Get in my belly!

I've had some questions about the food, so thought I'd make you all hungry.

Ireland of course has a reputation of not offering good food, but we have not found that to be true. We have had some terrific meals here. However, I will say that variety is definitely not a strong suit here.

Options for going out include pubs (which all pretty much have the exact same menu - pretty uncanny), Italian, Thai, Chinese or steak. One of the most popular pub lunches is the carvery where you have a couple kinds of roasted meats, veggies, several kinds of potatoes, dessert and bread for a set price. You pretty much load up your plate (buffet concept, but food is actually loaded for you) then you tuck in (pig out). Otherwise you can get a variety of sandwiches, Guinness and beef stew, fish and chips, pasta and one or two Indian dishes. We have found two very nice Italian places in Waterford but have not tried other recommendations. There is also a nice pizza place downtown. Godfather's and frozen pizza have now become acceptable for Friday nights just for variety!

Take away is also popular - Chinese, Thai or fish & chips. Of course even with the Chinese and Thai you can always get chips (you all know those are french fries right?) instead of rice. We've tried one of the Chinese take away places in town - so bad! But, we do have a recommendation on another. Take away Thai place just a few minutes from our house is quite good. Take away Thai and Chinese comes in disposable/reusable containers, which is pretty much what we used for left over storage until our shipment came - very handy. The take away fish and chips place in town is quite yummy. Oh, take away fried chicken is also big here, but I refuse to even try. One of the big chains is Hillbilly chicken - sounds like a bag o' grease to me - they are most popular after the bars close (so I hear, I don't stay up that late!).

A sad fact about Waterford: we have found only a couple places with decent chips. Really strange given the central role of potatoes in the diet here, but it is true. The best chips in town: Eddie Rockets. Yes, that is Johnny Rockets, but here it is Eddie (I think it is the same company, otherwise there is some major copyright infringement). My theory on that is that Johnny is a very common Irish name and would therefor not sound necessarily American. I have yet to meet an Eddie though.

As far as cooking at home, the bacon is delicious! Much meatier than American bacon (cross between bacon and ham). They have these great bread products here - baguettes, croissants, rolls - that are half baked (I'm not trying to be funny, they are just half cooked) ready to cook at home. They keep for weeks, then you cook them for a few minutes and have fresh baked bread. Speaking of bread, I've developed my brown soda bread recipe to perfection, that with a slather of excellent Irish butter - heaven! We do eat a lot of the same things that we ate at home. We went crazy at the Asian stall in Cork's English market (akin to Pike Place but more meat, less produce), so we are able to make many of our favorite Japanese dishes. Bangers and mash have rotated into our standards list as well (technically British, but the Irish do love their sausage).

Due again to British influence, the ethnic selection at the supermarkets is quite extensive - if you like Indian. Chicken tikka, marsala, tandoori, all readily available as frozen meals or pre-made sauces. There is also some Thai. Our local place even stocks tofu! Yea, we would miss that. Very basic Mexican is available too, but expensive - I paid 2.15 euro (~$3.70) for a can of refried beans recently!

Farm traceable is a big thing here - it is on all the meat and poultry. The meat is very reasonable, especially pork and lamb. Sausages are super cheap and you have tons of choices: 6-pack of Irish, 9-pack of Irish, 12-pack of Irish or 15-pack of Irish! The fancy grocery near us does carry a few Italian sausages also, which is nice for variety. Fish can be nice and reasonable or dodgy and expensive. We had some gorgeous tuna this weekend, but we have not been eating fresh fish like we used to (even though we still live minutes from the coast!).

There is a farmer's market at our local grocery on the second Sunday of the month. Baked goods seem to predominate. Last week we tried the crepe stand - very tasty.

As for supermarkets, we have three that we frequent: fancy and small Ardkeen which is about 1 mile from our house; somewhat fancy with the best fresh stuff Superquinn which is very near hubby's work; and cheap, basic Tesco, also about 1 mile from our house but not by Ardkeen. You really have to know which store to go to for needed/wanted items as they all have their specialties; one stop shopping isn't really a popular concept here. For meats, you really should go to a butcher, for produce the veg store. I would love to do that but it isn't very practical out where we live.

Now that you are all starving, I must chop up some 'tatoes for tonight's bangers and mash.

Bon apetit!