Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

It's Tuesday , I'm really cheating this week but my father will be here tomorrow and Thursday is Turkey Day... and in light of the holiday I'm taking a break from detailing my trip to talk about Irish food!

There is the famous potato!





lol

ok - let's start with some good old fashioned Corned Beef and Cabbage!
It's usually a brisket, and 'corned' comes from the corn or grains of coarse salt used to cure it. Cabbage is, well, cooked cabbage. It's pretty darn tasty if you ask me!





Irish breakfasts!!

This is what I get for free every morning at Cooney's in Longford. I've had it once at a little diner in the area and it was good, except for the black and white pudding. O_O I'll get to that later.

An Irish breakfast consists of the following: eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, black pudding, white pudding, and hash browns. I guess it can include more things, like soda bread or a tomato, also.




....Alright.... now black & white pudding... skip down to soda bread if you're easily grossed out.

Black pudding is sausage made by cooking it blood (usually pig or cattle blood) with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. (It's also called Blood Pudding.) Yes, I have tried this - and at the time I had NO idea what it was. I didn't like it before I knew and I'm very glad for that. (Here's black pudding on wikipedia if you doubt me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding .)

White Pudding is the same thing, just without the blood. Instead, it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of a large sausage.







And last, but never least - Soda Bread!! I love soda bread. :) It's made simply of flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. You can add raisins or nuts to it. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_bread )






Yummmmmm - warm soda breaaaaaaad :::drool:::

Okay - there's that! Until next week!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!