What a bloody mess

Breakfast is included in the price of the hotel we are staying at. It offers a full “Irish breakfast”. 

What’s in an Irish breakfast you say? Well let me tell you.  There are scrambled eggs. There is bacon. The bacon is not your thin crispy strip of bacon common in the U.S. No, this bacon is round, thick and not as done as I’m used to. It’s kind of like round Canadian bacon. There are sausages, BIG sausages. There are sautéed mushrooms. There are baked beans. There are potato cakes. 

And now the funnest part of the meal - the pudding.When I think pudding, I thinking creamy chocolate goodness. But oh no …this not creamy goodness. 

I had been wondering what these dishes of black disc shaped things were. Beside it was a dish of lighter color disc shaped ones.  I thought it was some kind of overcooked sausage.  Nope, turns off this is pudding - black and white pudding. Also served in the UK.

I had looked it up and black pudding has pork or beef blood, pork or beef fat and oatmeal or barley. It also has a herb called pennyroyal, a sort of mint type herb.

White pudding has oatmeal or barley, pork or beef fat, breadcrumbs, spices and sometimes pork meat or liver. No blood in this one.

It’s the notorious pudding of the UK and Irish. Why is it called pudding for cripes sake? Pudding is liquify. Everybody knows that (smh).

So there you have it - an Irish breakfast. I have been reluctant to try some of of the local foods on this trip like haggis, fish pie, sausage roll, etc., but this looked so, shall we say different, I had to try it. 

So I bravely bit into it…wait for it…it tasted like spiced bread, yeasty, kinda bland. It wasn’t awful. It wasn’t great. It just was. It’s all in what you are used to I guess Did I go back for more? No.