La gastronomie en Irlande ( en anglais)

IRELAND AND GASTRONOMY

In Ireland I had the opportunity to taste many dishes and products. Thus I have decided to speak about those which influenced me the most.

A. FOOD

a. Porridge

For Breakfast we ate porridge. It is a dish made by boiling cereal oats in water, milk or both. We usually ate it hot in a bowl. We could add sugar or milled Linwood seeds. There were three different milled seed boxes :

-flaxseed, almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts

-flax, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds, goji berries

-organic flaxseed

Linwood is a brand which was founded in 1985 and developed successfully in retail stores across Ireland during the years that followed. It produces a range of healthy super food combinations, many of which contain milled flaxseed.

It was very convenient to flavour porridge. Moreover it was very good. I really liked porridge. Besides it made a substantial breakfast.

b. Soda Bread and Cuisine de France

Soda bread is the common Irish bread. It is very and easy to cook. Only four ingredients are necessary :

-flour which is typically made from soft wheat

-buttermilk

-salt

-bicarbonate of soda

Soda bread comes in two main colors ( brown and white ) and two main types (cake and farl).

As many people in the South of Ireland, my family ate cake soda bread. But we didn't bake it in the oven. We bought it in the supermarket. Usually we ate it as an accompaniement to a main meal.

The doughy part had a floury taste but it was very good.

When we had no soda bread we sometimes ate Cuisine de France products.

Cuisine de France is a producer of French breads and baked goods in the UK and in Ireland. It is very popular.

I could find Cuisine de France products in every supermarket. The taste of the products wasn't as good as the taste of our French bakeries but it was not too bad.

c. Potatoes and Tayto

The potatoe was introduced in Ireland in the late 1500s and became the mainstay of the Irish diet. Unfortunately in the 1840's there was the Irish Potato Famine. Two-thirds of Ireland's potato crops were destroyed, more than one million people died and two million emigrated to other countries. But even though Irish people had suffered through the Irish Potato Famine, Irish people continued to love potatoes.

Nowadays potatoes form the basis for many traditional Irish dishes.They appear at most meals.

Tayto is definitely the major Irish crisp (and popcorn) manufacter.

When I was in Ireland, I noticed that Tayto was so popular that some Irish people used Tayto as a synonym for crisps. My family was really surprised that I had never tasted Tayto's crisps. In supermarkets Tayto crisps came in several flavours : Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, Smokey Bacon, Ready Salted and Prawn Cocktail but the most common was Cheese & Onion.

My host family had a book about Tayto's history so I had the opportunity to read some pages about it. In fact this company was the first to develop a technology to add seasoning during manufacture. Thus they produced the world's first seasoned crisps Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar.

d. Chocolate

I was amazed to notice that Cadbury's

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