By Michael Russo
While walking through the streets of Galway, Ireland, one will easily see hundreds of cafes, pubs, restaurants and bars. Likewise, one will pass people from all around the world — the United States, France, Zambia, Ukraine, Japan and more. As a culinary capital of the world, Galway is a true community built upon an abundance of international cuisines and cultural influences.
Sheena Dignam, founder and owner of Galway Food Tours, plays a role in elevating the food culture in Galway. Born in Ireland, Sheena moved to France as a child before returning to the Emerald Isle later in life. With this firsthand experience of having lived in two countries, Sheena shared her expertise on the unique connections that make Galway stand out among the rest of the world.
“We’re very close to the producers, and that’s something I fell in love with when I moved to Galway,” Sheena said. “You get to meet the producers [and] see that actually translate onto the plate with the chefs. Not only are they using the producers’ ingredients, but they’re also referencing them in their menus. That’s a frequent thing that happens across Galway.”
Connections like this are seen all across Galway. Through her business, Sheena takes patrons through the city to many one-of-a-kind locations: McCambridge’s, a café, deli and market in one; Tigh Neightans, the oldest pub in Galway; and the Galway Bay Distillery, which crafts its own in-house gin, are just a few examples of the businesses whose rich stories Sheena and her fellow tour guides tell.
While Sheena features historic Irish pubs that are connected to decades of Irish history on her tours, she also showcases internationally-influenced dishes, like turnip sushi. She added that with low-cost travel across continental Europe and ease of access to and from other countries around the world, many people come to live in Ireland and share their experiences.
“You have people that see an opportunity, or might look at food a little bit differently than we would have, coming here and just giving it a stab,” Sheena said. “What I must say with Irish people is that we’ll try anything once. We’re pretty open to that, so it’s been an embrace of cultures.”
A perfect example of this welcoming, inclusive community is the Galway Market. Next to St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, visitors to the market will find different cultures and peoples interacting, playing off one another as over 25 vendors sell produce, handmade crafts and specialty foods. This sort of exchange can appeal to anyone, be it Irish natives, tourists or “blow ins” — people not originally from Galway, Sheena said — who have made Ireland their home.
Kian, an employee at Wa Sushi, is both Irish and Japanese. By selling sushi from the restaurant’s market stand, he’s sharing one part of his culture with another. Furthermore, he said he appreciated the diversity of Galway’s cuisine and how he could easily decide to look for something like a kebab, then change his mind and find a burger just as easily because of the wide variety of food available to enjoy in the city.
Just down the way, Bertha sells innovative ceramic plates and brushes for Provençail. Simply by rubbing cheese, garlic and other foods on the textured plate, one can produce grated ingredients to use in a variety of dishes — garlic in Italian food, or ginger in Asian cuisine, for example. Originally from Zambia, Bertha said she’s been able to immerse herself within the Galway community through the universal passion for food.
“I have products here that can speak to almost everybody from all walks of life,” Bertha said. “When I came to Galway, I fit in perfectly because I found Asian food; I found Mexican food. The Irish culture also embedded me into a way that I was able to find my own roots here. If you go to an Asian store, you’ll be able to find African foods as well.”
Another food vendor at the Galway Market is Prátaí, which specializes in Irish chips and dips. Barney, an employee on the food truck, said that Galway’s food is “a hidden gem” that highlights quality ingredients that can be found in markets and restaurants. However, he discovered through travels to Belgium and Holland — where chips are also a popular food staple — that 80% of Irish chips are imported, so Prátaí wanted to do something different by bringing local potatoes to a multicultural atmosphere.
“What we’re trying to do is champion Irish potatoes — really, really go after something that’s not there,” Barney said. “All of ours are chopped fresh. We chop them, we drop them, and then we give them straight out to you.”
With such a wholesome and diverse combination of foods and cultures, as seen at the Galway Market, the city has a widespread appeal.
Elena, a barista at the Secret Garden in Galway’s West End, is originally from Colorado in the United States. After moving around a lot, she found Ireland to be a welcoming place where she “fell in love with Irish people and culture,” she said, and has lived in the Emerald Isle for the past eight years. Elena said she finds working in cafés like the Secret Garden are a “nice social experience” where she gets to meet many different people. The tea house offers a wide variety of tea flavors, including one called “Good Morning” that comes from the Czech Republic.
“You get a bit of everything,” Elena said, speaking more broadly on Galway’s unique food culture and its effect on the city. “Everyone’s accepted here and you get everyone coming in … It’s a nice community as well because everyone knows each other and it’s just nice and comfortable — very homey. It’s not really surprising, but that’s what I enjoy the most compared to other places.”
With her French and Irish culinary background, Sheena said Ireland’s in an exciting phase that’s distinguishing itself to earn its title of a culinary capital on the world stage. Twenty years ago, she said, meat, vegetables and three kinds of potatoes would’ve been a typical dish. However, Ireland has since grown to experiment with more tapas-style meals and culinary experiences that bridge traditional mainstays with elements of other international cultures at a “constant level of excellence,” Sheena said. Additionally, while France has an admirable taste for food that spans many generations, she said, it could follow Ireland’s example of implementing playful adaptation and variation.
“It’s a heritage. They have so much of it, but they need a new boost of energy,” Sheena said of French cuisine. “We are right in the thick of it [in Ireland]. We’re doing such amazing things with our food and with our drink, and it’s just coming from everywhere. It’s a very interesting time to be in Ireland, in the food scene or in the beverage industry.”