Here fishy, fishy, fishy...

OMG the food is so good here.  Every time I come it improves! I might have a food baby.  I know, I know what you are thinking.  It is probably a Guinness baby.  NO, I had the Guinness baby last week.  But when traveling Ireland the fish offerings are incredible.  Fresh out of the sea there is not a fishy taste.  Just unbelievably tender, flaky fish.  How can a land-locked, Midwestern, food loving, girl say "No" when it just is there for the taking? The Irish pride themselves on local produce too.   In their temperate, rainy land produce grows virtually year round.

Tonight we ate at the Cornstore  in Cork City and had the early bird special with three courses.  Mussels in a garlic vermouth broth. They were LARGE mussels. Incredible meaty things.  Yumm! And that was just the appetizer.  Dinner was baked salmon with organic onion and pea risotto and sauteed spinach. Dessert was sticky toffee pudding.  Stuffed at this point, there was no turning back, I just snarfed down that incredible delight. Well, I did let Laura have two bites!  Thank God for elastic waist pants.  Traveling with a foodie like Laura Laiben of the Culinary Center is delightful and painful.  She can advise and choose on menus, restaurants and food like nobodies business. A culinary tour with her has really opened my eyes to the gastric Ireland and I want more!

Check out the fresh seafood market in Westport County Mayo.  The seafood monger brings this fresh, not frozen daily.  The taste is almost as if I have never eaten fish before. What a gift to be able to eat fresh fish like this regularly?  And the Irishmen I have talked with often just go catch their own own in the lake and seas around their home, especially the mussels, so no cost, no $$ at all.  That has to be something my ancestral unconscious memories long for. Food, good and free!  And I might not need to watch the waistline either.  Isn't fish diet food? Yep, you best think about eating in Ireland. The soup is incredible. The fish is unbelievable. Oh yeah and wash it down with a Guinness or Irish Coffee! Slainte.