Breakfast is key element of Irish B & amp;B experience

Even the Irish know better than to eat the 'traditional' fare.
By ELIZABETH LARGE
BALTIMORE SUN
DUBLIN, Ireland -- You can travel to Ireland and not visit the Cliffs of Moher or Bunratty Castle, but you can't not eat breakfast.
The Emerald Isle has turned into a nation of bed-and-breakfasts, with the emphasis on the breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes, homemade breads, cold cereal, fresh fruit and juice, at the very least.
The accommodations may be modest, and when you consult the guidebooks you quickly learn to be wary of B & amp;B descriptions like "comfortable" (rather than "spacious") and "luxurious." (Luxurious can mean nothing more than a shower with good water pressure.)
But when you stay in someone's home, you can be sure you will get a lavish, delicious and varied breakfast, usually in the family dining room. It's hard to miss when you're being served good Irish butter, whole milk, freshly baked breads and blazing hot pots of tea.
On a recent trip to Ireland, we stayed at six different B & amp;Bs in a week. It wasn't the most restful way to do it, but it did make me something of an expert on Irish soda bread.
"You never get the same taste of any bread in any house," Pat Greaney, who runs High Tide B & amp;B in Galway, told me. She explained that everyone has her own mother's recipe, handed down from generation to generation.
These breads are served on a plate in thin slices, to be eaten with the delicious high-fat-content Irish butter. They are never toasted unless you ask. If you have toast without requesting brown bread, you will get white-bread toast, perhaps served in racks so it won't get any soggier as it cools.
Variety aplenty
At each place we stayed there was a traditional Irish breakfast, but that was only the beginning. At High Tide, for instance, Greaney -- with no help in the kitchen -- offers a breakfast menu that includes everything from French toast to lemon sole with potato cake, mushrooms and tomatoes.
She also makes her own marmalade and jams.
In spite of its grand name, High Tide is a small house in a development with only four rooms to rent out.
Interestingly, the traditional Irish breakfast is not something most Irish eat on a regular basis, unless they are day laborers. It consists of fried eggs, sausage, Irish bacon (meatier than American), grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, and black and white pudding (not dessert, but two different kinds of blood sausage).
Teresa O'Donohue, whose Sanborn House in Ennis has four en suite rooms (that is, with private bath), no longer serves black and white pudding with her traditional Irish breakfasts. The tourists leave it on their plates when they find out it's made with fresh pig's blood and suet.
"There are some rubbish brands on the market," she said. "But with the good ones, the flavor is fantastic."
What about the baked beans you'll find in the breakfast buffets of city hotels? Not traditional, Greaney said firmly. They are an English import.
And the potato cakes?
"The Irish never eat potatoes for breakfast," said Annette O'Mahoney of the Shores Country House near Castlegregory. "They are solely for dinner."