Welcome to What I eat in a week in Dublin, where we find out what Dubliners are having. We’re asking people who live in this fine city what they are really having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This isn’t a platform for lecturing or snarky comments, just a place for foodies to tell us what they are putting in their face holes during any given week.
Location: Dublin
Diet: I was trying out Pescatarianuary but it went a bit by the wayside. Meat-in-moderation maybe!
Is there anything you don’t eat/drink?
I can’t get on board with baked beans.
What snack can always be found in your bag?
An emergency banana has gotten me out of many a pickle.
Your fridge is never without?
Baby potatoes and all of the cheese.
What’s your emergency dinner?
Fried rice with whatever veggies I have leftover. There’s usually emergency freezer-bits like dumplings or prawns for the side.
If you had to eat at one place in Dublin for the rest of your life, where would it be?
BIGFAN is my favourite, although I mightn’t fare too well for breakfast.
Day One
Breakfast: Banana mid-sprint for the bus into town.
Lunch: Roast vegetable and feta frittata from Queen of Tarts. I’m no friend of frittatas but it was the only dish they served with sautéed potatoes so what’s a girl to do? It was all delicious.
Snack: Baileys hot chocolate in the Westin’s atrium while a pianist churned out Disney bops in the corner. Where there is a will to find cheap pre-curfew entertainment, there is always a way.
Evening: Essentially a bowl of parmesan atop a wiggly new pasta shape, smoked lardons, mushrooms, garlic, onions, red pesto and truffle oil for an emergency post-nap dinner.
Day Two
Breakfast: Slice of brown bread and butter, a banana, and tea with milk my partner, who did not disclose was 4 days out of date.
Lunch: Hash browns, fried eggs, and coffee with milk I now realise is out of date due to the strategic placement of the carton facing the exact opposite direction on the table.
Dinner: Leftover pasta for dinner, doused in yellow Aromat.
Evening snack: Illegal hot chocolate in the residents only bar at the Gresham. We have a car on loan for a limited only and are clearly not wasting a moment without daily excursions.
Day Three
Breakfast: Slice of stale brown bread and butter, coffee with oat milk.
My first attempt at making porridge. I added blueberries, oat milk, and what seemed like an entire jar of honey. I’ll be skipping tea until we restock the OG milk. Our resolution to reduce food waste means less shop trips until everything is used up, and in turn, forgoing cups of tea when all that’s left is oat milk.
Lunch: Hash browns and fried eggs again because it sucked the blue out of my Monday and I want see how much mileage I can get from that joy.
Snack: A pink lady!
Dinner: Food waste reduction means I am still using up Christmas “party food” from parties that never came to be. This evening it was mini fish ’n’ chip cones, and honestly I wasn’t mad.
Day Four
Breakfast: I got distracted and my blueberry porridge turned to concrete. Better luck next time. Thankfully I was able to sustain myself with a thick heel of toast until lunchtime.
Lunch: Massive oversight while grocery shopping meant I didn’t buy any lunch-friendly food. To Dunnes’ deli for rotisserie chicken and salads I went. Always a winner.
Dinner: Butter bean korma with broccoli, cauliflower and long grain rice.
Snack: Tea with chocolate digestives I’d dreamt about since I moved away from home and forgot about biscuits. They absolutely delivered.
Day Five
Breakfast: Coffee and porridge with stewed apple, honey and cinnamon. I was pleasantly surprised by how apple crumble-esque this was.
Lunch: Pan-fried cheese toastie with garlic, onions and chorizo-style meat-free sossies. Don’t knock them until you try them.
Snack: Coffee and a digestive!
Dinner: Veggie zinger burger with garlic mayo, lettuce and a brioche bun. Sweet potato fries on the side.
A glass of red as it’s Friday somewhere.
Day Six
Breakfast: Sliced pan with banana, peanut butter, honey and cinnamon. I hadn’t realised how good I am to myself until I started recording my meals but it certainly shows on the scales.
Brunch: Since cutting down on midweek takeaways, I’ve make DIY brunches on Fridays to ease me into the weekend. I sautéed baby potatoes with sage, garlic, mushrooms, onions, and fake chorizo, and lobbed two poachers on top with sliced avocado and cherry tomatoes. I’m easily stressed out by cooking so this was a big undertaking for me. My heart rate didn’t settle until long, long after the food did.
Dinner: Half of a caprese pizza from Uno with pints in Blackbird to celebrate the lifting of restrictions!
Post-Drinks Meal: An bhaji kebab from Hit The Spot in the true spirit of a Friday night.
Day Seven
Brunch: Toast with Nutella and strawberries to set me up for an evening on the town.
Snack: On admittedly my worst day of eating yet, a bag of salty, vinegary chips on my way home. Again however, I wasn’t mad.
Day Eight
Breakfast: The most important meal of the day, McDonald’s breakfast. If it’s not clear by now that I’m a fiend for hash browns, it should be when I disclose that I got two with my sausage McMuffin.
Dinner: A day of snacking on the couch was followed by a trip to the shop for dinner. I had lemon & dill salmon with roasted asparagus and potato gratin to replace some of the nutrients lost to the weekend.
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READ ON: What I eat in a week in Dublin: Sleepless nights and many snacks
