Previews, reviews and interviews

You’d expect Irish folk singers The Dubliners to be enthusiastic about the hometown from which they took their name- but that two of the group are experts on the city’s culinary culture, too, came as a surprise to BRENDAN MARTIN. Recipes JILL COX.

From across the table Gallagher’s Boxty House, Dublin’s newest traditionally Irish restaurant, John Sheahan - one-fifth of the Irish folk singing group The Dubliners - admits he enjoys experimenting in the kitchen a little.

"It’s a bit of a hobby of mine" he says. "I get a great kick out of making simple things such as apple tarts. But I don’t cheat by using frozen pastry - I make it with flour and margarine. My apple and rhubarb tarts are pretty good!"

Fellow Dubliner Ronnie Drew cooks, too, but reckons he’s "strictly a one-pot person". Both culinary confesses come as a surprise, as the pair have spent more than a quarter of a century singing songs that some would describe as macho, hard-drinking men’s music, and have an image to match.

For Ronnie, one dish above all others is the true taste of Dublin - coddle.

"They say there are as many recipes for coddle as there are in Dublin. But the basic ingredients are sausages rashers of bacon, potatoes and onions just boiled in water. However, everyone has their own special way of cooking it.

"It was a traditional supper dish that people used to have on a Saturday night. You left it on very slow and you could have some out of it any time. I still make it at home.

Another reason coddle was said to be popular is that it could be put on the stove and left to simmer until the man of the house arrived from the pub, long after his wife has gone to bed. "Sounds like a good explanation to me," says John.

Another meal that’s popular with the Irish is bacon and cabbage. "The traditional way of cooking was to boil both in the same pot," explains John. "They’d say there was a cross-over of flavours. Cabbage was thrown in on top of bacon after it had been cooking."

Fish is also popular in this coastal capital.

"Herrings were eaten a lot in Dublin," says Ronnie. There was an old saying: "Dip in the dip and leave the herring for your da." A poor family wouldn’t have anything else to eat so they’d cook a herring and the kids would dip bread in the stock and leave the fish for the man of the house"

Eating in Dublin today is a cosmopolitan affair with cuisine from all over the globe. But Ronnie and John were delighted to discover Gallagher’s which serves a range of dishes centred on boxty - a traditional Irish pancake made from potato and flour and cooked on a griddle.

Later, as the two well-travelling Dubliner’s sit eating the Brown Bread Ice Cream, they declare: "We’ve played in almost every country in the world, except China and Japan, so we’ve sampled most cuisine. But there’s nothing to beat good Irish cooking"

Back to reviews

Copyright © 1998, Terje Øye