Search for Delicious 6: Dublin (Turf)

“Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.

Kidneys were in his mind as he moved about the kitchen softly, righting her breakfast things on the humpy tray. Gelid light and air were in the kitchen but out of doors gentle summer morning everywhere. Made him feel a bit peckish.”

                                                    ~ Joyce, Ulysses

The Irish are traditionally not renowned for their culinary sophistication.  Much like their island neighbor Great Britain, the majority of their food seemingly serves to either prepare one’s self for heavy drinking or recover from said drinking.  Meat pies, the full breakfast, coddle and other types of stews, fish and chips, bacon and cabbage, lots of meat, lots of potatoes.  Which is all fine and good, but what stuck out to me the most was the way that these heavier and heartier foods belied an complexity and variety of flavors and textures.

I got into Dublin late Friday night and, after a pint or two at a nearby pub, retired to my hostel along the River Liffey.  The next morning I got up and had the free but also just cold cereal breakfast at my hostel before setting out to explore.  After walking around the Trinity College campus and Grafton Street area, I found myself a bit peckish, and soon happened upon a spot named the Hairy Lemon to try and alleviate said peckishness. 

I ordered the full Irish breakfast and a Guinness, the “full” breakfast living up to its moniker, consisting of one poached egg, two pieces of white bread toast, a piece of brown bread, Irish butter, two thick slices of bacon, white beans in tomato sauce, black pudding (blood sausage), white pudding (less bloody sausage?), sautéed mushrooms, one grilled tomato, two sausages (bangers?), and French fries.

I thought brunch was a big meal. And it was also just very good.  I was surprised by the variety of textures and flavors in a meal that upon first glance seemed like it would be homogenously hearty.  The different sausages were all quite distinct, variously crispy, sweet, and savory, and combined with the tanginess of the tomato, earthiness of the mushrooms, and smoothness of the egg, the dish as a whole was much more dynamic than I expected.

The next day I ended up having a chic re-imagining of the full breakfast at a place called brother hubbard, which I stumbled upon after the place I was originally trying to go was closed.  An over-easy egg was covered with a whipped feta yogurt sauce and topped with sumac and za’atar, all on a bed of cannellini beans and chorizo in a tomato sauce, with sourdough bread on the side.  Take the tangy, savory, crispy thing I described in the last paragraph and add creamy and spicy to that and you have an idea of what this tasted like.  Also, damn good coffee. 

As evidenced by the spice selection, brother hubbard likes to combine Arabic/Middle-Eastern influences into their takes on more traditional Irish fare.  Turkish and Moroccan breakfasts sit alongside smoked salmon sandwiches and an award winning pulled pork bbq sandwich in a menu that is in constant flux and under the direction of some fine food minds.

I also had some most excellent coffee from 3FE, a café located slightly outside of the center, towards the south-east.  I came in primarily to charge my phone, but I ended up having an espresso tasting, two tasty espressos, one from Colombia and one from Bolivia, for 4 €.  All of the coffee is roasted on site in Dublin.   

And lest we forget the local beverage.  The Guinness is better in Dublin. Period.  For no other reason that if you’re in Dublin, you’re probably no further than 5 miles from where the stuff is being made fresh at St. James Gate Brewery. 

The best pint I had the entire trip was from the Brazen Head, Ireland’s oldest pub, dating from 1192.  The smoothness, the notes of chocolate, the toastiness of the malt, the way the whole process of pouring a pint takes a good two minutes or so is a wholly inimitable experience.  I saw a van driving around Dublin with GUINNESS QUALITY TESTERS written on the side.  They take their beer very seriously. Blessed be.