Irish Cuisine
Eating & Drinking
Modern Irish cooking comes as a very pleasant surprise to most visitors, with its emphasis on using top quality fresh local ingredients, simply prepared and presented.
Traditional foods tend to be hearty and filling - Irish Stew, Brown Bread, potato dishes of various kinds. But really modern Irish cuisine has become a sort of fusion of local produce with classic cooking methods from France and the Mediterranean.
An increasing number of artisan, sometimes organic, food producers supply restaurants and also sell their wares in weekly Farmer's Markets in almost every reasonably sized town. Excellent farmhouse cheeses are a particular highlight.
Most pubs serve food, often of very high quality, and there are a wide range of restaurants of all standards and with varying cuisine in every town, Chinese and Italian especially. Eating out is not inexpensive though, so it is worth checking out early-bird or pre-theatre dinner menus for good value.
Beer, Whiskey ..... and Tea!
Neither Guinness, a dark dry beer or stout, nor Irish Whiskey will need any introduction and are found in all bars and many restaurants. The consumption of wine is on the increase and most places have a decent, sometimes excellent, wine list.
However if a national drink is the one most consumed then the national drink is tea, the Irish drink more of it than any other nation on earth!