Every March the entire world becomes, if only for one day, Irish. After all many people, especially in the USA, Canada and Australia have more than a smidgen of green in their veins.

Once people scoffed at Irish food, lumping it along with British cooking as bland, boring and banal. Philosophically the Irish shrugged it off, knowing that when there was food to eat - and surely they'd had many years when there wasn't - Irish food was simple and delicious. Today's Irish restaurant menus have moved along, taking the best elements from French and European cooking techniques. Like many other countries they have chosen rather than seek a national cuisine, to evolve one that best speaks for the land and its diners.

However, if you're after something altogether whacky and unashamedly Irish, to celebrate the big day, why not try this shamrock-Jelly Belly cake? Seem crazy? Well the Irish are always up for a good laugh - especially at themselves. And do check out the fascinating (non-Irish) history of Jelly Belly confectionary.

More authentic is Paddy the Baker's soda bread. 

Long enjoyed throughout Europe and America, more Australians than ever are now delighting in the benefits and flavours of soda bread, and according to Gerard 'Paddy' Winston the growing interest is not just taste-related.

A regular fixture sampling his Paddy The Baker range of soda breads at farmers markets around Sydney, and with an increased following nationally, Paddy says the growing interest in healthy, better-for-you food options, and a genuine desire to experience new tastes has 'really put soda bread' on the map.

Murray's Craft Brewery is proudly Australian, but that doesn't stop them celebrating the Big Day with a special beer.

But to see a true pub, you need to go to Ireland itself. Craic, ceol and caint, Irish for fun, song and chat, is a combination that is almost irresistible to most people in this land of mists and magic. Mention there could be a story in it, mention a Guinness (or three) as a lure, sweeten the offer with a chance to mingle and sing, and no green-blooded Irish person can say no.

On one trip to Ireland, Nadd Pub in Cork was almost full when we arrived. Although we'd come way out of town to what seemed like the middle of nowhere in the dark, amazingly there were dozens of cars parked around the small whitewashed building. A wave of noise and warmth, smoke and alcohol fumes hit us as we pushed into the brightness. "This will be a good night for craic," they told us. And ceol, too, for tonight the musicians would be coming. Soon, they promised.

In Cork you will find many pretty little villages, crayola villages, bright and clean, with each of the tall and narrow houses painted a bright and different colour like a box of crayons. The shops are technicolour too, so meticulously trimmed and signwritten, you know there must be a whole industry out there, employed just to keep them that way.

Ireland, the island, has a only itself to be grateful to for the delicious aromas now wafting out of its kitchens. From the coasts come huge hauls of fish and seafood; from the farming lands rich dairy products, eggs and meats, fruits and vegetables that in turn become bakery products, farmhouse cheeses and cottage industry jams, jellies and pickles. At Longueville House in Cork, a minute fledgling wine industry has even been established making, we are told, a pretty good drop too, even though it will never rival whiskey for popularity.

'There isn't a restaurant in all Ireland that cooks only Irish food,' F&T was told, but there is hardly a pub or restaurant in Ireland that doesn't appreciate and showcase the produce of the country, whether it is manufactured such as Ardrahan or Cashel blue cheese, smoked salmon, gammon or Guinness, or untouched like the best ocean trout straight from the Atlantic, or organic vegetables from Wicklow.

Molly's cockles and mussels may never hit the streets of Dublin again, but it seems Irish food is 'Alive, alive-oh' today, more than ever before.

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And if that's not enough, see this comprehensive site..........

What is your favourite part of Ireland? Come on, tell everyone!