Day 1 of Don't Eat Any Irish Week for Oisin

As you may or may not be aware, I will be adhereing to a polar opposite exercise of what my For Food's Sake colleague Aisling will be doing for Eat Only Irish week. She is sticking to what's made here in Ireland and I will be chowing down on all things non Irish. Why did I decide to take this approach? There are three main reasons:

1. Aisling already said she was going to do it and I didn't see the point in the two of us conducting the same experiment.
2. We all thought it would be interesting for one of us to find out what day to day products we consume that aren't from domestic soil.
3. I am a spineless chicken-shit and would probably have multiple, melodramatic mickey fits if I had a whole week without rice, pasta, noodles and all things lovely and foreign.

But I would also like to add that, living in Dublin South Central, means I have a wealth of Arabic, Polish, Asian, Slovakian and Afro Caribbean food stores and delis near me. And I thought this would be a good way to discover what they can offer up to a local greedy pig like myself. So here's what my first day has dished up:

- Breakfast - grilled polenta with parmesan cheese. Both ingredients were Italian.
- Lunch - Mexican sarnie. Bread was from UK, cheese was from Holland, veg was Spanish.
- Dinner- Home made pizza. Dough was made with Italian flour, English yeast, sugar and salt. Sauce was made with Lidl's passata and tomatoes which are supposedly Italian and Spanish garlic. Toppings are aubergine from Holland, courgettes from Spain and spicy salami from Germany. 

I stopped by a Turkish shop on Liffey Street today, so tomorrow's menu for me will have a more Eastern flavour...