AS IRISH PEOPLE, there are some standard recommendations that we give to tourists who are visiting Dublin for the first time. Check out the Guinness Storehouse. Go to Howth Head. Ramble around Temple Bar. Leave Dublin. Order a spice bag.  

Over the last decade, spice bags have become synonymous with Irish cuisine. It’s not hard to understand why when you recall that some of our previous delicacies have ranged from tripe boiled in milk to the delicious, though unsightly, coddle.

The salted, spiced chips and chicken have become the culinary counterpart of Guinness. They’ve left our humble deli foods and chicken fillet rolls in the dust, growing into something far bigger.  

Maybe this is down to their availability around the clock. Maybe it’s the dual-use as a drunken dinner that can be reheated eight hours later to serve as a lifesaving hangover lunch.

Unlike most things in this country, spice bags are generally decent value for money. Often, the portions are so generous that a single spice bag could be shared between two people. When you find a Chinese takeaway that does a truly special spice bag, there’s an immediate sense of loyalty that’s established. You go back to it again and again and again.  

Abroad, Irish diaspora try desperately to recreate the dish and plate it up to homesick immigrants all over the UK, Canada, the US, Australia and all of the other places that you find droves of Irish people overseas.

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