A birthday dinner in Cork

It was my birthday this day last week and as has become an annual tradition for us, my boyfriend and I celebrated with a special meal out. "I'd like to go somewhere the food is imaginative and different," I said, "somewhere with a chef who is really trying to be creative."
Quite how this led to us booking dinner in Les Gourmandises in Cork, a restaurant I'd always assumed to be a classic French place, I don't know. But I'm glad it did.

We were impressed from the very beginning. The room is pleasant with high ceilings, white walls, red banquettes and sparkling chandeliers. It was busy. Everyone was buzzing. And the staff were attentive and friendly from the moment we arrived.

Our meal began - as all the best meals do, in my opinion - with a glass of something sparkling. In this case, it was Cava and it came with a selection of breads from the nearby English Market - all fresh and crusty and delicious with some cold and salty butter.

I had the monkfish beignets to start. The fish was perfectly fresh. The batter was light and crisp. And it went well with the sweetcorn puree and the tartness of the caper-rich sauce tartare it was served with. My only gripe might be that it was too large a portion. As you can see from the picture above, there were three small bowls (with two small beignets in each one). It's a lot for a starter, isn't it?

My boyfriend had the Castletownbere crab dish. This was a near perfect dish. The crab (which was served potted style with some clarified butter on top) tasted fresh from the sea and this freshness was highlighted with spikes of lemon, offset by the melon and grapefruit that came in the accompanying salad and the refreshing pink grapefruit jelly that was served alongside. Just the thing to bring the palate to life!

I chose the seafood platter for my main course and it contained some really good elements. There was pan-fried red snapper in a crispy skin. There were salmon rillettes. There was that lovely crab from my boyfriend's starter, those monkfish beignets from my starter, that really nice pink grapefruit jelly from my boyfriend's starter...
Are we beginning to notice a pattern here? Maybe I was unlucky in our choice of previous dishes, but I was disappointed to see so much repetition, especially as I had found that there was too much in my monkfish beignet starter to begin with. It all tasted good though.

My boyfriend had pan-fried guineafowl which was served with confit onion, a potato fondant type thing, barley and a port jus. He loved the sweet juiciness of the onion set against the earthiness of the barley and the moreishness of the sauce and the perfectly cooked bird. Well, that's what I think he said as he scoffed the lot!

We asked for two side dishes to go with our mains; a serving of French fries and peas with asparagus. The French fries were great and though the serving was small, it was probably enough. But the serving of peas and asparagus was tiny - three spears of asparagus and a handful of peas. It felt a little miserly, which I don't think is the impression you want to give guests in your restaurant and was completely at odds with what I thought about the size of the starters. However, they did give us more when we commented on it being small.

We shared a dessert platter to finish. Clockwise from top left, there was a

crème brûlée, that snapped under my spoon just as a crème brûlée should. There was a tangy lemon posset - zingily delicious. There was a chocolate and cognac cake. And there was a raspberry panna cotta. All were good. Not amazingly good but good.

Our bill for the entire meal - 2 glasses of cava, 2 starters, 2 main courses, one dessert plate, one bottle of white wine, one glass of red wine, one bottle of sparkling water, a tea and a coffee - came to €167. So, it wasn't cheap but as you can see, we treated ourselves to quite a lot.

Was it worth it? Though I had some complaints, the food was based on quality ingredients that were well prepared. The wine - a Pinot blanc from Alsace - complemented the food very well. The service was attentive and friendly. I enjoyed the atmosphere and overall, I had a good birthday dinner. I'd go back again.  

Les Gourmandises, Cook Street, Cork City

Birthdays: the pleasures and the headaches

I must be getting old. I had intended to post this review on Monday but having celebrated my birthday in Cork on Saturday and again with friends in Dingle on Monday (the actual day of my birthday), I've been suffering the consequences ever since. My head has only just recovered to the point where I can devote attention to anything other than the most urgent of work. Has anyone else noticed that pounding hangovers seem to be a hallmark of a good night out once you turn thirty?

But birthdays do have to be celebrated, don't they? And I celebrated mine in style with a meal in one of Cork's finest restaurants, Augustine's. I'd never been before but I'd heard great things and had very high expectations.

So, were those expectations met? It all started well when we were greeted by the friendly, professional staff. All smiles and courtesy, they were to be totally attentive for the entire evening.

The menu boded well too. It was short with a choice of five starters, mains and desserts. It featured carefully-chosen local produce, some of it from the nearby English market, some from local farmers and food producers and some foraged from the countryside that surrounds the city.

Our first taste of the kitchen's food was also impressive. An amuse bouche of pea and chilli soup was savoury with a touch of sweetness, had great depth of flavour and the high note of chilli set the whole thing off perfectly.

My starter was a revelation too. A dish of scallops with a celeriac purée, ham croquettes, apple slices and toasted oats; it was a traditional combination of flavours with a twist. The scallops were dense and rich. The celeriac had a creamy, savoury depth. The croquettes added saltiness and the apple sweetness. Topping all of this off were the toasted and slightly caramelised oats which had a crunchiness and flavour that seemed to intensify all of the other elements of the dish. Ten out of ten.

(Please forgive the quality of the photos; it was really dark.)

My boyfriend had the terrine of English Market ham hock, pistachios and dried cranberry, a quail Scotch egg, apple membreo and an onion and thyme brioche. The apple membreo (which I'd never heard of before) was a sticky sweet reduction of apple which I adored. Judging from the smile he had on his face while eating the rest of the dish, I'm guessing that he liked it too.

So far, so good. Now time for the main courses. I had pan-fried halibut with celeriac remoulade, truffle aoili, toasted hazelnuts and confit chicken wings.

Every single element of this dish was great. The hake was perfectly cooked; its crispy skin yielding to flaky fish. The chicken was tender and paired perfectly with mushrooms and truffle aioli. The remoulade was creamy and sharp. But taken together, I didn't think these elements worked. They just didn't combine to create the excitement that the best dishes do.

My boyfriend continued his pork theme for the evening and chose braised belly of Timoleague Pork and pan roast dodine of prune stuffed tender loin with root vegetable gratin and star anise.

This was a dish of traditional flavours using high quality ingredients that really couldn't be faulted. Yum!

Before I tell you what we had for dessert, I'm going to ask you something: do you think there's a problem with desserts in Ireland? I've found that even the best kitchens often let themselves down when it comes to the sweet course and it's got to the stage where I often skip dessert altogether if I'm eating out.

 Unfortunately, that was the case here. I ordered the delice of chocolate with salted caramel and raspberry sorbet (if I do have dessert, it has to be chocolate!). Because the staff knew it was my birthday, they served it with a sparkler on top. This was a lovely touch that was typical of the level of attention we received all night long.

Here's a cheesy picture of me with my dessert:

It looks yummy, doesn't it? And some of it was too...
The salted caramel was good. So was the raspberry sorbet, with its balance of sharp and sweet. But the delice - the heart of the dessert - was a disappointment. It lacked sweetness and there was something slightly oily about it that I found unpleasant.

My boyfriend ordered the tarte tatin because he loves tarte tatin.
I don't have a picture of it and there are two possible reasons for this. One is that the wine had gone to my head and I completely forgot, which sounds totally plausible. The other is that we forgot because we were so disappointed, which unfortunately is just as plausible.

Don't get me wrong: his dessert was nice and he enjoyed it but it simply wasn't a tarte tatin. Anyone who has eaten tarte tatin will testify that it is a thing of caramelised, chewy wonder where the apples are cooked in a caramel sauce that has almost turned to toffee and the base is a buttery, puffy and delicious pastry.

The pastry here was good but there was no chewiness. There was no toffee. In fact, there wasn't any caramel at all. It was almost like an apple turnover of sorts. Whatever it was, it was not a tarte tatin. The vanilla ice cream it was served with was fabulously rich and studded with real vanilla though.

So, my dinner at Augustine's had both high points and low. Would I go again? Certainly. Would my expectations be as high? Probably not...

The bill came to €132 for three courses for two people, including one bottle of wine and two bottles of sparkling water.

Augustine's Restaurant,
The Clarion Hotel,
Lapp's Quay,
Cork City

Tel: 021 4279375

Opening Hours
Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm with availability 7 days a week for private functions.  

Spuntino: a taste of London

There are times that I envy Londoners. I envy their shops, their shows, their museum exhibitions, their nightlife and most particularly their food.
In the past decade or so, London has become one of the foodie hot spots of the world. With its strong immigrant traditions and its growing respect for home-grown British food; the city now has so many tempting places to eat. From fish and chip shops, pie shops and noodle bars to tapas bars, sushi bars and Michelin-starred wonders; there’s something for every appetite in this city.

This is why I have a growing list of places I’d like to eat in London typed into my phone. So, whenever I find myself in the city, all I have to do is consult my list in order to choose where I’d like to have my lunch or dinner.

On a recent trip to London, I paid a visit to Spuntino. London-based bloggers had been talking about this place for months so I had to check it out for myself.

It’s in Soho and has such an unassuming exterior that if you didn’t know its exact address, you’d be very likely to just walk right past it. But don’t do this!

You may not spot it straightaway but the restaurant's name 'Spuntino' is scrawled on the bottom left-hand corner of the panel above the door. That's how low-key/wannabe cool this place actually is!

Spuntino has a no-bookings policy so you may have to wait for a while for a seat. Fortunately for us, it was a quiet time of day so we had plenty of seats to choose from.

The décor of the interior is interesting, with a Dustbowl-America-meets-hipster-London sort of feel. Most of the seating is at the bar, which is made to feel like an American diner, with some tables for more private dining at the back of the room. There are distressed tiles on the walls, low-hanging lights and staff with elaborate haircuts and tattoos.  

But I’m sure you mostly want to hear about the food. They’ve done away with the concept of starters and mains at Spuntino. Instead, it’s all about finger food, little plates of food that are designed to be mixed and matched – and shared, if at all possible.
With dishes ranging in price from £3 to £10 and most hovering around the £5 mark, it’s possible to taste quite a lot of the menu at just one sitting.

Which is exactly what we did but choosing what we wanted to eat wasn’t so easy. The menu here is a mixture of classic Americana, British comfort food and modern British cuisine. This means that you'll find yourself wavering between macaroni and cheese, egg and soldiers and a fennel, radicchio, hazelnut and truffle salad. What should you choose when everything sounds so tasty?

We were given a cup of chilli popcorn while we deliberated over our order. Served in an enamel cup (everything here is served in enamel dishes in keeping with the Depression-era theme), it was a nice touch but the popcorn was a little oily for my taste. That’s not to say that I didn’t eat it all though!

One thing was for sure. We had to try the dish that the restaurant has become famous for: its truffled egg toast. I’d heard so much about this thick slice of white bread, topped with melted cheese and truffle oil with a runny egg yolk in the middle that I had to have it.  

But, oh dear, I was every so slightly disappointed. The bread was a little stale, which made chewing it hard work and I found the whole dish a little too oily. Having already had oily popcorn, I began to worry that the entire meal was going to disappoint.

Thankfully, it didn’t. The pulled pork and pickled apple slider (a bite-sized burger) was a hit; its spiced meat contrasting nicely with the the fruit.  

The beetroot and anchovy salad served with a soft-boiled egg was the highlight of the entire meal. The earthy sweetness of the beetroot, the saltiness of the anchovy and the runny eggs made for a great combination and one I'll definitely have to try at home.

The softshell crab served with Tabasco aioli was another success. The crab had a deep smoky taste and a satisfying crunch that worked well with the spicy mayonnaise and the crisp fennel salad it was served with.

We also had purple sprouting broccoli served with romesco sauce. The kitchen fell down here again as a lot of the broccoli was barely cooked. In fact, it was nearly raw but the nutty romesco sauce made for a great accompaniment. I’d have eaten it on its own.

Finally, for dessert, we shared a brown sugar cheesecake served with drunken plums. I loved this. The deep complex sweetness of the brown sugar worked perfectly with the rich creaminess of cheesecake. The only thing that would have improved the dish would have been more booze in the plums. They would have benefited from a longer soaking in the brandy they tasted so faintly of.

My verdict on Spuntino? There were some misses but it was mostly a hit. It's definitely worth a visit if you want to soak up the atmosphere of a cool part of London and taste food that is trying to be different and is mostly great.
It's reasonably priced too. We had six dishes to share, two bottles of sparkling water and coffee for £43.

Spuntino. 61 Rupert Street, London, W1D 7PW.
Mon - Sat: 11am to midnight
Sunday: noon to 11pm

Ditch the deep-fried Mars Bars the next time you're in Edinburgh. Eat here instead.

I just knew it had to be true. There had to be more to Scottish food than haggis, fish and chips and deep-fried Mars bars. On my recent trip to the country, I decided to try to prove my theory.

My first stop was Edinburgh, where I had an awful lot to eat. I've already written about the Chinese, Indian and Spanish food I had in my previous post but I haven't told you about the higher end of dining we also enjoyed.  So, here goes...

We stayed in 21212 while we were in Edinburgh and had dinner there on the first night. This is a Michelin-starred restaurant with four bedrooms upstairs. The kitchen is run by Paul Kitching, whose playful approach to food is causing quite a stir in the city.

The restaurant is small, seating a maximum of 38, but cosy and sumptuously decorated. The open kitchen looks out onto the dining area you can see above so you can watch the chefs as they assemble your dishes.

21212 takes its name from the layout of the menu, which offers a choice of two starters, one soup, two main courses, one cheese course and two desserts. Because there were two of us, we decided to taste everything.

(I must apologise before I continue. I don't have any pictures of the food. We had driven all the way from Dingle to Edinburgh that day (a distance Google tells me is 496 miles) and when I was greeted with champagne, all thoughts of being a good blogger went out the window. It was only when I woke up in the morning - feeling slightly groggy from champagne - that I thought 'darn it! Why didn't I take any pictures of that wonderful food?'.)

Because it was good. Really good.

Each of the dishes was a complex creation involving lots of flavours dancing around a central ingredient. Take the trout tart for example. A delicate baked trout fillet in a cheese and lemon glazed tart served with white asparagus, girolles mushrooms, cucumber, white and brown crabmeat, chilli, a thyme and onion cream sauce and Marie Rose mayonnaise.
It sounds like overkill, doesn't it? And yet it wasn't. The trout was allowed to be the star of the show while the other ingredients played supporting roles. This was clever cooking that only a talented professional could achieve.

Other dishes included a chicken, mushroom and leek pie (no ordinary pie, mind you, but one served with the likes of kohlrabi and piccalilli mayonnaise, morel and pimento squares and smoked bacon); smoked haddock baked in saffron and pink peppercorns and served with scallops, chickpeas and hazelnuts; beef fillet served with root vegetables, tarragon butter and a pea and mint purée; excellent cheeses; and the most imaginative desserts.

How does a Mars Bar, popcorn and Scottish shortbread brulée served with a fresh raspberry coulis, toffee, chocolate, caramel and oatmeal sound? It sounded odd to me but it made sense in the mouth, the flavours mingling in surprising ways and the sharp berries cutting through the sweetness. 

There were so many highlights to this meal but I have to mention the cheeseboard which featured 11 types of cheeses from all over Britain and the continent, everyone one served at a perfect stage of ripeness; and the cheeky sommelier. He was from France but maintained he had been excommunicated because of his passion for New World wines. He helped us choose wines to complement our food with real enthusiasm and no pretension whatsoever.

My verdict on 21212? This is a restaurant that takes top-quality Scottish ingredients and combines them using an imaginative approach and with an emphasis on strong, gutsy flavours.

Dinner here costs £67 per person for five courses, excluding drinks.

The following day, we had lunch at 12 Picardy Place, where chef Mark Greenaway opened a restaurant in February.

This small, intimate restaurant is housed in one of Edinburgh's grand Georgian buildings. Its décor is minimalist yet plush and the food served here is seasonal, local and always cooked with passion.

We started with an amuse bouche of hazelnuts - a layer of salty broth topped with a creamy hazelnut mousse, crunchy hazelnuts and a slick of hazelnut oil. The combination of salty, creamy and nutty flavours and smooth and crunchy textures made for a good start to the meal.

My starter was a summer pea velouté - a soup that was the essence of pea served with a pea raviollo, chanterelles mushrooms, crisp pancetta and summer truffle. The sweetness of the peas contrasted with the earthiness of the mushrooms and truffles and the saltiness of the pancetta was a delight.

But my boyfriend definitely chose the more exciting starter. The Loch Fyne Crab 'Cannelloni' has become Mark Greenaway's signature dish:

The dish on top contains the 'cannelloni' which is crab meat wrapped in a herb butter and served with beetroot mayonnaise and baby coriander. Underneath is a dish of smoked cauliflower custard, lemon 'pearls' (bursting with citrus flavour) and more beetroot mayonnaise. 
When you lift the top dish off the bottom, oaky smoke wafts out from the bowl underneath, adding another level to the dish.

For mains, I had pan-roasted hake served with a lobster tortellini, fennel and dill purée, pumpkin, radishes, a mash of purple potatoes and a ginger and spring onion broth.

The hake was perfectly cooked with a crisp skin and flaky flesh. The lobster lent a touch of luxury and the broth an unexpected flavour of the East.

My boyfriend had the 11-hour roasted belly of pork - a spiced fillet served with pomme purée, savoy cabbage and toffee apple jus. It was a simple dish; spicy and sweet, crispy and smooth and with lots of strong flavours.

For dessert, I had a chocolate fondant and my boyfriend had Mark's Eton Mess. Unfortunately, they didn't quite live up to the high standards of the rest of the meal. Although I like my chocolate bitter, I found my fondant lacking in sweetness. But the other elements of the dish - the vanilla tuile, white chocolate mousse, orange 'caviar' and tonka bean ice cream - helped make up for this.

Mark's deconstructed Eton Mess was interesting and had lots of contrasting sweet and tart flavours but I didn't think the meringue 'shards' were an improvement on ordinary meringue. I like the chewy texture of meringue and the way it contrasts with the soft berries and luscious cream in a regular Eton Mess
 

Overall though, I would recommend a visit to Mark Greenaway's restaurant at 12 Picardy Place. He's an ambitious chef with a daring approach to food and flavour.

Our three-course lunch with sparkling water cost £70. There is a £20 lunch menu for those seeking better value.

So, if ever you're in Edinburgh, don't feel you have to gorge on haggis and deep-fried confectionary. Discover just how much more this is to Scottish food by visiting 21212 and Restaurant Mark Greenaway.

21212,
3 Royal Terrace
Edinburgh, Midlothian EH7 5AB

Restaurant Mark Greenaway,
12 Picardy Place, Edinburgh EH1 3JT

I'm not dead. I've just been recuperating (and eating!)

Don't worry. I haven't died from hyperventilation!
There are several reasons why I haven't posted anything here for the past two weeks and none of them has to do with my premature death as a result of trying to bake too much for the Dingle Food Festival!

Firstly, I had to spend some time recuperating. I'd worked myself ridiculously hard (59 hours over four days) and ended up a gibbering wreck. Thankfully, I'm over that now.

Despite my gibbering, I have to say I enjoyed the food festival this year. There was such a great atmosphere on the streets of Dingle as people wandered through the town, sampling little taster plates of local foods as they went. The two food markets were exceptionally busy and I loved meeting lots of Twitter friends and fellow food bloggers at my stall. I grabbed every opportunity to chat but unfortunately, I was so busy that there wasn't time to have a chinwag with everyone. Nor was there any time for me to take any photos of all that was happening around me but thankfully, Aoife of I Can Has Cook has a great write up here.

My second reason for not updating is that I've been away. I got a chance to go to Scotland for work and as my boyfriend has a lot of family in England, we decided to combine it with paying a visit to them. So, we climbed into the car at 6am on a Tuesday morning, drove to Larne just north of Belfast, took the ferry to Cairnryan in Scotland and arrived in Edinburgh just shortly before dinnertime. We spent three days in that wonderful city (where I once spent a happy summer as a student), then travelled north to Oban and the island of Mull and generally mooched and ate our way around the Highlands. 

Isn't Scotland pretty?

We then travelled south to Hereford (with a pitstop to see the Angel of the North just outside Newcastle, which is totally worth a visit), followed by two days in London and another day in Gloucester. Finally, we arrived back in Dingle 12 days later, having travelled more than 2,000 miles and had an absolutely great time.

We ate lots of good food while we were away. I've got so much to tell you about eating in Edinburgh - having eaten in the fabulous 21212 and No. 12 Picardy Place - but I'm going to start my series of holiday posts by sharing some tips about three other great restaurants in that city.

Dingle may have a strong (and growing) food culture, as the success of its annual food festival attests. But the one thing I miss about not living in a city is the quality of Chinese, Indian, Japanese and other foreign cuisines. It’s something we just don’t have and I often wish we did. So, when I go to the city, I want to sample some of those foods – as well as foods that typify that city too.

I went to three places in Edinburgh: the Chinese Karen’s Unicorn, the Indian Mother India and the tapas bar Café Andaluz – all of which have lots to recommend them. (My apologies in advance for the quality of the photos - I only had my phone with which to take them.) 

Karen’s Unicorn was recommended by Mark Greenaway, the chef at No 12 Picardy Place.  We’d been impressed by the modern Scottish food he cooked for us and had to follow his advice as a result.  The restaurant looks enticing from the outside, its blue twinkling brightly in a sedate Edinburgh square. 

We were instantly greeted by the staff and what wonderful staff they were. I don't know if I've ever met any friendlier or kinder. We were dithering over our choices when the lovely Danny said that if we chose something we were unhappy with or didn't really like, we could always send it back.

“It’s important to us that our customers are happy,” he said. Wouldn’t it be great if all restaurants had that policy?

We had dim sum, steamed pork buns, war tip dumplings, battered ginger monkfish, crispy beef and a side dish of stir-fried vegetables. My favourites were the pork buns and the monkfish. The buns were soft and fluffy, steamy, slightly sweet and filled with a contrastingly spicy meat filling. 

The monkfish was a lovely Chinese take on the Scottish classic of battered fish - the batter was crisp, the fish perfectly cooked and the spicing gave the dish a light, fresh taste. Yum! 

Our meal, which was more than enough to feed two people and included four beers and one dessert of lychees, cost £50 - good value, don't you think?

Café Andaluz is an attempt to recreate the fiesta of Spain in Scotland. It's fabulously decorated with tiles, Moorish lamps and colourful fabrics and its menu is a varied range of classic Spanish tapas as well as some dishes - such as the beef carpaccio with wasabi and pickled ginger in a spicy dressing - that fuse Spanish cooking with other cuisines. 

Unfortunately, I didn't take photos but I did enjoy my meal here. I had aubergine stuffed with herbed couscous and topped with melted manchego cheese, which was a dish of simple, strong flavours, and battered lime-scented prawns served with a lime aioli. This was fresh, crispy and bursting with citrus flavour.  

Richard (I don't know if I've told you that that's my boyfriend's name!) had the beef carpaccio, which combined its strong flavours in a brave way and featured beef of a very high quality, as well as sea bass served in a citrus mango dressing, which was light and zingy.

The atmosphere here was buzzing. We drank delicious beers. And it cost us £20 each. 

On another day, we had lunch at Mother India, one of Edinburgh's best-loved Indian restaurants. Everyone who works here is Indian. There are Indian film posters on the walls and the menu specialises in tapas-sized plates of Indian food, which means that you can mix and match different dishes. 

We had aloo gobi with green beans, chicken korma, machi massala (a spiced fish dish), boiled rice, raita, coriander chutney and aloo paratha (Indian flat bread stuffed with potato) and it was all good. All of these dishes were simply and excellently spiced and tasted like something the best kind of Indian mamma would make - wholesome, hearty, homely food. The bill, which also included sparkling water for two, came to less than £25.

I would recommend all of these as places to eat in Edinburgh, particularly as places to eat with large groups of friends.

I'd also love to know where your favourite Indian, Spanish or Chinese restaurants are. After all, who knows when I'll next be in your city, craving some foreign foods.

Karen's Unicorn, 8 Abercromby Place, New Town, Edinburgh EH3 6LB

Café Andaluz, 77 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 3EE

Mother India, 3-5 Infirmary Street Edinburgh EH1 1LT 

Don't you just love Cork?

I love going to Cork. I was there for work last week and after spending the morning listening to the harrowing stories of two homeless people I had to interview, I was badly in need of some sustenance and comfort.

My first choice was the fabulously art deco Electric Cork where I have yet to eat but have heard such good reports about. But it was not to be as they don't serve lunch on Wednesdays. Hmm, I wondered, where to now?

I strolled through the English Market where I nibbled on some Frank Hederman smoked salmon and bought Macroom oats, some Clive McCabe teas, Vacherin cheese and orzo as I considered my options. (If you have yet to visit this wonderful place, it should be the first place on your list whenever you're next in Cork.)

I eventually hit upon the idea of going to The Liberty Grill. 
  

Located on Washington Street, this is a bright, buzzy place with a modern vibe. It's always busy, no matter what the time of day, and its menu seems to have something to appeal to all appetites and tastes.

I was instantly greeted by a very friendly member of staff who offered me a copy of that day's paper as I was on my own. He also presented me with the menu, which tempted me with all sorts of great dishes. There are sandwiches - a choice of steak, chicken, club, crab, halloumi cheese and ham, chicken and Swiss cheese - served on sourdough or seeded rye bread. There are salads, ranging from classics such as Caesar salad and niceoise salad to more unusual combinations such as a vegan San Fran salad of soya and chilli-fried tempeh, herbed quinoa and dressed leaves. There are great brunch options which include the house muesli, porridge, pancakes, quesadillas, and baked eggs. I loved the idea of the posh toasts, which come with a range of toppings including sautéed mushrooms, spicy crab and tomato and avocado as well as more classic offerings such as eggs benedict.

But I was really hungry and none of these seemed enough. I wanted a proper lunch and I wanted it Liberty Grill style.The Liberty Grill is known for its burgers so I had to have one of those. But seeing as I didn't want meat, I opted for a crab burger.

It was a good choice. There was lots of crab and white fish in the burger which was coated in a pleasingly crunchy crust. It was served on a bed of rocket and with a zingy lemon and dill sauce and the crispest of chips. My only complaint was that the bun was a little dry and had too much of that sweet processed taste for my liking.

But these are niggling things. Overall, the Liberty Grill was a friendly, buzzing place with a great menu and I enjoyed my lunch there. The price was good too - €14.95 for my burger and a sparkling water.  It ensured that my love affair with Cork continues and I'm looking forward to visiting the city again soon. Where should I go for lunch/dinner next time?

The Liberty Grill  
32 Washington Street
Cork
021 427 1049
Open Mon-Thu 8am - 9pm; Fri-Sat 8am - 10pm

Crackbird Dublin: pop-up restaurants arrive in Dublin

This post was originally written in May.  I have NO IDEA why it has posted again.  Ignore it and I'll do my best to post something new in its place over the weekend.  Promise!


Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
Time is running out for those of you who have yet to eat at Crackbird, Dublin's very first pop-up restaurant.


Open since the 21st of February, this buzzy (and busy) little restaurant on Crane Lane in Temple Bar is going to close its doors and disappear forever on the 22nd of this month. This means you now have only 11 days left to try the tasty chicken and experience the laid-back atmosphere for which Crackbird has quickly become renowned.

Run by the same people who are behind the hugely popular Jo'Burger burger joint in Rathmines; the idea behind Crackbird is simple: serve the most ridiculously addictive fried chicken with a range of sides and sauces.

I had heard lots of hype about this restaurant before my boyfriend and I visited on Monday and was apprehensive as to whether Crackbird could live up to it. My scepticism deepened as we walked down the dingy side street that is Crane Lane. Had I got the address wrong?

The exterior didn't look too promising either. Dark and gloomy, it didn't bode well for what we'd find inside.

But once we stepped inside, I found myself getting excited again. Bare lightbulbs hung over long communal tables lined with smiling people sharing buckets of chicken, salads and dips. The staff - all skinny jeans and quiffs - were friendly and welcoming. And there was music. LOUD music.

We had booked 'tweetseats' through Twitter. (Basically, this meant that we got to eat for free. All we had to do was follow @CrackBIRDdublin on Twitter and send them a message specifying the time, date and number of diners. Simple.)

So, what did we eat?

We ordered the super crisp soy garlic chicken, the semolina chicken crunches, carrot and cranberry salad, chermoula sauce and a whipped feta and burnt lemon sauce with a lime ginger spritzer and a rhubard lemonade to drink.


The super crisp soy garlic chicken arrived in a cute little red bucket and was exactly what we hoped it would be. It was so crispy it crunched. It was perfectly seasoned, perfectly spicy and completely addictive.

The burnt lemon and whipped feta sauce the waiter suggested we have with it was a revelation and my highlight of the entire meal. Its smoothness counterbalanced the spiciness of the chicken and the burnt lemon lent it great depth. (I loved this sauce so much that I'm going to have to try making it for myself. Watch this space for updates on my progress!)

The semolina chicken consisted of strips of moist chicken breast coated in crunchy semolina. It worked well with the herby, zesty chermoula.

The carrot and cranberry salad was sweet and fresh and provided a good contrast to the mostly fried food.

Finally, the drinks, served in repurposed jam jars, were zingy and refreshing.


My verdict? All that apprehension was unfounded. I loved the charming attention to detail - seating composed of picnic benches, homemade napkins in cute patterns, the jam jars for drinks... The food was great. As were the drinks (we didn't have any booze but if we had wanted to, there was beer, wine and cider to choose from). I liked the communal atmosphere and had the sense that we could have stayed there for as long as we wanted, sharing food, sipping drinks and chatting - not something you feel welcome to do in most restaurants.

The only negative was that I felt the chicken - the focus of the menu at Crackbird - should have been free-range. The menu tells us that the chicken comes from a cooperative farm in Cavan but I'd have felt happier if animal welfare were more of a priority.

Also - and this is going to make me sound SO old - the music was slightly too loud.

Those reservations aside, Crackbird is to be recommended.

Time is ticking people. Dublin's very first pop-up restaurant will soon be a thing of the past. Tuck into their chicken dishes, sides and sauces while you still can.

Sayonara, Kappa-ya. I'll be back...

I love Japanese food. In fact, if I had to choose just one nation's cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, I might choose to eat the food of Japan.

Sadly for me, Ireland isn't home to very many Japanese people and as a result, we don't have a huge amount of Japanese restaurants. This means that whenever I happen upon one, I simply have to sample the food.

I'd heard good reports about Kappa-ya in Galway and when I spotted it as I was wandering the streets of the city on Monday, the decision as to where I would eat my lunch was immediately made.

The restaurant looks unassuming from the outside, its only decoration being the Japanese signs hanging in the doorway.

Inside, it's a higgledy-piggledy place crammed with tables, chairs, diners and all sorts of Japanese trinkets. Luckily, I quite like higgledy-piggledy places so this didn't put me off at all.

Several of Galway's resident Japanese were also eating at the restaurant - something I took to be a very good sign.

I decided to have the fish and vegetable tempura served with a side salad. It's quite a basic Japanese dish but done well, it can be extremely satisfying.

So, what was it like? The tempura - a mix of prawns, a white fish that I think was haddock, green beans, red pepper and some sort of squash (butternut was my guess) - was great. The batter was light and melted in the mouth. The fish was perfectly cooked. The prawns were sweet. The vegetables retained a crunch, apart from the squash whose soft texture contrasted nicely with the crisp batter.

All of this sat on top of a bowl of rice and was sprinkled with dashi - a seaweed broth or stock that is fundamental to Japanese cooking.
The salad was a mix of salad leaves and tomatoes with a fresh and spicy dressing.

Overall, the entire meal was simple but a simple success. I'll definitely have to come again.
Especially as I've heard that the chef here creates fabulous feasts on Saturday nights, feasts which include such tempting dishes as tempura of banana with black sesame ice-cream. I really have to try that...

If you've been to Kappa-ya, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it and your suggestions as to what I should eat there next time. Also, if you've been to any Japanese restaurants in Ireland or even further afield that you think I should visit, do let me know about them.

Kappa-ya
4 Middle Street
Galway City
Ireland

Monsieur Vuong's in Berlin - are these the world's best spring rolls?

I love Asian food. I love the textures, the freshness, the seafood and the spices. So, when Aoife of http://icanhascook.wordpress.com/ recommended I visit Monsieur Vuong's during a recent trip to Berlin, I had to try it out. She was especially keen the spring rolls (I think I remember her calling them "the best spring rolls in the world ever") so I simply had to have them.

The atmosphere in Monsieur Vuong's is an upbeat one. You walk into a bright room decorated in cheery oranges, pinks and reds. Trendy young Berliners sit at the minimalist wooden tables. There's lots of chatter, great music and, at the back of the restaurant, an aquarium of colourful fish.

I made a beeline for the fish and spent much of our meal enjoying their comings and goings and trying to attract their attention. (They could have kept me amused for hours!)


But all this was a mere prelude to the food. We ordered the infamous spring rolls and a bowl of wanton soup.

The wanton soup wasn't that amazing. While the wanton parcels melted in the mouth, the broth lacked that depth of flavour that makes dishes like this so comforting.

Uh oh, I thought to myself. Have I built my hopes up only to be served a mediocre meal?

These critical thoughts melted away as soon as I tasted the spring rolls. Aoife might just be right. These are certainly contenders for the BEST SPRING ROLLS IN THE WORLD EVER.

The pastry was totally different from any other I've tasted. It was super crunchy and had such a hit of umami (I know this is a vague way of describing its flavour but I can't think of any other. The pastry had a savoury depth of flavour that made it much more than a simple casing for the flavours inside.) The ingredients inside - lettuce, prawns, spring onions and herbs - were fresh, crunchy and subtly spiced.
And then there was the dipping sauce, which was sticky and intense. It set off the spring roll perfectly.
If you are ever in Berlin and you too would like to taste what might just be the best spring rolls in the world (and the entertaining fish), don't miss Monsieur Vuong's.

Danté's Gastropub: the first pitstop in a quest to find a good place to eat in Tralee

Where is a good place to eat in Tralee? This is a question I ask myself whenever I am in the town. Despite decades of visiting Tralee on a regular basis, I have yet to find many cafés or restaurants that I would recommend to friends.

I have a particular fondness for Brat's on Milk Market Lane, a wonderfully ramshackle vegetarian café, but I am not always in the mood for and nor am I often in time to eat there. (It has very short opening hours.) So, the quest continues. Where is a good place to eat in Tralee?

A month or so ago, I heard about a new opening in the town. Danté's Bar - on the corner of Bridge and Dominick Street - aims to bring the gastropub culture to Tralee. So, when my boyfriend and I found ourselves hungry in the town on Monday, we decided to sample what this new place had to offer.

The menu consists of quality modern gastropub fare. Chicken liver pâté with sourdough, mushroom and rocket risotto, confit duck with red cabbage and mash; the type of food that's filling, comforting and carries a touch of continental sophistication.

I ordered the fish cakes (which were recommended by staff) and my boyfriend ordered the pork belly. His came with Annascaul black pudding and roast peaches. The pork was excellently cooked, with a crispy skin satisfyingly yielding to a melting layer of oozing fat and tender meat. The black pudding added earthy depths of flavour while the peaches lent acidity to the dish. Overall, it was pretty good. I’m sure he’d have it again.

My fishcakes weren’t quite as successful.

They came with a crisp salad, sour cream and a chilli salsa – all good accompaniments. My problem wasn’t with them but with the fishcakes themselves. There was far too much smoked haddock in them, so much in fact that it completely overshadowed any other flavours. The only flavour that could match the haddock in the dish was the chilli in the salsa.

Overall, Danté’s has a lot to commend it. The décor is good, with lots of dark wood and big windows letting in lots of light. The staff are attentive (they overheard us complaining about the loud – and I mean LOUD – hip hop music that was blaring when we walked in, completely at odds with the mid-afternoon relaxed vibe, and immediately changed to something more suitable).

You can order wines by the glass. There’s a good range of teas and coffees.
And best of all, Danté’s offers unbeatable people-watching opportunities. We sat in a big window that overlooked one of Tralee’s busiest streets and speculated about everyone who passed by. Did we like her hairdo? Wasn’t that a weird-looking dog? Would you go out of the house looking like that? It was the best people-watching session I’d had in a long time.

Marks out of ten? I’d say six and a half. Not great, admittedly, but I’ll go back again. I have a feeling this place could get better.

By the way, if you can suggest any places I should try in Tralee, please do so.