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Irish classics.

Corned beef and cabbage. Potatoes. Irish soda bread. Stout. These are the foods most often associated with Irish cuisine, and while they are traditional, they're certainly not the end of the menu. So, what is there to Irish food beyond the usual suspects? The answer may surprise you and, I hope, spur you on to explore and create for yourself.

I have an Irish cookbook that I refer to more than any other, and that book is Monica Sheridan's The Art of Irish Cooking, first publishes in 1965 and no longer in print. A quick search on the web yields quite a few copies, though and I highly recommend it if you're looking to purchase an Irish cookbook.

She includes all the basics and much more, all shared with her wit and charm and a ton of history. I particularly like the story of her great-grandmother's hearth fire that had not been allowed to go out for over 200 hundred years. It really is worth a read.

What about those other dishes? Well, for starters, oysters and salmon, freshly caught and vegetables from the garden - not just cabbage and potatoes, but mushrooms, chicory, endive and leeks. No longer is food cooked to beyond recognition and stewed together. The menus at popular restaurants in Ireland are very telling of how Irish cuisine has gone from simple fare to more contemporary offerings:

• Chapter One in Dublin serves Duck sausage with a cassoulet of lentils and apple and horseradish puree.
• Bar7 in Belfast serves Smoked Salmon Roulade Scottish smoked salmon wrapped around a rich prawn mousse and served on a mixed leaf salad with pesto dressing.
• Slow Cooked Rump of Pork with Clonakilty Black Pudding, Champ and Rosemary Sauce sounds like a delicious twist on a classic at The Lime Tree Restaurant in Limavady, Northern Ireland.
• From Blair's Inn in Cloghroe, Blarney, Co. Cork, Ireland, there's another classic updated - Roast Rack of Prime Irish Lamb Served on a Bed of Colcannon With a Rosemary and Redcurrant Scented Sauce.

I need to get a plane ticket. I never thought there'd be much reason, culinarily speaking, to visit Ireland, but I've obviously been wrong! This recipe, Oysters on Creamed Leeks with Guinness Hollandaise By Margaret Johnson from IrishAbroad.com is a shining example of the newly refurbished Irish cuisine.

Check out these cookbooks for another taste of Gaelic gastronomy:

• The New Irish Table: 70 Contemporary Recipes by Margaret M. Johnson
• Gourmet Ireland by Paul and Jeanne Rankin.