Ireland eat of potatoes a week. Consequently, dishes that are considered as national dishes represent a fundamental unsophistication to cooking, such as the Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, boxty, a type of potato pancake, or colcannon, a dish of mashed potatoes and kale or cabbage. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, with a re-emergence of wealth in Ireland, a "New Irish Cuisine" based on traditional ingredients incorporating international influences has emerged. This cuisine is based on fresh vegetables, fish (especially salmon, trout, oysters, mussels and other shellfish), as well as traditional soda breads and the wide range of hand-made
Oyster stew holiday season, appearing in the markets by Christmas Eve and on tables that night as oyster stew. Stephanie Butler, however, gives an alternate explanation: Irish Catholic immigrants would not eat meat on Christmas Eve, and were used to eating ling fish stew instead. Butler suggests that "oysters taste pretty similar to dried ling: they're salty, briny and can be quite chewy. The ling stew recipe was quickly adapted for oysters." The basic southern oyster stew is made with milk and cream. Oyster stew is often served with oyster crackers, and that may be the origin of the cracker's name. Oyster