Next Stop: Ireland

There are many references to food and drink in early Irish literature. Honey seems to have been widely eaten and used in the making of mead. The old stories also contain many references to banquets, although these may well be greatly exaggerated and provide little insight to every diet.

From the Middle Ages, till the arrival of the potato in the latter half of the 17th Century, the dominant feature of the rural economy was the herding of cattle. However, fresh meat was generally considered a luxury except for the most affluent until the late 19th century. The poor generally made do with dairy products and offal, supplemented with oats and barley. The practice of bleeding cattle and mixing the blood with milk and butter was not uncommon, with black pudding still a breakfast staple in Ireland.

The potato was introduced into Ireland in the second half of the 16th century, and came to be the main food crop of the poor. Potatoes were also used as a food for pigs (kept to provide ham and bacon that could be stored over the winter). The reliance on potatoes as a staple crop meant that the people of Ireland were vulnerable to poor potato harvests. Consequently several famines occurred throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.

Irish cuisine now can be divided into two main categories – traditional, mainly simple dishes, and more modern dishes, as served in restaurants and hotels.

Colcannon is a dish made of potato and one of wild garlic, cabbage or curly kale. Champ consists of mashed potato into which chopped scallions are mixed.

Other examples of simple Irish meals are Irish stew, bacon and cabbage (boiled together), and boxty, a type of potato pancake.

A dish mostly particular to Dublin is coddle, which involves boiled pork sausages. Ireland is famous for the Irish breakfast, a fried meal generally comprising of bacon, egg, sausage, black and white pudding, fried tomato and which may also include fried potato farls or fried potato slices.

While seafood has always been consumed by Irish people, shellfish dishes have increased in popularity in recent times. Many oyster festivals are held annually around the coast where oysters are often served with Guinness.