Irish Cooking: A Culinary Quest

The Perfect Picnic

If travel is the search for the perfect experience, we've found it at Roundstone Beach, with a picnic on an island of boulders on a stretch of empty sand. We settle into stone benches carved by wind and tide. Sea pinks -- delicate pompoms -- flourish in the fissures. The beach is watched over by a cemetery rising on a bluff with Celtic crosses against the ever-changing sky.

At the Connemara Hamper, we had packed our rucksack with salami, an Irish brie, olives in their own oil, two rolls and a bottle of Sicilian red, which stands up to the salami and the Atlantic's breeze. The rolls stuffed with cheese and sausage are moistened with the oil. Surf crashes accompanied by the screech of one gull, which finally goes quiet and politely keeps its distance.

Later that day, in the rugged little town of Kinvara, hugging a wide harbor of fishing boats accompanied by an aristocratic yacht, we bag the best fish chowder of the cuisine safari at Keogh's, a pub with prominently displayed pictures of hurling teams going back to the '60s and a tape playing Elton John profundities. The chowder is more like a creamy fish stew, with hunks of hake, cod, salmon, clams and a sherry-less stock so vibrant that the bounty of Kinvara's fishermen needs no tarting up.

Asked about the chowder, a teenage girl brings more brown bread and says, "Ah, we make it every day." And that's that.

The Last Breakfast

Go to Drumcreehy Guest House, a comfortable B&B in the heart of the Burren region of County Clare, for views of the limestone mountains and sea but also for the breakfast.

The eggs are perfect, the sausage and rashers have more bite than normally found, and I feast on black pudding two mornings running. It is light and nutty, the texture smooth, perfection with the yolk of fried eggs, and each bite doesn't remind me I am eating the blood of swine.

No one would tell me why it was better, the amused German staff indicating that perhaps I was a bit overexcited about it all.

Ambrose Clancy last wrote for Travel about Hampton Bays, N.Y.