The spice bag: how a chipper staple became Ireland’s favourite takeaway

What actually is a spice bag?

For a huge number of people in Ireland, the answer to ‘what’ll we get?’ is the same, a spice bag.

What began as an off-menu request in Chinese takeaways has quietly become one of the most Irish orders going.

According to a new poll and column on The Journal, the spice bag has “become synonymous with Irish cuisine”, and the responses back up just how beloved, and how divisive, the humble spice bag has become.

For the uninitiated, a spice bag is a combination of salt-and-chilli-seasoned chicken, spicy chips and, depending on the takeaway and your own preferences, peppers and onions.

Everything is then tossed together in a bag, hence the name, or a box.

It is cheap, it is portable, and it is almost impossible to eat with any dignity, which is precisely the point.

The dish is widely believed to have originated in the 2000s at the Sunflower Takeaway in Templeogue, Co Dublin, before spreading to counters the length and breadth of the country.

Its rise has been relentless, and the spice bag has since spawned countless spin-offs: you’ll now find everything from a healthier spice bag recipe to a full-blown spice bag pizza as chains and chippers chase the craze.

The great spice bag debate

Not everyone is convinced the spice bag deserves its crown, and its very popularity has become a talking point.

In her latest Voices piece, columnist Kelly Earley describes herself as “something of a spice bag purist”.

Wary that the dish has become a touch too ubiquitous for its own good, a familiar tension for any food that goes from cult favourite to national staple.

The poll results tell their own story about the nation’s appetite.

A sizeable chunk of readers said they had never eaten a spice bag at all, while others admitted it had been over a year.

At the other end of the scale, plenty reported tucking into one within the last week, the last month or the last six months, and a hardy few had polished one off in the previous 24 hours.

In other words, the spice bag splits the room as much as it feeds it.

A takeaway that says something about modern Ireland

Part of the spice bag’s charm is that it is genuinely home-grown.

It is not an import repackaged for Irish tastes but a dish invented here, in an Irish takeaway, and refined counter by counter ever since.

Every chipper has its own version, every eater has strong opinions, and no two orders are quite the same.

Whether you’re a devotee or a sceptic, the spice bag’s journey from a Dublin side-counter to national comfort food says a lot about modern Irish takeaway culture.

It is customisable, fiercely defended and endlessly argued over, and, on a wet Friday evening, few things feel more Irish than a spice bag and a big decision about whether to get garlic dip.