarians, I hear you on the lack of imagination in some places, but really and truly I think there are some bloody fantastic places around as well.

Cafe Paradiso and Iyer's in Cork for a start. Both exclusively vegetarian, both delicious. I'd eat my own weight in dhosas given the chance!
And the range in some of the other Cork restaurants is great for vegetarians. Here are a few of the options on the Market Lane menu

Grilled Haloumi, roast onion, tomato and courgette, local leaves, sultana, apricot and marjoram chutney, harissa chickpeas and puy lentils
Home made Quiche of roast peppers, courgettes, basil, spinach and cheddar with sauteed potatoes, local leaves and mustard dressing
Butternut and feta gratin with sundried tomato, potatoes, toasted almonds & breadcrumbs and a salad of roast vine cherry tomatoes, courgettes and pickled shallots
Grilled peaches with Ardsallagh goats cheese and sweet red onion pickle on walnut bread

Jacob's on the mall has separate vegan and vegetarian menu's
http://www.jacobsonthemall.com/menu/
Orso is another decent menu.

I love food, and honestly it's one of my favourite things about Ireland. I lived in the US for years, and the lack of fresh food was just depressing. I think there are some low quality chipper impersonator places alright, but you also get some brilliant places, doing local ingredients with creativity. I love irish food!

And new restaurants are springing up like weeds... I've got new 12 places on my list to get to in Cork, knocking one of them off the list tonight hopefully.

Boskowski · 23-07-2015 9:34am

Being a continental and living in Ireland 10+ years I think Irish food is very good in quality. The ingredients that is. After that I think a distinction must be made between top restaurants and 'regular' restaurants which make up about 95% of the scene no matter where you go in Europe.

There is no point in pointing out that Michelin star place that has that crazy menu that looks like any other Michelin star menu anywhere in Europe. How many people eat there after all?

What regular Irish restaurants do with those excellent ingredients has come on a long way too but on the whole is - how do I say this - a bit unimaginative. Its all quite plain in preparation. Most common used 'spice' seems salt. Pepper at a stretch. I can go into seaside resorts and struggle to find good (or any) fish restaurants. Game doesn't seem to exist at all. Cakes and tarts - baking products in general including bread - and such are the plainest nothings I've encountered anywhere and those I actually avoid.
On the whole its all a bit roast beef, roast chicken, boiled pork, cabbage, carrots, turnip, mash. Salt, butter. Pepper at a stretch.

When pointing that out Irish people tend to get defensive and say 'ah ye its because we don't need to use heavy spicing cos thats usually a sign of poor quality ingredients'. But I don't think thats quite true. The French have a food culture that has developed over hundreds of years, the Irish don't seem to have that for whatever reason. Similar enough for British food but Irish food is even plainer.

And btw please don't get defensive at this. I like Irish food quite a bit. It is what it is and all food cultures have their place and their own quality. Why try to emulate others?

Shenshen · 23-07-2015 9:47am

pwurple wrote: »

Dear vegetarians, I hear you on the lack of imagination in some places, but really and truly I think there are some bloody fantastic places around as well.

Cafe Paradiso and Iyer's in Cork for a start. Both exclusively vegetarian, both delicious. I'd eat my own weight in dhosas given the chance!
And the range in some of the other Cork restaurants is great for vegetarians. Here are a few of the options on the Market Lane menu

Jacob's on the mall has separate vegan and vegetarian menu's
http://www.jacobsonthemall.com/menu/
Orso is another decent menu.

I love food, and honestly it's one of my favourite things about Ireland. I lived in the US for years, and the lack of fresh food was just depressing. I think there are some low quality chipper impersonator places alright, but you also get some brilliant places, doing local ingredients with creativity. I love irish food!

And new restaurants are springing up like weeds... I've got new 12 places on my list to get to in Cork, knocking one of them off the list tonight hopefully.

Absolutely! This reminded me that I hadn't been to Orso in a while, need to put that on the calendar

My problem is more when being out on a word do - team night out, christmas parties, that sort of thing. We had a barbeque at a restaurant recently, and I got - a baked potato. I wouldn't have expected marinated halloumi skewers, but they could have slapped a portobello mushroom or two on the barbie, surely?

And that's probably the centre of my gripe with the majority of restaurants. People being paid for preparing food, and charging princely sums for their dishes, and a lot of the time I could have done the exact same quite easily and better at home. Good ingredients are falling victim to disinterest and lack of imagination.

There are a few trying to do better, and I'm eternally grateful for that. But it's still a good way to go, I feel

pwurple · 23-07-2015 10:19am

Shenshen wrote: »

My problem is more when being out on a word do - team night out, christmas parties, that sort of thing. We had a barbeque at a restaurant recently, and I got - a baked potato. I wouldn't have expected marinated halloumi skewers, but they could have slapped a portobello mushroom or two on the barbie, surely?

You need to get a hand in organising the do's!

That's so annoying. Especially when vegetables on the bbq are the nicest thing ever. A slightly charred bbq onion... crispy in places , all juicy and soft and delicious in the center, roasted peppers, courgettes. Noms.
Surely to feck there was a bit of a salad knocking around with the bbq though?

MissFlitworth · 23-07-2015 10:30am

Boskowski wrote: »

When pointing that out Irish people tend to get defensive and say 'ah ye its because we don't need to use heavy spicing cos thats usually a sign of poor quality ingredients'.

Oh there are not enough rolling eyes in the world for that. I also hate the old peach of 'yeah, spices are historically used to hide the fact that you're eating rotten meat'.

I do have to sort of watch how defensive I get at 'it's all so disssssssgusting here' (I know no one on this thread is doing that) because I absolutely agree that, among people I know and areas I've lived in, there's a bit of a disinterest or sometimes even distaste for 'nice' food. I know an awful lot of plain eaters and people who won't eat vegetables or meat on the bone or any sauces (excepting ketchup of course) or anything remotely spiced. If you go back one generation in my family people had absolutely no interest in food whatsoever excepting as a way to get salty, plain goodness into themselves. Lots of kids meant dinner was something on the side of a huge pot of potatoes, for affordability and ease of feeding everyone. They liked bread and butter, roast dinners and mashed vegetables but outside of that, not so much. Restaurants were way out of their price range and comfort zones. Some of their kids and grandkids are now completely the other side of that with many of us veering towards the wankery side of being into food *cough* me *cough*. So then with many 'plain eaters' about I don't know if that 'plain eating' way of mind affects what's available when you eat out or wha and I must actually look for somewhere to read up on it. (This is my experience only and I know loads of people on here grew up in families that really loved food so don't take it as a commentary on how all of Ireland eats)

IMO the best thing to happen to food in Dublin has been immigration (many of my favorite places to eat and the entirety of my favourite places to buy chilis and spices have furriners behind them) and Irish people travelling to live abroad and coming back with ideas. We're getting lots of people doing great things with Irish ingredients and really giving a very strong hoot about the quality and provenance of their ingredients and it's great.

john hanrahan · 23-07-2015 10:36am

this is a very interesting subject, and i think to best answer it is to ask how many times have you walked out of a restaurant disappointed in ireland or the continent

tourist food is poor in most places, irish meat and dairy are good but the range is small 3 or 4 cuts of beef, 2 or 3 cuts of lamb and the same applies to dairy. in a french butcher you might have 10 + cuts of beef

the food culture is improving here and as mentioned already, waterford cork and i think galway are good

price is an issue i am always amazed how easy it is to eat well in italy at a reasonable price but you can get frozen fish and soggy pasta there as well.

what i'm really trying to say is irish food is underrated but i do think we need to be more sympathetic to the produce, the reason i stopped eating out is price.

for the price of an average meal out you could buy great ingredients and a cook book and eat really well

Uncle_moe · 23-07-2015 11:55am

I absolutely agree that it's often utterly pointless to eat out most of the time in Ireland because you can eat better at home 95% of the time for a fraction of the cost. I wouldn't be too bothered about the cost of restaurants here if they were better. Far too many places have the whiff of hipsterness that really couldn't care less about the quality of food they're serving. I'm firmly looking at every faux bbq joint, asian "street food" eatery, and pop-up restaurant (shudder at the thought) that have destroyed Dublin's dining scene in the last 5 years.
Yes we have some great ingredients in Ireland but unfortunately we don't care about cooking them properly nor do we seem to care about that fact as most of the aforementioned places are packed almost all of the time. Oh and to top it all off they rarely take reservations. I'll eat at home then, thanks.

meeeeh · 23-07-2015 12:13pm

I actually think there is nothing wrong with roasts. Get a good price of meat and it will delicious. The problem is it will be usually over cooked. I don't mind ordering steak when out because I will order rare and hopefully get at least medium. But with roasts you can look forward to something imitating saw dust when ordering in restaurants.

I must say it is not that hard to find a place which serves decent food, especially going out for dinner. I find it harder to find good food going out for family lunch.

pwurple · 23-07-2015 12:23pm

john hanrahan wrote: »

irish meat and dairy are good but the range is small 3 or 4 cuts of beef, 2 or 3 cuts of lamb and the same applies to dairy. in a french butcher you might have 10 + cuts of beef

This is simply not true. Irish craft butchers will cut absolutely anything you ask for.

If by butcher, you mean those meat-in-a-pack resellers, then that's not what I call a butcher. Tesco style poorly butchered, not hung at all, sweating in a plastic pack and dripping red stuff onto the sanitary towel it comes with, yeuch. There you won't get much range, I agree.

But there are hundreds, if not thousands of craft butchers across nearly every town in Ireland. I can get bavettes of lamb, tira di asado ribs, hangar steak, feather blade. Absolutely anything. Look at this Cork butcher even tweeting away on various cuts of meat he does. https://twitter.com/guilderdbutcher

Uncle_moe · 23-07-2015 1:17pm

But there are hundreds, if not thousands of craft butchers across nearly every town in Ireland.

Have to disagree with this. I live in Dublin and craft butchers are few and far between. One in the city centre even has to to be given an order a few days in advance for simple things like ham hocks or pig cheeks.
Also have lived in Clonmel where there is one so called "craft butcher" and they have nothing beyond about 4 cuts of each animal. Even worse if the terrible quality of their meat. Great marketing though.
One thing that really bugs me about butchery in Ireland is the inability to cut a decent steak. Compare Irish cuts of steak to American. It has to be at least 2 inches thick to be able to cook it properly.

pwurple · 23-07-2015 1:23pm

Uncle_moe wrote: »

Have to disagree with this. I live in Dublin and craft butchers are few and far between.

I don't know Dublin that well, but surely Cork city can't be the only place in the country with excellent butchers?

One thing that really bugs me about butchery in Ireland is the inability to cut a decent steak. Compare Irish cuts of steak to American. It has to be at least 2 inches thick to be able to cook it properly.

You mean like this rib eye? From my local butcher...

CEjHwVBUsAMgcbr.jpg:small

dr.fuzzenstein · 23-07-2015 2:06pm

If any restaurant in the country asked me to write up a menu for them, I could do it in 5 minutes.

Starters:

Soup (If you have to ask: veg. It's ALWAYS veg. Very, VERY rarely leek or mushroom, but only because we ran out of veg)
Seafood Chowder (This is showing our wild, unpredictable side)
(soup and seafood chowder might be fresh, the rest of the starters are frozen from a bag, €1.99 for 4 kg from the wholesaler)
Garlic Mushrooms €6.99 for 4
A dot of jam on a sliver of Goat's cheese €12.99

Mains:

Burger and chips on a plate with a dollop of coleslaw bought in Centra down the road €18.99
"Some" cut of beef on a bed of mash with shpuds and sauce made fresh from oxo cubes €23.99
Same for lamb, same price
Maybe pork, ditto
And last but definitely not least: the chicken dishes.
Chicken breast, chicken kiev, chicken nuggets, chicken thighs, chicken with chips, chicken curry (Irish style, with mayonnaise), chicken burger, chicken skewers, chicken bap, I could go on for days here. My god, you really DO eat a lot of chicken here!*

All this with side of veg (throw in pot, boil, serve) and chips (it's illegal to serve a main course without)

Deserts:

Apple pie with ice cream (also from Centra)
Profiteroles
Some manky sh*t we call cheesecake

Coffee, Tea and for the gentleman a pint.

*
It's true! C'mon, admit it! The Irish eat an absolutely staggering amount of chicken. What's with that? Why? Answers on a postcard...

Alun · 23-07-2015 2:14pm

Ah yes, potatoes (served in as many different ways as possible) with every dish regardless of whether it already is based around pasta or rice. Lasagne with chips, stir fry with garlic potatoes, paella with mash, you name it I've seen it.

There's a place up near the border (I won't name it in case I offend anyone) that our walking club sometimes go to when we've been walking up in the Mournes that without fail supplies multiple dishes of chips, boiled spuds, colcannon and garlic potatoes regardless of what anyone has ordered even if it's something that comes already on a bed of mash, or as I mentioned is pasta based or comes with rice anyway. A good 75% of it just ends up being sent back, and that's with 10 ravenous people who've just walked 20km or so. A complete waste.

dr.fuzzenstein · 23-07-2015 3:11pm

Alun wrote: »

Ah yes, potatoes (served in as many different ways as possible) with every dish regardless of whether it already is based around pasta or rice. Lasagne with chips, stir fry with garlic potatoes, paella with mash, you name it I've seen it.

There's a place up near the border (I won't name it in case I offend anyone) that our walking club sometimes go to when we've been walking up in the Mournes that without fail supplies multiple dishes of chips, boiled spuds, colcannon and garlic potatoes regardless of what anyone has ordered even if it's something that comes already on a bed of mash, or as I mentioned is pasta based or comes with rice anyway. A good 75% of it just ends up being sent back, and that's with 10 ravenous people who've just walked 20km or so. A complete waste.

I believe in Italy that is a hanging offense.

Toto Wolfcastle · 23-07-2015 3:24pm

We went to Athlone for a weekend once and have referred to it as the potato capital of Ireland since then. Dinner in the hotel had 3 types of potatoes with it and when we went out for dinner my duck was served on the biggest mound of potatoes I've ever seen. It was never-ending.

I think the restaurant scene in Dublin is amazing at the moment. New places pop up all the time and you can get very good casual food (Bunsen for example) and very good fine dining (apparently - not my thing really) and a lot of great places in between. The selection of places to eat brunch is massive, and the quality in these places is excellent.

But the same can't be said for other parts of Ireland (and many parts of Dublin), and there are an awful lot of average restaurants out there. Cafes in particular are dreadful in this country. Stale cakes and pre-made sandwiches just sitting there drying up. I don't understand why someone would open a cafe unless they truly love food.

dr.fuzzenstein · 23-07-2015 3:50pm

Cafe in this country basically is short for tea, coffee, soup and sandwiches.
It is only in the last 10 years that this now includes the obligatory and always the same 5 types of cake.

As for good examples: (and there are good ones, please pardon my complaining)

The Tea & Garden Rooms in Ballyvaughan. Come on a nice day, sit out in the garden and just enjoy the place and the cakes are bloody fantastic.
The Atlantic in Lahinch, maybe a bit too middle of the road for some, but really good middle of the road. If done right, there's nought wrong with MOR.

john hanrahan · 23-07-2015 5:08pm

and Vasco a little further down the road in Fanore is a good cafe great coffee good cakes and interesting dinner menu, i have only been there for coffee so cannot comment any further

the beer revolu · 23-07-2015 5:27pm

pwurple wrote: »

This is simply not true. Irish craft butchers will cut absolutely anything you ask for.

If by butcher, you mean those meat-in-a-pack resellers, then that's not what I call a butcher. Tesco style poorly butchered, not hung at all, sweating in a plastic pack and dripping red stuff onto the sanitary towel it comes with, yeuch. There you won't get much range, I agree.

But there are hundreds, if not thousands of craft butchers across nearly every town in Ireland. I can get bavettes of lamb, tira di asado ribs, hangar steak, feather blade. Absolutely anything. Look at this Cork butcher even tweeting away on various cuts of meat he does. https://twitter.com/guilderdbutcher

To be fair, O Mahony's are the exception.
The term craft butcher is meaningless - it just means they've paid to join the club. Doesn't mean that they're whole beast butchers.
In my experience, Irish butchers areincredibly conservative and do the standard old Irish cuts and can't see outside of that box except maybe to pour a bottle of sauce over some breast fillets.
In Cork, apart from O Mahony's and O Flynn's I can't think of another interesting butchers.
Neither of the above are "craft" butchers afaik

Alun · 23-07-2015 6:03pm

the beer revolu wrote: »

The term craft butcher is meaningless - it just means they've paid to join the club. Doesn't mean that they're whole beast butchers.

Yes, it's as meaningless as most of these associations. You pay your annual subscription, put up a sticker, adhere to a few basic requirements if any and that's it.

Looking at their website, the closest "craft butcher" to me is one that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot bargepole.

The Hill Billy · 23-07-2015 6:14pm

Butchers are caught between a rock & a hard place when it comes to offering variety of cuts. My butcher generally has the fairly standard cuts on offer because there is just no market for the 'older' cuts of meat these days.

He's only bloody delighted when I ask for an uncommon cut & will be sure to trade recipes & cooking methods with me. And if he doesn't have the piece I'm looking for - he'll have it in a day or two. The suspense only adds to the flavour.

Unfortunately, the rise of the 'butchers' counters & pre-packed meats in the larger supermarkets have killed a lot of people's interest & knowledge in the variety cuts of meat that can be had.

H3llR4iser · 23-07-2015 6:16pm

meeeeh wrote: »

I think beef and lamb in Ireland are awesome, pork is ok and majority of chicken is bloody awful. I especially don't get the obsession with chicken breasts.

It's not just here - I've seen the same in Italy in the last 10 or so years, and friends tell me it's the same in the UK. It probably has to do with the perceive "healthy" image chicken breast has.

meeeeh wrote: »

..mostly big portions from the jar type food

Yeah, I will never get the huge portions, the half a kilo of mashed potatoes served with beef/turkey. I am a fairly tall&big guy with the appetite of a dinosaur, but even I often find the portions just too big!

meeeeh wrote: »

What I miss the most in Ireland is decent fruit (and tomatoes). I am sure it is partly due to the climate but the supermarkets on continent would never get away with selling such rubbish imported fruit as they do here.

This is the one thing I don't quite understand; I have heard the same from some other foreigners as well. To me, fruit seems absolutely fine - in some cases, the import approach (unavoidable, as you say, due to climate constraints) works very well. Some fruit is simply imported all across Europe - Bananas, to say.

I have one example above all: watermelon. In Italy, it's a local produce - so it's only available roughly May-September; Yet, when you buy one 50% chances are that, when you open it up, it's essentially pink-whitish inside and tastes more or less like a cucumber. Here, in seven years I never, not once, stumbled into one of the imported watermelons that wasn't fiery red and extremely tasty. I am not sure how they do it, but clearly it works; In all fairness, there is a rumor going around in Italy that the very reason for the prevalence of under-ripe or just horrible watermelons is that the good ones...are exported!

I recently tried some honeydew melon (don't remember where it came from...Holland maybe?) and it was fine, as normally are most apples (gala, pink lady and granny smith). Other things could be improved - it's hard to find decent pears, and other apple varieties aren't that great, but all in all I can't complain.

Boskowski wrote: »

I can go into seaside resorts and struggle to find good (or any) fish restaurants.

This is another one that puts me in a tight spot with guests...they essentially go "how comes, the country is an island and there's little to no fish eaten?"

Boskowski wrote: »

Similar enough for British food but Irish food is even plainer.

Shhht...you can't say that, everyone but the British! I do agree, however...but shhht!!!

Shenshen · 23-07-2015 6:45pm

H3llR4iser wrote: »

This is the one thing I don't quite understand; I have heard the same from some other foreigners as well. To me, fruit seems absolutely fine - in some cases, the import approach (unavoidable, as you say, due to climate constraints) works very well. Some fruit is simply imported all across Europe - Bananas, to say.

I have one example above all: watermelon. In Italy, it's a local produce - so it's only available roughly May-September; Yet, when you buy one 50% chances are that, when you open it up, it's essentially pink-whitish inside and tastes more or less like a cucumber. Here, in seven years I never, not once, stumbled into one of the imported watermelons that wasn't fiery red and extremely tasty. I am not sure how they do it, but clearly it works; In all fairness, there is a rumor going around in Italy that the very reason for the prevalence of under-ripe or just horrible watermelons is that the good ones...are exported!

I recently tried some honeydew melon (don't remember where it came from...Holland maybe?) and it was fine, as normally are most apples (gala, pink lady and granny smith). Other things could be improved - it's hard to find decent pears, and other apple varieties aren't that great, but all in all I can't complain.

To me, the fruit is mostly fine here. Ok, I don't get why shops sell (and people buy!) mandarins and oranges in summer - they're not in season, and mostly you'll be spending a lot of money on some very dry and/or sour fruit.

But the vegetables is another matter. Tomatoes and peppers in particular. Most of these tend to be pretty much tasteless here. The only tomatoes that have a little bit of taste are cherry tomatoes. And it's very similar with peppers.

But then I've had Italian and Spanish friends making the same complaint to me back in Germany. I suppose that these particular veg just lose flavour the further north you move on a map.

Are Irish food and restaurants underrated

Comments