Irish Food is More Than Just Potatoes

Back in Dublin for an overnight visit, we hadn't made any daytime plans for Friday, our first day. As it turned out, it wasn't the nicest day and we used our time to catch up on the blog and relax a bit after a busy first week. 

In the evening, we took an excursion out to a local restaurant for dinner. The Ely Bar is nearer the port in a now rebuilt warehouse building. The idea is much like the Distillery District at home. On a Friday night the main floor bar, and even the patio, was quite packed, despite the fact that it was cool and rainy. Dubliners obviously don't let the weather get in the way of a good time. Our dinner was set in the basement restaurant area, which used to be the goods customs warehouse, where cotton and other items were held on their way into Ireland, and whiskey was stored on the way out. Dinner was very good, and for those of us taking part, accompanied by a tasting of 4 wines from various parts of the world, but not Ireland. In the words of our host, 'Ireland makes four kinds of wine, none of which are fit for human consumption!'

After our return in the evening we had a local band come on board to entertain in the Crystal Cove. At one point, they decided they needed some audience participation. A few people got up to dance, and then they started looking for singers. Monica happened to be sitting in just the wrong place and suddenly found herself belting out 'New York, New York' (they assumed everybody was a) American, and b) would know the lyric) along with the guys. Gary Hunter, the cruise director, was standing nearby, and jokingly signaled 'the contract is in the mail'. Our response:  'Will work for cruise fare!'

Saturday was a different story. After looking around for something different to do for a private tour, we found Fab Food Tours, a company that runs foodie tours in and around Dublin. We met at 10:00 in the morning, not far from the Crystal shuttle stop. While we waited for Eveleen, our guide, we wandered around the area a bit:

Not sure what organization the building belongs to,
but the ironwork is beautiful

St. Anne's Church, our meeting point

Once Eveleen got there we found our group to be about 12 people, a nice size to fit into the places we were to visit. Eveleen Coyle, who runs the company, has been involved with food for a long time, including in cookbook publishing. As it turns out, she worked  on the Darina Allen Christmas cookbook that Marie Brown sent to Larry's Mom, that we have now, as well as others that Darina wrote. She told us the story about the wrong measurement in the Plum Pudding recipe in that book, apparently it read a pound and a half of bread crumbs instead of a cup and a half of breadcrumbs (!!) - so if we ever want to make that, we know the fix that has to be made first. As an idea of how popular Darina and her mother in law Myrtle Allen are in Ireland, when that book came out and women complained that the pudding didn't turn out, they ended up cooking a huge number and giving them to people whose puddings had failed!

After Eveleen gave us a pretty good history of why Ireland doesn't have a real cuisine of its own, which is related to the exodus that went on for over 100 years and now the influx of people from other parts of the world, we started our tour.

Our first stop was a tiny Italian bakery, Dolce Sicily. It is run by a couple from northern Italy, who started only a few years ago with a tiny bakery and now have a tiny storefront with two rooms in the back for seating. We were offered cannolis and espresso that were both delicious.

Our next stop, just around the corner, was Sheridan's Cheese shop, which has been around for quite a few years. Its specialty is selling artisanal cheeses, mostly made in Ireland. As there are lots of cows all over Ireland, there is also lots of milk. When farmers found that they had more milk than they needed for their families or to sell to dairies, many turned to making cheese so the milk wouldn't be wasted. As a result, each cheesemaking farmer has his or her own recipes and methods, each one resulting in a different taste and texture. The taste will even vary from batch to batch. The only problem is that often, when a cheesemaker passes away, the nuance of the recipe is lost forever, even if the ingredient list is passed to someone else.

We tried the Durrus and an Irish Gouda. They were so good we wanted to take some back to the ship as a snack, but didn't think we'd be able to get it on board!

Next stop was in the Powerscourt Townhouse, the earlier town residence of the Earl of Powerscourt, a wealthy landowner. The courtyard has been turned into a shopping and restaurant area populated by one-off stores, not locations of international chains (they're on Grafton Street), and the house itself is an event venue. It is beautiful and very popular spot, as we could see on a Saturday at 11:00. Our food stop here was at the Pepper Pot restaurant. Just as with the other stops, the Pepper Pot was started by two women who wanted to offer good home-cooked style food. They had just enough money together to pay the lease on this spot at Powerscourt, and started off with borrowed furniture and dishes and flatware that friends donated out of their attics. After only about 3 or 4 years, the Pepper Pot is one of the most popular brunch locations in Dublin. They bake all their own breads, including the bagels we had with cured salmon, and apparently their scones are to die for.

Shops and restaurants at Powerscourt Townhouse

The Pepper Pot

While at Powerscourt, we passed a knitting shop that we eventually got back to. Monica wanted to get some Irish yarn to make a scarf in an Irish pattern, and the shop called This Is Knit was too nice to resist.

Our next stop was, as required in any Irish food tour, a pub. This one, The Swan Bar, dates back over 100 years, and the interior hasn't been altered much since. We had a little taste of Jameson's here, and our barman host explained the history of the pub and its interior design, which made an allowance for women, who were not allowed to go into pubs in Victorian times, to socialize with the men. A small room just inside the entrance, aptly called the 'Snogging Room' was not technically in the bar and had a little hiding spot for the ladies' illegal drinks.

Eveleen at the bar

Next Eveleen took us through an arcade to a little kiosk called Lolly and Cook. There is apparently a real Lolly who opened this kiosk to sell cupcakes and pastries. Apparently, those cupcakes are some of the best in Dublin. We had a slice of warm sausage pie, probably the closest thing, other than the whiskey, to authentic historically Irish food on the whole tour.

The sausage pies are on the lower right of the photo

Two more stops to go! Next we visited a French chocolate shop called Cocoa Atelier, started by a pastry chef, chocolatier. All of their chocolate comes from either Caillibaut or Valrhona, and they make a huge assortment of chocolate treats, including pralines, truffles and coated nuts, and specialties like eclairs and tarts. The macarons (which are flavoured meringues with cream sandwiched inside, not coconut macaroons) all come from a particular baker in France. The chocolates we had there were decadent!

Our final stop was at a weekend market in the Temple Bar area. We wandered around for a few minutes, checking out some of the stalls, while we waited for our oysters, at the Temple Oyster House, to be shucked and prepared. These are local oysters from the Irish Sea, a little brinier than our East Coast varieties, and somewhat larger than most as well. A little red wine shallot vinaigrette and down they went. Along with a cup of their fish chowder, a delicious end to the tour.

After the tour, we had to make sure we made our traditional (for the 3rd time - that qualifies as traditional, doesn't it?) stop for lunch at The Temple Bar. A beer for Larry, a glass of Jameson's for Monica, and a meat platter shared between us made our lunch.

We found our way back to Powerscourt and the knitting shop, and then did a little other shopping before heading back to the ship.

We had already heard from the captain that our stop in Galway would be cancelled because of bad weather on the west coast of Ireland. Twenty foot seas are not exactly conducive to tendering, and they weren't expected to reduce any time soon. But instead we were going to have a second overnight stay, this time in Belfast. Our lack of sea days seemed to be quickly turning into a surfeit of them. We would see what Sunday and Monday would bring.