Scones

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

HERE’S MY NEXT POST, HOPE YOU ENJOY IT! ☺

Food and I have always had a weird relationship. It’s a statement that is weird in itself, but it’s true. For example, I hate bananas simply because of their texture.

What’s wrong with their texture? It’s simple, really. They are just hairy, and I don’t like hairy foods.

When I told my high school friends about this over the laminated cafeteria tables one day at lunch, they laughed. One of them, a Tinker Bell look-alike named Jennie, even corrected my terminology, saying that bananas are stringy, not hairy. I agreed then but secretly, I still think they're hairy.

It’s a similar thing with broccoli too except my issue is more with its appearance than the taste (even though that ’s nothing to rave about either).

I think they look like trees and think it’s weird to eat trees, therefore, I don’t eat broccoli.
“ You’re ridiculous,” my mom stated over a dinner of Chinese food one night.

I had eaten all of my sesame chicken and rice, leaving four pieces of broccoli drowning in a thick brown sesame sauce.

It kind of reminded me of a river after a hurricane, overflowing and brown with unfortunate trees uprooted from the ground.

“Do you want them?” I asked, ignoring her comment. My mom rolled her eyes but scooped the broccoli onto her plate.

Doesn't this piece of Broccoli look like a tree?

Anyway, you get the point:  I’m weird about certain foods. Naturally then, I was afraid I wouldn’t find anything I liked to eat in Ireland. My nanny, who has been visiting family in Ireland since she was a girl, told me the horror stories of their food.

Apparently, they only had tough beef and lumpy mashed potatoes during their stay. In fact, one year my grandparents were so sick of beef and potatoes that they sprinted to the McDonald’s which was an all-time low for them considering my grandparent’s fine dining tastes.

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I entered the local grocery store here and saw bins of strawberries and grapes, varieties of meat like chicken and pork, and even some familiar American brands like Doritos and Oreos. There is one food though that is distinctly Irish that I love.  And that, my friends, are scones.

Now, I know that most people would associate scones with the British and it’s true, the British have scones as well,  but people often forget that Ireland “suffered 800 years under British oppression” as a colony of England.

And, despite the Irish’s best efforts to resist the English and their culture, they did absorb different foods and traditions, one of them being scones. For people who don’t know what a scone is, I’ll explain. A scone is a cross between a muffin and a cookie but often hard as a rock. They usually sit the bakery section of every convenient store and resemble mini lumpy circles of bread.

An Irish Scone

There are different varieties of scones but the most popular are Raisin, Fruit, and plain. The raisin ones are probably the ones you’re most familiar with since American grocery stores usually sell them around St. Patrick’s day along with Irish soda bread.

Honestly, the fruit and raisin sprinkled in them is unnecessary and I’d even go as far as to say that plain scones are better. Some, of course, will say that they taste too bland without raisins and fruit.  I think the crumbly, buttery flavor is so good all by itself.

I guess it just depends on preference. I had my first truly Irish scone in a small café on campus called Elements located near what is called “the ugly science building.”

It was my first day of  UCC (University of Cork) classes and I didn’t want to arrive late on the first day, but I probably didn’t need to be there an hour early. Not knowing what to do with myself, I decided to sit down and order something to kill time.

A Typical breakfast for me: Scones and Tea. 

At this point, I should probably mention that I have had scones before and it’s a tradition in my family that my mom makes scones every St. Patrick’s Day.

However, American scones are different from Irish scones. For starters, American scones are shaped like isosceles triangles and are often smaller than Irish Scones.

American scones are also far sweeter than Irish scones.  

I know that personally because my mom sprinkles sugar on her homemade ones while there is only a buttermilk glaze on the Irish scones (which is sweet but not sugary sweet). Secondly, there is a difference in their texture.

In the beginning, I mentioned that Irish scones were hard, but the American version is quite soft like a cookie in comparison. None of these differences are necessarily bad, but they are two distinctly different types of scones just like there are two types of Italian pasta and Chinese food: the Americanized version and the original Italian and Chinese version from the country itself.  

Mom's homemade but American Scone. 

What’s the same, though, is that I love both types of scones and have become addicted. Ireland has an endless supply of them and so, five days out of seven, I usually have a scone to substitute for one of my meals.

In fact, I have probably eaten more scones in the past three months than I have my whole life.  While this obviously seems unhealthy (I can see my health-nut friends frowning), I want to eat as many as possible since I only get them once a year at home.

One thing among many that I will miss when I leave Ireland is its scones.

View of Ireland from a Castle.