My best ever corned beef meal was successful…
A side of sauteed cabbage, roasted carrots, and boiled potatoes. In an attempt to hurry the carrots along I finally gave the convection option on my oven a try. I need to work on using that more. The leftovers made for a delicious frittata tonight. Mmm, mmm, good!
Two weekends of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were appropriate book ends for my trip to Ireland. This was my fourth visit to Ireland, each time has been a wonderful experience. This visit was jammed pack with work but of course I did managed to get some fun in during the evenings. I had one evening to myself and walk around for about three hours seeing sights, shopping, and tasting some local treats. Oh and getting way of track of the city center and very lost. I finally threw in the towel and hailed a taxi. No clue where I ended up.
Murphy’s ice cream shop was my the first stop, a little appetizer before dinner. I sampled a few of the more interesting flavors like caramelized brown bread, orange marmalade. For my order I went with a scoop of Guinness and a scoop of Dingle sea salt, it was a great combination.
The hotel I stayed was located in the heart of Temple bar area, just a few blocks from the famed Temple Bar. The center of the tourist bar scene in the city. The crowds grew as the week got closer to the weekend and the St. Patrick celebration.
For dinner I went for traditional fish and chips with loads of malt vinegar and salt. I barely made a dent in the meal.
Of course I had to enjoy some Guinness, but I also tasted a few micro brews.
One of my favorite meals on the trip, a burger. But not just any burger, one with Irish grass fed beef, smoked bacon and cashel blue cheese – an Irish burger.
Friday night we had an amazing meal at Rustic Stone to end the trip on a high note. Last trip to Ireland this restaurant was highly recommended but we could not get in, this time we had the luck of the Irish. The meals here are served with a stone, heated to 300 degrees, the protein is partly cooked and you finish it on the stone. I had ahi tuna crusted with nuts and an herb mixture. I preferred it a bit rare, so used the stone to heat each slice as I ate it. A bit of cauliflower on the side, a delicious combo of puree and roasted.
We tried a few starters as well, the best one was a prawn lollipop with a caramel soy sauce. First step is to put some chili oil and salt on the stone, then the shrimp. Once cooked I drizzled it with the soy sauce. The caramel soy sauce was incredible, very similar to balsamic syrup, I need to recreate this myself.
Friday was a pretty good preview of things to come over the weekend for St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Thankfully the hotel was well sound proofed.
