First days of work.

So I am lucky in comparison to many other interns in that I am easily within walking distance of my work; it only takes about 15 minutes to get there.  It is located in Cabinteely Village, a small stretch of shops that is located in a very nice area surrounded by houses.  For my first day, Daniel brought me in at 11:00 am and introduced me to the owners Niamh (pronounced Neev) and Katie.  They are quite young, only in their twenties I think, and before Urbun they owned a small baking company for a few years selling baked goods at local markets, so the café is a big upgrade.  I didn’t really know what my first day of work was going to be like but I thought it would be short and would consist of me observing how things operate.  It kind of started out like this with me introducing myself to all the other staff and watching things for a little bit, but then Niamh started asking me to do things, very simple to begin with.  For instance, the first thing I did in the restaurant was slice a lemon into wedges.  Things quickly escalated though and after about 30 minutes I was making sandwiches for the lunch rush, which luckily on Monday is very calm.  While although some menu items are always available, it changes every day and isn’t finalized until around 11:00 am that day when Katie prints off the new menu (this happens every day).  After the lunch rush died down around 2:30 pm I took a lunch break and you will all be glad to hear that I get free lunch.  I can make myself basically anything to eat using whatever is available at the time (which is a lot).  After lunch, I start working on making food for the next day.  This includes making soup, traditional Irish soda bread, the dry mix for scones, at least one frittata and a few other things that change from day to day.  I ended work on both days around 7:00 pm.

I must say that I am really enjoying the people I work with.  The entire restaurant is quite the melting pot too.  The dish washer Rafael (Rafi for short) is from Brazil and is still learning English so there is a minor language barrier.  One of the other cooks is Fabrizio (fabi for short) and he was born in Italy but grew up in Australia so he has an Australian/Irish accent.  One of the hostesses (her name escapes me right now) is Canadian and is married to a true Irishman; she is working on getting dual citizenship.  Niamh works primarily in the back while Katie handles the front more, but both of them work together throughout the day.  I spend a lot of the day talking with everyone about differences in food culture and how things are either different or the same in the states.  It is incredibly interesting and I plan on making little posts about the things I learn after work every day.  For instance, wheat bread is generally called “brown bread” at least were I work, to measure out a teaspoon or a tablespoon you use and actual teaspoon (a spoon for tea) or a tablespoon (a larger spoon served on the table). 

Something that I think Niamh and Katie are excited about is having an America who can bake because they want me to help them out with lots of different recipes.  On Tuesday, I made Chocolate chip cookies using the nestle recipe from memory, but you would be surprised how hard it is to find chocolate chips here and the ones I did find were not even nestle.  Katie has been wanting to make more things with peanut butter and is therefore really excited I am here because Americans are much bigger into peanut butter.  If you have any suggestions on what I should teach them how to make please let me know.  I plan on doing snickerdoodles soon because they had never even heard of them.  It seems like they are eager to have me help make new items for the menu and as the internship moves on I will probably get more and more liberty to do so. 

My work schedule is not entirely set so there is still some work that needs to be done on that but I am working this Friday and Sunday.  I will post my next blog entry after Sunday to let you all know how the brunch rush goes, which was apparently crazy last Sunday. 

 

  

First thoughts on Food

After spending all Thursday and Friday exploring Dun Laoghaire, I discovered several things that is different about Ireland than The States (this is how everyone refers to the US).  First daytime cafes are huge here.  They generally open around 8-9 and close between 5-6 pm.  They serve breakfast but they are really popular during lunch and afternoon tea/coffee (3-5).  They generally serve soups, sandwiches/wraps and are fairly inexpensive (5-10 Euros).  Going out to lunch is much more popular in general because it is cheaper and the recent economic collapse is still on everyone’s mind.  Menus are becoming much more exciting in these places with food items that are getting more elevated in culinary standards.  For instance, my sandwich on Saturday was roasted chicken, chorizo, red onion marmalade and goat cheese on a toasted ciabatta roles and was delicious.  I wouldn’t say that it can compete with the cuisines of Italy or France, but it definitely feels familiar with slight differences.

Local butcher/meat markets appear to be everywhere, even in the local shopping centers which are like our malls.  These places take their sausages seriously because people in Ireland take their sausages seriously.  However, grocery stores still have meat sections just like they do in the States.  Meat in general is really important here, even more than in the States I would say.  Something really exciting though is the immense selection of cheeses that even the most basic store has;  it really puts America to shame.  At my B&B I had this organic mature cheddar that was one of the best cheeses I have ever had.  It was so intense and the flavor was unlike any cheddar I have ever tried.   I want to try so many others and am going to probably buy a bunch of cheeses and just make a plate of it one night with my host mom with a nice bottle of wine.

While although I am somewhat reluctant to say this because I hate to confirm stereotypes, potatoes really are a big deal here.  They have varieties that I have never heard of and they tend to find themselves into conversations about food quite a bit.  My host mom made some amazing roasted potatoes that were unlike any roasted potatoes I have ever had, so I will have to ask her how she did it.  Weirdly enough though, I have yet to see hash browns or any hash dish on a menu.  Not quite sure why, but I'll look into it.  

Photos of B&B and Dun Laoghaire

First Days in Ireland

As I flew in over the west Coast of Ireland, the most amazingly brilliant red sun began to rise over the horizon.  It was so red that it created a rainbow affect, making it look like a Irish rainbow was rising out of the country.  The landscape was first and foremost incredibly green; the Emerald Isle is a truly fitting name.  Hills and mountains quickly gave way to open countryside, which was divided into distinct sectors of land with stone and wood fences.  The property lines are not straight like in America though, and create a green mosaic that could compete with some avaunt garde art.

Once I landed the sun was fully up and there was not a cloud in site.  Daniel, the irishman helping me out with my internship, picked me up from the airport and took me to my B&B in Dun Laoghaire.  The owner was a nice older lady who greeted me by name as soon as she opened the door.  After a quick breakfast and then a three hour nap I was ready to start exploring the area.

Dun Laoghaire is a gorgeous suburb of Dublin that is located right along the coast, but it is technically considered part of Dublin.  In other words, Dublin is divided into county's like Portland is divided into neighborhoods like the Sellwood, Pearl District and downtown.  Dun Laoghaire.  You can look at the pictures I took to get a better idea of what the area looks like.  Went out to a pub that night with another intern named Rebecca and had my first Irish pint of Guinness.  To be honest, it didn't taste that different, but Daniel told me that there are a few places I can go to that pour an amazing pint.  I'll get back to you once I have given these a try.

Saturday I explored how the local light rail (called the DART) worked by taking it to one of the other neighborhoods called Blackrock.  It is really nice with big comfy seats that puts the MAX to shame.  Later that night I moved into my home stay house and met my host mom (Kathy) and dad (Michael).  They are nice couple in there 60's that have hosted two other interns from Oregon in the past.  They have three boys all around my age or older that still live at the house to some extent.  There are also two dogs, including a puppy pug that is absolutely adorable (lennox or lenny for short).  I have had several nice talks with Kathy so far and appear to have really lucked out with a true Irish mom who is super nice with the gift of gab; I couldn't ask for anything better.  My room is at the top of the house and while although small is still bigger than my room at DTD so its no problem.  Photos to come soon.

I start work tomorrow and am a little nervous but much more excited.  I will certainly post an entry tomorrow about Urbun after the first day of work to let you all know what its like.  Check out the other posts right after this for more insight to specifics of Ireland that I have already discovered.