A Little History of Irish Food

by Regina Sexton

This delightful book provides a fascinating and totally engaging insight to the culture of Irish food. Over the centuries food in Ireland has done much more than simply nourish the body; it has through time soaked up mythological and folk belief, inspired song and verse, dictated the pattern of the working day and helped to celebrate the myriad of religious and secular festivals. While this book does include recipes, its overriding objective is to set Irish food in its unique cultural context. It goes without saying that food cannot be viewed in isolation from culture, and the foods we eat, and the ways in which we prepare them, are products of our cultural identity, and say just as much about us as our language, our music and general disposition. Over the millennia, food in Ireland has done much more than simply nourish the it has through time soaked up mythological and folk belief, inspired song and verse, dictated the pattern of the working day and helped people to celebrate the myriad of religious and secular festivals.

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Cat Tobin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really lovely history of Irish food, with colourful anecdotes about some of our most traditional fare. The recipes are largely the same as you'd find in any American bar, but the pure, massive heart of the writer encompasses the text, infusing the whole with the cosiness of an Irish fireside in the winter. TL;DR - read this if you're a food-loving Irish-American.