Probably that is the reason why besides the local food shops you can find in Cork City a lot of ethnic groceries, as a sign of a real multicultural city. Here is a list of ethnical but also local, typical and cheap food shops located in Cork City Centre. Firstly and irrefutably the most characteristic food “shop” in Cork City is the English Market, with entrances on Princes Street, Oliver Plunkett Street and Grand Parade. There you can find food from all over the world and obviously also traditional Irish food. Fresh meat, fish, bread, vegetables, fruits, and even eggs, cheese, olives, chocolate and handmade cakes: in the English Market you can find each one of those products and more. This heritage market was first established in the 1610 and today is opened from Monday to Saturday, from 9.00 am until 5.30 pm. It’s a pride for Cork City, because it’s known and famous in the world for the quality of its products and for the convenience of its prices, which are quite cheap.

However, obviously, you can find the lowest prices for food in the big shops like Tesco or Lidl, but the quality of their products is often different. Tesco and Lidl are the two biggest supermarkets that you can find in Ireland and they are supplied with a large range of products for eating, house care and everyday life. In Cork City Centre there is one Tesco on Paul Street (Lavitt’s Quay) and others Tesco shops are located in the Douglas Shopping Centre in Douglas, in Mahon Point in Mahon, in Park Road in Mallow, in the Market Green in Midleton and in the Wilton Shopping Centre in Sarsfield Road, Wilton. Lidl shops are located on Crosshaven Road in Carrigaline, in Riverside Way in Midleton, and in Park Place in Mallow. Others common markets in Ireland’s cities, so also in Cork, are the Centra, Spar, Subway and Londis shops, but they are smaller and more expensive.

Until now we have told about Irish shops, but there are in Cork city also numerous ethnics and foreign shops, as, for example, the Polish shops, which are the most numerous, because the Polish community is one of the biggest in Cork and in Ireland. Polish groceries are “Wala Polska” on 27 McCurtain Street; “Kaunas Food Shop” on  North Main Street; “Mercury” on Ship Street, Penrose Quay. Then there is a Lithuanian shop on Beasley Street called “Lithuanica” and a Polish and Lithuanian food shop, called “Vejas”, located on Shandon Street. Along the some street (Shandon Street) there are also two African groceries: “Chuky Dandy” and “Ray Body Line”, and also an Indian shop called “Aiysha Spice House” and a Pakistan, Indian, Bangladeshi, Arabic and Philiphino food shop called “Jannat”, as well as a Hungarian food store. For Asian people there is also the “Spice Town Cork – Asian spices & food stuff”, located on 84 North Main Street and the “Asian Kitchens” grocery on Camden Quay. Finally a new shop opened a few months ago for Italian people, it’s called “La Botteghina di…” and it’s located in 86 North Main Street. There one can find the typical Italian pasta or pizza or many other typical Italian foods, as well as in the Polish or Hungarian or Asian shops, or anyway in each ethnic market, one can find the typical products of those countries.

However, to be honest, the products in these groceries are more expensive than the same products that one can buy in their origin country’s shops, but it depends in part on the cost of the export and anyway you couldn’t find those products in the Irish shops, because they are typical national or ethnic products. So, if you miss the taste or your origin country’s food or if you want to cook a typical speciality from your country, maybe you have to pay some more for the ingredients, but finally you can eat that.

Lastly there is in Cork city, exactly on Paul Street, a very cosy and nice shop, specialized only in handmade Irish bread, pizza and cakes. It’s called “The Natural Foods Bakery” and it deserves to be visited and tasted!