After high school, Mary thought it would be fun to leave the Left Coast (and me) and move to Rochester, NY (upstate New York) for college. A long distance relationship was difficult, but probably more so for our parents when they received the first few cell phone bills.
After five semesters of abusing unlimited night and weekend minutes, we hatched a brilliant lil' scheme to go study abroad together in Ireland. Mary's school had a program based in Dublin, mine did not, but with
Smart.
A lot happened in Dublin from a culinary standpoint. Mary and I were essentially forced into cooking for ourselves each night. We only had a hot plate, two electric burners, a microwave, and a mini fridge to share with three other people at our disposal, so we didn't/couldn't get too creative, but still had fun. Also, very importantly, we discovered the wonders of Spanish chorizo and sweet potatoes (and Haggis while visiting Scotland), so I owe Dublin a big high-five for that.
One culinary breakthrough that blew out collective minds was related to our notion of what breakfast consisted of. We have both been longtime fans of breakfast (really any meal that can weave bacon into it is good). After one fateful trip to London, no future breakfast is complete without beans. You might think we are crazy, as surely as we thought the Brits had lost it, but the plain can o' beans adds a sweet and saucy element to breakfast that fits in so well.
The full traditional Irish/English breakfast includes a combination of eggs, toast/other breakfast breads, beans, sauteed tomatoes and mushrooms, and rashers (cross between bacon and ham) or black/white pudding (blood sausage). We brought this breakfast feast back with us and make it on weekend mornings very regularly.
While everyone naturally associates Guinness with Ireland, the "local secret" we brought back was Smithwicks, a fantastic alternative to Guinness that is only available around St. Patrick's Day, and goes great with Rugby at 7am. Just be sure not to pronounce the "h" or the "w" as that is a giveaway that you aren't part of the Smithwicks "in" crowd.
On the non-food and drink front, we were introduced to one of the greatest sporting events ever: the 6 Nations Rugby Championship. Each team only plays five games over six weeks, so each game is important and the level of national pride is incredible. We spent over six hours watching a full days worth of games on several occasions, and six years later, still don't know what is going on half the time.
After returning to the States, we found a local Irish bar that plays the live feeds for the tournament each year. Due to my tax season work schedule, and the fact that the game start around 6:30am on a Saturday morning, we are only able to catch one day's worth of games each year. Fortunately, we found out this year that that BBC America was showing one game each weekend, with the St. Patrick's Day game being Ireland v. England.
As a final note, I'm just going to put this out there: St. Patrick's Day in Dublin sucks. It is terrible. The city gets flooded with tourists, every store jacks up their prices, there is a nice parade, but all the "traditional" Irish activities are also available to experience every other weekend out of the year too, with less dumb drunk people. In talking with many locals, since it is an extended holiday weekend, most people take the time to travel outside of Ireland and escape from the crazy. The highlight though, while walking to class along the Grand Canal, Mary and I passed an Irishman who stopped us with this conversation:
Man, gesturing at the canal: "Hey, is that water green?
Us, confused and looking closer at the water: "Um, yeah, it looks kind of green."
Man, chuckling and walking away: "Paddy's Day....."
So how does all this relate to anything? Glad you asked...
Hybrid Irish/English breakfast, on St. Patrick's Day, drinking Smithwicks, watching Ireland v. England play their annual 6 Nations match, sans the green water.
Also know as a perfect Saturday.
--Isaac.
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