Irish Cuisine: Eating Traditional Side Dishes
Examining Side Orders in Traditional Restaurants and Bars in Dublin
Sep 19, 2008
While the main meat and fish dishes are becoming well known to visitors to Ireland, the traditional side dishes are often overlooked. Three side portions that feature in traditional Irish cuisine are colcannon, champ and Irish soda bread.
Colcannon, Champ and Irish Soda Bread
Chefs in Dublin and in other parts of Ireland will have their own recipe variations for the traditional Irish side dish, colcannon. Eveleen Coyle, based in Dublin, includes two colcannon recipes in her Irish Potato Cookbook (Gill & Macmillan, 1997) The first recipe ingredients are potatoes, cabbage, milk, butter and seasoning and the second recipe uses potatoes, onion, parsley, milk, butter, soda and seasoning.
Champ in Traditional Irish Recipes by George L Thomson (The O’Brien Press Dublin, 1982) is made with boiled potatoes, scallions (also known as spring onions), butter, and seasoning and “adding just enough milk to make it creamy smooth… In olden days, chopped fresh young nettle tops would be used in place of the scallions”.
Regina Sexton in her A Little History of Irish Food (Gill and Macmillan, 1998) writes that “Soda bread must be the most renowned and savoured of all Irish traditional breads… Its popularity may in part be attributed to the fact that when [bicarbonate of] soda is combined with sour milk or buttermilk, it produces a very light and palatable leavened wheat bread.”
Traditional Irish Food, Eating Out in Dublin, Ireland
Every culinary traveller arriving in Dublin, Ireland on a Friday night will want to enter the Christchurch and Temple Bar restaurants and bars knowing about Irish food. Here’s a introduction to three establishments who serve traditional Irish food to culinary travellers to Dublin, Ireland:
- ‘The Brazen Head’ (20 Bridge Street Lower, Dublin 8, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 677 9549) boasts an award-winning restaurant. Established in 1198, 'The Brazen Head' is accepted as Ireland’s oldest public house and brings provenance to the Irish recipes offered to diners in the restaurant and as a bar meal.
- ‘Oliver St John Gogarty’ ( 58/59 Fleet Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 671 1822) serve colcannon with a 6 oz. Farmhouse Irish Large Sausage for 11.95 Euros, serve Corned Beef and Cabbage or bacon and cabbage as main courses with parsley sauce for 14.95 Euros and homemade brown bread with seafood dishes ranging in price from 15.95 Euros.
- ‘Gallagher’s Boxty House’ (20-21 Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel: +353 1 677 2762) offers 14 side dishes ranging in price from 1.50 Euros for Irish Soda Bread, ideal as a side order for coddle, to 5.50 Euros for a House Salad. Most side orders cost 3.50/3.95 Euros and include Murphy’s Mushy Peas, Champ, Colcannon, carrots and parsnips roasted in honey and thyme, sautéed cabbage and homemade herb dumplings.
Irish stew, coddle, steak in Irish stout and potatoes, rabbit pie, avoca, line caught salmon from Ireland, corned beef and cabbage, Irish bacon and traditional Irish large sausage will feature on dinner menu in many establishments in Ireland. Colcannon, champ and Irish soda bread are must try dishes on the side on the culinary journey to Dublin, Ireland.
