Contrary to the stereotypical American belief, the Irish are not all about potatoes.

The food experience when abroad is always interesting. I know people who go to foreign countries on vacation and packed snacks or only ever went to McDonald’s when they could find one. Where’s the fun in that? One of the best ways to experience a new culture is to eat their food.

I thought chicken and waffle-flavored chips were strange. Then I started seeing cheese and onion flavored chips everywhere. Suffice to say, I am perplexed.

As a vegetarian, I’ve had to steer my way around the bangers and mash (that’s sausage and potatoes) and the breakfast rashers (that’s thick bacon). Thankfully, popular Irish dishes involve not only potatoes but a variety of vegetables, especially root vegetables.

Thankfully for me, I really scored in my housing location in that I’m a short walk away from the local grocery store called Dunnes. Of course, rarely if ever at all do I find familiar brands for foods.

No Eggo frozen waffles in Irish grocery stores. But they have potato waffles.

There’s a variety of restaurants, many of them traditional Irish places with good food like roasted vegetables and blood sausage. A traditional Irish breakfast usually consists of eggs, toast with jam and bacon.

Don’t be picky; this is a time to experience local cuisine, even if it seems strange like putting baked beans on toast. Go out when you can, but try and cook your own meals too.

Tea is a big thing over here. Irish tea is typically black and a little bitter. Milk and sugar are popular additions to help make the tea sweeter, and you can see a mix of brown and white sugar packets available in cafés.

The pub life is famous in Ireland. Pubs are a place for people to get together, talk, and hang out. Very often, you can find music played at these pubs, and some of them are known for having folk music played each week or each day.

My pub experience was enjoyable, and the bartenders appeared sympathetic to the poor American girls who were unsure about how to order drinks. I finally had my first Guinness. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how I feel about the taste. It kind of tasted like a mix of coffee and barley.

From what I understand, they actually don’t have RDA, and the dining hall on campus is a little smaller than Hillside Café. There’s also a Subway and a couple small cafés. The food choices appear typical to a dining hall: sandwiches, burgers, salad bar, drinks, and interchanging soups and entrees.

At the same time, I’m doing a lot of cooking for myself. I will advise abroad students to be flexible with ingredients and search for substitutes. Baking soda is most likely called bread soda, and they don’t have corn starch over here so look for potato starch or just use flour.

My final bit of advice is, if you can’t survive several months without American essentials like peanut butter, find an American store or throw a couple jars into your suitcase.