Irish Food

Oh Irish food… I can say that the Irish get their three squares every day. First, to battle the hangover of the previous day, you would start with a traditional Irish breakfast, which included eggs, sausages, bacon (which is really a slab of ham), pudding (read more sausage), tomato, toast and Irish butter, and tea or coffee. Also I found the scones always made it onto my breakfast plate. Then for lunch you would have something smaller, which meant a toastie, which always seemed to be ham and cheese, onions and tomatoes, and the soup of the day, which always seemed to be a creamy vegetable soup. For dinner you a wide variety of pub food was available. Items such as fish and chips, burger and chips, salmon and chips, shepherd’s pie and chips, Irish stew and chips, and for some reason lasagna and chips often appeared in front of you. I think that the aspect of Irish eating that I most enjoyed was the atmosphere. Most often we found ourselves in a pub, which are well replicated by the many Irish style pubs in Chicago. The main difference is all the Irish pub interiors were older and more weathered. But pubs were not the only option; occasionally we would end up in a Euro style café. And most were privately owned. Although a McDonald’s or the Irish SuperMac’s would sometimes pop up, chains did not dominate the landscape. Despite all the delicious and wonderful food options, the Irish on the whole seemed to be fairly fit. Seems pretty lucky to me.