Ray's Lunches-Comfort food extrordinaire

This is Ray's Loaded Lunches.  Shortly after arriving in Tralee (the first week, I think), we discovered Ray's.  We were walking down the street and Ray just suddenly turned in here and said hello to Ray. Maybe he liked the name, or maybe Ray looked like an interesting, friendly sort of lad, but Ray decided to go in.  We took one look at the food and decided we had to try some.  Thus was born an almost weekly habit of going to Ray's for lunch (obviously).  We introduced the Elders to Ray's while they were here and they fell in love too.

This is Ray and Diana.  They own Ray's Lunches.  They have become good friends of ours.  Ray is a Donegal lad, the oldest of 9 children who lived on a farm.  When his mother would be cooking for all the family and the farm hands, he would help out in the kitchen with the food.  He has also worked as a hotel head chef, so he is legit.

He makes rustic, hardy, stick-to-your-ribs, delicious Irish food, the kind you find all over Ireland in pubs and grills.  There's usually all kinds of meat, soup or curry, mashed potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and 3 kinds of gravy.  Pepper gravy is our fave.    He makes a small individual meatloaf and a breaded chicken breast.  He also makes a killer cottage pie, and he educated us on the difference between Cottage Pie and Shepherd's Pie.  Shepherd's pie is made with lamb, thus the name Shepherd's Pie.  Cottage Pie, on the other hand, is made with mince, the Irish name for hamburger.  Everything else about the two pies is the same.  So, if you have been making Shepherd's Pie with hamburger, you need to change the name to Cottage Pie.

As you can see, the portions are generous, tho' I should say this actually all comes on one plate and we divvy it up.  And you get all this for 9 euro!  I think, tho' that Ray is a little generous with us and gives us a little extra, since we share.  He is very nice that way. 

We've developed a nice friendship with Ray and Diana.  Ray and he joke about a bit and he tells us about Donegal and Tralee.    We invited him to our Branch Halloween Party and our Thanksgiving Feast, and he came to both.  He is a grand man! 

He's also probably responsible for at least a 5 lb weight gain on both of us. 

 (Even tho' he claims all of his food is low fat.)

HASTE YE BACK!