Foods of Ireland, butterfat edition

In honor of St. Patrick's Day!....

(Tofu dandan biang biang noodles, Xi'an, Galway)

For the longest time, Ireland could not have been described as a foodie’s paradise, but the farm-to-table movement and the country's generous immigration policy has really made for some exciting and innovative cheffing in these parts.  Galway has become a surprisingly rich food town, cementing its status as my favorite city in Ireland, if not the world.  Dublin does pretty well (though honestly less consistently well than Galway).  And, breaking powerfully with the pre-Euro state of things here, vegan and vegetarian options are ubiquitous.  I mean, none of these people can manage a competent burrito yet, but at least they’ve finally got the ingredients on hand.

(Candied pumpkin, chamomile ice cream, and pepita praline at Glas in Dublin)

I can certainly recommend good restaurants to folks who might at some point be planning a trip to Ireland, but for now let me single out some foods not to miss.  You may notice a common thread.

1.  Dairy.  All forms.  People in the US who are willing to drop extra cash on Kerrygold butter know: there’s something unusual going on in Irish dairy.  It involves grass-fed cattle and a long-time program of breeding to produce milk with natural butterfats surpassing 4%.  I’m telling you: the butter is decadent, the cheese is flavorful, the ice cream—even the cheap soft-serve (or “whipped”) that you can buy in every gas station—is luxuriant, and the milk is rich and creamy and sweet.  I have to run extra miles here to make up for the cream and butter I add to everything, unrepentant.  Check out this amazing milk vending machine from Ennistymon.  Will I refill both my milk and my chocolate milk every other day?  Yes, yes I will, thank you.

2.  Hazel Mountain Chocolates.  So Butler’s is the brand that most folks know from Irish storefronts and supermarkets, with their Atlantic Sea Salt Dark varieties etc.  But I am telling you that this small artisanal chocolatier on the north fringes of the Burren has the whole chocolate-making thing perfected.  They’re bean-to-bar producers, with creative single-origin options.  The dark chocolate is without question worth detouring for.  But the real surprise (from my dark-chocolate-preferring point of view) is their line of milk chocolate products.  They're the only chocolate maker whose milk and cream are sourced from Irish dairy products (see item 1, above).  Their 42% milk chocolate is distinguished by its creamy lingering aftertaste, in which the Irish grassfed cow of it all endures into far more complexity than one-dimensional crap milk chocolate.  And their caramels?  Forget it.

3.  French pastry shops.  Tarts, croissants, etc., all somehow more rich and full-bodied than is the norm. Again, I refer you to item 1.

4.  Brown bread.  The simplest of staples: whole flour, buttermilk, soda, salt.  What perfect chemistry that combination catalyzes.  Don’t be distracted by other more flashy bread options.  Get the brown bread, as much as you’re offered (which is pretty much an endless supply).  And pave it with butter, obv.