Life in Ireland

In the 21st century the usual modern selection of foods common to Western culture has been adopted in Ireland. Common meals include pizza, curry, Chinese food, and lately, some West African dishes and East European (especially Polish) dishes have been making an appearance, as ingredients for these and other cuisines have become more widely available. In tandem with these developments, the last quarter of the 20th century saw the emergence of a new Irish cuisine based on traditional ingredients handled in new ways. This cuisine is based on fresh vegetables, fish (especially salmon and trout), oysters, mussels and other shellfish, traditional soda bread, the wide range of cheeses that are now being made across the country, and, of course, the potato. Traditional dishes, such as Irish stew, coddle, the Irish breakfast, and potato bread have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Schools like the Ballymaloe Cookery School have emerged to cater for the associated increased interest in cooking. Fish and chips (known in most of Ulster as a ‘fish supper’) take-away are popular. The first fish and chips were sold in Dublin in the 1880s by an Italian immigrant from San Donato Val di Comino, Giuseppe Cervi. His wife Palma would ask customers "Uno di questa, uno di quella?" This phrase (meaning "one of this, one of the other") entered the vernacular in Dublin as "one and one", which is still a common way of referring to fish and chips in the city. The proliferation of fast food has led to increasing public health problems including obesity where it was reported that as many as 327,000 Irish children are now obese or overweight and in response the Irish Government is now considering introducing a "Fast Food Tax". Government efforts to combat obesity have also included television advertising campaigns and education programmes in schools.

Common foods

•Dairy: butter, milk, buttermilk, cheese (Ardrahan, Corleggy, Durrus, Cashel Blue, Cooleeney, Gubbeen)

•Grains: barley, oats, wheat

•Freshwater fish: trout, salmon (frequently smoked)

•Meat: beef, chicken, geese, lamb, mutton, pork, offal

•Seafood: mackerel, cod, shellfish (particularly mussels, oysters and lobster)

•Vegetables: cabbage, curly kale, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions

•Fruits: apple, pear, plum, blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb

Traditional foods

Breads

• Barmbrack - a kind of currant cake which contains a golden ring.

Traditionally eaten around Halloween.

• Blaa

• Goody - a dessert dish

• Soda bread - a popular yeast free bread

• Wheaten bread

• Potato bread

• Veda bread

Pork dishes

• Bacon and cabbage

• Black pudding - a traditional dish made from pigs blood, barley and seasoning

• Coddle - main ingredients: pork sausage, back bacon and potato

• Crubeens - pig's trotters

• Skirts and kidneys - a kind of pork stew

Potato dishes

• Boxty - a kind of potato pancake

• Champ - main ingredients: mashed potato, scallions, butter and milk

• Colcannon - main ingredients: mashed potato, kale or cabbage, and butter

• Shepherd's Pie/Cottage Pie - main ingredients: mashed potato, minced lamb/beef and vegetables

Another Irish stew

The eating of seafood, particularly shellfish has always been very popular in Ireland, especially in coastal cities like Galway and Dublin. Such is the impact of shellfish in Irish culture that in Dublin the fish seller is celebrated in the traditional folk song Molly Malone and in Galway the international Galway Oyster Festival is held every September. An example of an Irish shellfish dish is Dublin Lawyer (lobster cooked in whiskey and cream). Salmon and cod are perhaps the two most common types of fish eaten. Carrageen moss and Dulse (both types of red algae) are commonly used in Irish seafood dishes.

Others

• Drisheen - a kind of black pudding

• Irish breakfast or Ulster fry

• Irish stew - a kind of lamb and mutton stew