Gunternation

In general, if you want to thrill food lovers, invite them into your kitchen and cook for them. Tell them stories of your mother Aruna in Bangladesh, preparing meals for her ten children. Entice them with aroma of onions meeting garlic and ginger and cardamom, cinnamon and turmeric. Pass around bowls of your secret spice mixtures. Make food you love and then feed it to them. This will make food lovers smile and feel that joy that only sharing a meal can bring. You will have given them a gift.

Bill and I had such a food lovers’ day today, hosted by Sarajit Chanda and Sarah Nic Lochlainn in their Fuchsia House restaurant in Ardee. Sarajit and Sarah invited food bloggers to a master class of  Street Food dishes that will be showcased in the upcoming Bangladeshi Street Food meets Irish Craft Beer evening on 12 July. Tom Doorley will be speaking at this event, and is working with Sarajit and Sarah to pair the dishes with Irish Beers and Ciders. After sampling the menu today, I can tell you the €50 ticket will be money well eaten. And there will be craft beer.

Sarajit kicks off the cooking class

The Bangladeshi Street Food dishes Sarajit cooked today are familiar Indian restaurant offerings: Lamb Roganjosh, Chicken Curry, Onion Bhaji, Auburgine Bhaji, Dhal, and Spinach with Prawns. Street Food from any cuisine is food that people actually eat–everyday people in their everyday lives. Sarajit’s versions of these dishes represent the best of those everydays–days with local meats and veg, the very best spices, everything that is needed and nothing else.

Roganjosh ready for eating

Aubergine coated with salt and turmeric, ready for frying

The moment of onion bhaji creation

A few things we learned today:

• Pakora and Bhaji are two words that mean ‘fried’ and bhuna means to stir until thickened.
• A paste of equal parts pureed garlic and ginger can keep for a few weeks in the fridge, or can be frozen. And it tastes great in just about anything.
• Cream and ghee are not widely used in Bangladeshi cooking, or at least not in Aruna’s recipes.
• Lentils are a common breakfast food in Bangladesh, and are frequently eaten at every meal. (I’m seriously considering adding lentils to my breakfast rotation.)
• If you don’t have time to make your own garam masala, you can get pretty far with cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaves
• Making a paste with dry spices and water will prevent the spices from burning. Make it up to an hour beforehand to intensify the flavor of the spices.
• Turmeric is the go to spice in Bangladeshi cuisine. After a visit to Bangladesh, your toothbrush will be yellow.

The best part, the eating

Sarah and Sarajit also told us a lot about their Aruna sauces venture, and the patience and creativity required to bring their sauces to market. Each pouch represents loads of time, trials, and attention, and the benefits of an adhesive expert–not that easy to stick things to refrigerated plastic it turns out. Recent winners on Dragon’s Den, Aruna sauces are available in many retail outlets in Ireland. Look in the refrigerated section!

After meeting Sarah and Sarajit today, hearing their stories and seeing them in their kitchen and restaurant, I thought, wow, these guys are doing exactly what they should be doing. It was a real pleasure to spend time with them today, and to be taught and fed so graciously. And dining with fellow food bloggers is always great craic!

Hey Internet,

Here are few quick recommendations for places to grab lunch, as captured in recent weeks by my phonecam.

Fafie’s Creperie

A CityDeal led us to Fafie’s Creperie on Lower Kevin Street (along with every other patron on a recent Sunday near the voucher expiry date). I’m so glad it did. Fafie’s makes Brittany-style buckwheat galettes which are nuttier and heartier than the um, non-buckwheat variety. My crepe with Emmental cheese, ham, organic spinach and sundried tomato was delicious–the spinach and cheese are such a perfect pair and worked well with the nutty crepe. Bill had the Montagnard, an impressive sounding galette with Reblochon cheese and bacon lardons. A rich mouthful indeed, which really needed the nutty flavor of the crepe. (I am at a loss for a synonym for nutty.)

Fafie’s is a cozy and pleasant place, which will serve you dessert crepes even if you’ve just eaten a savory galette. Can you eat both in one meal? I asked. Why not, I was told, it’s Sunday. And so I can assure you that the Caramel Breton and Chocolate and Pear crepes are also delish.

The Counter

If you’re going to pay upwards of €11.00 for a burger, and in Dublin chances are that you will, it may as well be a good one. I was surprised in my early Irish days that I didn’t like many burgers in Dublin, and have determined the problem is typically the burger patty itself. The trend in Ireland is to use a very low fat mince which creates hard, on-the-dry-side burgers. (This problem also extends to meatballs.) Bill has the butcher grind mince from rib steak/chuck, as the mince on sale maxes out at 10% fat.

Now, about that lunch.  The Counter on Suffolk street serves soft and juicy burgers, but we were most impressed by the available toppings, including roasted green chiles. You can build a really tasty burger. Go for the sweet potato fries; the regular fries are so-so. And don’t get too excited when they bring you a decent-sized diet coke with a lemon. You’re still in the land of no refills.

If you can rein in your options and choose one of the set Signature Burgers, a burger and a drink is around €8.00. A great lunch deal.

La Cucina

While not exactly handy to Dublin City Centre, La Cucina is absolutely convenient and worth a stop if you are anywhere near Limerick. On our way to Dingle last month we saw some tweets from icanhascook about stopping by, so I used my fancy phone to look up the location and determine we would be in the vicinity right at lunchtime. Since we were on the road, we popped in for a couple ciabatta sandwiches to go: the grigliatia with roasted peppers and aubergines/eggplant,  mozzarella, rocket/arugula and pesto (pictured); and the salumi with parma ham, salami, and buffalo mozzarella. Yum. Terrific sandwiches–a steal at €5.00. In addition to loads of lovely sandwiches, La Cucina serves pizza (I’m still regretting not getting a slice for “starter”) and pasta with tantalizing ingredients. We’ll be visiting the next time we’re nearby, even if it isn’t lunchtime!

Last weekend we were in County Kerry for the Dingle Food and Wine Festival. (So much about that sentence makes me happy.) On Sunday morning we were invited to join some fellow foodies on a fishing trip, so six of us found ourselves gathered in the marina on a foggy morning. We were uncertain. We were wearing layers. Can you fish in the fog, we wondered, such landlubbers were we. This is brilliant weather for fishing, our skipper assured us, sounding nothing like a pirate. (Bill and I had hoped he’d sound a little like a pirate.)

Heading out to sea

We boarded the Sarah Ellie and headed off across the glassy water. We could see the mouth of the bay in the mist, but in a few minutes we were lost in the fog. Our skipper, Paul, killed the engine and gave us a two minute lesson on sea fishing–Let her out, keep your thumb on the spool, then reel her back in a little. Out. In. Keeping her moving.

From the moment the first lure hit the water, our day turned magical. Within seconds Ollie had reeled in a 6kg pollock. It was a stunner of a fish. We were all amazed. Even Paul was amazed. The fish went into the blue fish bucket, and we all set ourselves to fishing, hoping to match Ollie’s catch. In. Out. Keep her moving. A few more pollock came on board. I caught one that weighed few kilograms. We caught lots of mackerel. They all went into the fish bucket, gasping a bit, but shining silver, the mackerel’s backs covered in green and black tiger stripes.

Ollie's prize winning catch

Paul moved the boat to a new location. We all hit twitter with our fish tales. Fishing is fun! Then we fished some more. We threw back tiny mackerel. We sang sea shanties. (Not really, but we should have.) We caught a load of fish.

Bill reels in few mackerel

Gathered around our bucket of fish, we snapped pics of our catch like they were celebrities. That’s deadly, Niall said. Irish slang for great. It was deadly, the deadliest catch! All thanks to our excellent skipper, and some mad, foodie fishing skills. Great job Bill, Ollie, Niall, Aoife, and Ross!

Our catch

We both have fishing in our genes

Back at the marina Paul filleted the fish. Slice in behind the gill, down along the bone. On the mackerel, flip over and repeat, to create a butterfly. On the larger pollocks he cut separate fillets on each side. Ollie’s fish was almost too large for the knife. You can feed ten people off that fish, Paul said. He bagged the fish for us and send us over to the Marina Inn and told us to ask for Darcy.

Paul fillets a mackerel

Fillets of fish

Darcy is the chef at Marina Inn and she prepared some of our fish for lunch. We washed the scales from our hands, and restored ourselves with post-voyage pints of Guinness and Crean’s lager (from Dingle Brewing Company). We shared a starter of tasty mussels in cream sauce. Darcy played a blinder* and served us three fish dishes–fried, beer-battered pollock; pollock with Parmesan cheese crumb; and mackerel with chorizo, potatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. Everything about the fish was great–the texture, the flavor. Eating fish that had been swimming in the ocean not more than 90 minutes before is incredible. I think the mackerel was a favorite–it has a bit more flavor that the pollock. A lunch to remember.

Freshest fish I'll ever eat

Many thanks to Aoife for organizing, and to Paul of Dingle Bay Charters and Darcy at the Marina Inn.

*I’m using Irish slang! It means, performed excellently.

I loved field trips in school. The excitement of it all–boarding the bus, riding into Houston to visit the zoo or the Natural Science Museum (they had shrunken heads!). Having money for snacks and souvenirs. Extra opportunities to be with my friends and study the behavior of boys in a new environment. In his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, Bill took many field trips to the NASA Space Center, which was great because he loved the huge rocket, the lunar landing video game (before there were video game arcades), and the freeze dried ice cream.

Now we are grown up and we take field trips to restaurants and bakeries. In Drogheda. And we love it.

Last Saturday, we joined a crew of food bloggers to meet Jeni and Reuven, owners of Eastern Seaboard  to learn about their successful restaurant as well as their two new ventures, The Brown Hound Bakery and Mo’s To Go.

We assembled at the Brown Hound where Jeni and Reuven invited us into their delightful bakery.  Jeni and Reuven worked with New York baker Craig Thompson to develop the recipes and train the staff at Brown Hound.  Many of the offerings are inspired by Thompson’s grandmother’s recipes, and I have to say, Thompson must have the most elegant grandmother ever.

I can’t imagine entering the Brown Hound without expressing a few Wows. A mix of art gallery and Victorian parlor, the interior positively gleams with glass and chrome illuminating piles of scones,  towers of cookies, and cakes and pies topped with exquisite meringue and icing.  The cool metals are warmed by painted cake stands and platters and the most comforting of all sights–baskets of beautiful bread. Surfaces not covered by enticing edibles feature glassware by artist John Derian, or bottles of olive oil (which are art in themselves).

Jeni and Reuven were so kind to gift us each with a box of bakery samples, tied with a Brown Hound ribbon. I’ve heard that these treats did not last long for anyone. There’s a particular buzz about the chocolate banana bread and I have to join in that chorus. It’s moist, perfectly sweet, with huge chunks of delicious chocolate. We also bought a brown butter cake with lemon curd–beautiful to gaze upon, great texture, nicely tart lemon curd. I like that many of the cakes come in several sizes, including cupcake. We picked up a bottle of that gorgeous olive oil as well.

Next door to Brown Hound is Mo’s To Go, a takeaway featuring some choices from Eastern Seaboard as well as an item of extreme interest to the Americans in the group–corndogs. Along with hush puppies and fried whitebait, sides of cold spicy noodles and tabbouleh, this is not your average chipper. Jeni told me that Mo’s is named after her mom, who supports her and Reuven in so many ways, including frequently leaving food for them to find when they get home. The idea of food as gift is embodied throughout all three of Reuven and Jeni’s eateries, through attention to ingredients, preparation and presentation.

After gawking over Brown Hound and Mo’s, we settled down for the best part of the evening–dinner. Eastern Seaboard has been open in Drogheda for a few years and has developed a loyal following. I mentioned to a Laytown friend that I was meeting some foodies in Drogheda for dinner. “Oh, are you going to Eastern Seaboard?” he guessed,  “You’ll love it.” Our seating was a 6:00 and the restaurant was already busy. Our end of the table decided to order several starters to share. An extremely good idea as we got to taste tons of things, including perfect calamari, a luscious pig’s cheek terrine with celeriac slaw, crab cakes, garlicky crab claws, and a butcher’s board featuring pork rillettes and an amazing black pudding, chorizo and pistachio ballotine.

For mains I had the sea bream special with lemon salt and pea shoots. I chose Asian slaw and sweet potato wedges for sides. The fish was delish, especially the skin, and my sides were two great tastes that taste great together. The vinegary sesame flavor of the slaw was particularly refreshing. Bill’s rabbit was outstanding, tender and luscious with sides of perfect spinach and balsamic-laced lentils. The rabbit loin was char-grilled and topped with a smoked bacon and rabbit “ragù.” The smokiness from both the grilling and bacon perfectly complemented the tender rabbit.

For dessert a I had the coffee jelly with ice cream, on recommendation from Clare of An American in Ireland. Clare grew up eating coffee jelly (aka jello) in Japan and was thrilled when she found that Reuven, also Japanese, had included it on Eastern Seaboard’s menu. I absolutely loved this light, flavorful dessert, and am a bit obsessed with it at the mo. Bill’s Little Pots of Warm Chocolate Heaven were exactly what it says on the tin, and included chocolate pop rocks, if you can believe it.

Reuven told us they opened Eastern Seaboard to provide a casual dining option. “Casual Dining” has a black mark in the US for its association with the proliferation of chain restaurants, but the idea that dinner should not require high heels or a bank loan is a good one, and welcome in Ireland. I love the food first attitude at Eastern Seaboard.  But don’t think they don’t let the atmosphere suffer! (I swear their smoking lounge is going to encourage more people to start smoking. You have to see it.) It’s so obvious that these guys care, and I’m thrilled to have spent an evening in their world.

Many thanks to Clare for organizing, and to all the other food bloggers for your stellar company:

Caryna’s Cakes

Daily Spud

Smorgasblog

Kuchennie

Gracie Bakes

Dinner du Jour

Katz Miaow

It is truly fun to dine with the food obsessed!

Um, Can I bum a cig? Don’t want to leave this smoking lounge!

Crackbird

Word of Crackbird is getting around and I’m hearing accounts of visits to the ephemeral chicken shack on Crane Lane. The lure of limited time only is certainly working for me. Several dining decisions have been finalized by saying, “Well, if we want to go to Crackbird, we need to go now. Won’t be here forever.” That’s why I loaded a crew of co-workers into a mini-van taxi for a field trip to Crackbird for lunch on Thursday.

Consensus is that Crackbird turns out tasty chicken. I’ve settled on the wings, which come only in the Soy Garlic version, as my favorite. It’s a dozen whole wings and is plenty to share. The sumptuous Soy Garlic doesn’t really need a sauce, which is a shame as I’m a fan of dipping and the attractive array of sauces are tasty (try mixing the feta and jalapeno).  A few items have been hit and miss–coffee cake was delicious with creme fraiche (evoked Southern US to me), but the ginger cake was dry; twice the slaw was really bright and refreshing, but this last time weird (flavor proportions were off). But after three visits I’d still happily return. Because it won’t be here forever.

I love the casual fun of Crackbird. The free food tweet seats we enjoyed our first visit. Picnic tables and and jars of rhubarb lemonade and handmade napkins. The simple presence of cloth napkins shows that Crackbird may be a pop up but it is not slapdash. It’s thought out and constructed to provide a certain experience–an experience I’ll happily consume. On a recent Sunday afternoon as Bill and I awaited our bucket of bird, he lifted his Pilsner Urquell (they were out of Double LL cider that day) and said, “You know, if this were a Shiner, I’d be in Austin.” He was spot on. Crackbird is quirky, but it’s the kind of quirkiness that lives in service, ultimately, to the food (along with admittedly some self-knowing hipness)–a vibe that we know as Austiny.

I’ve wondered if Crackbird would hang on longer–a final final tour if you will. Your man did say that they would be closing, but when we asked where he’d be going next he said it’s more what will he be doing next. And that, he said, he couldn’t tell us. I’d love to see Crackbird pop up every summer. Maybe if the food trailer concept ever makes it to Ireland. That would be brill.

But for now, less than 30 days remaining. Vote now, vote often. Eat Crackbird!

West goes East

A few weeks ago Bill spotted the following notice in the Irish Times Food file:

Galway comes to Dublin : The pop-up phenomenon continues, with the arrival a one-night-only restaurant in Dublin’s Hibernian Club on St Stephen’s Green.

It will be run by chef Martin O’Donnell of the Twelve Hotel in Barna, Co Galway, who won last November’s Bord Bia Just Ask commendation. For the night of Tuesday, April 12th, a 20-seat pop-up will showcase the local ingredients that O’Donnell uses in his cooking, such as McGeough’s air-dried lamb, Galway Bay scallops – diver-caught by the hotel’s general manager, Fergus O’Halloran – served with Barna sea vegetables and wild rabbit. The dinner is priced at €95 including wine pairings, and places can be booked by calling 091-597000.

Within minutes I had called the mysterious number and talked to several people with no clue about any pop up restaurant. But I shortly received a call back and we were booked in. Then the questions began–What does one wear to the Hibernian Club? Are they really selling only twenty tickets? Who is this McGeough fella out there air drying lambs?

We settled our wardrobe questions fairly easily and made plans to meet at the Hibernian Club. Taxi, please. Yes, to the Hibernian Club, located on St. Stephen’s Green since 1840. I had received a call inviting us to a reception before dinner, so we arrived shortly after 7:00. We were directed upstairs to the Reading Room which overlooks the green and already contained at least twenty people. We theorized then that the twenty tickets represented twenty in addition to club members.

The Prosecco was flowing freely and we had three glasses along with a shrimp canapé before moving downstairs to the dining room. Bill and I were seated at a table for two by the front windows. The dining room was full with approximately 60 people, and we were on the low end of the age range. A feat when you’re in your 40s. What ensued was a terrific dinner of West Ireland ingredients, but I’ll tell you right now, this was no pop up. I appreciate the notion that you could pop up within a 150-year old establishment, but you would have to pop up pretty hard: Sneak in in the middle of the night, have a fish fry in the snooker room or a menu made entirely of bourbon and cigars. The clincher was when I was told, very kindly and politely, that texting was frowned upon in the dining room. No self respecting pop up would ban tweeting!

That being said, I think it was a smart idea to bring the West restaurant to Dublin, and also smart for The Hibernian to open up the dinner to non-members. The serving staff, a combination of West restaurant and Hibernian employees, were outstanding. Our dinner was delightful. The glasses of delicious wines were generous. One regret is there was no discussion of the wine pairings. I think the chef intended to make a appearance earlier in the evening to describe the dinner and wines, but we didn’t see O’Donnell and his two assisting chefs until well after dessert when we were about to leave.

The Menu

Rabbit Croquette with Leek Fondue and Atsina Cress
served with Pinot Blanc, Cuvée les Amours, Hugel et Fils 2007

Galway Bay Scallops with Sea Vegetables and Peas with a Dillisk Butter
served with Pouilly Fumé, Domaine Tinel-Blondelet 2007

Beechlawn Organic Parnsnip and Smoked Bacon Soup with air dried Pork Crisp
also served with the Pouilly Fume

A Study in Connemara Lamb–Rack, Shoulder and Kidney Pie
served with Conde de Valdemar Rioja Reserva 2004

Galway Market Rhubarb crumble and clotted cream
served with Oremus, Late Harvest, Tokaji 2006

Coffee and Truffles

The standouts for me were the rabbit croquette and the lamb pie. (I am at my core a casserole girl!) The croquette contained some rabbit liver and was luscious but not heavy. And it was fried. Yum. I could have eaten much more of the leeks, and the Atsina was a nice licorice-like bite. The little lamb pie was so cute with a rich-tasting crust and intense lamb flavor. And it was garnished with a slice of air-dried lamb. McGeough, you’re a genius! The air-dried lamb was procuitto-like, as I expected, but also very spicy. Must buy McGeough air dried lamb.

The scallops were perfect as well. Bill and I reflected that scallops are a unique combination of sweet and meaty. An interesting outcome of advertising that the West restaurant serves diver-caught scallops is that the manager and scallop diver, Fergus O’Halloran, learned that it is illegal to harvest scallops using scuba gear. They can only be harvested by free diving. Or by dredging apparently.

After our experience with the West restaurant road show, I’d definitely seek them out when in County Galway. A lovely meal, especially for a Tuesday.