Do you fancy Irish breakfast?

Picture 1. Full Irish Breakfast

IRISH BREAKFAST. I've seen this phrase many times, either on a menu list or a small board in front of a restaurant or cafe in Ireland. I didn't know what it consists of, but wasn't curious to order one either. I thought, "Hmm.. It's Ireland, a country where the people LOVE drinking alcohol. I wasn't surprised if the breakfast also contains a taste of it." That's my presumption. :P

One day, I and my friend went to a cafe to have breakfast. We ordered some normal meal for breakfast (I think it was scrambled eggs, hash brown, and a cup of tea if I'm not mistaken). Out of curiosity, I asked the waitress who took our orders about what are in the Irish breakfast. She said a lot of things, which I can't remember all, but I remember saying, "Nice!" when she mentioned pudding (black pudding to be precise). Pudding for breakfast, didn't sound bad at all. I love pudding!

So, what does Irish breakfast have? It has sausages, bacon, one pack of black pudding, one pack of white pudding, eggs, tomatoes, hash brown, mushrooms, and beans (Picture 1). That's quite a big portion for breakfast, isn't it? Well, the size might not matter anymore once you know these two "things/specimens": black and white pudding. I thought pudding always correlates with sweet and spongy dessert with wonderful and mouthwatering taste. Ladies and gentlemen, I was wrong!! >_<

Black Pudding

Picture 2. Black Pudding

Black pudding (Picture 2) is a blend of oatmeal, pork fat, blood (usually from a pig), onions, and flavourings. OK, I don't eat pork, bacon, and their friends.. lol, but blood! I didn't expect that at all! It's official, one pudding has ruined my imagination of what a pudding is supposed to be. >_< What about white pudding?

White Pudding

Picture 3. White Pudding

White pudding (Picture 3) is similar to the black one, but without blood. Sounds better, right? Hold on. My colleague said it's worse. How come? Before I tell you what he said about white pudding, I'm going to let you know a proper recipe I got from the internet. In that recipe, white pudding is a blend of oatmeal, onion, beef suet, onions, spices, and seasoning. Sometimes, people also put pork, sheep's heart, liver, and lungs in it. My colleague said it wouldn't be surprising if you find a white pudding that contains any part/organ of a cow/pig/sheep, like nails, ears, everything! :-o How do you know? They're all blended together. Can you imagine how much saturated fat contained in the pudding?

I found these two puddings in particular very weird. I kinda feel lucky I've never tried one. Well, I guess every country has some unusual meal. To name a few, octopus in Hungary (tastes fine btw), pig's *a** in Portugal (shocking and disgusting!), bats in North Sulawesi (Indonesia), frog juice in Philippines, etc.

Anyway, readers, going back to my first question, after reading this article, do you (still) fancy Irish breakfast? :P

sources of the pictures: thedublinerbangkok.com, farm2table.co.uk, eurobrits.com. 

Posted in: food,stories from Dublin