A stroll through an Irish supermarket

[dianeduane]

For those of you who may be interested:

The Irish recipe pages at our European Cuisines website are constantly getting search-engine hits from people asking "What do Irish people eat?". With that in mind, we've put a new page up that talks about the subject -- in very broad strokes -- and links to a Flickr photoset of images from our local supermarket, Gillespies' SuperValu of Baltinglass, County Wicklow. (You can also view the images as a slideshow, if you like.) Anyway, if you've been wondering what a small-town supermarket in Ireland might offer, here's your chance to find out.

There are also links on the "What do Irish people eat?" page to our Irish recipe collections, if you're interested.

 

 

 

Comments

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Making a splash over here recently are Irish cheeses--mainly white Cheddars (and a perfectly magnificent Irish "Swiss" that's going to have a permanent home in my fridge)--but not many native ones outside of a few flavored cheddars, even in specialty shops. I've already given up all hope of finding any native Polish cheeses outside of a vacation in Kraków. Locally, there's a fairly large Irish festival (http://www.dublinirishfestival.org/) but I can't say I've noticed the food because as soon as I hear the music, I forget about eating. Uilleann pipes get me every single time...

[dduane.livejournal.com]

(heh heh, re the pipes) The Irish cheeses are slowly making their way over -- the problem being that some of them are raw-milk cheeses and therefore (I think?) now illegal in the US. Interestingly, though, when you're exiting Ireland via Dublin Airport, I've started to see at least one retailer -- Wright's of Howth -- carrying foods that have been pre-approved for import into the US by the USDA. Some cheeses have been among these.

And yeah, we do a good "Emmenthal" here. :) And many other clones. Interestingly, though, pretty much the one cheese that the Irish have tried to clone and failed is Monterey Jack -- their first efforts came out very much like cheddar, and tanked. So I still have to either bring it home from NY with me, or make it from scratch.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Some raw-milk cheeses are available, but you have to look for them--and I don't know if they're imported or domestic. Fortunately, not only do I have a Wild Oats (http://www.wildoats.com) and a Whole Foods (http://www.wholefoods.com/) and a Trader Joe's (http://www.traderjoes.com/) all in the neighborhood, but also a top-notch specialty and gourmet market (http://www.northmarket.com/) and if I feel like driving for two hours, there's the ultimate foodie's paradise, Jungle Jim's (http://www.junglejims.com).

I used to be able to get an unpasteurized Stilton that wasn't so much a cheese as it was a religious experience, but the supply has either dried up or it can't be imported anymore. Recently had a raw-milk gorgonzola dolce that made a bleu cheese dressing of such flavor that I'd swear I heard the salad singing hallelujah.

[spiritdancer]

I suspect the problem is actually importing the raw-milk cheeses, unless everyone involved in the making of that cheese has going thru some rather vigorous documentation and licensing. Mostly based on various diseases (off the top of my head, hoof & mouth disease, and tuberculosis), hence one of the rules being how long the cheese must have aged before import.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

It's a risk I'm willing to take. :) The difference between raw and pasteurized is definitely there. There are few forms of bliss easier reached than a bit of Stilton with fresh, crips pear.