Day 2
I apologize for the lateness of this post. Yesterday was my big travel day to get to Barcelona. Which meant a 7 hour flight to Dublin then 6 hour lay over where I found a nice spot to sleep in a McDonalds booth… in the airport. Cozy. Then another 3 hour flight to Barcelona.
As the pilot circled Dublin airport about 5 times, I started to get really excited. I knew the second I landed I could go get a full breakfast. When I stayed in Dublin last year for a few days, the hotel we stayed at had a complimentary full breakfast. Let me tell you that a full breakfast is one of life’s greatest pleasure and the English’s best gift to the world. That and Queen Elizabeth (II), she’s a doll.
What is a full breakfast you might ask? Well here is a run down of what all goes into it. I kid you not, its full, like some 10–11 items. Lets start off with 2 fried eggs [or to your liking], Heinz™ canned beans, fried mushrooms, roasted tomato, 1 or 2 sausage links, rasher of bacon (not the good stuff, this is essentially Canadian bacon in disguise, like homeboy has a mustache on, lacks any intestinal fortitude, no smoke, no fat, just salty porcine meat), black pudding, white pudding, potatoes [or these amazing hash brown triangles that belong at a taco bell and not in the UK], toast, and of course tea with milk and sugar; because whats more colonial than two of the worlds most sought after ingredients in 1 beverage.
Now at the airport, they only let me get 8 things, and not the 10 or 11 things I wanted. However, I did not want to argue with the Irish-Indian guy behind the counter.
My absolute favorite part of the full breakfast has to be the puddings. Now pudding comes in white or black, they’re both equally as delicious, but I prefer black to white. Now what is pudding you ask? Black pudding is a combination of pork meat, fat, suet (beef fat), pork blood and oatmeal all seasoned up and cooked in a log. Its then sliced and either deep fried or pan seared to add a crispy layer to the outside. White pudding is the same thing except theres no blood added. The pudding taste kind of like if you took corned beef hash, replaced the potatoes with oatmeal, and then took that salty briny pickled flavor about 2 notches up and added a little irony element in there. Corn beef hash is by far my favorite breakfast food, so its a no brainer I love this stuff. The sausage is also awesome, it almost has a creamy texture and is slightly smoked with a great snap on the skin from pan frying them. All around meat heaven. Also side note, nothing beats Irish butter, its fatty, buttery, a little grassy at the end. Just awesome.
Now you’re like “cool Garrett, but what in the h*ll is HP sauce!?!” Let me tell you about HP sauce. Its delicious and should replace ketchup. HP sauce is like if you took A1 steak sauce, added sugar, and took away that spiciness. Its sweet, tangy, with a solid base of tamarind. Yes that tangy sweetness in A1 sauce is tamarind. Also quick side note, if you mix ketchup and Worcestershire sauce together you get a solid steak sauce, my Dad calls it B2.
This was a fantastic meal that got me through my flight. When I got to my air bnb, not before my phone dying and trying to explain to a clerk that my phone died and I don’t know where my air bnb is in terrible Spanish. He let me charge my phone, he gained a new customer, and I made it to my air bnb, exhausted. My hosts were gracious enough to have a little snack set up for me when I walked in. They call is ensalada or I believe an alternative is Russian Salad. They also had some cheese which tasted like manchego, but I do not know for sure.
The ensalada was a tad weird not going to lie to you. It just was not what I wanted after a 24 hour travel day. It’s essentially potato salad thats been doctored up. Basically it’s mayo, potatoes, canned tuna, hard boiled egg, peas, carrot, canned peppers, and olives all mixed up and served cold. Its not bad, the spaniards f’ckin love it, its everywhere, every menu has a version of it. I ate about half the plate, scarfed down the cheese, and passed out fully clothed on the hard mattress at around 9pm. I woke up drenched in sweat because europeans apparently do not believe in air conditioning. All around an interesting day.
