Soft batch bread with chewy crusts sandwiching succulent baked ham. Earthy soda farls, buttered and sticky with local raspberry or strawberry jam. Dappled potato bread, fried crisp and served with thick and salty dry cured bacon, or folded to enclose stewed Armagh apples. This is the 'plain' food that characterises Northern Ireland, a predominantly rural region with honest, traditional tastes.

Traditional butchers and home bakeries are numerous here. They have a loyal following for their excellent, trustworthy meat and champion sausages - beef sausages in particular - or the unique vernacular breads, which must be eaten fresh from the griddle on the day they are made, or fried in lard for a big Ulster fry.

Prawn cocktail and steak are the most popular restaurant dishes and with good chefs, the prawns will be super sized, sweet beauties from the tidal waters of places like Strangford Lough and Dundrum Bay. There is practically no question that the beef will be grass fed and properly matured as long as they shop with a trusty butcher. Co Tyrone farmers, with their small farm holdings and 'soft' rain seem to breed particularly fine stock.

Salmon is almost everyone's favourite fish, and here it's not that surprising to find rural convenience stores or restaurants supplied by local salmon fishermen. However, when you can't get wild salmon, organically farmed fish from Glenarm exercised by the almighty currents off the Antrim coasts make a very acceptable alternative.

As with any region spoilt for a particular foodstuff, locals have traditionally tended to ignore the fantastic seafood from our clean coastline and freshwater loughs. Oysters and mussels from Dundrum, Strangford and Carlingford are exported to London and beyond. Silver or brown eel from the River Bann and Lough Neagh are shipped off to Holland.

Again, however, we're catching ourselves on: dedicated seafood restaurants are more numerous than ever before, and fish such as ling, mackerel, turbot and brill are making appearances on their menus. Eel, as well as salmon, is being smoked by a new generation of artisans, to be served with buttered wheaten bread, another local food icon. You'll find areas where there's always been an uncommon enthusiasm for ancient recipes. Ardglass potted herrings, found in butcher's shops and at the stalls of fish traders in Co Down, are marinated in vinegar, rolled with bay leaf and baked with breadcrumbs to be eaten as a snack.

Eels mostly found in mid Ulster are dipped in flour and fried, leaping as if alive in a hot buttered pan, and then served up with oniony white sauce and creamy mash. Alternatively they suit a long, slow stew.

Vegetable roll - sliced 'sticks' of fatty but flavoursome boned out brisket chopped and combined with onion, leek carrot and lots of white pepper are served with buttery swede or turnip and more mash.

It's unfortunate that these are often only domestic dishes, beaten to the restaurant or pub tables by equally comforting liver & bacon, bacon & cabbage, lamb or stout enriched beef stews or pies, or 'modern' recipes of lamb shank, pork belly, and Co Down venison carpaccio.

There's also a lot more experimentation with salads, vegetables and soft fruits, which grow brilliantly in our warm microclimate. But it's hard to beat a plate of dark green Pamphrey leaves, braised cabbage or leeks, squeaking in butter, or sweet carrots mashed with parsnip. And let's not forget potatoes - often served three ways: big, boiled 'balls of flour', champ (mashed with milk and scallions) and golden sautéed fries.

Nor should we ignore the north's sweet tooth. It starts at 'Elevenses' when wee buns, tray bakes or short breads are bought out to accompany cups of tea, and continues through the afternoon with fruitstudded cakes, buttered barmbrack, or a slice of cake. Sugary hits of fudge or 'yellow man', a bubbly golden confection, are also popular.

At 'High Tea' bread, butter and jam will be served alongside savoury food and followed by desserts - say lemon meringue pie or a piece of apple & rhubarb crumble. 'Supper' - just before you go to bed - might be sandwiches and another wee bun or a nightcap of Black Bush.