Ireland’s relationship with take away food.

weldoninhio

McCrack wrote: »

No for CSO/policing and government statistics - helps form policing/security policy & resources both locally and nationally

Yeah nah, I’d rather not waste my time.

Shenshen

LirW wrote: »

One thing I've witnessed compared to other parts of Europe is that Ireland has no culture of passing down cooking knowledge to the younger generation. There is a awful lot of people out there that genuinely don't know about kitchen basics. Nowadays this knowledge is easily accessible on the Internet, which is great.
Irish food lacks seasoning, a lot of it (and you see that in the older generation) is overcooked and pickyness seems to be passed on to children.
I'm going so far and say that the current generation of parents is the first one to get really adventurous with food and flavours and this influences the children.
I know so many people that never had the experience as children to grow up in a multigenerational kitchen, where everyone had a job and everyone's working away on some tasks. The amount of knowledge I gained from that that you don't find in books is big.

I believe that your first experiences with food are a foundation for later in life, if you never learned it, you'll have a hard time to find joy in it or appreciate making time for cooking food from scratch. Sometimes I really crave a takeaway, but I always get into the kitchen and cook and once I'm full I'm really happy I didn't go for chippy food. Nowadays I get takeaway when I'm in Dublin and have more choice of ethnic takeaway that I don't have here.

Edit: also I see a big missed opportunity here in Ireland growing veg and fruit. Everyone wants to have a garden for the kids and so many end up not being used once the kids start playing with the children that live nearby. Get a small greenhouse, involve the children in a bit of gardening, some veg is so low maintenance and easy to grow. I made the experience that involving them makes them appreciate it more because they see the process from the seeds to the harvest.
I get it's not everyone's cup of tea but I'm incredibly surprised that it's not done a lot more around here, the climate for both summer and winter veg is really good and so many people have gardens.

I honestly couldn't agree more.
Growing up, my gran had a kitchen garden, my other gran had a kitchen garden, they grew and preserved nearly all the fruit and veg they'd eat. The leftover fruit was turned into cider or Schnapps.
We lived in an appartment, but we had tomatoes and lettuce on the balcony, and herbs in pots in the kitchen. A lot of our friends who'd live in houses without gardens had allotments.

The notion of a garden that's just lawn and - at a stretch - some ornamental shrubs puzzles me. I'm using ours to grow all the fruit and veg I miss because the shops here don't sell them.

And yes, cooking was done by the whole family. But then, the kitchens I grew up with were all what you'd call kitchen/diners, the family would essentially live there. The cooking wasn't hidden away in a small kitchen you couldn't sit down in, it was at the centre of family life.
Which was a fantastic way of sharing ideas and recipes, when I'd visit a friends house, I'd cook with the family there and always learned a thing or two. Basically, the children were essential in increasing the cooking knowledge of any family

Cupcake_Crisis

I’d bloody love a spicebag now

Graces7

LirW wrote: »

Edit: also I see a big missed opportunity here in Ireland growing veg and fruit. Everyone wants to have a garden for the kids and so many end up not being used once the kids start playing with the children that live nearby. Get a small greenhouse, involve the children in a bit of gardening, some veg is so low maintenance and easy to grow. I made the experience that involving them makes them appreciate it more because they see the process from the seeds to the harvest.
I get it's not everyone's cup of tea but I'm incredibly surprised that it's not done a lot more around here, the climate for both summer and winter veg is really good and so many people have gardens.

Agree totally. I am still managing to grow and the difference in taste and freshness

Happiest years were my island years of hens, a goat and all my own vegetables

I grew up in post war England and we all had been raised to "dig for victory" . to grow feed, keep hens

Graces7

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

I’d bloody love a spicebag now

I have no idea what they are no desire to know! Sound terrible... ;)

suicide_circus

Ireland has no food culture or even a cuisine to speak of. Food is plain fuel and soakage, nothing more. The idea that an island surrounded by rich fishing grounds could suffer a devastating famine killing a million people is just mind boggling. You can go to any part of the coast and literally pick up shellfish, crab and seaweed with your bare hands. I'm not sure how our dysfunctional relationship with food started but I'll play it safe and blame the Brits.

suicide_circus

Graces7 wrote: »

I have no idea what they are no desire to know! Sound terrible... ;)

Spice Bag was the less attractive fifth member of 90s pop group The Spice Girls.

Graces7

Shenshen wrote: »

I honestly couldn't agree more.
Growing up, my gran had a kitchen garden, my other gran had a kitchen garden, they grew and preserved nearly all the fruit and veg they'd eat. The leftover fruit was turned into cider or Schnapps.
We lived in an appartment, but we had tomatoes and lettuce on the balcony, and herbs in pots in the kitchen. A lot of our friends who'd live in houses without gardens had allotments.

The notion of a garden that's just lawn and - at a stretch - some ornamental shrubs puzzles me. I'm using ours to grow all the fruit and veg I miss because the shops here don't sell them.

And yes, cooking was done by the whole family. But then, the kitchens I grew up with were all what you'd call kitchen/diners, the family would essentially live there. The cooking wasn't hidden away in a small kitchen you couldn't sit down in, it was at the centre of family life.


Which was a fantastic way of sharing ideas and recipes, when I'd visit a friends house, I'd cook with the family there and always learned a thing or two. Basically, the children were essential in increasing the cooking knowledge of any family

Only thing to do with a lawn is dig it up. It really is. On the other island I literally flayed it; took the top layer of grass off.

anewme

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

I’d bloody love a spicebag now

Can be home made (relatively)healthy as well.

Might make one myself.

LirW

suicide_circus wrote: »

Ireland has no food culture or even a cuisine to speak of. Food is plain fuel and soakage, nothing more. The idea that an island surrounded by rich fishing grounds could suffer a devastating famine killing a million people is just mind boggling. You can go to any part of the coast and literally pick up shellfish, crab and seaweed with your bare hands. I'm not sure how our dysfunctional relationship with food started but I'll play it safe and blame the Brits.

For real, I said it many times. So many countries have a few dishes every child knows, but what is it in Ireland? Bacon and cabbage? Anything that has Guinness in it?

Second point I also don't get, fish is omnipresent around the island yet people live off chicken. Every Irish person I know has some sort of fish-disliking, be it red fish, shellfish or any fish that isn't battered. Irish fish really is good, whenever my dad visits he lives off fresh fish here.

kweeveen86

weldoninhio wrote: »

Italy yes, but we drink less than the French and in and around the same as the Spanish per capita. So no “massive difference”.

Food culture and drink culture are pretty much one and the same in those countries was my point.

Cupcake_Crisis

anewme wrote: »

Can be home made (relatively)healthy as well.

Might make one myself.

Have done it many times, tasty enough. But when you’re absolutely hanging there’s few things nicer than a spice bag

Billy86

On one hand we seem like we've taken pretty bigsteps in thelast 15 years to so towards diets.

On the other hand, when it snowed we have 5 hours queues for people looking to get a loaf of bread. Is that because they live on chippers etc and don't have a concept of how to cook otherwise, or is it because people don't know how to cook one of the easier and cheaper foodstuffs to make from scratch?

I mean the memes were funny and it's not like it's the worst thing in the history of the world or anything, but those queues were fairly troubling/perplexing.

Billy86

LirW wrote: »

For real, I said it many times. So many countries have a few dishes every child knows, but what is it in Ireland? Bacon and cabbage? Anything that has Guinness in it?

Second point I also don't get, fish is omnipresent around the island yet people live off chicken. Every Irish person I know has some sort of fish-disliking, be it red fish, shellfish or any fish that isn't battered. Irish fish really is good, whenever my dad visits he lives off fresh fish here.

I agree with the fish part which is really strange to me, but we do have a national cuisine. Irish stew is famous the world over (always surprises me how often it gets brought up as something people really want to try when I'm abroad), and many friends from abroad I've had over have raved about both the quality of food and many of the dishes themselves. It's quite samey and can get old pretty quick, and personally I much prefer spicier stuff like Indian/Caribbean/Asian foods, but I don't know that it's fair to say we don't have a cuisine of our own. Then again, it's also quite difficult to tell what came from here and what came from the UK.

Whispered

I got a few sliced pans because I was worried the power, gas or water could go and cooking wouldn't be an option. Plus there is little in life as good as a well made sandwich

Billy86 wrote: »

On one hand we seem like we've taken pretty bigsteps in thelast 15 years to so towards diets.

On the other hand, when it snowed we have 5 hours queues for people looking to get a loaf of bread. Is that because they live on chippers etc and don't have a concept of how to cook otherwise, or is it because people don't know how to cook one of the easier and cheaper foodstuffs to make from scratch?

I mean the memes were funny and it's not like it's the worst thing in the history of the world or anything, but those queues were fairly troubling/perplexing.

LirW

Billy86 wrote: »

I agree with the fish part which is really strange to me, but we do have a national cuisine. Irish stew is famous the world over (always surprises me how often it gets brought up as something people really want to try when I'm abroad), and many friends from abroad I've had over have raved about both the quality of food and many of the dishes themselves. It's quite samey and can get old pretty quick, and personally I much prefer spicier stuff like Indian/Caribbean/Asian foods, but I don't know that it's fair to say we don't have a cuisine of our own. Then again, it's also quite difficult to tell what came from here and what came from the UK.

I do get that but the downside of it is that this doesn't reflect on what people really eat. I'm a fan of stews myself but many pubs don't even serve them around the country and it's not really a part of the Irish diet either, which is a pity.
Other ethnic cuisines reflect the diet of the country very well.

I often get the feeling that there is some sort of laziness (nothing wrong with take away, we all crave it from time to time) and resigning over food. Bread is another good example. I really struggle to find good decent bread here in supermarkets. Easier to make your own, since there is no bakery anywhere close by. I can't do these dry, overly wheaty and tasteless pre-sliced pans.

Graces7

LirW wrote: »

For real, I said it many times. So many countries have a few dishes every child knows, but what is it in Ireland? Bacon and cabbage? Anything that has Guinness in it?

Second point I also don't get, fish is omnipresent around the island yet people live off chicken. Every Irish person I know has some sort of fish-disliking, be it red fish, shellfish or any fish that isn't battered. Irish fish really is good, whenever my dad visits he lives off fresh fish here.

Irish fish is very expensive. I love it but a rare treat.

Makes me smile re living off chicken. In post was UK ie 1940 and 50s. chicken was a once a year treat, and our Christmas dinner. Unless you grew your own, Eggs were precious.
Main meat was beef. Sunday dinner was roast beef, cold cuts Monday, rissoles Tuesday..Always fresh vegetables, carrots, turnips, greens, potatoes. Fish once a week.

World events shape diet.

Here on the island they still gather mussels and winkles.

_Dara_

unkel wrote: »

That's the weird paradox. Poor people spend lots of money on expensive take away food while middle class people spend a fraction of that cooking healthy meals at home

I think a lot of it is to do with laziness. Poor people tend to be lazy people. Middle class people tend to be hard workers. Don't flame me for this, we all know it's true

Jeremy Clarkson once described driving around in the City of London at 4:30 AM on a weekday. Traffic was quiet, but he saw loads of Porsches and Ferraris. That's the ambitious hard working people going to extremely demanding but very well paid work.

This has to be a parody post.

Galwayguy35

suicide_circus wrote: »

Ireland has no food culture or even a cuisine to speak of. Food is plain fuel and soakage, nothing more. The idea that an island surrounded by rich fishing grounds could suffer a devastating famine killing a million people is just mind boggling. You can go to any part of the coast and literally pick up shellfish, crab and seaweed with your bare hands. I'm not sure how our dysfunctional relationship with food started but I'll play it safe and blame the Brits.

The famine was caused but an over reliance on potatoes and when they were hit with blight the people had nothing else to eat, it also didn't help that the Brits exported food produced here while our people died by the side of the road and were so hungry they even ate grass.

weldoninhio

Graces7 wrote: »

Irish fish is very expensive. I love it but a rare treat.

Makes me smile re living off chicken. In post was UK ie 1940 and 50s. chicken was a once a year treat, and our Christmas dinner. Unless you grew your own, Eggs were precious.
Main meat was beef. Sunday dinner was roast beef, cold cuts Monday, rissoles Tuesday..Always fresh vegetables, carrots, turnips, greens, potatoes. Fish once a week.

World events shape diet.

Here on the island they still gather mussels and winkles.

You grew your own chickens?? WTF?!?

Shenshen

LirW wrote: »

I do get that but the downside of it is that this doesn't reflect on what people really eat. I'm a fan of stews myself but many pubs don't even serve them around the country and it's not really a part of the Irish diet either, which is a pity.
Other ethnic cuisines reflect the diet of the country very well.

I often get the feeling that there is some sort of laziness (nothing wrong with take away, we all crave it from time to time) and resigning over food. Bread is another good example. I really struggle to find good decent bread here in supermarkets. Easier to make your own, since there is no bakery anywhere close by. I can't do these dry, overly wheaty and tasteless pre-sliced pans.

I think that is a very fair point - in other countries, the local cuisine is what people actually eat on an everyday basis. In Ireland, it seems to be more what people used to eat, 2 or 3 generations ago.
It's usually being served in places catering to tourists, not in places Irish people go to eat regularly.

When people come visit me here, they quite often ask what local dishes they "have" to try (Irish cuisine isn't all that well known outside of the Anglosphere, I'm afraid) - and other than an Irish stew and an Irish breakfast, I usually can't think of much.

Though I have started introducing visitors to curry chips.
Make of that what you will

LirW

Shenshen wrote: »

When people come visit me here, they quite often ask what local dishes they "have" to try (Irish cuisine isn't all that well known outside of the Anglosphere, I'm afraid) - and other than an Irish stew and an Irish breakfast, I usually can't think of much.

Though I have started introducing visitors to curry chips.
Make of that what you will

Likewise really! And in many more rural pubs they wouldn't even serve stews but hey, you can get a heartburn-chicken curry and chips.
It would rather be good restaurants that I'd take people to, but not because you get traditional food there.
I already said, if you want tradition, go to the local chippy at midnight

_Kaiser_

I've no interest in food beyond solving that "I'm hungry" feeling, and you know.. Living!

I also work pretty long hours, live alone, and the last thing I want to do after a busy day is start cooking a big or elaborate meal when it'll be eaten in 20 minutes.

Despite that though and my office job I have an average figure. But then I don't pig out on anything, rarely drink at all anymore, and could easily go most of the day without eating (a typical workday consists of a latte around half 10, lunch/dinner at 1,and that will be it except for maybe some snacking when I get home).

Some people are just more predisposed to excess and weight gain than others maybe?

anewme

Takes me about 5 -10 mins when I get home to make an Omelette or stir fry. I prefer to cook fresh rather than batch cook.

boombang

I live in a working class inner city Dublin neighborhood. Local families have accounts at the chipper and kids call in to pick up the orders. If this is your MO for routinely feeding your family you shouldn't be surprised if you're all massive.

Don't think you need to be Einstein to know that that food is not good for you.

_Kaiser_

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I've no interest in food beyond solving that "I'm hungry" feeling, and you know.. Living!

I also work pretty long hours, live alone, and the last thing I want to do after a busy day is start cooking a big or elaborate meal when it'll be eaten in 20 minutes.

Despite that though and my office job I have an average figure. But then I don't pig out on anything, rarely drink at all anymore, and could easily go most of the day without eating (a typical workday consists of a latte around half 10, lunch/dinner at 1,and that will be it except for maybe some snacking when I get home).

Some people are just more predisposed to excess and weight gain than others maybe?

If anyone ate that little they would be slim to average weight. People who eat more are heavier it’s simple science.

If you don't exercise & the dinner and evening snacks amount to about 2000 calories thatd be enough to maintain an average figure.

If the lunchtime dinner isn't homemade it could well be calorie dense. Evening snack could be anything.

Healthy & nutritious food isn't hard to make.... a 3 egg omelette with two tomatoes is about 300kcal but full of nutrients

_Kaiser_

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I've no interest in food beyond solving that "I'm hungry" feeling, and you know.. Living!

I also work pretty long hours, live alone, and the last thing I want to do after a busy day is start cooking a big or elaborate meal when it'll be eaten in 20 minutes.

Despite that though and my office job I have an average figure. But then I don't pig out on anything, rarely drink at all anymore, and could easily go most of the day without eating (a typical workday consists of a latte around half 10, lunch/dinner at 1,and that will be it except for maybe some snacking when I get home).

Some people are just more predisposed to excess and weight gain than others maybe?

If anyone ate that little they would be slim to average weight. People who eat more are heavier it’s simple science.

Vladimir Poontang

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

Ya we get a lot of **** weather but there's nothing to stop you throwing on a jacket or whatever it won't kill you.

No it won't but Id rather spend my free time enjoying myself in comfort.

Standing in the pisding rain and wind is not fun

Vladimir Poontang

One eyed Jack wrote: »

We're not actually unhealthy as a nation is your answer. We're far more informed about our diet and nutrition than previous generations. The vast majority of Irish people lead active and healthy lifestyles so to claim we're "nearly the most obese county in Europe" is just sensationalist nonsense.

What alternate universe are you living in?

Odelay

weldoninhio wrote: »

You grew your own chickens?? WTF?!?

You buy them as chicks and grow them to be bigger chickens.
Where do you think chicken comes form? Tesco?

Hammer89

I don't think it's laziness. It's probably a factor, but to suggest it's the root cause is another example of focusing on the smoke instead of the burning building it's billowing from.

Stress is an overlooked factor in my view. In 2015, over 80% of Irish people said that they felt a work-related stress, which is obviously going to have a knock-on effect in their personal lives. That knock-on effect may involve a lack of time and or motivation to prepare a nutritious, homecooked meal, so the delicious and very convenient takeaway becomes a lot more popular. What used to be a treat is now happening several times a week and although it tastes good, it doesn't feel good; you feel bloated, rotten, moody, but these types of foods can be a sedative and numb such feelings on a temporary basis, so you compound the problem by eating them again and sooner or later you're just stuck in a cycle.

And then you step on the scales, and you see that you've gained a stone out of nowhere, even though 11 lbs of that might be water from the huge increase in sodium into your diet and three lbs might be actual fat, but you're too inexperienced to realise that, so you vow to lose the stone that you didn't actually gain, and if you slip up on a Tuesday afternoon, which you might because remember you're stressed, then you won't get back on the horse until the following Monday, giving you an additional five cheat days to eat whatever you want.

Before long, you will have gained a stone of fat, and more, but by then you're already on that downward slope and it can be profoundly difficult to halt that decline.

weldoninhio

Odelay wrote: »

You buy them as chicks and grow them to be bigger chickens.
Where do you think chicken comes form? Tesco?

You rear animals, you grow vegetables

Vladimir Poontang

Chippers are to skangers as potatoes were to the Irish in the famine.

Bring back the famine, cull the skangers.

You're welcome

mohawk

LirW wrote: »

Second point I also don't get, fish is omnipresent around the island yet people live off chicken. Every Irish person I know has some sort of fish-disliking, be it red fish, shellfish or any fish that isn't battered. Irish fish really is good, whenever my dad visits he lives off fresh fish here.

The problem here is the Irish mammy. They overcooked everything from vegetables to meat and fish. Chicken survives this overcooking process and remains edible. Overcooked breaded fish from the freezer doesn't taste great.

It is an absolute revelation to grow up buy some fresh fish and cook it just right. Serve with non overcooked veggies.

fawltyBas

This is a welsh public information film about take aways:pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-S_W_mWT9c

Crea

Hammer89 wrote: »

Ireland has a gross misunderstanding about obesity, and if you don't believe me then click out of this thread and check back in about a week and you'll see for yourself.

Personally, I don't think Ireland has an obesity problem. Only a fool would deny the rising rates of obesity, but that's not strictly the problem. It's not the problem because obesity is a result of long-term over eating, but long-term over eating is a result of something else and whatever the driving force is, that's your epidemic, that's what you want to focus on.

I think Irish people are pretty unhappy for the most part. You can tell me about the World Happiness Report, and how we do well on it, but our rates of suicide and binge drinking, and now over eating, completely betray what some Index says about Irish people.

I would say we have a few problems:

1. We are time poor. With both parents working convenience and fast food are the fall back options when a meal needs to be prepared.
2. We haven't a clue about nutrition. It isn't taught at all in primary school and unless you do Home Ec in secondary you won't know about it either. It should be a compulsory subject for TY.
3. We are not into self denial - we drink and eat to excess. Being hungry is seen as a bad thing and if hungry the first thing we reach for is junk.
4. Laziness - in the time it takes to ring the Chinese and collect it you'll have grilled a chop and boiled some broccoli and salad potatoes or made a stir fry.

Tbh - I think laziness and lack of education is most of it.

meeeeh

I grew up in one of those everyone helps in the kitchen and grow your own households. Unlike others in the thread I hate gardening, I always did and while I could cook some stuff I only started properly cooking after I moved to Ireland. However the variety of food we would eat at home was probably a lot bigger than in my husband's family although his mother is a very good cook. I'm not such a fan of some traditional food, a lot of dishes are very heavy and need long time to cook which is great if you spend whole day working in the fields but total overkill for lifestyle most people have. There is nothing wrong with modern lighter international cuisine and you can get excellent food in Ireland. The problem is a lot of people don't eat it. Ireland and UK have much bigger segregation of people from different classes so different attitudes to food are much more pronounced.

I wouldn't overly celebrate attitude to food in other countries in comparison to Ireland. Greece and Italy have huge problems with child obesity and anyone who found themselves in central European supermarket would be flored by choice of hugely processed sugary yoghurts that are sold as a healthy option. Problem here is that supermarkets get away with selling much worse quality of fruit and that a bit more adventurous attitude to food especially fish is needed. But unhealthy eating is problem everywhere.

Graces7

weldoninhio wrote: »

You grew your own chickens?? WTF?!?

Yeeeeeeeees. You .. well, did no one ever tell you .... Oh GO ON with you!

Graces7

Odelay wrote: »

You buy them as chicks and grow them to be bigger chickens.
Where do you think chicken comes form? Tesco?

Nooooooooo. The daddy chicken and the mummy chicken... eggs... chicks....

Graces7

weldoninhio wrote: »

You rear animals, you grow vegetables

Nah! Believe me, you grow chickens.. from... seed ...

paddylonglegs

In my small village I can count 6 takeaways and was at 9 at one stage, and triple that will deliver to my village. The option is there so people use it. The option is there to say ‘ah will we just get a takeaway’ because it’s available. All the takeaways offer a different food so you have a huge choice. If there was 9 pubs in the village that offered the same type of drink, all 9 would not be open still.

It’s actually frightening how much we rely on fast food. A lot of people don’t enjoy cooking and have difficulty coming up with dinner ideas outside spag bol or chicken kievs.

Graces7

meeeeh wrote: »

I grew up in one of those everyone helps in the kitchen and grow your own households. Unlike others in the thread I hate gardening, I always did and while I could cook some stuff I only started properly cooking after I moved to Ireland. However the variety of food we would eat at home was probably a lot bigger than in my husband's family although his mother is a very good cook. I'm not such a fan of some traditional food, a lot of dishes are very heavy and need long time to cook which is great if you spend whole day working in the fields but total overkill for lifestyle most people have. There is nothing wrong with modern lighter international cuisine and you can get excellent food in Ireland. The problem is a lot of people don't eat it. Ireland and UK have much bigger segregation of people from different classes so different attitudes to food are much more pronounced.

I wouldn't overly celebrate attitude to food in other countries in comparison to Ireland. Greece and Italy have huge problems with child obesity and anyone who found themselves in central European supermarket would be flored by choice of hugely processed sugary yoghurts that are sold as a healthy option. Problem here is that supermarkets get away with selling much worse quality of fruit and that a bit more adventurous attitude to food especially fish is needed. But unhealthy eating is problem everywhere.

Beg to disagree. The quality of produce in our big supermarkets is superb .
Many here eat very healthily. And my generation knew how to cook. And to shop.

Graces7

paddylonglegs wrote: »

In my small village I can count 6 takeaways and was at 9 at one stage, and triple that will deliver to my village. The option is there so people use it. The option is there to say ‘ah will we just get a takeaway’ because it’s available. All the takeaways offer a different food so you have a huge choice. If there was 9 pubs in the village that offered the same type of drink, all 9 would not be open still.

It’s actually frightening how much we rely on fast food. A lot of people don’t enjoy cooking and have difficulty coming up with dinner ideas outside spag bol or chicken kievs.

That is staggering, and costs? ( Never had takeaway). Simple cooking is easy enough. Both my parents worked yet we had a good home cooked meal every evening.

paddylonglegs

Graces7 wrote: »

That is staggering, and costs? ( Never had takeaway). Simple cooking is easy enough. Both my parents worked yet we had a good home cooked meal every evening.

Me too, I grew up in the country, we were 7 miles from a take away,we might have got a take away once a month as a treat. my mother was also a homemaker so we always had dinner waiting for us when we got home. It’s not so much that way anymore for families.

chite

suicide_circus wrote: »

Ireland has no food culture or even a cuisine to speak of. Food is plain fuel and soakage, nothing more. The idea that an island surrounded by rich fishing grounds could suffer a devastating famine killing a million people is just mind boggling. You can go to any part of the coast and literally pick up shellfish, crab and seaweed with your bare hands. I'm not sure how our dysfunctional relationship with food started but I'll play it safe and blame the Brits.

Yeah maybe, given that food was being exported to the UK from here back in the day. According to Cecil Blanche Woodham-Smith, who wrote "The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849", there's a bit in it that addresses this:

"The primitive boats and curraghs in which the Irish fished, combined with the hazards of the 'tremendous coast', made regular fishing difficult; the Irish fisherman could never go out in bad weather, and was often kept on shore for weeks at a time. He then depended for food on his potatoes — though the seas might be teeming with fish, they were inaccessible to him. The difficulties which had prevented a fishing industry from developing in Ireland remained; the poverty of the county, the want of proper boats, the remoteness from a market, the dangers of the 'tremendous coast' in the west. In many places trawling was declared to be impossible, owing to the rocky and foul nature of the sea bottom; in others for part of the season the fishermen had to row twenty-five miles to the fishing grounds; the weather was unreliable, and small boats, curraghs especially, laden with their catch were difficult to bring in when a squall blew up. Fish-curing stations could not operate economically when the supply of fish was not regular, nor did it prove easy to dispose of finished product; a number of stations had cured fish left on their hands."

LirW wrote: »

For real, I said it many times. So many countries have a few dishes every child knows, but what is it in Ireland? Bacon and cabbage? Anything that has Guinness in it?

Second point I also don't get, fish is omnipresent around the island yet people live off chicken. Every Irish person I know has some sort of fish-disliking, be it red fish, shellfish or any fish that isn't battered. Irish fish really is good, whenever my dad visits he lives off fresh fish here.

In one line, the fishing industry had less vested political interest < than agriculture, as shown by what happened when Ireland joined the EEC in 1973, and it was a shambles with quotas and how the state dealt with the CFP. All of this would have had a knock-on effect on Irish people's diets I reckon, perceptions (the smell of it?) and the higher cost of fish compared to meat even though we should eat way more fish for our health than meat.

Love fish myself, esp making salmon curry. Throw in chopped onion, veg, fish, tin of chopped tomatoes and/or coconut milk + spices - chilli, paprika, etc. from any supermarket. Alternatively bags of spices from Independent Irish Health Food Ltd are v recommended, huge varieties of spices that really deliver on flavour which you can get in health food shops.
No excuses Patww79 , it's much nicer than a wagamamas takeway I got once.

juneg

We had a green house when kids were small but the wind buckled the frame and eventually had to take it down. I wasn't expecting that it would only last a few years. I don't know how polytunnels survive the winter winds to be honest.

Graces7

Graces7 wrote: »

That is staggering, and costs? ( Never had takeaway). Simple cooking is easy enough. Both my parents worked yet we had a good home cooked meal every evening.

A main meal from a takeaway would be at least €6 for chicken curry & boiled rice from a Chinese. Typically €8 would be average.

My local Italian Irish chipper partook in the half price fish & chips day a couple of weeks ago €4.50 so usually €9.

To be fair many Chinese take meals are large, a breast if chicken curry meal with rice & a portion of chips would be plenty for two people or even parents and a child. For a change / treat not bad for a tenner ish to be fair.

Galwayguy35

A curry chip used to be grand after a feed of pints when it was kicking out time in the clubs.

Supermacs used to be more dangerous for the head than the heart at 2am on a Sat night though, a lot of fellas turned into Ivan Drago if you looked sideways at them.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.