From poorhouse to gourmet destination: Ireland's culinary revolution

My epiphany was served to me on an enormous plate in a small Irish harbor town. As I looked down at it, I suddenly realized just how much my homeland had changed. It was a summer evening in 2008 in Dingle, a fishing village in County Kerry on the southwestern tip of the island. Eight years after trading my hometown of Dublin for Berlin, I was back in Ireland, sitting with friends at a seafood restaurant along the harbor promenade. We ordered the largest seafood platter on the menu. I gazed in amazement at the spread before us: fresh scallops, succulent lobster – all caught just beyond the pier. Heavens, I thought. I didn’t even know we had lobster in Ireland!