What should I order for a first traditional Irish breakfast, and what are black and white pudding?
Order the full Irish, and know what is landing. Fried eggs, rashers, which are back bacon, sausages, beans, mushrooms, a grilled tomato, and toast or potato bread, plus the two puddings. Black pudding is a savoury sausage of oatmeal and barley bound with blood, sliced and fried until the edges crisp. White pudding is its gentler sibling: oatmeal, suet and seasoning without the blood, which is why it is pale. Both are better than they sound, and the white is the one to try first if you are wary. In the north the same fry grows potato farls and soda farls and answers to the name Ulster fry. Tea comes with it, strong, and refills are a point of pride.
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