The cold competes with the rain. The Christmas lights in City Centre are still up, but aren’t lit at night anymore so they loom above the streets like sad skeletons. Mince pies are no longer advertised in the markets. Snow no longer blankets the sidewalks, ice no longer covers the Canal or the pond at St. […]
Ireland
- Food Culture
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Eat Irish
My friends and family all want to know how the food is here in Ireland. “How is it?” they ask. “How is it really?” They want to know if I’m suffering, if I’m hiding in bed each morning, frozen by the thought of enduring yet another day of gray meat boiled without salt. Straight away, […]
The Swans Are Back in Town
The Big Chill of 2010 appears to be over, and I am very pleased to announce that the swans are back in the Canal. Not quite ready for their close up. Ah, Jaysus, I hate the human-razzi. I never really bird-watched before I moved to Ireland. I suppose I took the thick bird life for […]
- Food Culture
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The Butcher, the Baker, the Neighborhood Maker
Last April, while Sean and I were touring South East Asia, he asked if I had any book recommendations. We were in Times Square Berjaya in Kuala Lumpur, wandering around the giant Border’s bookstore, and my eyes lit upon a copy of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I hadn’t read it myself, but every one […]
Fun (ふん）in the Snow
Last weekend, there was snow, snow, everywhere. Snowmen dotted the streets and we became jealous, desperate to feed the kid within us. So we stomped into a park and started making a snowman of our own. Then we realized it was hard work making a snowman, and changed the design to a wedding cake. We […]
Winter Break Snapshot
So much for the holidays. Back from Cork, back to Dublin, which has somehow been transformed into a Winter Blunderland. The rain turns to stinging hail turns to rain turns to hail again. And now we have snow, too – covering the rooftops and the sidewalks. It falls gently in the mornings and afterwards, the […]
The Blacker the Tea
I never drank tea before I moved to Japan. There, it came in shades of green and black and barley; iced in the summer, steaming in the winter. Tea straight up, sometimes with bitter leaves or bright green powder swimming about in the smooth ceramic cup. Dozens of varieties in the store – loose, bagged, […]
Gab Gab Gab
From Johnnie Fox’s – a 211 year-old pub high up in the Dublin Mountains: I believe this is what they mean by the Irish gift of the gab.
Christmas Crackers
I read a story written by one of my lecturers recently. It was about a family Christmas and in it, the mother bought two kinds of Christmas crackers – ones for the adults and ones for the kids. I was confused. Why would the kids need a different kind of cracker – were the adult […]