Gastroanthropology

Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry, Ireland

Thanksgiving is maybe one of the most difficult days to spend in a foreign country. Doing an entire Thanksgiving Dinner in two hours after work is a challenge. Going to work the day after the feast is no picnic either. Most American expats in London push the holiday to the Saturday, but we escaped London altogether and went to the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland.

It was actually a perfect trip for a Thanksgiving weekend away from the States. The weather was on our side, cold but sunny during the day, rainy at night when we were holed up in our B&B with our books. The people of Dingle were so genuinely friendly, you couldn't help but feel part of what was around. 

The trip was also a bit of a history lesson for me. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but from Europe he wasn't the first to head west, as in 542 AD Saint Brendan of Ireland had already achieved the quest. Tradition and lore say that St. Brendan of Kerry, along with fourteen other monks, constructed a boat of wood tied together with leather strips. The start of the seven year journey was from this inlet (pictured below), now called Brandon Creek. His mission was to bring the Gospel to the West.

Legend says he traveled from here to the Isle of Sheep (The Hebrides), to the Paradise of Birds (The Faroes), to the Isle of Smiths (Iceland), to the Land of Crystal Pillars (Greenland), and through the Region of Fog (Newfoundland), to the Promised Land (America).

The Dingle Peninsula also had some interesting architecture. We saw many beehive huts made of stone and the Gallarus Oratory, a church built sometime between the 6th and 9th centuries. The huts and Oratory are built with stones, use no mortar, and slant slightly down to let rainwater run off.

It got dark pretty early, so what did we do when it got too dark for trolling around the Irish countryside? Head to the pubs for some Irish music, stout - Guinness and Murphy's, and Irish whiskey.

The Irish love their whisky - our host was shocked that I didn't want Jameson stirred into my breakfast porridge. Whisky before coffee? In Ireland, yes! I also discovered white pudding. White pudding is a sausage made of oats, suet, pork, onion, herbs, and spices. It's sliced and fried up on either side for Irish Breakfast. Irish Breakfasts are similar to English Breakfasts, but with the addition of this white pudding. Much more appealing to me than the black blood pudding.

 

Irish Soda Bread

I grew up in California where a bad weather day is a few clouds hiding the sun for more than a few minutes. So imagine my amazement when I felt the absolute strongest wind of my life in Ireland. The gale force winds (I think they must have been stronger than gale force) smashed the waves against the Cliffs of Moher spewing ocean spray everywhere. It wasn't hard to imagine our little blue rental car being whipped into the winds and being dumped into the Atlantic.

We ventured all over the lower Shannon making sure to take the roads less traveled. Here we had to pull over and wait for a little while when the locals were moving pasture.

We finally made it to this unmarked stone structure, right at the edge of a cliff. It had obviously been abandoned for some time and something unexplainably mystical about it.

The only food we had that stuck out in my mind after the trip was a small loaf of Irish soda bread Nate procured one morning on a much needed coffee run. It had just arrived to the store from the baker and steamed a little when we pulled it apart. It was so simple and misshapen, but hit the spot.

It's not the most prettiest bread, but it does the trick. The major difference between Irish soda bread and most other breads is that it uses no yeast. The key ingredient to this quick bread is of course baking soda. Sour milk, or buttermilk, is used because the lactic acid in the milk reacts with the baking soda to make carbon dioxide, leavening the bread.

This recipe makes a fairly small loaf because Irish soda bread tastes the best straight from the oven and drys out pretty quickly so it needs to be eaten no later than the day after it was baked. It's delicious warm from the oven and slathered with butter and jam. Nate had some today with a little mustard and Irish cheddar. This bread would also be great torn into chunks to dip in soup. The bread takes less than 5 minutes to put together (excluding baking time).

IRISH SODA BREAD

• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c oats, more for sprinkling
• 1 1/4 salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 oz (2 Tbs) unsalted butter, cut into cubes, chilled
• 3/4 c buttermilk + 1 Tbs

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit/ 180 Celsius. Whisk together drys. Use a pastry blender or your hands to blend in the butter. Add buttermilk. Use hands to knead the mixture together into a dough. Once it comes together knead for a short time - 30 seconds. Form into round loaf. Make a large "X" over the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Brush with 1 Tbs buttermilk and sprinkle oats on top. Bakes for about 45 minutes. If you double the recipe it will need to cook for an additional 20 minutes.