If you ever find yourself hungover in Ireland, a full Irish breakfast (aka full Irish fry) might be the cure you’re looking for. After putting it off for two months, I (fully sober) have finally tried an Irish breakfast and my opinion is mixed. At Taste Food Company, I had the choice between the full Irish breakfast and the mega Irish breakfast. I don’t think I could’ve handled anything more Irish than black pudding and Heinz beans at eight in the morning, so I ordered the full Irish. The gluten-free version of a full Irish came with toast (and lots of Kerrygold), Heinz beans, breakfast sausage, bacon, black pudding, and an egg. It’s certainly enough food to fuel a day’s work in the Irish countryside and still have the energy to go to your local pub afterward. 

The two curveballs in this meal were the black pudding and the Heinz beans. The closest thing I can describe Heinz beans to is the sauce of every iteration of canned Chef Boyardee. It has the same sweet tomato taste and consistency, but instead of biting into a soggy ravioli, you bite into a white bean. I can only assume Heinz beans are meant to be served hot because the beans I ate were lukewarm at best—granted, I don’t think the shift in temperature would have changed my perception of its artificial taste.

As for the black pudding, I would be lying if I said I took a full bite. Before you click off this blog post because you think a proper food reviewer should at least try everything, know that you wouldn’t have wanted to eat the black pudding either because of its scary smell. Overall, I think my opinion of the Irish breakfast would be better if I was hungover because that would be the only time I would eat Heinz beans and blood sausage again. 

A mere two-minute walk away from where I experienced my first full Irish breakfast is the Gaiety Theater. From the outside, the Gaiety looks like just another basic theatrical venue, but the inside is where the magic happens. Our Irish life and culture class had an excursion to a performance of Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen at the Gaiety, and I couldn’t help but admire the venue itself. As a former theatre kid, I’ve seen many impressive theaters in my life, mostly in New York City and Washington D.C.—but Gaiety held its own. Even though the venue held its first performance back in 1871, you can still see glimpses of its Victorian architecture. The theater’s interior oozed elegance with the quintessential red velvet covering every inch of seats, walls, and curtains (makes you wish you had silk gloves and opera glasses) and that’s everything you could ask for in a theater. 

It’s unreal what you can experience in Dublin all within a two-minute walk of each other. Once you’ve experienced the finest that Irish dining has to offer for breakfast, don’t be afraid to check out one of the most intricate theater interiors I’ve ever seen up close.

Thanks for reading,

Tess