Archive for March 7th, 2006
Interesting Culinary Vacation Tours of Southwest Ireland
Posted on March 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Food, Ireland.
I’ve mentioned Podchef Neal who is based on an island off Washington State on this blog several times and he posts quite a few comments here too which are always appreciated. I noticed the other day that he is proposing to organise culinary tours of Cork and the surrounding regions this summer. A large number of my readers are foodies so I’m guessing this could be of serious interest to some of you.
I don’t know Neal personally but I am a regular listener to his Gastrocast podcast which really shows how passionate and informed he is about food, cooking and everything related. If such a vacation is something you might be interested in doing, why not check out his web-site, listen to a podcast and drop him a line to find out more?
When I originally read his post about the tours, I assumed the focus would be on American foodies but if you can make your way to Ireland at the right time from anywhere in the world then I assume you could sign up with him? I suppose Jackeens or even Nordies down for July could do it too?
[tags]Podchef, Gastrocast, Culinary Tours[/tags]
2 Comments
The Grange Tavern - When only a carvery will do (Structured)
Posted on March 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Restaurants, Reviews.
The Grange Tavern
Food style/ethnicity: Pub Carvery
Hours: Pub Hours - Pub Hours
Price: 5 - 15 (Euro)
Location:
Grange
Barryroe, Co Cork
Ireland
Two saturdays ago, the parents, the kids and I headed off to Clon to go to the playground and then check out Deasy’s in Ring. We have had several recommendations for Deasy’s and I thought a good pub lunch would go down nicely and suit the sprogs too. It was deserted on our arrival and my mother eventually found someone who told her they only do evening meals and sunday lunch. Bum. But she said the menu looked fab. The nice man then pointed us towards Grange and The Grange Tavern a few miles up the back road.
On arrival I realised it was just up from the place where we watched the cool harness racing last summer. It looked good from the outside and in we trooped. I made the usual mistake of going into the bar first. The Deliverance music started in my head as a small group of serious drinkers eyeballed me. I turned around and went into the lounge.
Initial impressions were not good. It was a dark room with pretty crappy furniture and a small carvery food warming unit in the corner. But we checked out the blackboard and it seemed like a good pub selection. We all plumped for the roast pork. A pity that the kids menu was standard burgers/sausages/fish finger fare but hell, my kids like that stuff and they get proper food 95% of the time so I won’t begrudge them a few chips.
All of the staff were really friendly and I was very impressed when they offered to hold on to my food until I had finished feeding Fionn. A simple touch but it showed the right attitude to service.
The plates arrived out piled high with pork, mashies, carrots, apple sauce, gravy and stuffing. And blow me if it wasn’t just a great pub dinner. Better than that, it was one of the best pub meals I have had in years. Juicy pork, tangy apple sauce, hand cut carrots. Really really wholesome family food. I nearly licked the plate.
We all had rice pudding for dessert, which again was clearly handmade as it was a wee bit undercooked but still tasty. A round of coffees and cappucinos finished it off perfectly. Meanwhile, the pub had gone from empty to full in 30 minutes and the whole ambiance changed for the better. The lads loved it cos they could run around and know they were annoying no-one and the adults could all relax.
This pub will never win a food award and it will never be a gastro-pub, it just does simple tasty traditional pub food with a surprising attention to detail. If you are down that direction and you feel like a nice pint and some solid fare, you can’t go wrong.
Tags: Grange Tavern, Grange, Barryroe, Pub Food
2 Comments
The Grange Tavern - When only a carvery will do
Posted on March 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Restaurants, Reviews.
Two saturdays ago, the parents, the kids and I headed off to Clon to go to the playground and then check out Deasy’s in Ring. We have had several recommendations for Deasy’s and I thought a good pub lunch would go down nicely and suit the sprogs too. It was deserted on our arrival and my mother eventually found someone who told her they only do evening meals and sunday lunch. Bum. But she said the menu looked fab. The nice man then pointed us towards Grange and The Grange Tavern a few miles up the back road.
On arrival I realised it was just up from the place where we watched the cool harness racing last summer. It looked good from the outside and in we trooped. I made the usual mistake of going into the bar first. The Deliverance music started in my head as a small group of serious drinkers eyeballed me. I turned around and went into the lounge.
Initial impressions were not good. It was a dark room with pretty crappy furniture and a small carvery food warming unit in the corner. But we checked out the blackboard and it seemed like a good pub selection. We all plumped for the roast pork. A pity that the kids menu was standard burgers/sausages/fish finger fare but hell, my kids like that stuff and they get proper food 95% of the time so I won’t begrudge them a few chips.
All of the staff were really friendly and I was very impressed when they offered to hold on to my food until I had finished feeding Fionn. A simple touch but it showed the right attitude to service.
The plates arrived out piled high with pork, mashies, carrots, apple sauce, gravy and stuffing. And blow me if it wasn’t just a great pub dinner. Better than that, it was one of the best pub meals I have had in years. Juicy pork, tangy apple sauce, hand cut carrots. Really really wholesome family food. I nearly licked the plate.
We all had rice pudding for dessert, which again was clearly handmade as it was a wee bit undercooked but still tasty. A round of coffees and cappucinos finished it off perfectly. Meanwhile, the pub had gone from empty to full in 30 minutes and the whole ambiance changed for the better. The lads loved it cos they could run around and know they were annoying no-one and the adults could all relax.
This pub will never win a food award and it will never be a gastro-pub, it just does simple tasty traditional pub food with a surprising attention to detail. If you are down that direction and you feel like a nice pint and some solid fare, you can’t go wrong.
[tags]Grange Tavern, Grange, Barryroe, Pub Food[/tags]
No Comments
Structured Blogging Event Aggregation
Posted on March 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging.
I spent quite a few hours last night working through many of the Event/Calendar sites on the web to see if any of them supported the automated collection of events from blogs which use the hCalendar format in structured blog posts. So far I have found tons of discussion but no actual implementation. Does anyone out there know of a site which does this (or know of one under development)?
The ones I checked were:
Upcoming: I see quite a few mentions of Upcoming in this context but nothing obvious on the site
Meetup: Nothing at all
Zvents: Ditto but looks like it might be a fit
OpenEvents: Pay only so couldn’t find out
Eventful: They mention it on the site as coming so fingers crossed.
Evite: Doesn’t look like a good fit.
WhizSpark: Pay only so couldn’t find out
30 Boxes: Might be a good match too but didn’t see anything about it.
[tags]hCalendar, Events, Structured Blogging, Upcoming, Meetup, Zvents, OpenEvents, Eventful, Evite, Whizspark, 30Boxes[/tags]
3 Comments
The important science of Potato Thermodynamics
Posted on March 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cooking, Humour.
A phrase I have used many times in the past: “Only in Japan”.
Check out this story over on Lifehacker on how to peel a potato with you hands. Yet another piece of must-see pop culture from YouTube. I think I’m getting addicted to that site.
I have my doubts if it’d work with a good old fashioned Irish floury spud. But I’m going to try!
[tags]Potato, Thermodynamics, Japan, YouTube, Spud[/tags]
1 Comment
