my Irish love, Cork: English Market

Happy Wednesday! How are you doing? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe your thing is yoga, meditation, running, paddle boarding, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, paddle boarding, refurbishing furniture, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends, but whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post - “my Irish love, Cork: knit life” - you can click here to read about one of my favorite arts and crafts stores in Ireland! Otherwise, if you’re all caught up, buckle up or strap on in and let’s continue this journey together! We’re continuing our time in Cork, but this time, we’re heading to the English Market!

We’re all creatures of habit in one way or another, aren’t we? It’s why we go back to the same restaurants over and over and order the same thing off the menu. For me, a true creature of habit when it comes to finding a food I like, the English Market was my olive treasure trove. Yes, olives. It took me 29 years of life before I found a palate for olives, but when my taste buds changed, ooh baby, it was like I discovered the magical land of Olive City. Anytime I visited Cork required an outing to the English Market to get myself some of the most delicious olives I’ve ever had. But not just some to snack on for a lunch picnic, nay. I would get enough to take back with me to Dublin so I could relive my Cork journeys, extending them for a few days. The first time I visited with C. Budd, I underestimated how many olives I would need to bring back, and we finished them on the train ride home. Mistakes are for learning, y'all. I never under-bought those olives ever again.

I would get a variety of olives whenever I visited The Real Olive Co. at the English Market, but my favorite olives were the Spanish olives marinated in olive oil with garlic and spices (in an alternate "Sausage Party" universe, marinating olives in olive oil would be very appropriate for a dark comedy). My mouth waters to this day thinking about those Spanish olives, though. Yes, I know, very Pavlovian of me. But the English Market didn’t just have olives, which may have been unclear up until now given how much I've gone on and on about the olives. A true market, it also offered sections of breads, cheeses, oils, homemade soaps, sweets and chocolates, and various knick-knacks, as well as a few fishmongers and butcher sections. John F. Kennedy, Jr. actually visited one of the English Market fishmongers on his tour of Ireland, and his picture hangs up there to this day. There is also a lovely restaurant located upstairs where I ate on several occasions with my friends and my parents.

Are you a creature of habit, too, when it comes to food? Let me know! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been receiving a lot of really incredible stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe! Other people’s stories that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about whatever stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have any restaurants/eateries/pubs/coffee shops/ice cream joints/theatres/lookout spots you would recommend in other countries or even in your current home town or city, I'm absolutely 100% all ears!! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of travel adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):