My Foodie Weekend Part 3

We finished the evening on Friday night with a few pints in the pub below the restaurant 'Sky and the Ground' which had a heated beer garden. Here we met some lovely locals and ended the night with a dance off in a night club.

Saturday morning started off nicely with a hearty breakfast at our B & B and we took our time to get into the mood for hitting the shops. Di found some amazing boots and I stop right here with the description of our shopping finds as this is a food blog and not a fashion one.

Shopping does make hungry and by 2pm our breakfast has vanished into distance memory. Walking down the Main Street we found a lovely little cafe called Stable Diet. They had some tables outside and as the sun was shining, we decided that it was time for a cup of tea. Walking into the cafe, we were greeted by a buzzing atmosphere that reminded of cafes in Paris. The display unit showed some lovely handmade pastries and bakes. The floor was checkered and the furniture was dark wood.

As we planned to go our for dinner later on, we decided to have just something small. I opted for the apple crumble tart while Di had a giant scone. My tart was served with jam in the bottom, caramelised apples and a lovely musli crumble topping. It was warmed but not hot which made it perfect to eat. Di's scone was fluffy, light and also warmed. It came with butter, cream and jam.

It was a wonderful afternoon and it took us all strengths to get up again and to return to the B & B where we chilled out. Around 7ish we got peckish again and headed out to explore the part of Wexford that laid left from the B & B. We had the choice of 3 restaurants nearby, Taste, La Dolce Vita and Jaques Wine Bistro in the Greenacres Building. I kinda fancied a bit of Italian food and since La Dolce Vita displayed a lot of plaques, eg. Good Food Ireland, Food & Wine and Euro Toques. As it is dead easy these days to impress me, I thought Euro Toques must be a must to try so we headed into La Dolce Vita. It seems that this restaurant is focused on lunch service rather than dinner service. The premises looked more like a day cafe than an evening restaurant. No candles or deco on the tables. It was 7:30 and a girl was swiping a brush around the tables while some people were actually already eating (call me picky but I really don't like dust in my food). We were seated next to the wine shelve (which needs some dusting if you seat people next to it) and I took the opportunity to have a look through the wines. Impressive selection, all wines were from Italy and had a Barolo, Nebolio. Pinot Grigio and Nero had La Dolce Vita's own label on it which was a lovely touch. The cafe also offered Italian goodies like black pasta, 00 flour and proper truffle oil. The chilling unit displayed buffalo mozzarella, Italian cheeses and several salads.

We were handed our menus and I was impressed that they had proper Italian courses on offer. Risotto of the day as a first course and meat and fish dishes as second course is the proper way of eating Italian food. No pizza or lasagna in sight. Fresh ciabiatta with olives and a small bowl of olive oil was served straight away. The wine list was impressive and had very good value.

So the first impression was not too bad but then it started to go a bit downhill. The girl who served us, didn't know anything about the specials which where Gnocchis with spinach and ricotta cheese and stuffed peppers. When I asked her how the peppers were stuffed, she shrugged the shoulders but after looking at us made the effort to ask in the kitchen. Didn't really understand her when she came back. Anyway, I ordered the gnocchis which were homemade, the spinach and ricotta worked into the dough and they rolled big gnoochis out. A passata was the base of the sauce and the dish was drizzled with pesto. It was a lovely dish, rich and delicious. Di's stuffed pepper came with anchovies, cherry tomatoes and chopped garlic. The side dish of salad was nothing to write home about.

The mains for me provided a problem as it only consisted of meat or fish of which I could only choose the sole (I know - boring as I just had it the night before) as I don't like tuna. There was nothing wrong with the dish but nothing really right either. The potatoes were boiled and crushed and had no taste whatsoever. The fish fell flat in all regards other than it was cooked. The vegetables came served in a bowl and were swimming in olive oil. Carrots had a nice bite to them but the courgettes were cut in different sizes and were not cooked evenly as some of the pieces were simply soggy. Di had Calf liver which she ordered pink and came well done although tender. Same spuds and veggies. The dish should have come with caramelised onions but were kinda just cooked and too plenty. We both didn't finish our meal. As dessert I ordered orange and lemon tart which was lovely, zingy and fresh. Di had a panna cotta which was wobbly but was holding its shape. The dish could have benefited from some decor on it.

The staff was the most detached people I have ever experienced. They couldn't have been less bothered if they tried. The time between the courses was quite long and it took them ages to bother asking if we wanted the dessert menu.

It was a weird experience really, the chef has potential (the first courses showed that) but the food lacks consistency. The staff really needs to put it up a notch if they want to help the restaurant to succeed. I would go there for lunch tho but it is not an evening destination. Saying all that, I was impressed by the wine list, the goodies and the attempt to provide proper Italian food. I hope they can bring it to the next level as I really think the talent is there.

We ended the night in Maggie May's pub with a few pints in front of a roaring fire and the evening finished on a high note.

My Foodie Weekend Part 2

After lunch in Waterford's Geoff we continued our trip to Wexford where we booked ourselves into a lovely B&B. After resting and freshening up, we went out to find Le Tire Bouchon (The Cork Screw) which received outstanding reviews from Paolo Tullio recently. Located above the pub 'Sky and the Ground', it is int he shopping centre of Wexford, South Main Street. You have to go into the pub and up the stairs to enter the restaurant. The noise from downstairs does not make its way upstairs and you enter a complete different world. While the pub is dark, aged and typically 'pubbish', the restaurant welcomes you with calm colours. A waiter greeted us and showed us to our table (we had booked in advance). The napkins were folded into a large, long cone (starched as it stood by itself), white linen and white china dressed the table nicely with the glasses sparkling in the candle light.

The menu has a strong focus on French dishes but Irish influences are visible. The restaurant is a joint venture of Arnaud Clement as Maitre d' and Kevin Carley as Executive Chef. Kevin has been trained in Dunbrody House Hotel and the quality in his food proves that he did pay attention.

We were served an amouse bouche which was served in a mini kilner jar and consisted of smoked chicken and mustard mousse on top of a chilled tomato and sprinkled with chives. The effect was amazing. Friend enjoyed the two jars (damn I really wish I could eat meat). Anyway, I ordered Dublin Bay Prawns in a filo basket which came with a wonderful fresh leaf salad and an amazing proper vinaigrette. Cherry tomatoes were upside down placed on the plate and when turning them around revealed a lovely stuffing of goats cheese and tapenade (proper tapenade). The prawns were perfectly cooked and buttery. Friend had pork rillettes with fig jam (jam was served in a little urn) on toast and leaf salad. She liked it but would have preferred more texture and seasoning. My main was dover sole which was advertised as cooked on the bone (I am too girlie to deal with bones) and I asked if I could get it served off the bone - not a problem. The French waitress came to the table when serving the fish and de-boned it at the table very professionally. The fish was so tender, it melted on my tongue. It came served with an almond butter (served in a mini gravy boat) which complimented the dish perfectly. Side dishes were baked baby potatoes and crunchy roasted mixed veggies. Friend ordered Halibut with fennel fondue and mash potatoes. The kitchen was out of fennel fondue and she was served an extra portion of fish. I would have liked to be asked if I wanted an alternative but Friend was okay with the solution but said later that the fennel was missing to give the dish a lift. She also would have liked more seasoning but I have to say that I didn't season any of my dishes.

All dishes on the menu come with their own wine recommendation and each wine was available by the glass. Even the dessert menu had its own wine and coffee recommendation (yeap, they have an extra menu for coffee and tea). French favourites like Crepe Suzette were on offer but also old-fashioned dishes like Baked Alaska. The friend ordered the crepe suzette which were prepared with great skill at the table (Cynthia really is an experienced and well trained waitress - and that is a great compliment from me. The title waitress does not give her justice tho). A bit more orange flavour would have made this dish simply perfect. I opted for the Rhubarb and Vanilla Souffle. It was prepared fresh and took about 15 minutes (which was announced when I ordered it). It came out perfectly risen, fluffy and light with a slight hint of rhubarb going through the dish. Vanilla ice cream gave it a nice balance.

The staff is attentive, very well trained - everyone was able to give us advise on the wine and we ordered a bottle of Cote de Gascogne which was floral without being sweet and was a perfect match to our fish dishes. It had a long finish and hit your palate after a few seconds and ran smoothly down your throat. The bouquet promised a delight and the taste did not disappoint.

Will I be back - definitely. Well worth a visit and the pub downstairs is a great way of finishing the evening with a lovely pint.

My Foodie Weekend Part 1

This weekend is solely devoted to food - yeah, I know nothing new here. Anyhow, Di and I went off to Waterford on Friday to arrive around lunch time. We had a nice stroll in the city centre (girls, lovely shops out there) and went finally into Geoff's in John's Street. Voted best Gastro Pub in Waterford, we thought, we can't go wrong.

Walking in, I was set back to my student days where I sat long nights discussing world peace. The floor is worn down planks of dark wood, the tables, chairs and benches are a mix and match (or mis-match) collection of left over furniture from my past. The place was buzzing, people from all walks of life were coming and going. We found a free table in the middle of the front room (the whole pub is bigger than it seems from the outside) and looked around to see if we had to order from the bar or if there was table service. Hungry as we were (window shopping is exhausting), we grabbed a menu from the bar. The menu was divided into lunch and evening menu. Soup of the day was Courgette & Fennel Soup, served with homemade bread. Other dishes included salads (mostly with chicken), mains are beef stir fry, spiced chicken, pasta, cottage pie, Goujons of haddock, king prawns in filo pastry. Bruschetta, sandwiches and paninis rounded the lunch menu up. The evening menu included most of the lunch menu except the breadbased dishes. Dessert options are limited to 3, chocolate biscuit cake, eton mess with mixed berries and crumble of the day.

We both opted for the soup of the day, which had a lovely consistency and had a few bits in it. The bread was homebaked brown seedy bread. Di then was torn between the cottage pie and the goujons of haddock. Since I believe that everyone can make a decent cottage pie, I persuaded her to go for the haddock. Ok, they weren't goujons but end of tail filets in breadcrumbs. The tartare sauce was more like a mayonnaise, the leaf salad was a bit tired but the shoestring potatoes were lovely. The plate was too small for the amount of food (or too much food for the size of the plate) and most of it landed on the table. My bruschetta was a bit weirdly served. The menu stated that it was a goats cheese, tapenade and sun-dried tomato pesto topping - but what I got were 2 slices of pan-fried (and therefore slightly greasy) bread with 3 separate pots on the plate where an pinky-orangy coloured goats cheese, a very bitter tapenade and red pesto was simply too much to put on only 2 slices of bread (slices weren't big at all). Here also, the leaf salad had seen better days. As the place was very busy, we were mostly ignored but were finally able to order our dessert. It has been ages since I had a proper eton mess - and it will be another while before I will have one. The dessert wasn't bad but nothing to write home about either. We ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio delle Venezie each but have to admit that I have my doubts that I actually got a Pinot but wouldn't swear to it.

The pub is a great place to on a Saturday night for a pint or five but I would not say it is the best gastro food I have ever eaten. Saying that, they are trying to order as much as possible from local producers and I think if they can bring the food up a notch, they are on the right way - they really could be Waterfords or maybe even Ireland's best Gastro Pub. I would also recommend that they make it more obvious how to order (as we couldn't figure it out ourselves - even the staff asked shrugged the shoulders as if what ever way you want to order is okay) and have a better board for the dish of the day. But again, the locals don't seem to bother and know the procedure very well.

Hope they keep improving as I really miss a good Gastro Pub.

Barcelona Part 3

To conclude my culinary journey through Barcelona, here are some more restaurants we visited:

Real Circulo Artistico is a restaurant, bar, galerie for local artists and a museum. The interior of the restaurant is lovely with high ceilings, dark red walls and tall windows leading out to a small plaza. They also have a lovely terace which we did not use as it was quite late when we arrived for dinner. Their wine list is short but impressive. I ordered a pumpkin soup with mascarpone and ravioli with chess and walnut filling in a light creamy sauce. The Marques de Arienzo 2005 Crianza Rioja helped us to enjoy the evening. The soup was silky creamy and the ravioli were perfectly cooked with the right balance of cheese and walnuts.

For Sofie's birthday we headed to Sesamo, a vegetarian restaurant which doesn't pretend to be more than it says on the tin. Staff here are cool and relaxed and super friendly. We were made feel welcome and as we didn't book, we had to wait a bit, but were served a glass of the house wine to ease the pain of waiting. A wait worth. We choose a platter of different starter which included buffalo mozzarella (the real thing), roasted asparagus gratin (simply great) and avocado tempura with spicy carrot dip (I didn't speak until it was finished - words would have interfered with the the enjoyment of the food). I then had Tortellini with cheese and truffle oil, Linda opted for Laksa and curry, Sofie had a mushroom pie with parsnip puree and Guinness gravy (we didn't ask for proof of the real thing). As Becky wanted a dessert she went for a vegetable soup (looking at our plates, she kinda regretted her choice - hehe).

For dessert I chose a chocolate brownie but rather than the caramel sauce it should have been served with, I asked for the cardamon sauce that is normally served with the pumpkin pie. The wine, a Castell del Remei 2006 put the girls in the right mood for the birthday party.

Barcelona part 2

Sitting here at my computer and looking into the grey through my window...I wish I'd still be in Barcelona. We visited quite a few restaurants while we were there. Below are just some of them to give you an idea:

The first night we walked just around to get a feel for the place and found Rita Rouge by accident. It looks very dark from the outside but this is due to the fact that it is also a nightclub. The inside is a darkish but cosy (the seats are very worn). The people were a mixture of locals and so-called hip tourists who were a bit too loud for my liking but it seemed to fit in just nicely. The staff was cool and totally relaxed. One wall was dominated by the image of a red haired woman (I assume it was supposed to be Rita Rouge :-), another wall was covered with shiny gold curtains. What about the food you ask????..... a talented chef heads up the kitchen in there and I was happy out. I started off with hummus and crisps bread and salad - and as you can see from the pic....it wasn't as simple as I imagined it to be (yeap, the little tower was made out of crisp bread - poppadom-like and filled with hummus). Since the starter was richer than I imagined, I opted for the grilled goats' cheese on salad and mixed nuts - and was I happy that the cheese was quite young (too much of a mature cheese kills the rest of the dish I think) and the dessert of crepes with Dulce Latte went down just a treat. All that was enjoyed with a Real Crianza 2006. All that came to €20 incl. tip (yeap, the wine included - Linda and Sofie had also several course and we only paid €20 each).

This experience was just continued over the next couple of days as the food was generally good and in-expensive.

When you are in Barcelona, make sure that you pay the market a visit. There you will find a stall called Orgasmic (not joking). The food here is completely vegetarian and organic. They have a saying - you are what you eat (they must have UK telly). Anyhow, a lunch here will set you back €10 but you will be filled up for a long time. I had a pancake filled with goats' cheese and roasted veggies, topped up with a carrot dip, salad leaves, veggie paella and a bit of pasta.....might not have looked stylish....but wow it was yummy. All food is freshly prepared at the stall and the 'Lady of the House' is quite famous in Barcelona. So don't forget to pay her a visit (they speak excellent English - must be the telly :-)

More about Barcelona's restaurants tomorrow....

Barcelona

I am just back from Barcelona and my mind is still there. It was my first time there and I have to admit that it was an experience. Even the smallest restaurants serve very decent food - sometimes not even special but the quality of the produce is what makes it still great. I spent most of my time in El Mercat de Boqueria - and let me tell you, I almost moved in. This is a cooks paradise. The amount of fruit and vegetables is amazing. The fish stalls are set up in a circle in the middle of the market and seriously guys - O'Connells in Cork has nothing seen yet. The variety of seafood was outstanding and mindblowing. The different types if fish were too many to count. And of course the tapas bars.....don't forget the tapas bars in the market. Wow, I am short of words for the generous portions of tapas you get served for almost pennies.

At the meat stalls you can buy any part of an animal, from head to toe really means from head to toe. Small piglets were on offer as well as sheep heads, noses, tails and feet of pigs etc. etc. etc. Although I don't eat meat....I was eager to take something home with me. Sofie and Linda advised me against smuggling the piglet into my suitcase :-)

What struck me the most???? The friendliness and calmness of the people living there despite the armies of tourists taking photos and standing in their way. Everyone smiled and was very helpful (which I really needed as my Spanish is non-existent).

If you haven't been already, make sure you go....this market is as a market should be. The regulations are actually quite strict we were told. An inspector comes at least once a day and checks on all the stalls regarding their hygiene, freshness of the produce and even the quality of the displays. The stall holders are taking great care of the appearance of their stalls and it works. I felt right at home there.

We spent most of our lunch time at the bar de Boqueria. A very busy tapas bar where the locals eats (always the best indication for quality)....I hope they miss us as much as we miss them (espcially Sofie and Linda as they loved their coffee brandy ;-)

Will I go back......hell yeah...

Next time I will write about the restaurants we have been to. Watch this space