Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The traditional breakfast, the “Irish Fry” (known in the North as the “Ulster Fry”), is
a hearty way to start the day—with juice, tea or coffee, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage, a
grilled tomato, sautéed mushrooms, and optional black pudding (made from pigs' blood).
Toast is served with butter and marmalade. Home-baked Irish soda bread can be an am-
brosial eye-opener for those of us raised on Wonder bread. This meal tides many travelers
over until dinner. But there's nothing un-Irish about skipping the “fry”—few locals actu-
ally start their day with this heavy traditional breakfast. You can simply skip the heavier
fare and enjoy the cereal, juice, toast, and tea (surprisingly, the Irish drink more tea per
capita than the British).
When restaurant-hunting, choose a spot filled with locals, not tourists. Venturing even
a block or two off the main drag leads to higher-quality food for less than half the price
of the tourist-oriented places. Locals eat better at lower-rent locales. At classier restaur-
ants, look for “early-bird specials,” which allow you to eat well and affordably, but early
(about 17:30-19:00, last order by 19:00). At a sit-down place with table service, tip about
10 percent—unless the service charge is already listed on the bill. If you order at a counter,
there's no need to tip.
Picnicking saves time and money. Try boxes of orange juice (pure, by the liter), fresh
bread (especially Irish soda bread), tasty Cashel blue cheese, meat, a tube of mustard,
local-eatin' apples, bananas, small tomatoes, a small tub of yogurt (it's drinkable), rice
crackers, trail mix or nuts, plain digestive biscuits (the chocolate-covered ones melt), and
