A demon in my coffee, taken on Friday last:
Archive for the ‘food’ Category
Demon Coffee
Sunday, January 31st, 2010Chapter One – Not a review
Friday, January 22nd, 2010More like a gushing of being bowled over by amazing food combinations. Yesterday I visited Chapter One restaurant for the first time and certainly not the last time. They deserve their Michelin Star. A big warm welcome, a big warm goodbye, genuine interest in making sure we enjoyed every second of the meal. From shaking our hands as we came in, to being asked was it our first time in the place by Martin (one of the owners) and interest in who we were, to telling us how the mousse was made (Soda streams have a home still!) to offering to call us a taxi, the experience was amazing. I thought beforehand which such a great reputation and high profile clientele that it might be intimidating but it was the complete opposite. It felt like we were family.
If you’re a bit obsessed with food as I am you might agree that good food and good surroundings can seriously change your mood for hours and days. We giggled all through the meal last night as it was so good and tickled all parts of our palettes. We were stuffed after all the food too so decided to walk around town for a bit and we were still smiling and laughing and even this morning I was in a damned good move.
And they now have the Chef’s table where you can sit in the kitchen and sample everything at a special table. We got a quick tour last night of it. Birthday, here I come!
Yes, it’s expensive but I have to say in terms of the food I’ve had so far in my life, it was value for money.
Food porn pics from a dodgy iPhone, in real life they looked amazing, never mind that they tasted better again:
Starter was: Duck sausage, fricasse of lentil, egg poached in red wine, horseradish cream
Main was: Rump of wild venison, mushroom pithivier, creamed cabbage, pickled walnuts and raisins, sauce grand veneur
Desert was: Warm chocolate mousse, caramel jelly, espresso mousse, lime ice cream and honeycomb
With the tea came chocolates:
A low-cost hotel means more money for food
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009So I’m in Galway and I’m staying in Flannery’s hotel. 40 quid a night at the moment and a fairly decent WiFi connection. Given I’m here on business, I have a daily budget for accommodation and food. With the money saved on the hotel I’m spending it on food. Once again I went to Cava tonight and for 30 quid got some tapas which comprised of:
Gazpacho soup:
Salted cod cakes with lemon mayonnaise:
Lamb’s heart with pork and chorizo:
oh and pistachio ice cream:
and Flannery’s has been refurbished the past few years so comfortable spacious rooms aplenty. After forking over €150 for rooms in some dodgy London hotels, this is a steal. And I won’t apologise for the constant foodporn people see on my Facebook.
Ireland’s sweet tooth
Sunday, December 13th, 2009Some facts from the Business Post today:
- Ireland’s chocolate market is the 12th biggest in Europe and is Britain’s biggest confectionery export market.
- Cadbury’s Dairy Milk has been Ireland’s favourite chocolate for more than 75 years, bought by more than 60% of the population and is Ireland’s number one confectionery brand.
- The Mars Bar is the number one filled bar.
- Maltesers is the number one cinema brand.
- Tayto holds a 28.4 per cent share of the crisps market.
- King Crisps holds an 11.6 per cent share of the crisps market and is the number one crisp by pack sales in the capital.
- Hunky Dorys is the number one crinkle cut crisp, with a 13.4 per cent share of the market.
- Harvest Fare is Ireland’s leading nut range.
- Doritos and Sensations are number one and number two sharing bags in Ireland.
- The gum and mints market is worth €53.4 million annually, with Wrigley holding a 76.5 per cent value share.
- Nestlé Rowntree is the number one brand in impulse sugar confectionery.
I love the terminology used.
Photo owned by norwichnuts (cc)
Good Mood Food – The book launch on Oct 21st
Thursday, October 15th, 2009Wednesday the 21st of October, Dubray Books on Grafton St., Dublin.
Donal Skehan from The Good Mood Food blog is launching his fantastic book on healthy eating/cooking next week. If you’re about pop in and say hello to him.
Mercier Press invite nicked from Donal’s blog:
Manila Rhythm at Bahay Kubo in D4
Saturday, October 10th, 2009Manila Rhythm – I’ll be there
Manila Rhythm – Bohemian Rhapsody
Bianoconi’s the best pizza in Dublin? Oh Hell..
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009As people know I’m a massive fan of Hell Pizza, even Sunday Times employees have accused me that I’m on their payroll but I’m not. However I am on the payroll of WhoseView.ie who had me help them organise a blogger/Twitterer/rantAndRaver event where we came, saw and pizzaed.
We were there to not be very sciencey but to sample pizzas from 6 different pizzerias and see which ones we liked and disliked the most. It was a blind taste test, nobody knew until after which pizza was from where and to my surprise and slight shock, Hell didn’t finish too well in the list.
It was my first time sampling Bianconi’s and I liked them a lot. They also apparently came out the cheapest. I heard from a few people that they do really good pizza and they’ve won some world pizza awards too but taste is subjective. Some of those on the night loved some pizza that others hated and vice-versa. So, have to head to Bianconi’s. Also the Steps of Rome? was mentioned. Where else is good in Dublin. Was our small focus group of foodies way off, near to reality, bang on? Sorry Hell 
Hennessy meets the bloggers
Monday, June 29th, 2009Last week a few food and drink bloggers were invited out to the offices of Edward Dillon and company, who look after Hennessy in Ireland. This was organised via Brennan Sabatini (warning music plays). The meet and greet also extended to sampling some of the variations of Hennessy as seen below. We tried Hennessy V.S., Hennessy V.S.O.P., Hennessy X.O. and Hennessy Paradis. We got the history behind Hennessy and how the various cognacs are made. Hennessy then asked us for feedback on how they market and as people in the blogging and online media space, is there anything they should do. Feedback was given.
This is Alan, the mixologist. Wildly talented and entertaining:
We got to taste a cocktail called a Miami and this is the vid of how it’s made:
But my fav from the day was the direct and simple ginger ale and Hennessy:
I’m a fan of Hennessy and Baileys mixed together but it can be heavy after a few, ginger ale works well.
Some other videos:
More cocktails:
Blowtorches and orange
Tasting the various Hennessys:
Very interesting to hear that Hennessy in America is consumed mostly by African Americans and Hennessy is references a hell of a lot in hihop songs. Oh and by volume, not per capita, Ireladn is 4th biggest in world for consuming Hennessy.
So what did Hennessy get out of this, 5 people who may now consider ordering Hennessy based cocktails? Or them telling their readers? Perhaps. Still negligible audiences compared to print or radio though. Getting to know people who spend all their hours in this new medium might be a good thing though. I heard it has a future this internet thing. For the bloggers, they got to sample a small amount of booze but they also got new content for their blogs. They also know a little bit more about their subject area which is probably the biggest benefit. Cognac making and blending is to me at least, highly interesting. I do wonder what the next step after the various meets and greets are though. Will consumers eventually design products they want and so become part of the customer care and product design teams?
Hell Pizza is yum
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009This is the mayhem pizza from Hell.ie:
Peanut satay, sweet chili, green peppers, chicken, onions. Totally yumtastic.
mmmm iCupcakes
Saturday, June 13th, 2009So we got some cupcakes made to celebrate the launch of App School. Once again the hyper-talented people in the Dublin Cupcakes made them at short enough notice and did an excellent job. Some of the cupcakes have 3d icons and some are printed on edible paper.
