Dingle
Dingle is the place with the silliest sounding name and the most beautiful setting thus far on our circumnavigation of Ireland. LIke all Irish cities and towns and villages, it's filled with the most charming people on the planet, people who will dig into their own pocketbook to help out a stranger who needs 10 pence more to get out of the parking lot. (That happened in Kilkenny.). Dingle was the place we took another step closer to absorbing as much of this magical place as possible. The instrument in this case was the Dingle Cookery School. We signed up for a 4 hour Traditional Irish Cooking class. This morning we showed up with six strangers who soon became friends, 4 from Maine, 1 from Massachusetts, and a woman from Dorsetshire in England.
The Irish have gottten the short end of the stick from 1,200 years of conquerors, starting with the Celts, then Vikings, the Normans, and finally, the English. Under English rule, everything that was worth eating or having was exported. The Irish were reduced to serf status, forced to live on what potatoes and rude vegetables they could raise on tiny plots of land allotted by the landowner, typically an English royal. So when blight hit the potato, the Irish were unprepared to grow any other food and were forced to watch as some of the best lamb, beef and pork in Europe, was taken from their lands and sent to England and Europe. As our instructor Miren told us today, the Irish were not able to do anything for themselves. So the country had lost its cooking traditions and what they were left with was pretty rudimentary like boiled cabbage and meats. And it's only been in the past 20 years that the country has re-discovered its culinary heritage. Now Irish foods are being recognized for the highest quality winning awards all over the world for their butter, their beef and lamb, their cheese, their breads, and their fish.
With that background we started cooking traditional foods starting with soda bread, followed by a Kerry cake, then Dingle pies, and finally sautéed pollock served with various local greens. In a word, it was delicious from start to finish. The only trouble is, it's 7 o'clock and neither of us has the slightest interest in dinner, and we know we need to have something or we'll be sorry before morning.
Tomorrow morning we plan to visit the crystal shop of Sean Daly who practices the old style deep crystal cutting that used to be the Waterford tradition before they sold out to the Eastern Europeans. Most Waterford crystal is now made in Slovenia and a couple other Eastern European countries.
For now we're content to enjoy the spectacularly beautiful sylvan setting of Dingle. I've attached a few photos for your pleasure, including the products of our cooking class.
The Irish have gottten the short end of the stick from 1,200 years of conquerors, starting with the Celts, then Vikings, the Normans, and finally, the English. Under English rule, everything that was worth eating or having was exported. The Irish were reduced to serf status, forced to live on what potatoes and rude vegetables they could raise on tiny plots of land allotted by the landowner, typically an English royal. So when blight hit the potato, the Irish were unprepared to grow any other food and were forced to watch as some of the best lamb, beef and pork in Europe, was taken from their lands and sent to England and Europe. As our instructor Miren told us today, the Irish were not able to do anything for themselves. So the country had lost its cooking traditions and what they were left with was pretty rudimentary like boiled cabbage and meats. And it's only been in the past 20 years that the country has re-discovered its culinary heritage. Now Irish foods are being recognized for the highest quality winning awards all over the world for their butter, their beef and lamb, their cheese, their breads, and their fish.
With that background we started cooking traditional foods starting with soda bread, followed by a Kerry cake, then Dingle pies, and finally sautéed pollock served with various local greens. In a word, it was delicious from start to finish. The only trouble is, it's 7 o'clock and neither of us has the slightest interest in dinner, and we know we need to have something or we'll be sorry before morning.
Tomorrow morning we plan to visit the crystal shop of Sean Daly who practices the old style deep crystal cutting that used to be the Waterford tradition before they sold out to the Eastern Europeans. Most Waterford crystal is now made in Slovenia and a couple other Eastern European countries.
For now we're content to enjoy the spectacularly beautiful sylvan setting of Dingle. I've attached a few photos for your pleasure, including the products of our cooking class.