The Food Scene

We have been loving food tours for a few years now. It is a great way to learn about a city/area of a city and try places we probably would have never found. I have always thought of Irish food as cottage pie, potatoes and stew, Galway Food Tours has changed all that.

Sheena, our amazing tour guide and former chef explained it all to us. Ireland has amazing dairy, meat and produce. Everything is locally sourced and taste like it was just picked. Problem was that until 25 years ago no one really knew how to cook in a way that was not traditional Irish. Then Culinary Irish Folk start traveling to France, Italy and Switzerland learning the tricks of the cheese and meat trades and voila the food scene started. She is on a mission to showcase local Galway and Irish food!

We started at a local coffee shop which is a relatively new concept in a land of tea drinkers we found out. Hipster coffee places are just picking up and from the sample we had, they are good. 2nd stop was a local business that makes pastries and chocolates. For a non chocolate lover they were good but the real highlight was the raspberry croissants made with damn good butter and the raspberry filling was made with raspberries that the owners grow in their back yard. So, so good.

Stop #3 was at 11:15 and was a whiskey sampling of 3 different types with cheese and meat. We had what could be explained as lamb prosciutto which was amazeballs. Like so good I now have a package in my purse. And yes even Ty drank whiskey and before noon. Vacation Ty is spicy. lol.

Stop #4 was maybe the best bang for our buck. We stopped at a famous pub known for the original owner starting what we know now as the SPCA, where we were served a platter of mussels, smoked salmon pate, an oyster, brown bread and a beer. Side bar on brown bread, I am usually not a fan. Brown bread in Canada is nasty. Multigrain is good but brown I can not stand. Irish brown is really yummy. Except that I go in thinking it is pumpernickel and want to make the cringe face but am pleasantly surprised at the end.

We then stopped at a small local restaurant that is known for only cooking with ingredients that can be found in Ireland. We had a small shot of tomatoes so our bodies remembered what vegetables were. Then we were off for ice cream where they had local flavours such as Irish soda break, and Dingle gin and sea salt. I went for the basic strawberry.

All and all a pretty good brunch.Read more