When my grandmother went Kinsale was one of her favorite places, I however was a little less than impressed. I think that Dingle is part to blame for that because it was so quintessentially the old fashioned fishing town, and we went there first so there’s probably some biased. I think it also didn’t help that we went to lunch in the first place we saw because we were starving. We should have made a note that it was a greasy bar that would obviously serve greasy food. The town it seemed had a lot going on, gift shops, boat rides, and all sorts of other activities, but nothing that really sparked our interest. We decided to see the **Fort as it was one of the major historic sights there, but I was loving ancient Ireland, so an 18th century British fort didn’t do a whole lot for me. So we decided to head to Cashel, and get an early start for the next day.

For this leg of the trip as it is still a fishing town I figured I would talk about fish and chips. Now fish and chips are usually prepared as they would be here in the US, but they are typically served with salad, or coleslaw and mushy peas. For this recipe I chose beer battered fish, pea and leak puree, and for lack of a deep fryer fries from a bag. Also I want to note that they do not typically provide ketchup, some places had small packets, but most places did not, so I take it that ketchup is not a typical Irish staple as it is in the US.

Taking in all the sights was actually exhausting; It was literally overwhelming how much there was to see, and how beautiful it all was. Little homes and farms nestled into the rocky hills that sloped down to the massive ocean. Random coves with sandy beaches protected by massive rock outcrops, and closeby islands. Though the day was overcast I honestly think that it added to the beauty of it all, the bright green hills, and the blue ocean with grey skies and white clouds. My pictures cannot do it justice. The drive was only a few short hours, but it was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. I think we could have easily spent several days exploring this area.

That night ended with some more walking around town and a few pints at Murphy’s Pub, where traditional Irish music was played. Here we were able to chat up the bartenders, a brother and sister team that had a good time busting on each other and cracking jokes with patrons. Here some of the cultural differences were very evident. One group ordered shots, and they came in large whiskey glasses instead of shot glasses, as that is not a typical Irish thing. Another patron ordered a gin & tonic with a twist, and the bartender had no idea what that was, so we kind of helped her out. Also they actually apologized for not being able to give me a Smithwick’s glass with my beer, because it seems tradition to supply the proper glass for the proper drink there, which is so not the case back home.

For this portion of the trip I wanted to make White Wine sauce. This sauce was offered all over the country, as well as at our feast at Bunratty where it was served over chicken. For my recipe I put it over fish, as this is a fishing town, and that’s mostly what was offered. I also served it with roasted veggies, and mashed potatoes, as we found were typical of just about every single meal we ordered.

Our first goal of the day, after the breakfast described in the previous post was to make it to the Cliffs of Moher another one of those must see sights on my list. First we entered the visitor’s center which was actually one of my favorites of the trip. I am amazed at how they turned a rock formation into such an interesting and dynamic learning center. There were stations that discussed how the cliffs were formed, the plant and animal life, as well as the weather. There were some really great interactive tables that showed hoe the tectonic plates shifted over time and how they are continuing to shift, and the was that the location of the cliffs moved with this. I really enjoyed it all.

The cliffs themselves were a whole different story; I mean knew they were beautiful, but I had no idea how captivating they could be; a sheer rock face jutting into the ocean, farmland reaching right up to the edge, and wind whipping around everything. It was picturesque Ireland. I think I used more of my card space there on pictures than anywhere else. These pictures truly don’t do it justice. I could have wondered around the cliffs all day had my stomach not started to growl.

After our trip to the cliffs we made it to Bunratty Castle. After a cheap lunch of deli ham, and cheese on brown bread from the local gas station and minimart and finding a place to stay for the night we headed off to the castle and Folk Park for the afternoon. To say the least it was rather disappointing. There were medieval type buildings but without people, or place there to explain it just seems like old or fake old stuff strewn about a fake old house. Other buildings were made to look old but were actually modern convenience shops aimed at tourists. There was a tea house and pub as well. One of the good things was a pottery building where the family that ran it actually made the stuff in the shop. It was probably my favorite part of the actual park.

The feast was a completely different story from the park however. It started out in a large hall where we were served mead and listened to traditional music on the violin and harp. It was during this time that we were asked if we wanted to be the acting lord and lady of the event. I could tell Chuck was going to say no so I said yes very quickly. They pulled us up on the stand and crowned us in front of the whole party. The feast was lively and fun Chuck got to do a little acting and I got to have my awesome vegetable soup again. This was a dish I was so incredibly excited to recreate because it was so good. I did find a recipe that seemed pretty close to what I expected except for a few small details. 1) we asked at the feast what the soup was spiced with and they said curry, so I added about 1 teaspoon of that 2) I roasted my vegetables in the oven before making the soup to get the flavors to come out a little more.

Waking up in Doolin was pretty interesting. It was a gorgeous little fishing town nestled into the hillside. We had our first real Irish Breakfast here. As we found out each Irish Breakfast is a little different but all the basic parts are the same. It starts off with a fried egg, two sausages, two or three slices of rasher bacon, a tomato (cherry, or sliced) that has been cooked, some pan fried mushrooms, black and white puddings, and sometimes what we call hash browns. Sometimes they also include toast. Tea and coffee are always made to order, and you almost always get your own little pot of the stuff, never someone walking around filling your cup for you. We both loved waking up to this every morning, it really was wonderful. Irish bacon, is not like our in that it’s really just like a thin slice of ham, that is fried like bacon, though we found that they even call what we call ham bacon. The sausages were just like dinner sausages, nice and light in flavor, I really loved their sausages, but I will discuss this more later when I give a hand at making them. Now for the puddings; black and white puddings sound gross, and actually taste pretty darn good, once you get past the idea of what you are eating of course. The black pudding is typically made of pigs blood, while white puddings are typically just beef fat, they of course have to some other things mixed in but that’s the main part of it.

Now this was a dish i really wanted to make, but it turned out much more challangeing than i thought. Turns out that no one would seel me pigs blood. Not that i’m emtirely suprised but man the looks on peoples faces when i told them what i wanted to do.

The carved stone outside the entrance

A smaller ancient building a few meters from New Grange