Eating Irish: Honeymoon 2014

I didn't really get into detail about the food and places we ate during our stay. I'm also a little self conscious about taking photos of my food. James and I have been eating out each night of the trip so I'll do a quick recap of the very Irish dinners in Ireland & Belfast in one post!

Dublin 

We had breakfast at the Queen of Tarts. Very cute little cake shop where we had Irish breakfast. Eggs, toast and bacon. The bacon is more like a thin slice of ham. Not what you'd think of in the states. Freshly pressed orange juice and thick hot chocolate. The display of sweets was too tempting. We got out of there before I stuffed my face with apple tarts, raspberry scones, meringue deliciousness.

We ate dinner at Millstone. A website somewhere told me it was considered one of the best traditional Irish food restaurants in Dublin.  James tried their seafood chowder and had a trio of steaks, each different cuts of meat. I ordered their vegetable soup and cottage pie with minced beef covered in potato and cheese. I didn't take any photos of the food but it was REALLY good. Heavy but delicious. But we sat in a little upstairs alcove overlooking other diners.

Our last stop that day was for a pint of Guinness at a bar near our hotel in Temple Bar. The Auld Dubliner had music playing so we stopped inside. James had his pint despite not really being a big fan. I don't drink beer so instead I tried a cider.  A great coincidence happened while we were there - the musician played a cover of a very random Kings of Leon song that happens to be one of our favorites. Usually you hear people play Sex on Fire or Use Somebody, but he played Knocked Up.  (The CD came out back in 2008 when we first started dating and it was always on when James would drive us on dates)

Doolin

The town so small it had just two pubs and a couple craft stores.  We ate at the pub that advertised live music Gus O'Connors. We had another fun coincidence.  We were seated at table 22, which happens to be my lucky number.  James had the seafood chowder (both were amazing by the way) and baked salmon and I had a broccoli/leek soup and chicken dish. We noticed behind the bar they had a lot of police officers and fire department badges from America - NYPD, Massachusetts State Police, New Jersey PD, Cambridge PD, Baltimore FD.  Not sure why but that was a fun call back to home. We also sat right by the performers who were great. Three older men arrived right when we finished eating and we stayed for about an hour listening to old songs.

Belfast

We didn't explore much of the city but it was Restaurant Week while we were there. There was a Game of Thrones banquet that we wanted to go to but it sold out. We ventured a couple blocks from the hotel to a restaurant called AM/PM. The interior decoration was so bohemian/artsy. The walls were covered wall to wall with pictures, paintings and (probably fake) flowers were all strung along the ceiling.  The food was more international, not your typical Irish food. James had a burger but it didn't come with ketchup so he thought it was a bit dry (we're such americans). I had a fettuccine dish that was some of the best cooked pasta I've ever had. The noodles tasted homemade, thin and full of flavor. Again I didn't take a photo of the dish but the atmosphere of the restaurant instead. 

Our second dinner in Belfast was at The Grill Room on the ground floor of the Ten Square Hotel where we were staying. Its Restaurant Week deal was a platter for two with steak, pork medallions and baked salmon and scallops. All of which was delicious and I actually took a photo that time! The atmosphere was more business modern and hip. We heard them play Let it Go over their speaker system, I mean, totally hip.

That wrapped up our Irish experience. The majority of the food was considered Irish specialties and by looking at all the cows we saw, they aren't pumped with corn or antibiotics to keep them fat. Really tasty and seafood chowder no matter where you get it is delicious. 

Ireland is definitely a country I would go back to. So much more to see in the south that we didn't have time to include. I want to drive on the left hand side of the road again too! I didn't mention it but potatoes were included in every meal as "chips" or mashed. I also discovered that they don't have ginger ale but they offer Ginger Beer (not actually beer) but I liked it a lot. I enjoyed Irish food very much!