Traditional Irish dishes

wunsquurr

Does anyone know of any good traditional Irish dishes?
Colcannon, stew etc?
Are any of these dishes location specific?

Dow99

Coddle = Dublin!

duploelabs

Carigeen moss pudding

dee_mc

Crubeens (pig trotters), tripe (pig stomach) and drisheen (blood sausage) are mostly associated with Cork.
Different variations on the theme of potato bread found all over Ireland.
Colcannon (a mashed potato and cabbage mixture) is from the North of Ireland.

Layinghen

Packet and tripe - limerick ( same as tripe and drisheen in Cork, just different name) also eye bones in Limerick (from the knee of the pig apparently!!!)

Madam

Champ - mashed potato, add cream, spring onion and a dollop of butter, serve with anything savoury really:) Great with an Ulster fry.

WayneMolloy

Blaa -Waterford.

Coddle - Dublin.

Ulster - fried bread and soda farls with the fry.

Spiced beef for Christmas - Cork.

Spice burgers - Dublin.

Crubeens West-South West.

Pork and pork kidney stew - Cork.

Boxty - North West.

Isnt colcannon originally a Welsh dish?

dee_mc

No, there's a Welsh leek soup with a very similar name though

"The Welsh dish cawl cennin, despite the somewhat similar sound of the expression, is etymologically unrelated to colcannon, and is a leek soup, literally "broth (of) leeks"

kilograms

Breakfast Roll

wunsquurr

Thanks everyone! I had thought that Colcannon was from the Meath area, not North.

Chronic Button

dee_mc wrote: »

Crubeens (pig trotters), tripe (pig stomach) and drisheen (blood sausage) are mostly associated with Cork.

Question: are blood sausage and black pudding the same thing? Obviously I've eaten black pudding hundreds of times but I don't know if I've had drisheen.

The Hill Billy

@CB - Black pudding is just one of many types of blood sausage.

There were a few mentions above of Crubeens being specific to Cork or West/Sout West - as far as I was aware they are common across the country. I'm a Dub & had them regularly as a kid. Also, I enjoy going to visit my out-laws in New Ross as a few of the chippers down there sell them. Magic after a few pints.

the beer revolu

Chronic Button wrote: »

Question: are blood sausage and black pudding the same thing? Obviously I've eaten black pudding hundreds of times but I don't know if I've had drisheen.

If you had drisheen, you'd remember that unforgettable slimy texture, the indescribable flavour and the urge to gag!

Anyway, back to traditional Irish dishes as found in wonderful establishments the length and breadth of the country:


Lasagne (traditionally served with garlic bread and at least one type of potato - preferably two - and if outside of lunchtime, a side of boiled veg.)

Chicken goujons. Internationally sourced boneless, tasteless chicken breast coated in orange stuff called bread crumbs and deep fried in slightly too old oil. Served with orange dusted potato wedges (also available in many garages) and a mayonnaise based sauce and/or sweet chili sauce.

Chicken Curry. More international chicken breast served in a bright yellow, highly salted sauce with some onion and pineapple. Traditionally served with long grain white rice and frozen chips.
This traditional dish is, in modern times, is often ousted by the green Thai chicken curry which tasted much the same but is green and usually is finished with a good dollop of dairy cream.

Famous chicken wings.There are many establishments in Ireland which are so well known for their chicken wings, that they are legitimately called famous on the menu. These wings are usually deep fried and can be coated with anything from BBQ sauce to sweet chili sauce and often served with a white coloured dipping sauce.

The traditional Irish breakfast. This is a little bit similar to an English breakfast, a Scottish breakfast, a Welsh breakfast and an Ulster breakfast.
A lot similar.

Bangers and mash with onion gravy. Traditionally prepared by a microwave technician. This dish consist of cheapish, fat sausages that have been pre over cooked, slightly lumpy mashed potato and a salty, brown, glossy gravy with some fried onion - all must be served lava hot fresh from the microwave. It is a little known fact that sausages were invented by the Irish - as were burgers, all known stews and most soups.


Pretty much any traditional Irish dish should be served with potatoes cooked in the oven with liberal amounts of cream, cheese and a little garlic.

Also every dish, except perhaps breakfast, should be liberally garnished with table salt - (this is similar to sea salt but has a traditional chemically flavour and some additives). You might be tempted to taste your food before adding this final garnish but doing so will make you stand out like a meal without two types of spuds and veg.

The Irish also invented coleslaw - it means salad.

Chronic Button

Janey, you're in rotten form the beer revolu :pac:

To be fair, you're not really representing the really beautiful cuisine on offer in Ireland up and down the country.

breen_og

Have to agree with Chronic Button here. That's a terribly scathing review of the Irish food scene @the beer revolu!

While for middle market pub fare it might not be too far off the mark, both pub and restaurant food has improved dramatically over the last 10 years.

Not to mention all the wonderfully dedicated artisan producers around the country. To name just a few:

Irish dairy in general
Any of the cheese and smoking companies, eg Gubeen
Rare breed pigs and poultry, eg The Salter family in Carlow
Our grass-fed beef
Game, eg Wild Irish Game
Microbrewers, eg O'Haras, Metalman etc.
Organic growers, the list is endless
Our amazing fish - when its not exported on us

These products are widely available to public customers as well as restaurants.

There has been a huge revival in using locally sourced products and our farming communities have become more dedicated to producing better products for a national market.

I will admit as a whole Irish cuisine is undeniably linked to English fare. This is understandable though considering on the grand scheme of things we are a relatively young autonomous nation.

The Anglo-Saxons, Normans and Vikings all added to our cuisine with different smoking and preservation techniques, and new herbs and spices.

While not specific to Ireland the likes of smoked fish, spiced beef, sea weed puddings, when found in Ireland are amazing products due to how lucky we are as a nation with the resources we have to hand. (And unfortunately our horrible rainy climate! )

the beer revolu

breen_og wrote: »

Have to agree with Chronic Button here. That's a terribly scathing review of the Irish food scene @the beer revolu!

While for middle market pub fare it might not be too far off the mark, both pub and restaurant food has improved dramatically over the last 10 years.

Not to mention all the wonderfully dedicated artisan producers around the country. To name just a few:

Irish dairy in general
Any of the cheese and smoking companies, eg Gubeen
Rare breed pigs and poultry, eg The Salter family in Carlow
Our grass-fed beef
Game, eg Wild Irish Game
Microbrewers, eg O'Haras, Metalman etc.
Organic growers, the list is endless
Our amazing fish - when its not exported on us

These products are widely available to public customers as well as restaurants.

There has been a huge revival in using locally sourced products and our farming communities have become more dedicated to producing better products for a national market.

I will admit as a whole Irish cuisine is undeniably linked to English fare. This is understandable though considering on the grand scheme of things we are a relatively young autonomous nation.

The Anglo-Saxons, Normans and Vikings all added to our cuisine with different smoking and preservation techniques, and new herbs and spices.

While not specific to Ireland the likes of smoked fish, spiced beef, sea weed puddings, when found in Ireland are amazing products due to how lucky we are as a nation with the resources we have to hand. (And unfortunately our horrible rainy climate! )

And there was me thinking I was going to give people a giggle:o


I agree that there is fantastic Irish food out there - I eat it all the time (mostly at home and in friend's houses and occasionally in restaurants) but in my experience - and I'd imagine that of most tourists - the vast majority of Irish hotels, pubs and restaurants serve variations of what I described above.
And when you do find half decent food cooked simply, it is usually horrendously overpriced. We have some great top end restaurants and some lovely cafes but the middle ground is sadly lacking food that isn't deep fried, overseasoned and served with mayo.

We have amazing food and food producers just a wealth of rubbish restaurants. I travel the country with work a lot and eat a lot of rubbish food in a lot of hotels, bars and restaurants.


BTW, fish isn't exported on us - we export it.

Lardy

I find that, the best places to find good Irish food is in the bar/ restaurants that are usually located in a small hamlet in the sticks. Serving nothing but local produce. Also, I've never had better fish than when I stayed in Clare and Mayo. I tend to avoid the big hotels and mainstream food places and try seek out the small, homely places. Never usually come away disappointed.

annamcmahon

You gave me a giggle

the beer revolu wrote: »

And there was me thinking I was going to give people a giggle:o


I agree that there is fantastic Irish food out there - I eat it all the time (mostly at home and in friend's houses and occasionally in restaurants) but in my experience - and I'd imagine that of most tourists - the vast majority of Irish hotels, pubs and restaurants serve variations of what I described above.
And when you do find half decent food cooked simply, it is usually horrendously overpriced. We have some great top end restaurants and some lovely cafes but the middle ground is sadly lacking food that isn't deep fried, overseasoned and served with mayo.

We have amazing food and food producers just a wealth of rubbish restaurants. I travel the country with work a lot and eat a lot of rubbish food in a lot of hotels, bars and restaurants.


BTW, fish isn't exported on us - we export it.

LaChatteGitane

annamcmahon wrote: »

You gave me a giggle

And me. It was obviously tongue in cheek.:D

WayneMolloy

LaChatteGitane wrote: »

And me. It was obviously tongue in cheek.:D

He wasnt far wrong in his scathing review. Irelands restaurant and bar food has improved an awful lot - but some of the fare served up in some well frequented establishments leaves one scratching their mallet.

How such places continue to stay in business, il never know.

LaChatteGitane

WayneMolloy wrote: »

He wasnt far wrong in his scathing review. Irelands restaurant and bar food has improved an awful lot - but some of the fare served up in some well frequented establishments leaves one scratching their mallet.

How such places continue to stay in business, il never know.

Sure. But I believe that is not exclusive to Ireland. You have that (or similar) all over the western world.
Belgium, for instance, has on the menu :

• croque monsieur
• croque madame
• croque hawai
• croque whadeverelse
• spagetti bolognaise
• cheese croquettes
• chips and beefstew
• chips and frikandel
• chips and vol au vent
• chips and ....

You get the picture. All served with a limp lettuce leaf, a slice of icecold tomato, half a hardboiled egg and a dollop of mayonnaise. *shudders*

kenco

Slightly off topic but related. There was a very good interview with Kevin Thornton in Hot Press a couple of weeks back where he said from a raw materials perspective we are excellent. He gave the example of Scallops which he uses when cooking abroad and only ever uses Irish. Beef lamb and game were also used as examples of where we can excel on the production side. We could do much more with fish but thats a whole other debate.

The gist of what he was saying is that we are perfectly placed to turn say Cork, Galway, Dublin etc into GatroTourism locations by joining the dots from production to on table presentation and then if you have that sorted you market it well and promote the new Irish cusine (he used Nobo in Copenhagen as an example of what can be done)

breen_og

Hey sorry @ thebeerrevo! I did take what you said with a pinch of salt, and it did give me a giggle!!!

I suppose ultimately in the grand scheme of things there is a lot of mediocrity.

To be fair to the OP we all went a bit of topic!

To sum up my thoughts there is no specific Irish cuisine its a hot pot of influences. Bar the usual ones that are bandied about although these usually have gotten their influence from some other culture with our own twist on it eg drisheen and boudain noir. Or preservation techniques that we have put our own spin on eg spied beef.

For the most part to me its about our produce.

Yeh I do realise WE export the fish, but unfortunately all to often it just feels like we are left with the dregs of what our seas have to offer.

More to do with CAP and greed than anything else. Also not really something the general consumer can do anything about apart from fishing for themselves.