Full Irish Breakfast – The Clarence – Dublin

Your Correspondent’s first hotel stay in Ireland was The Clarence, on the Quay at the edge of the Temple Bar.  This stretch is Wellington Quay; the names change every couple of blocks.  This hotel is owned by Bono and The Edge of U2, who were out on tour … not that we were likely to run into them anyway.  The accommodations were lovely.  Breakfast for guests was at a discount, so on a big tour day we made sure to fortify with the full Irish breakfast.  The Clarence’s version is done well, with smaller portions than we had elsewhere.  All the elements were there:  eggs, sausage, Irish bacon, black and white pudding, a grilled tomato half, mushrooms, and baked beans.  It’s similar to the full English breakfast, of course, but the Irish bacon is back bacon with a wing that the Eggs Benedict slices don’t have.

We had this breakfast elsewhere with two slices of bacon and two sausages.

The “puddings” are actually rounds from sausages.   The white pudding is on the bland side, but the black pudding can be spicy.  In San Francisco, the Eazy Freezy market on West Portal carries Irish bacon, bangers, and a blood sausage that’s the black pudding but not as big around.  It’s on the spicy side, and does go well with eggs.

The Irish bacon aside, I don’t think this beats an American breakfast of eggs, bacon and hash browns.  It’s not something I could eat every morning … and so I didn’t.  Salmon and eggs, when on the menu, made a lovely change of pace.