We spent the past week in Ireland and wow, what a whirlwind! We traveled from city to city, staying in a different place every night! Cork, Dublin, Port Rush, and Belfast. The cliffs, the seaside, and Irish music were my highlights. Sadly the food wasn’t the highlight, but there are still a few things worth talking about! I definitely feel like I should go back to Ireland because there is lots more would could have eaten if we weren’t going so fast from place to place! But with that, here are five places/ foods I enjoyed on my trip and if you stick around till the end, you will see my favorite meme- in honor of the famous Irish potato!
1. Ginger Bistro- Belfast, Ireland
We arrived in Belfast in need of a delicious meal. We had had a gross dinner the night before and an overpriced super bleh lunch – the worst! We spent an hour or more looking at options before we finally decided upon The Ginger Bistro. The Ginger Bistro was located right across the street from our hotel. It is a high-end restaurant with unique and interesting flavor pairings.
I thoroughly enjoyed the crab and … risotto. The risotto was rich and creamy- I love the creaminess the starchiness creates. It was topped with just a bit of lemony crab. The warmth of the risotto with the freshness of the crab was a lovely pairing.
For the main course, I had the sea bass, served on a bed of white beans with hazelnuts with broccolini and a side of scalloped potatoes. The sea bass had a crisp skin and I loved the contrast of the crunchy hazelnuts with the creamy beans. The hazelnuts were unexpected, but I loved the nuttiness they brought! The broccolini was heaven-sent because I had been truly vegetable-deprived the past few days. Lastly, the potatoes honestly felt random, but they were delicious, and it's Ireland so of course they have to serve potatoes.
We passed on dessert, not because it looked bad simply because we were too full. We did enjoy the squid (calamari-like) for the table which was lightly breaded and flavorful.
Overall, this was exactly the meal we needed after our bad meals. Would certainly return, if I find myself back in Belfast.
2. Butlers Chocolate- Dublin
I received Butler's Chocolate as a recommendation, and we were happy we went! We tried a few different chocolates- hazelnut praline, raspberry panna cotta, almond crunch, etc.
They were all yummy and well-executed, but I think the hazelnut was my favorite. I am truly obsessed with pistachio and hazelnut right now and enjoy everything with those nuts!
Sadly, I missed the part of the recommendation that their chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate are the best. I am still crying about the fact that I didn’t get a delicious CC cookie. I try to never pass those up! ;)
3. Brannigans Pub
We had just come from the Guinness Museum, which is fascinating and very well done, and had to meet up with our group for dinner at this pub.
At the Guinness Museum, a drink was included in your ticket
price and so we decided to try some. I got the 0.0 % alcohol Guinness (I don’t drink) and it was disgusting. The flavor is so strong, bitter, and yeasty. I left genuinely confused about how people enjoy drinking it, but have since been informed that a few people I know (and trust) do enjoy it.
Anyways, the point was.. at the pub I proceeded to get steak and Guinness casserole, which was really not a casserole, but it was steak, with carrots and potatoes, served with two big scoops of mashed potatoes. Now that is how I like to drink my Guinness, stewed with my beef and veggies… and don’t forget THE POTATOES!!
A side note…
My whole life I have been saying that alcohol tenderizes meat, but according to my superficial research, alcohol does not tenderize meat. Alcohol is used primarily used in meat dishes to enhance flavor. That being said, if meat is exposed to alcohol for an extended period of time, the alcohol can begin to break down the collagen proteins which may make it easier to chew. Interesting huh!!
4. Nugelato – Belfast
I googled “best ice cream in Belfast” and this is what our search yielded. I cant say that the ice cream/ gelato was the best I've had, but it was a fun experience! We got the Nuggy Pot, which consisted of picking a sauce as the base, two ice cream flavors, two toppings, a vanilla custard top, more sauce, and another topping. Yes, it was a lot.
My favorite part is that they offered a “kinder sauce” which essentially was the hazelnutty inside of those kinder crunch candy bars and of course, I loved that part because of the hazelnuts. A sweet and fun treat!
5. StayCity Apartments – Dublin
This may seem silly, but honestly, I had so much fun at our FREE hotel breakfast. They have a good amount of variety, but what was actually delicious was this fresh bread, that you got to slice to your liking and then they had an egg boiler, that you put the egg in and could decide how done you wanted it. I went for a soft boiled and they even had cute egg containers. They also had chocolate croissants that were not really flakey like a normal croissant but they were so buttery and delicious. This meal could have used some fresh fruit, but this had to have been the best FREE hotel breakfast I have ever had.
It was a fun week in Ireland, I hope to be able to return in the future to visit some of the other recommendations that I wasn’t able to get to! TBH, I will remember Ireland more for the jaw-dropping cliff scenes than the food, but I would certainly give the Ireland food scene another shot, I’m sure there is a lot I missed. Also the Irish love potatoes, and I love potatoes too so we have that in common.
slán go fóill!!
(bye for now in Irish)
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