When I was exploring the city a couple days ago I noticed a sign that says "English Market", and I wasn't sure what it was. It turned out to be a very interesting place to get your groceries. And, to fill your tummies!
The entrance looked somewhat fancy, with a nice gate and a sign that says "English Market". I can't believe I missed this place when I was walking on the very same street two days ago, and I could have Googled it to find out what the English Market was because it has its official website http://www.englishmarket.ie/.
The interior is nicely decorated with Christmas lights, perhaps because right now it is just about 2 weeks after Christmas. The floors are very clean, and the good thing about this market is that it has roofs. Getting fresh air and a little bit of sunlight as you select your goods might sound like a better idea, but when light rain is prevalent, I'd prefer indoor shopping.
Meats, fresh vegetables and fruits, spices, jams, Asian goods, seafood... almost everything you need is there. However, why get the usual stuffs when there are local goods to taste?
Well, as I mentioned in previous two posts, I learned that Ireland is famous for its black pudding, which is essentially a pig blood sausage. However, there is this special kind of black pudding that is made out of cow's blood, and I got this information from the IT help desk at the university. Yeah, I know, it's so random. The IT help desk guy was very friendly and knowing that we just arrived in Ireland, he asked if we had some typical Irish food and I replied that we had black and white pudding on our first day. The conversation dragged on and he told me about this Clonakilty black pudding (Clonakilty is a small town in West Cork; see wikipedia page here).
There's also the white pudding version, but the IT guy said that the black pudding tastes better. I saw this on the market, so I grabbed half of a loop of the black pudding.
He also told us that Irish exported about 60% of its mussels. Salmon is also another commodity to look for in Ireland. Well, just look at the salmon meat I found in the English Market:
Huge!
My friend who was queueing for the IT help desk was concerned because I was done with registering my laptop for Wi-Fi usage at school (it's very annoying how we can't just get a password and use the school Wi-Fi without having to physically register our devices), and yet I kept talking about something totally unrelated to IT. Any minute longer, I think the people queueing behind me would be pissed off, so I had to take my leave. But at the very least, I gained some valuable information about the local food :)
Also, I did a little research on Irish traditional food and found out about the spiced beef. Well, I also managed to find the spiced beef in the English Market!
I bought the sliced version instead of a big cut of it because I don't know if I would like it, and even if I share it with my friends, I will have to eat the beef slices more than twice this week.
The spiced beef tasted wonderful. The rims are salted in the right amount, and the aroma of the beef bursts in my mouth the moment I chewed it.
It's only been 5 days since I landed on Ireland and I'm already getting used to living here :)
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