St Paddy or St Nick?

My (French) friends are adamant that this is St Nicholas since Christmas is coming along soon and all, but I still think this is St Patrick. So whose chocolate sculpture do you think this is?

And whoever this sculpture is has got to eat less sweet stuff – the teeth are falling out! :p

Enter Green 19.

A friend mentioned this place in passing, and the inner foodie in me could not resist the urge to dine there pretty much the same day. Except they were booked out solidly when I rang, and I was told I can come in earlier to try and grab one of the tables that they’ve set aside for walk-in customers. I must have sound pretty crest-fallen when the lovely staff relented and gave me a table for the same evening. Hurrah!

Green 19

That was about 2 months ago, and since then I’ve been back several times with different friends. A cosy restaurant/cafe tucked neatly on Camden Street, I like the simplicity in terms of the decor and I definitely dig the paintings on the wall. It’s akin to dining in a small art gallery and I find myself charmed.

There’s nothing pretentious with the food that they serve in Green 19. Good, solid menu of hearty food and at a very reasonable price too, which has got to be a major plus at times when everyone’s tightening their belts. Nary a price tag beyond €12 and even those are for shared plates of either cured meats and sausages, or cheese, or pinchos. Otherwise, it’s a tenner or less.

Clockwise from top left : tomato soup, portobello mushroom on toasted foccacia, lamb chump tagine with orange-scented couscous, chicken Caesar salad

Having tried several of their dishes by now, I have not yet come across anything that I don’t enjoy. I do have a favourite though, which is the lamb chump tagine with orange-scented couscous. Another thing to note – it is quite a feat for anyone who can do a 3-course meal here. I’ve only managed 2 max, if one of the courses is a main course portion. Next time I ought to go for 2 starters and a dessert I think.

Speaking of desserts. There are only 3 choices but at great value of fiver each – rhubarb crumble with mojito ice cream, chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, and cherry and bourbon sundae. All delicious treats I assure you. If only they would serve a bigger portion of the mojito ice cream… hmmmm…

As for the drinks, you may booze up as you wish as the price range is variable, and the cocktails come at €9 each if that’s what you fancy.

If only there are more places to dine out in Dublin that is as affordable as this, without the customers resorting to eating at ungodly time of 6pm in order to catch the early bird menu and the likes. This place has won my heart (and many of my friends), and here’s to many more happy meals at Green 19!

Green 19 Café
19 Camden St Lower, Dublin 2
01 – 478 9626 / Open daily
(Dublin Metblogs Restaurant GoogleMap)

I am in agreement with Terry Moore. Anyone who knows me, knows of my love for chocolate. Mind, I’m not a choco-junkie per se, because even I am not living such decadent life to be eating them every single day.

But I have a deep appreciation for chocolate. I am willing to try new flavours and concoctions in a heartbeat (chocolate with chilli and peppercorn, anyone?). I have travelled just to attend chocolate fairs (EuroChocolate in Rome, Salon du Chocolat in Paris – twice!). I pay some crazy amount of money for small nuggets of chocolatey goody when I think it’s worth it (and I’m afraid it happens a tad too often).

Last year, a colleague who was out of idea what to get me for Kris Kindle ended up giving me – no prize for guessing correctly – voucher to Butlers Chocolate.

Chocolate (picture taken at Salon du Chocolat in Paris)

So I’m excited. I’m excited that Temple Bar Chocolate Festival is back. There are free demonstrations (but ticketed, so ring up to book your place), truffles making and chocolate tasting workshops, chocolate beauty treatment (also free and booking essential), and I could go on and on. Just have a look at the full programme here.

The Temple Bar Chocolate Festival runs from Friday 30th October to Sunday 1st November. In conjunction with the festivities, No Grant Gallery is presenting an exhibition entitled “Come with me and you’ll see a world of pure imagination”. It opens ahead of the festival, on Thursday 22nd October and will close on Tuesday 3rd November. The exhibition is free and no booking is required.

Ah, chocolate… yes, I’m eating some right now. Lindt Ecuador 75%. Smooth and delicately sweet for a dark chocolate. Nyom nyom.

An email from a friend though provided me with a little pick-me-up – the Dine In Dublin Restaurant Week is back on Monday week! So from Monday 12 October to Sunday 18 October, there’ll be much to be indulged on the gastronomy front. Wheee!

Similar to the concept of Dining by DART just a few weeks ago, a list of participating restaurants have set out 3-course menus with tea and coffee for either €25 or €30. All you need to do now is look for the place(s) that catch your fancy and book a table. (I do wonder if l’Gueuleton will take reservation seeing they normally don’t.)

Something new for Dine In Dublin this time round is participating hotels that gives 10% discount on the lowest quoted accommodation rates. That’s pretty sweet, especially if you have visitors coming to see you during the event period.

Now, where shall I go? I have eaten in a fair few of them, and would like to try something new. Is there any restaurants on the list that you’ll highly recommend?

Find your local pub

You can find the full details and how does it work? HERE.

Between Wednesday 19 August and Wednesday 26 August, if you’ve been commuting by DART, bring along your DART ticket to a participating restaurant and you’ll find yourself sitting down to 3-course meal for either €25 or €30 (depending on where you go). That’s a bargain, considering these are probably usually the prices on offer at lunch and not during dinner hours.

Diningy by DART 2009

There are 43 participating restaurants, of which some of my favourites include One Pico, Fallon & Byrne, Koh and Saba. For more information of participating restaurants, please check this link.

For the undecided, between 4pm and 7pm, travel through the following stations : Connolly, Tara St and Pearse. There will be sample nibbles distributed to help nudge you along decision making. If you like it, then what are you waiting for? It’s time to check that restaurant out!

It is rather unexpected that, at time of recession, a “luxury hall” has been established in Brown Thomas. Nonetheless, secretly, I am delighted because they’ve brought Ladurée from Paris to Dublin!

The name Ladurée is synonymous with delicious macarons, a type of French pastry made from egg white, ground almond and sugar, of which two macaron biscuits are sandwiched with creamy filings or ganache. The freshest and the best macarons are flavoursome, delicate and literally melt in your mouth.

There are some 20 flavours of macarons available in Brown Thomas when I dropped by a couple of days ago, including vanilla (it’s not boring and in fact is a must try), coffee, rose, orange blossom, lemon, red fruits, caramel of salted butter (my favourite!), chocolate, pistachio, raspberry and coconut. Every single one are equally drool-worthy, with a Paris-comparable price tag of €1.40 per piece. I was half-expecting BT to up the price so I was pleasantly surprised by this.

If you could resist buying these macarons for yourself, but have friends who are gourmet lovers, they make excellent gifts too. There are beautiful gift boxes available, to fill 6, 8, 18, 20 or 24 macarons. Gift boxes incur a small additional charge.

Apart from macarons, Ladurée at BT also sells a number of delicatessen items, including tea and preserves. Gift hampers can be assembled too, so really, this is a small piece of gourmet heaven in the city of Dublin. It’s bound to test my self-discipline but I must also remind myself, should I purchase them too often, they will cease to be special treats. Now, that is not something I wish for. ;-)

Kobe beef burger

I was right, this particular item on the menu comes at a rather steep price tag. At normally nearly €40 a piece, it was really a good thing to have the promotional voucher that reduces the bill for my friend and I to €20 per person.

Served stacked high with slices of beef tomatoes, red chard and onion, with side garnish of cornichon and an amazing truffle wasabi dressing (with a hint of sesame oil in my opinion; and I liked it so much that I actually asked our waitress for a small serving to bring home which I had with some spinach salad and it was still so very delicious!), the Kobe burger was perfectly cooked to be just slightly pink in the center. The meat was tender and there definitely is a different to the texture of a typical burger patty. The effect of massaging the Kobe cattles in the first place, or good preparation and cooking, or both? I suspect it’s a combination of the two.

The previous voucher may have expired but there is now a new voucher on offer, with similar conditions as previous. Just print the Gourmet Burger Company’s 2 for 1 voucher and present it at time of order. The voucher is valid from 8th May to 8th September 2009, on Mondays/Tuesdays/Wednesdays (except Bank Holidays) from 12pm to 10pm. I think I’m going to head over there again soon, to try their other specialty burgers.

Go on. Give it a try. This is a also a good chance to explore a little of Ranelagh, which is a vibrant, small village that is less than 20 minutes walk from Grafton Street. Otherwise, Luas goes right through Ranelagh in just 3 stops from St Stephen’s Green. Bon appétit!

Of course, the concept of gourmet burger isn’t exactly new in Dublin. Bobo’s in Wexford St and Real Gourmet Burger in Dun Laoghaire have been the places to go for burger lovers who didn’t fancy chomping in the creations of McDonalds, Burger King or Eddie Rockets. So what ushers in this new age of burger admiration?

Maybe it is seen as a hallmark of returning to simpler times, now that we’re not flocking to the fancy restaurants that serve creative dish using truffles foam and the likes. Yet, at the same time, after years of adventurous eats, to just abandon all things creative with food seems to be counter-intuitive, so why not inject some new life into good old comfort food that are the burgers?

Thus, I just gave myself a treat yesterday to one very delicious GBK’s Kiwiburger – an assembly of burger buns, beef patty, beetroot slices, pineapple rings, fried egg, lettuce and tomato slices (as per picture above by Graeme Robertson for The Guardian). Stacked sky-high, it came with a pricetag of nearly €12 but the satisfaction factor was also high. For me personally anyway ;-)

Now, the Gourmet Burger Co. in Ranelagh is running a promotional offer. Buy one and get another gourmet burger absolutely free. Just print out this PDF voucher which is valid until the end of April, and do take note of when you can and cannot use the voucher. I’ll be heading there with my friends early next week and already I am wondering how much will it cost me if I order a Kobe beef burger… Probably an arm and a leg. Will it be worth it? I’ll decide when I sit down in the restaurant and I’ll report back in due course.

Seriously. Only €17. Only? For an Easter egg plus a few token chocolate pieces? I know it’s Butler’s and all but how do they justify it with the word “only”?

I really dislike the use of the word “only” in conjunction with prices at the supermarket etc. More often than not, it’s just a psychological ploy to impart a false sense of good value to the shoppers and consumers.

Even more distastefully was, near this very sign, there was another that says if you shop there and using their Value/Club Card, you’d get some percentage back in the next card mailing. If they can afford to do so, how much profits are they making out of anyone who doesn’t have a membership card or had forgotten to bring the card with them? This particular chain no longer allowed crediting of points at a later stage, which was what one used to be able to do as long as he/she presents the receipt within certain number of post-shopping days.

Is this really the representation of good value?