Meals of the UK Part 1

While some travel for the sights and others for the history and still others for the culture and people and arts, I travel for food. While England and Ireland don't have the best reputation for food, I can assure you we've had some truly spectacular meals.

Shannon, Full Irish Breakfast: Our first couple of days had us encounter a B&B owner who made the best Full Irish Breakfast, which is made up of many parts. Firstly tea or coffe with cereal and irish soda bread with butter, followed by a meal proper. Bacon in Ireland is cut wide in thick rashers, cooked well but tender. Then there are grilled tomatoes, hash browns, sausage and crisp slices of toast. The grilled tomatoes are so flavorful that they work like a sauce on the bacon or bread. Then of course is the white and black pudding, which is not at all like pudding in the states, but is rather more like sausage made as much with bread as meat. Black pudding has the blood left in, while white pudding has much less blood. They're like sausage but only ever served in cut medallions. Absolutely delicious, and so filling we hardly required lunch afterwards.

Limmerick, Irish Stew: Irish stew is most often beef or lamb. I got my in a little Pub called Dolans, where the broth was so thick that you could slice it with a knife. Quartered onions in large supply with plenty of meat really made it hearty. What made it memorable, however, was the sccops of irish mashed potatoes; irish potaoes have an incredibly light buttery taste.

Allenwood, Fish and Chips: We had a great deal of fish and chips throughout Ireland, for the most part they were baseline good. In our walk along the grand canal we stopped by a town, Allenwood, for food before trying the next town for accomdation (which we didn't find). It was a tiny town but we found a good looking pub, with little else on the menu other than fish and chips. The fish was excellent, flaky within the breading and not at all soggy. The fried breading had so warm a taste I'm sure they had stirred into it a crumbled hard cheddar. The same was true of the chips (french fries), the whole meal had so warm and flavorful a taste with ketchup and malt vinegar that I should try to implement it similarly in my own recipes.

Dublin, Stir Crazy: We were in quite the rush to catch a film at the Irish Film Institute, and Jessi spotted a noodle bar that looked quick. It was the cheapest meal we found in Dublin and really the only one worth mentioning. The fare at the restaurant was completely customizable; a choice of noodle (or rice), one or two meat or vegetables, and then a sauce stir fried with egg and a green onion. I got egg noodles with penut satay and beef, while Jessi got udon with pork teriyaki.