Saturday 29th October 2011
Cafe di Napoli


Cafe di Napoli had been a cute little Italian deli and coffee shop that I used to frequent when I originally moved back to Dublin from London about 8 years ago (can't believe it's been that long, I only meant to stay a year!).  I noticed a while back that they had extended it into a full restaurant, but I hadn't been in that part of town in ages, so it was only when I was walking to Dublin Contemporary the other day that I spotted it again and made a mental note to try it out.  I used to love going into it for lunch, I'd get a panini stuffed with grilled aubergine and mozzarella or courgette and pesto and sit on the seats outside with a lovely coffee watching the world go by, so I had high hopes for what they are offering as a restaurant.

I'd booked a table for my sister and I for 8pm.  On arrival we got the menu, which was pretty long.  The starters were interesting, so I was definitely going to get one of them, but then I couldn't decide between pizza or pasta.  Although I really enjoy a simple pasta, such as the oil, garlic & chili, I always (wrongly) feel a little cheated if I do order this as I feel I could easily have stayed home and whipped the same up for a quarter of the price.  So I had major indecision.  Originally pizza was winning as I thought I might compare their pizza with that of the wonderful Don Mimi/Da Mimmo (whatever you want to call it, must do that blog entry soon), but I wasn't overly hungry (due to too many sweets stolen for children at my niece's Halloween party earlier that afternoon) so in the end I opted for one of the gnocchi dishes, But more of that later.

The quite extensive menu (some of it is hard to read, sorry. I got a smart phone finally so I like how one can take a photo conspicuously, as if you're just sending a text , I hated getting my camera out at the table before).

So what did we have for starters?  Well my sister had the melanzana, which is pictured above.  Now this was gorgeous, but as you can see a massive portion, it would have been better as a main course, there must have been a full aubergine sliced, battered ( in what I think was gram flour), deep fried, slices of mozzarella then placed between each aubergine slice, smothered in tomato sauce and whacked into the oven for a couple of minutes so that the cheese was all soft and oozy.  It was absolutely delicious, but must have been a thousand calories .

For my starter I had the arancini.  These were nice, but maybe slightly too soft inside.  A nice crisp outside of breadcrumbs gave way to a very soft and oozing inside which seemed to be based on a tomato risotto.  There was no bundle of cheese in the center however which I was expecting.  The presentation, as you can see from above wasn't great.

My sister opted for the spinach cannelloni (pictured above). It was on the specials board, which also had porcini risotto and a fish dish (whoops, can't remember what it was).  This was disappointing primarily because of the bechamel.  It was too much, much too rich to go with the dense spinach.  We both agreed that a tomato sauce would have been more suited to the dish.

My gnocchi was very disappointing.  I was expecting home made, possible pan fried soft gnocchi, but instead I got packet dumplings which were extremely waxy and a very poor butter and sage sauce ( not enough sage and the butter tasted as if it was almost on the turn).

We decided not to bother with desserts which were the standard Italian fare of tiramisu, profiteroles etc. The staff on the whole were nice and service was good.  We shared a bottle of one of the house whites which was a Pinot Grigio, but could have done with out the inquisition on why we chose that grape variety and not another from the waiter.

It was reasonably priced however, just over 60€ which isn't too bad.  On the whole I wouldn't recommend it, but probably would go back if I were in a group and I wouldn't mind trying the pizzas just to see what there are like.  Not a patch on my other favourite Italians in Dublin however, Il Primo just off Harcourt St on Montague St., and of course the wonder da Mimmo on the North strand.

http://www.napoli.ie/

Wednesday 7th September
Thornton's on the Green, Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin

I'm been a very bold food blogger as I haven't updated the blog in a couple of months, and it hasn't been that I haven't been eating out.  In fact I've eaten out a lot, a quick summary would be FOAM just behind the Millennium Bridge by the bean bag shop (lovely quirky decor and although I will go back many times, t'is for the atmosphere rather then the food), Seagrass on Portobello bridge for a friend's birthday (set menu, great value at 19€ for 3 courses, massive portions, but pretty slow service.)  Rotana Cafe, the lebanese right next door to Seagrass (nice mezzes, small enough portions however but the batata hara are very good.)  Again cheap and both places are BYOB or in Seagrass's case you can buy wine by the glass.  And then I've been to Da Mimmo for both sit in and take out, this little Italian on the North Strand has been my very favourite place to eat in Dublin at the moment.  But it deserves its own entry which I must do soon.  So today I'm going to discuss the tasting menu I had for my birthday in Thornton's on the Green.

Myself, my sister and my sister's partner had been on a wine tasting course last year, run by the Corkscrew on Chatham Street and very good it was too. Since then the brother in law has been on another course and as his birthday is also in September (just a few days between the two), when my sister saw the Corkscrew advertisting this tasting menu in Thornton's with matching wines, she thought it a perfect gift for both of us.  I was more than happy about this, but was concerned that veggie's may not be catered for, so after a quick call to Chris (of the Corkscrew) we were assured it would be no problemo, so all was arranged.  So on the night of September 7th ( a school night unfortunately) we put on our glad rags and got a taxi to Stephen's Green.  We should have checked the exact location of the restaurant as it took us almost a full circle (not good in heels) of the green to figure out that it was in the Fitzwilliam hotel.

So once inside I recieved the real birthday surprise in that the boy was standing there waiting for me in a suit!!!  It was such a shock, but extremely romantic, and I was very touched indeed.  He had been in secret liasons with my sister and the Corkscrew and had spent all day walking round Dublin in his borrowed suit as he couldn't go back to my house.  In fact I'd been pretty grumpy to him on the phone earlier in the day, thinking him in London and not in Dublin, so I was delighted to see him there, such a lovely birthday present!

So on to the food, I had intended to write this up the day after or even two days after, but what with the boy over and my mother's 70th birthday celebration at the weekend, I neglected to do so, and then it got put of longer for one reason or another.  Due to this I regret that I have lost all information on the menu and the wines we had and my memory is patchy on some of the dishes.  So apologies for the very vague description with is about to follow, but I fully intend form here on in to write all future blogs as soon as possible after the event in order to be specific.  The wines were all from a Italian vineyard and the woman who owned the place spoke about each wine as they were introduced to us (again, apologies as I can't remember the names of the vineyard or the wines).  None of these I found spectacular although the Chardonanny was very nice and unfortunately there was no dessert wine.

We all had the same starter, which was the above.  It was a mushroom terrine and it was wrapped in what seemed to be a seaweed gel.  It was ok, the mushrooms overy woody I found, the jus was nice, a little bit marmite-y almost.

The nice Chardonnay

The hake

 For some reason I have no image of what I eat instead of the hake that everyone else had for the fish course

This was my very interesting main course, it liiked like a little garden.  It was a potato and onion lasange, with an interesting broccoli jelly and lovely dried vegetable crisps with looked like little tress or seaweed.  Very delicious.

Dessert and petite fours next, a lovely chocolate truffle for dessert suspended in a foam and the petite fours were lovely too.

Finally must mention about the lovely warm bread rolls served at the start.  Would I go again?  yes I would, Chef Thornton himself came over to the table at the end of the meal to see how it was.  I said how nice my veggie was and he explained how his wife and one of his children are veggie also so it's important to him that veggies are well catered for.  In fact the boy thought my meal was probably superior to what the meat eaters received, so that's always a good thing.

Friday 19th August 2011
Stuffed Courgette Flowers




I decided to try and grow some veggies this year and although I haven't got a garden, I bought some tarpaulin raised bed bags and gave it a go.  And it went better then expected!  I had a good crop of peas, rocket and lettuce and there are beetroot still to mature.  But the best, it has to be said is my courgette plants.  I'm amazed at the crop from 6 seeds!!  I was slightly worried about them as I had been away for so long, but my flat mate had been watering well so some of them are huge!!! More or less turned into marrows!!!  

Two courgette flowers and mini courgettes attached

 But there are also still lots of baby courgettes with their flowers.  I was particularly delighted to find this as the first flowers were only appearing when I was leaving for London and I didn't get a chance to cook with them.

Here are two pictures of the mega courgette that must have been one of the original ones as it's huge now.  Look how big it is in comparison to my hand!!

So this evening I had the opportunity to stuff the little beauties with a garlicky cream cheese and mushroom filling, then I dipped them in a light tempura batter and deep fried them.  I ate them with a spicy baked rice which I used my new individual casserole ceramic dish for.  I think it's the cutest thing!

I have so many courgettes growing at the moment that I think I'll be eating them for breakfast, dinner and tea for the next month!!  Going to try and do something with the mega courgette over the weekend.  Anyone have any good marrow recipes?

Wednesday 17th August 2011
The Cheese Pantry,  Drumcondra, Dublin

Arrived back in sunny (?!) Dublin after almost a month in London.  I was very sad to leave but needs must.  So after a quick hop over the Irish Sea from the extremely handy London City Airport, and completing some necessary tasks, I met up with my mother, sister, her partner and my lovely niece for some dinner in the Cheese Pantry in Drumcondra.  This is a  small restaurant that I have been to on several occasions with my sister since she has moved to Drumcondra 3 or 4 ears ago.  It's a cute wee place, but I've never been overawed by the food so I wasn't expecting too much this evening. 

The exterior, which is pretty cute.  I particularly like the tiles.

It has been a while since my last visit here however and the interior has changed a bit.  Previously it was just like a shop/deli once you walked in the door, with shelving along the walls and a big counter.  If you wished to eat, you were brought down a narrow passage to the small back room where there was space for about 8 tables.  The have now added a seating area to the front which adds seating capacity for about another 12 to 15 people. They have done this by creating a small snug at the front of the shop by the window and this is where we were seated.  I like this new area as it feels more like a restaurant than a cafe.

We were given both menus, the Al la carte and the fixed price .  We were all going to order from the Prix-Fixe menu, 2 courses for €17.50 I was originally going to just get a main, but the very friendly waitress suggested to combine with a dessert, so I decided to do that. Unfortunately a few minutes later, she returned to say that it was not possible to do so and the menu only referred to a starter and main.  We were all quite shocked at this as we had never experienced something like this in any other restaurant that offers this type of deal.  Indeed it is standard practice to be able to combine any two courses you wish so they should really ensure that they clearly state this on the menu as it isn't clear at the moment.  None of us ordered starters.  This is what we all ate:

My sister's partner had the teriyaki beef salad which he said was lovely and well cooked.  See pic above

I ordered the risotto.  There were three veggie options on the menu, but I didn't really want a salad or tagliatelle.  I really like a good risotto, even though it seems to be the standard veggie option at the moment in many restaurants.  If it's done well it's beautiful.  This was a wild mushroom version which I think would have been better suited to an autumnal menu rather than a summer one.  It came as you can see above, with a heap of rocket leaves and the thinnest shavings of perorino cheese I have ever seen.  The rocket wasn't dressed or seasoned and would have benefited from being so.  The risotto itself was nicely flavoured, but the rice was overcooked and the consistency was quite stodgy.  The mushrooms were badly prepared.  There is another image below of how they were presented in this dish, big ears which were almost as large as the palm of my hand, they didn't suit this dish and would have been better torn into smaller pieces.  I also thought them extremely woody and tough.  It was a well seasoned dish however.

 My four and a half year old niece tucked into banger's and mash which she liked.  The waitress was particularly friendly with her and even brought out special cutlery for her which was nice.

Both my mother and sister eat the coc-au-vin which they said was delicious, well cooked and a rich sauce apparently.

You can clearly see the gigantic mushroom here.  Look at its size relative to the dish!

 We washed all our food down with an Australian Chardonnay.  It was chosen by my brother-in-law and was fruity and light.  Unfortunately his original selection from the wine list was unavailable.  We discovered this fact at the same time as being told that we couldn't combine mains and dessert which had me slightly concerned about how the meal would progress, but everything else we wanted was fine.

I decided not to have dessert but instead had a small spoon of everyone else's (it would have been rude not to!)

My brother in law and niece shared a 'death by chocolate', seen above after the swirl of chocolate frosting had been whipped into my niece's mouth before I got the photo taken.  I'm not the biggest fan of sponge but this was light and moist and the frosting was nice.

My mother had the banoffee pie, which was nice and not overly sweet.

And my sister had the rhubarb crumble.  This was probably the best of the desserts, neither too sweet or tart.

I'm not too sure how much the bill came to in total as my sister and her partner kindly paid for us all but judging by the tip I suspect it was around the €100 mark.  Looking at the menu the food is quite expensive I feel, but then I have to remind myself that I'm back in Dublin and that €14/€15 is quite a standard price for a main course.  I do have to say that I feel it has definitely improved as an establishment and that the food is better now than my last visit over a year ago.   It's a  handy wee place to have in Drumcondra.

http://www.thecheesepantry.com/

11th August 2011

The Bush Inn, Ovington, Hampshire

Just a quick big-up to this fabulous little country pub that we found on the way to Boomtown Fair festival last week.  After our pleasantly short mini-convoy journey from London, we stopped off here for a quick bite of lunch.  It's not far from Winchester, just outside the little village of New Alresford.  Turning off up a tiny wee country road, framed with trees, one comes upon this charming little country pub at the road's end.  It really reminded me of something you'd see in an epsoide of 'Midsommer Murders'.

There was a really friendly and helpful bar man, and apart from us, there were 2 groups of people also heading to the fair.  Inside was all dark wood, fireplaces and low ceilings and on the back wall there were black boards with the evening menu.  It looked really interesting, but it was only cold food at lunch time, so three of us got a ploughman's of which they had a variety.  I got brie and 2 others of our party got gammon and trout mousse.  All of these came with chuntneys, sticks of celery, grapes, beetroot, coleslaw and a doorstop of a wedge of brown bread and an excellent pat of butter.  I haven't had a ploughman's in years and forgot how delicious something this simple can be when prepared with good ingredients.  My brie was gorgeous, oozy and spreadable with a lovely bumpy, mouldy rind.  I washed it down with an excellent pint of local scrumpy which wasn't too tart, but fresh and apple-y.  Stupidly I didn't think about the camera or blog till all the grub had been woolfed down as I didn't expect to get something as good here, and I should have taken more note of what was on the inside menu, but here's some photos of the lovely pub to tempt you down there. 

So beautiful!!!

Lovely beer garden for a summer's day

Here's a link to their website and a link to their position on Google maps.

http://maps.google.ie/maps?rlz=1C1GGGE_enIE423IE423&q=the+bush+inn,+wadworth&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

http://www.thebushinn.co.uk/home.php

Wednesday 9th August
Dishoom Chowpatty beach pop-up, South Bank, London


Spent a great day on the South Bank with my very good friend and her two extremely lovely little daughters.  It was lovely and sunny so after spending some time playing in the beach that they've created there we headed up to the pop-up Dishoom Indian snack restaurant.

The decor here is great, loads of colourful palettes of wood on the outside and the inside is all wooden slats and there is a section of the wall made up of rolled up newspapers.  The menu is on blackboards behind the bar and it's half drinks and half food.  For the drinks you can order any of these as either 'naughty' or virgin.  We both went virgin as it was early in the day.  My friend got a fresh coconut which the barman drilled into.  It was nice and fresh and reminded me of being in India many moons ago with this particular friend where we used to drink these (sometimes with I think rum? in it).  My god daughter (see pic below) loved the coconut.  I ordered a orange and ginger shaved ice drink which came poured on an ice lolly (wooden spoon instead of a stick), but I found this too thick and think would have been far better if it had been 'naughty' as the alcohol would have cut through the sweetness.

Walking in

The food menu
(hope it's readable0

a view from the bar

My god daughter enjoying the coconut juice

My orange & ginger shaved ice drink

 So onto the food.  Half of it as veggie.  There were rolls/wraps but we went for the snacks.  We shared a Pav Bhaji, a vada, samosa and naan.  The naan was lovely, thin, but great flavour and texture from the tandoori oven.  The Pav Bhaji was really spicy, but I was disappointed in it.  Years ago, my sister lived with a Gujarati girl who used to make the most amazing pav bhaji, with cauliflower, carrots and peas.  This was lightly crushed, loaded with butter and a masala that was heavy on cinnamon.  Delicious and traditionally served with buttered rolls.  The one we had today was also served with the buttered rolls but the texture was too smooth, it was more like a sauce and the spicing was overly reliant on chili.  It was enjoyable though and we left none behind.

Pav Bhaji in a cup

The vada was lovely, I thought.  It did however come in a bread bap, which was a bit weird I thought as you couldn't taste enough of the vada.  But it was well spiced and very tasty.  My friend thought it a bit too spicy, but I liked it.

The vada in a bap!

the naan - rally tasty

 We got the samosas for the kids but ended up eating them ourselves (greedy) as they were too spicy for them.  These were really nice, crisp and well spiced with well cooked pieces of potato, carrots and peas inside which weren't soft or soggy.  Mmmmmm!

the tasty samosas

Buttered bread to mop up the pav
bhaji

Coconut juice

enjoying naan in the sun

 There's loads going on on the South Bank at the moment.  There's a anniversary festival for 60th years of the festival of Britain on at the moments, so loads of bars, rooftop gardens and beach huts along the way.  Whilst walking off, we saw this band and I noticed these two guys dancing.  Really funny.  I'd seen them at Brixton Splash on Sunday.  Brilliant, must be in their 60's, full on quiff wigs and bell bottoms shaking their thangs on the dance floor.  Apparently they can be found dancing at all the free festivals so look out for them!!

the groovy dancers at the Bulmer's bar

View from outside tables

http://www.dishoom.com/southbank-pop-up/