Dire Food Shops in Dublin

JonnyBlackrock

Has anyone been watching Rachel Allen's new "Bake" programme on RTE?
Every week she visits an amazing food shop or business - a bakery, cake shop, chocolatier, cup cake shop etc. The shops have two things in common: one is that they are all exquisite, real fantasy worlds that just beg you to come in and spend lots of money on something divine, and the other is that NONE of them are in Ireland. So far (after 5 programmes) they have all been in England or Scotland.
From what I have seen, there is nothing remotely like any of them in this country. Nearly all of what we have here is second-rate, dull and uninspiring. Why is this? Are Irish people really not interested in food?

Mr.Boots

[QUOTE Are Irish people really not interested in food?[/QUOTE]

No.
I remember reading about a place in Scotland that only sold porridge, imagine that trying to survive in Ireland.
Irish people are funny about food.
They think they know more than they do about food and alot pretend to be fussy about produce etc.
I blame to many TV food shows.
Im speaking from experience in dealing with the public in restaurants for years.

rockbeer

Couldn't agree more. I ran a food stall at farmers' markets for years. Most people are scared of anything new, they know what they want and what they're prepared to pay for, and they think anything more unusual than a turnip is a strange and exotic luxury.

The so-called new Irish sophistication around food is a veneer: peel it off and you'll find bacon and cabbage right underneath. What the op is talking about won't happen here in a hurry. Most of the interesting things that do open here disappear again pretty quickly. The only hope is the increasing numbers of foreigners coming to live here. Somewhere like Madina could never have survived here ten years ago. Now it has a chance thanks to there being a big enough subcontinental population to support it. But this is the only way it will happen. Any attempt to somehow plaster quality and taste on top of traditional Irish food culture is doomed to failure.

cozmik

Mr.Boots wrote: »

I remember reading about a place in Scotland that only sold porridge, imagine that trying to survive in Ireland.

Not all that surprising really, Oats are held in high esteem in Scotland.

OP I haven't seen the programme could you be a bit more specific please about the kind of food you're referring to?

JonnyBlackrock

Some of the episodes can be seen here:

http://www.rte.ie/tv/rachelallenbake/index.html

In addition to recipes, in each episode she visits a shop to see what they are doing. Such as an amazing quiche bakery, an exquisite cup cake shop which have apparently sprung up all over London because of "Sex and the City" (When was the last time Ireland had a food fad? Has it ever had one?), a fantastic wedding cake decorator, a German master konditor, a chocolatier, those kind of things, and every time I watch the programme I am left thinking "when will there ever be a shop like that here?"

AARRRGH

Most food shops in Ireland are terrible. There are some exceptions, like Fallon & Byrne in Dublin, but like every shop in Ireland, because they're a little bit different they think they can charge outrageous money for things.

It doesn't take much to get the basics right, but most places are unable to do that.

JonnyBlackrock

As someone who lived in Japan (aka culinary heaven) and moved to Ireland (aka culinary hell), my salvation is the Asia Market. Pretty OK for prices, and a good selection. Every time you go there they have more stuff - a few times I've brought them Japanese things that they didn't have, and a week later they were on the shelf!