Food & Drink

Meat and potatoes are surely staples here but food culture is also evolving. New emphasis is put on local fresh foods, and in the cities, global cuisine is increasingly popular and available. That said, Northern Ireland boasts lots of traditional comfort food. You’re going to want to have breakfast here a few times on your stay. The Ulster Fry is a well known full breakfast with bacon, sausage, black pudding, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, soda bread, and an excellent fried-to-a-crisp potato bread. And the Belfast bap is a soft bread stuffed with sausages, bacon, and egg. Don’t forget to wake up in the morning! Champ is the definition of comfort food that consists of mashed potatoes made with butter, warm milk and spring onions. This is best served with a delicious piece of meat, and maybe a spot of gravy. Irish stew is a staple of many Irish households and contains lamb, potatoes, carrot and onions. The Ulster version uses steak instead of lamb. You’ll find many a household with a pot of stew on the go on cold nights throughout the year.  Lough Neagh Eel is made from fried pieces of eel cooked in a white wine onion sauce, and sometimes smoked and served as an appetizer. The traditional dish is often served on Halloween. Yellowman is a honeycombed toffee that will go well with your sweet tooth, and Irish coffee is a hot cocktail made with dark coffee, Irish cream liqueur and a shot of whiskey. Guinness is a very popular beer, and some like the black and tan, a lager with stout poured to sit on top. And there’s also the popular snakebite or crown float, which is Strongbow cider with Guinness stout on the top. Bushmills Distillery is one of the oldest licensed distilleries in the world, opening its doors in 1608, creating beautiful whiskeys. Poitin, known as the water of life, is an illegal homemade moonshine that sometimes shows up at weddings and funerals. People aged 16 and 17 can drink beer, wine, and cider if accompanied by an adult, but cannot purchase alcohol until 18 years of age.