My family and I chose this country for this year’s summer vacation as a “dry-run” for a big New Zealand adventure scheduled hopefully for next year. We want to do a long RV trip around the country. With the narrow streets and right-handed vehicles, Ireland sounded perfect for such purpose.
The wild Irish ways (drinking and singing and bar-crawling) did not extend to its cuisine. Don’t get me wrong, I still found good eats . Like I’ve always said, the foundation of good food, is fresh authentic ingredients. Ireland, with it’s rich vegetation and healthy livestock, is all about quality ingredients. Let’s just say that the potato famine, which played a huge part of their history, remained where it is, in history.
We spent 2 weeks driving around in our little car through narrow, winding roads, taking in all the quaint yet breathtaking scenes around us. This is the tiny town of Doolin.As expected, fish and chips were everywhere. This is the best of what seems like a dozen orders that we had throughout the trip. This was from McDermott’s Pub (Doolin). Batter was light, crisp and not greasy. The chips were hand-cut and seasoned, also very crisp. Not the healthiest, of course, but that’s not why were writing a blog. Haha.
Ahh…gin and tonic. This is what got me through the stress of this vacation. Yes, stress. We travel with a very strict itinerary. That’s the only way to maximize the experience. So sometimes….it can get pretty hectic and stressful. This is why God made alcohol.
Cliff of Moher as taken from the south side. Picturesque views will be interlopedwith these food pic because how could i not include such beauty?Lambs are a thing here in Ireland. They are cute and wooly and they are delicious. This was at a restaurant in Fanore (another tiny village). There’s only one restaurant in the village. It has a very colorful door, you wont’t miss it.This is a fun pic of us being dorks in the cliffs. Obviously, we lived to tell the tale of goofing off without falling off the cliff. Just don’t try it, folks. The Irish believe on natural selection so they don’t put fences on thousand feet high cliffs. This is from an enormous fort in Inishmore (the biggest of the Aran Islands). Having a snack at the lovely Aran Islands. The honey cake was delicious!DIngle is a lovely village made even lovelier by the gin that it produces.We had a day trip here and did a little “pubbing”This is not an Irish dish. It’s pork belly. Dingle is a bit touristy so restaurants kinda want to keep up with the trendy dishes. This isn’t bad, but I’ve had better (in fact, I can cook it better! )Cork is renowned for its good food and fresh produce. This is their famous English market.The market boasts of the best of what the Atlantic can offer.
This is one really tasty seafood linguini, perfectly complemented by blueberry gin and tonic.
This wraps up the first part of my wild, Irish food adventure. The next part is concentrated on Dublin, as we spent a few days there. Stay tuned!
Houston is going all out with the summer temps lately. This weekend was forecasted to be breaking all-time high. No wonder I’ve been getting cravings for boba milk tea aka bubble tea.
A trip to your favorite Asian grocery store and navigating through its parking is the most difficult process in making this cold tea. Once you’ve got the ingredients, everything else is easy!
First get the tapioca pearls. You will need to boil these in 3-4 minutes depending on how soft you want it to be. Mine is exactly 3 minutes and 43 seconds. Haha.
There are several flavors to choose from. I got my favorites: the green tea, Thai tea and plain milk tea. Follow the packages for direction. Add cooked tapioca, then ice.
