A real taste of Ireland in Cork county
Anna Blackaby samples the fresh air and culinary delights of a beautiful Irish county on the Atlantic coast
Cork is a foodie’s dream. Thanks to its location at the head of a natural harbour sheltered from the Atlantic, combined with the rich agricultural country which surrounds it, the city has good grounds to claim it is at the centre of Ireland’s slow food movement.
And despite its name, Cork’s English Market is the perfect introduction to the culinary riches of the south west of Ireland.
It’s here that the region’s bakers, farmers, butchers and fish smokers find a platform to show off the fruit of their labours, appealing to the senses of the market’s shoppers who range from tourists and students to local pensioners looking for their evening meal.
Traditional Irish dishes like Drisheen – a type of blood pudding made from a mixture of sheep and beef – sit easily alongside Mediterranean olives and takeaway Thai curries.
The name of the market harks back to a less happy time during the 18th century when only Protestants could hold stalls selling to English buyers, with the price of the produce set too high for the majority of the people in the city.
A glimpse of Cork’s history can also be found in another Cork staple – buttered eggs – which go back to the time when Cork was a major exporter of butter.
Still, today the butter merchants have left their mark on the city in the form of buildings like The Butter Exchange – once the largest butter market in the world, which sold Irish butter to five continents during the 19th century.
And the elegant Imperial Hotel, where we stayed during our visit, also has the butter trade to thank for its existence – it once provided accommodation for merchants who flocked to this thriving trading town.
But it would be wrong to think butter is the only string to Cork’s bow – when you are this close to the Atlantic, it would be criminal to not venture out to the coast to sample the catch of the day.
Kinsale in the west of Cork county provides this opportunity in bucketfuls.
It claims for itself the title of the gourmet capital of Ireland, and who are we to argue?
A regular bus service runs from Cork to the coast, taking less than an hour, and we walk into town from the bus stop past colourfully-painted houses and shops selling locally-grown vegetables.
This medieval fishing port, which in the 17th and 18th centuries was an important English naval base, still has a genteel Georgian air about it.
But as well as its reputation as a deep sea angling and yachting centre, it is its mouth-watering selection of restaurants which help it stand out from your average seaside resort.
