Today was our last morning in Dublin with our full Irish breakfast buffets and what not *tears up slightly*. We finished our breakfast and hopped some cabs to the bus station. After about a two hour bus ride, we arrived in Belfast and hopped another cab to our new temporary home. After getting cozy we left to forage for food and managed to find Bishop's, one of the few places open on a Sunday.
Once we ordered our food, two things came to mind: how much the conversion rate is wrecking my bank account, and how fried and greasy the food is here. So I'll go ahead in order and focus on the economics for a quick second. So the conversion of USD to pounds is 1.68 at this time. The reason why I was curious about this was when we were in Bishop's I order a burger, chips, and a maybe 10 oz fountain drink which cost about 6 pounds ($10.6), a meal I could've gotten in the states for about $5-6. This made me wonder if someone could honestly work over in another country whose currency is worth more, then move back and cash in thereby making yourself a decent bit richer. The minimum wage in Northern Ireland actually changes as one ages. So from 16-17 its 3.72 pounds ($6.32), 18-20 5.03 pounds ($8.77), and workers 21+ 6.31 pounds ($10.74). This as compared to the minimum wage of $8.00 in Colorado. The rough average of the yearly salary in Northern Ireland, for say a software engineer, is 28k pounds, and the average full-time personal income (total, not comparing men and women)in the US is ~43k. Convert the pounds to dollars and you get $46700, 110% higher than the average. So yes, one could work a decent trade in N. Ireland and move back to America and automatically make more than the average.
Now as far as the grease factor, it just struck me as funny. When you here criticism about America, a large amount of it is directed at how disgustingly fatty and calorie dense our food is. In America, we are aware of this and luckily are starting to make strides towards remedying this, or at least raising awareness to what it "good and bad". So I assumed that when visiting another country, the quality of food and the relative healthy-ness of it would be higher. Nope. While food markets seem to be more prevalent, the eating scene seems to be on par with American food. The prevalence of deep fried food in this restaurant (and in general) seems to be quite high; example: every meal we received came with a hearty supply of freshly fried chips, two ordered fish (deep-fried fish in batter), and another got deep-fried steak which was rather hearty but greasy as a pig.
Now where I see the discrepancy where America falls short is in the carbohydrate department, and by falls short I mean we practically bleed maple syrup. While the Irish have a hearty amount of fat in their food (a relatively good thing mind you, as without fat in your diet you will die), Americans try to make everything we low-fat. In 1910, a german scientist streamlined the ability to hydrogenate fats, turning liquid oils (thought to be the "healthy" ones) to a solid so it could be used as a butter. However it was found, after many many high correlation studies, that trans fats wreck the human body. Essentially, the enzyme the degrades cis- bond fats into something that is water soluble so they can dissolve and be easily incorporated into our bodies, does not work for the trans- configuration. This leaves them to float around and build up in our blood, eventually leading to a laundry list of heart diseases. So in the last twenty years, we have tried to kick out any presence of trans fats, and generally fats in general as they are thought to be unhealthy and are inherently higher in calories per gram. Now fats naturally flavor food, quite well, so in order to compensate for the flavor drop we began shoving sugar in everything, the worst being fructose. Now when I was a kid, I was told lactose is in dairy (correct), sucrose was sugar (sort of), and fructose was in fruit (horrifically wrong). While fructose is natural to some natural products, not nearly in the high quantities that we end up using. Also, since sugars are typically used in their purest form, they are metabolized quicker meaning that they are less filling. They also result in a blood sugar spike, that when the levels drop back down there will be a time of craving to bring those levels back up. Sugars = less filling, more cravings. The amount of health diseases related to fructose outweigh those involving trans fats.
So in summation, while I initially thought the food here was overpriced and deadly, I was only half right. While the cost of living here as an foreigner using a foreign salary, the food is no where near the American standard of health risks (individuals lack of control aside). Fun little look at the finances and nutrition of N. Ireland compared to the US.
Once we ordered our food, two things came to mind: how much the conversion rate is wrecking my bank account, and how fried and greasy the food is here. So I'll go ahead in order and focus on the economics for a quick second. So the conversion of USD to pounds is 1.68 at this time. The reason why I was curious about this was when we were in Bishop's I order a burger, chips, and a maybe 10 oz fountain drink which cost about 6 pounds ($10.6), a meal I could've gotten in the states for about $5-6. This made me wonder if someone could honestly work over in another country whose currency is worth more, then move back and cash in thereby making yourself a decent bit richer. The minimum wage in Northern Ireland actually changes as one ages. So from 16-17 its 3.72 pounds ($6.32), 18-20 5.03 pounds ($8.77), and workers 21+ 6.31 pounds ($10.74). This as compared to the minimum wage of $8.00 in Colorado. The rough average of the yearly salary in Northern Ireland, for say a software engineer, is 28k pounds, and the average full-time personal income (total, not comparing men and women)in the US is ~43k. Convert the pounds to dollars and you get $46700, 110% higher than the average. So yes, one could work a decent trade in N. Ireland and move back to America and automatically make more than the average.
Now as far as the grease factor, it just struck me as funny. When you here criticism about America, a large amount of it is directed at how disgustingly fatty and calorie dense our food is. In America, we are aware of this and luckily are starting to make strides towards remedying this, or at least raising awareness to what it "good and bad". So I assumed that when visiting another country, the quality of food and the relative healthy-ness of it would be higher. Nope. While food markets seem to be more prevalent, the eating scene seems to be on par with American food. The prevalence of deep fried food in this restaurant (and in general) seems to be quite high; example: every meal we received came with a hearty supply of freshly fried chips, two ordered fish (deep-fried fish in batter), and another got deep-fried steak which was rather hearty but greasy as a pig.
Now where I see the discrepancy where America falls short is in the carbohydrate department, and by falls short I mean we practically bleed maple syrup. While the Irish have a hearty amount of fat in their food (a relatively good thing mind you, as without fat in your diet you will die), Americans try to make everything we low-fat. In 1910, a german scientist streamlined the ability to hydrogenate fats, turning liquid oils (thought to be the "healthy" ones) to a solid so it could be used as a butter. However it was found, after many many high correlation studies, that trans fats wreck the human body. Essentially, the enzyme the degrades cis- bond fats into something that is water soluble so they can dissolve and be easily incorporated into our bodies, does not work for the trans- configuration. This leaves them to float around and build up in our blood, eventually leading to a laundry list of heart diseases. So in the last twenty years, we have tried to kick out any presence of trans fats, and generally fats in general as they are thought to be unhealthy and are inherently higher in calories per gram. Now fats naturally flavor food, quite well, so in order to compensate for the flavor drop we began shoving sugar in everything, the worst being fructose. Now when I was a kid, I was told lactose is in dairy (correct), sucrose was sugar (sort of), and fructose was in fruit (horrifically wrong). While fructose is natural to some natural products, not nearly in the high quantities that we end up using. Also, since sugars are typically used in their purest form, they are metabolized quicker meaning that they are less filling. They also result in a blood sugar spike, that when the levels drop back down there will be a time of craving to bring those levels back up. Sugars = less filling, more cravings. The amount of health diseases related to fructose outweigh those involving trans fats.
So in summation, while I initially thought the food here was overpriced and deadly, I was only half right. While the cost of living here as an foreigner using a foreign salary, the food is no where near the American standard of health risks (individuals lack of control aside). Fun little look at the finances and nutrition of N. Ireland compared to the US.