The offer of a free box of these sauces was irresistable and we have spent the past few months trying them in a variety of different ways. Whilst our weak-willed Irish palates found the hotter ones just too hot, the depth of flavour is just fantastic. If only they had an Irish distributor!

Back in January I got a comment on a very old post from 2006 that I did about buffalo wings. I had used the famous Frank’s Hot Sauce and mentioned that I was a little disappointed by it. Mark Stirling from Branding Iron Foods offered to ship me a box of their sauces all the way from Washington State to try out. I was stunned and of course I accepted.

In no time at all, a box arrived with nine big bottles in it. Three each of EZ Earl’s Blazin Hot Stuff, Smokin Hot Stuff and Spicy Sauces. Mark told me that they have been refining the recipe in these sauces for generations. I couldn’t wait to try them out and immediately tried the hottest (Blazin) on a tray of chicken pieces in the oven. It blew my face off. Seriously, this makes vindaloo curry taste like a korma!

Over the next while we tried out all three levels of heat both at home and on some of my extended family. It turns out we are all a bunch of big girl’s blouses and the lowest heat (Spicy) is our favourite. All three work brilliantly well on buffalo wings but the hottest is just too hot for us in things like pitta kebabs.

But heat shouldn’t be the main focus of this review, it should be taste. These sauces deliver that in bucketloads. There is a phenomenal depth of flavour that far exceeds anything I have tried before. In particular, the Spicy one gives you the opportunity to really get the notes of all the ingredients.

All of the sauces have smoke in them which I guess is traditional in the US? This is perfect for all those BBQ sutuations but I’d love one more member of the product family to be created without the smoke so it can be used in an even wider variety of situations where you need to add a strong spicy undertone to a dish.

Whilst using the sauce instead of Tabasco in a Prawn Cocktail might seem a bit odd, trust me, it works so so well. I actually find myself looking for unusual ways of using the sauce, it really is that good.

My gut tells me that the hottest level would not sell in Ireland and that the best seller would actually be the Spicy. But I do think it would be a best seller. If any Deli or Gourmet shop here is looking for unique products to import, you really should look at these. I’d be happy to put you in touch with Mark.

Now all we need is some decent weather so I can get some BBQ done!

A last minute decision to pop down here for Sunday lunch turned out to be a total success. Fantastic seafood in a relaxed atmosphere with serene views of Clonakilty Bay. If they could just do something about parking, it would be perfect.

I’ve eaten in Deasy’s once before and thoroughly enjoyed it. For some reason they popped into my head this morning and I hopped into the car with four of the five monsters to see if they were still doing Sunday Lunch. The usual crawl to Clon ensued followed by the twisty road to Ring.

I knew the parking had been bad but time had dulled my memory. It’s brutal. Four spaces in front of the pub and then you have to travel a few hundred yards to find a roadside spot. Fine as an adult, a total pain (and dangerous) if you have kids. I had to circle three times before parking. Just in case, I ran down and discovered that they didn’t open for lunch until 1. So we headed over to the newly revamped playground in Clon. This looks great but now seems much more oriented towards older kids. My middle-uns were scared to climb the ladders to the slides.

Back we trotted to Ring and luckily one of the four spaces was free and we parked right at the door. It was still pretty quiet at 1pm but people arrived bit by bit over the following hour. We were seated towards the back which made sense from a safety perspective. The staff and owner were very friendly throughout. The lack of a baby-seat was a bit of a pain but not the end of the world. After seeing the usual stroppiness of our four demons, they gave us some crayons and colouring sheets which calmed everyone down.

The menu is a big step above what you’d expect from a rural Irish pub. The three course lunch menu is €30 and looks great value to me. However, as our family meals are all about speed, I went straight to the main courses. Initially I was concerned that there was nothing very child-friendly on the menu but then I copped myself on and realised they should be eating the same stuff as me.

So I ordered three half portions of Monkfish and Fennel Risotto with puttanesca salsa for them and a Hake with Lemon Butter and Swiss Chard for me. They arrived reasonably quickly on adult stopwatches but an eternity in kid-time. I tried to explain “cooking on demand” to the kids but failed.

Of course all them said “yeuch, I’m not eating that” as soon as the plates were put on the table. Rather than get hassled, I let them be and started on my hake. Never ones to miss an opportunity to annoy me, two of them asked to taste the hake and both decided they loved it, the little sods. I split mine between them and then took over their plates of risotto. Dishes of lovely baby spuds and one of the best selections of vegetables I’ve ever seen in an Irish restaurant appeared too.

Myself and the two middlers had a bit of everything. Baby would eat nothing. 2 year old wouldn’t touch anything until near the end, at which point he let me feed him a mix of fish, risotto, carrots and spuds.

Oh, I nearly forgot to say, the food was fantastic. The fish perfectly cooked, the flavours subtle and not overpowering, the vegetables beautiful. Apologies for the lack of pics and menu details but I really had my hands full.

The two boys began messing too loudly so it was time to go. The bill for the food plus three 7-ups and a Ballygowan came to a refreshingly low €53. We’ll be back very soon avec wife and fifth child so I can sample more and have both hands available to eat with.

Thrilled to find a nice new local place with good tasty well-priced unpretentious food which I think will suit our family perfectly. I’ve also heard good things from several others.

Italistro opened several months ago and immediately caught my eye because, despite being on a street I rarely visit, they advertised on the side of the building in their lovely brand colours and I see it every time I go through town. However months passed and I still hadn’t tried it.

Today I went for lunch with two of the cool Newsweaver people, Denise and Jennifer and decided to check it out. The decor and colour scheme really catch your eye, they’ve done a superb job. I had been worried about them doing sit-down and takeaway but the areas are separated well.

There was no-one there at 12.45 for lunch which surprised me. We got the lunch menus and I saw a lot I’d be happy having. A good general mix of pasta, pizza, burgers, chicken etc. One thing leaped off the page for me, a meatball/mozzarella/salami pannini. I bloody love meatballs so I had to have it. The others picked pizzas.

The food took quite a while to arrive but where pizza is involved I’m happy to wait. My pannini hit the spot, yum! The price had originally seemed high to me at €9.50 but when the plate arrived with a full bowl of chips and a big bowl of proper salad and tasty dressing, I realised it was a bargain. Reports on the pizzas were good too and they looked gorgeous. We finished off with some good coffees in very sexy cups.

The lack of custom worried me but I was assured it is hoppin at night which I was happy to hear. We have to get our childer fed and watered on Friday before we head off for a quick night away and I’m definitely heading down to Italistro with them.

Bandon is just getting better and better for food. Now all we need is Yo Sushi to open and I’ll be a very happy bunny.

An unsatisfying mix of excellent food and wine with haphazard service and crazy pricing. The most expensive meal we’re ever had but sadly not the best.

Regular readers of the blog know that I was blown away by the documentary on Dylan McGrath getting his Michelin star for Mint. When my parents gave me a 40th birthday present of a meal for two there, I was gobsmacked and couldn’t wait to go. We finally got there last weekend and left a few hours later confused and unsatisfied.

Mint is based in what I think used to be a fish shop/deli in Ranelagh in Dublin. Whilst Ranelagh has moved on from it’s Chew n Chat and Pat Grace’s Famous Fried Chicken roots, it still feels like student-land to me. First impressions on arriving at the restaurant were poor since they have kept the old crappy shop-door that you’d expect to see in a Qik-E-Mart.

The rest of this review will mention Petrus here and there. Why? Because it is also a Michelin starred restaurant, the bill was lower and it was the best dining experience of our lives.

We were greeted and seated at a table that was precisely 6 inches from the one next to it. We may as well have sat in the laps of the people next to us since we could hear every word, and vice versa. Of all the problems with the meal, the room is one of the worst. It’s simply unacceptable for a restaurant that charges these prices. The stupid mirror trick fools no-one. At one point I got elbowed by the bread guy as he tried to serve the adjoining table. Losing a table or two would be a major revenue blow for them so they just have to move - immediately.

After a bit of discussion we decided to try the Tasting Menu with wines. The sommelier asked if we had any preferences on the wine but we just put ourselves entirely in his hands. I have to say that all his selections were fantastic. Every wine felt perfect for the dish that it accompanied. Even the dessert wine, which I hate, worked well. A big thank you to him for giving us a menu to take home with all the wines written down beside the  courses.

After a beautiful mouth-explosion taster trio involving foams, jellies and mini-soups we moved to the tasting menu. It was as follows (with apologies for the spellings on the wines):

• Roasted Scallops with caramelised chicoree, blood orange and black grapes - This was stunning. I loved every part of the dish. One of the highlights of the night. Wine was Motto Piane Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from Italy. I didn’t even know they did Sauvignon in Italy. I’ll be looking out for some from now on.

• Fois Gras and prune terrine with pear puree, air dried duck and pickled pear slices - Another fabulous dish. Catherine’s favourite. Wine was Cuvee Marie from Charles Hours 2003 from South West France. Another seriously great wine.

At this point I thought we were looking at the second best meal we’ve ever had.

• Sea Bass with hot fennel mayo, chilled fennel soup, black olive, and sardines on sour dough - This was good but not at the mouth-explosion level of everything that preceded it. Just a decent fish dish. It was then that we realised that too many of the dishes were aniseedy via fennel or celeriac. You’d be in serious trouble with the menu if you weren’t a fan. Wine was Arneis from Seghesio, 2004 from the Russian River Valley in the US. This was one of our favourites of the night. A real winner.

• Loin of Lamb with chickpeas, aubergine puree, tomato petals and buckler sorrel - This was a completely bizarre dish which didn’t work for either of us. A plate was placed in front of us covered in dabs of various purees and chickpeas. In a side-dish (!) was the lamb and jus. The purees really were not very nice at all and the lamb was overwhelmed by rosemary which was a terrible pity since it was succulent. However my first taste of sweetbreads was a real revelation and they were gorgeous. Wine was a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Chateau Sansonnet 2001 which was sadly badly masked by the food.

• Selection of cheese and crackers - All of them good and I liked the fact that we both got a different selection with a different jam/chutney in the middle. Wine was Madiran Chateau Montus 2003 from South West France. Another perfect matching with the food.

• Raspberries with almond milk, raspberry jelly and almond biscuit - Nice dessert but pretty forgettable and the block of frozen parfait(?) was just icy . Wine was Montbazillac Chateau Tireuil la Graviere 2001 from South West France. As I said earlier, I hate sweet wine but this really did suit the dessert well.

• Passion fruit with coconut cream, mango puree, marmalade with warm caramel and passion fruit jelly - Another very tasty but not memorable or special dessert. The wine was Riesling Vom Bunten Shiefer from Hans Lang in Germany, 2003. I loved this one too and will be seeking out some good Riesling from now on.

As I said, overall the food was to a very high standard and the wines were excellent. But both was diminished badly by the completely cack-handed front of house. There were multiple problems:

• I have no idea who the Maitre d’ was. Was it the small blonde wine guy who disappeared once we got our order in? Or the tall woman who came over to our table towards the end when Catherine was in the loo, folded her napkin and walked away without a word? Or some invisible third party?

• In Petrus we knew exactly who was in charge and he came over several times, not to ask some bland “did you enjoy your meal?” but to engage and converse. Thinking about Mint after the meal, the strong sense I got was a lack of confidence from everyone front-of-house and so a complete lack of proper engagement with their customers.

• Our wine glasses spent a lot of time empty. I’ve listed a large number of wines above but at one point the only thing left on the table was two napkins and two glasses of water. Again at this price level, I expect to be permanently topped up, not penny pinched.

• When I say I don’t want bread twice in a row, stop bloody coming back! What was it, 5 times? 6 times?

• Don’t tell me we have to be out by 9pm when you know you don’t have a full set of bookings for 9pm, when you don’t serve our last course until 9.15 and when you leave us 10-15 minutes between a few of the courses without even wine in our glasses. And all of this in a non-full restaurant.

• Absolutely no acknowledgment was made of the fact that it was my 40th birthday despite them being told so. In Jacob’s on the Mall last year, I got a special dessert and the Maitre d’ had a wee chat. In Petrus for our anniversary, we got a tour of the kitchen and met the amazing Marcus Wearing. On other occasions I’ve got a complementary cocktail. Here? Nothing! Not even Happy Bloody Birthday.

• When we left, there was no-one racing to open the door, ask us how the meal was or wish us on our way. We just snuck away in the night.

• They couldn’t even handle the fact that the meal was supposed to be paid-for as a gift. We were getting into the cab when one of the waiters (or maybe the Maitre d’, who knows?) ran out and grabbed us, apologised profusely since they had just realised who we were and said that they’d cancel our credit card charge. We told him not to bother as we’d sort it out ourselves. He was insistent but we were doubly so. There was clearly no-one running the booking system all night; no-one in proper charge; no-one who had scanned everything before service to see if there was anything unusual to warn the staff about. Amateur hour to be honest.

I’m not going to say the price of the meal, you can work it out yourself. But when you are paying that kind of money, having coffee and petit fours as an extra at over €6 is just plain scabby. The big shock on the bill was a mandatory 12.5% service charge. Let’s be blunt here, the service didn’t warrant it. 6% max, maybe. And if it’s mandatory then just put it in the price of the meal. Otherwise, why not separately call out the pastry charge, the loo roll charge and the dishwashing charge?

My gut tells me that, sadly, Mint will not survive. Dylan is clearly a talented chef but he’s not a restaurateur based on the front of house shambles we encountered. In a restaurant with a mix of two-tops and four-tops, none of the four-tops seemed to be occupied on a Saturday night. The prices are frankly ridiculous for a pokey little place with inexperienced staff. The blatant gouging via extras and service charges tells me they are in trouble.

We realised we could have flown to London, eaten in one of 200 better restaurants there, stayed the night and flown home the following day for less than Mint cost with its dazzling views of Spar. In a weakening economy, places like this which don’t deliver value (at whatever the price level) are the first to go to the wall. In a strange twist of timing and history, could we be seeing a re-run of Peacock Alley?

Having said alllllll of the above, we are so glad we gave it a go, so grateful to my parents for arranging and paying for it and so glad to have had a great meal.

We got a voucher from my mother-in-law for The Old Post over a year ago and finally made use of it last weekend. It consisted of one night’s stay plus dinner. I’ve previously given it top marks in a review last year and had eaten there several times before, all good.

We arrived up about 4pm and they weren’t fully open yet but some hand waving got us in and up to the room. They had told us on the phone that the rooms are being renovated in the spring and it really can’t happen soon enough. Our room really worn out and the bathroom in particular needs to be gutted. One thing that annoyed me intensely was the broken toilet seat. Not only is it unhygienic, it’d probably only take €30 and 20 minutes to fix. But that seat is my abiding memory of the place which is unfortunate as most other aspects are fine.

We headed down for dinner later and found the place hopping. The building is really cosy and I love the genuine friendly local staff. We had a drink whilst reading the menus and waiting for the table. A good selection of my kind of food with a list of each individual supplier impressed me.

The meal overall was good but I felt it could been brilliant with some more attention to detail. Having said that, they were under pressure in the kitchen with a very full dining room and apologised for a delay at one point with a mini-dessert. To be honest we hadn’t even noticed.

For starters I had carpaccio of beef with a rocket salad. The beef was gorgeous and delicate but overwhelmed by the over-dressed rocket. You should definitely try it but ask for the salad on the side so the meat can sing. D’wife had prawns with a nice onion marmalade.

The champagne sorbet was very boozy but beautifully flavoured.

My main was Peking duck on celeriac which, whilst very tasty, had flabby soft skin instead of the expected crispness. Catherine had a duo of fish on risotto. The fish was lovely but the risotto looked more like long grain rice and had non-diced stringy rocket it in.

Her dessert was three mini creme brulees which weren’t very distinctly different in taste and I had a gorgeous tarte tatin.

Through the meal we had a bottle of Sancerre Dominique et Janine Crochet 2006 which was fantastic and I’d try again.

Being a popular local venue, the portions are seriously big (the side veg was a meal in itself). I always leave there bursting and I need to show some restraint in future!Our room suffered a bit from dining room noise and the place didn’t really quieten down until after 1am. But that’s to be expected. Breakfast the following morning had both fresh fruit and a really tasty full Irish. Service again was top class and friendly.

Once the rooms are revamped, I’d recommend The Old Post. It’s a lovely part of the country and you’ll come away refreshed. Oh and to echo a topic I wrote about on my business blog yesterday, they really need to get themselves a web-site!

The advertising for this programme had me hating its subject before it had even started. It depicted Dylan McGrath, who runs Mint restaurant in Dublin, as an obnoxious Ramsay-knockoff desperate to win a Michelin star. Two minutes into the show I wanted to turn it off. I had no interest in seeing this pompous, arrogant jumped-up little asshole.

Then the rent-a-critics and old men were put to one side and Dylan was allowed to speak. The scales fell from my eyes and I saw a driven, brilliant, witty creator at work. A Ramsay knock-off? You bet - everything that is right about Gordon, I saw in this young guy. Relentless work ethic, constant striving for perfection, inability to suffer fools and a desire to make magical food.

The show focused on his seeming need to win a Michelin star and kept showing clips of other chefs advising him to be patient, build a good business, lose the obsession, stop being so cocky. After a while they got very boring indeed. As Dylan said “this is Ireland after all”. I was thrilled to see the programme-makers really dig into his motivations, demons and formative experiences as a chef. His quips about collecting gooseberries with his Granny spiked the usual nonsense about where a great chef comes from.

His food is highly stylised and for a short while I was reminded of the infamous Conrad Gallagher. I was surprised the naysayers didn’t mention his name in fact. But the thing that struck me about the plates they showed was that they seemed unique and they looked gorgeous. The trip to his salad guy in the UK was a joy. Two obsessives discussing baby salad leaves in the shape of butterflies. Dylan mentioned that the guy had gone bust a few times. You could see why.

And then the highlight of the programme. After little more than a year and a half running Mint, he got his star. A lesser programme would have cut to scenes of the old bluffers looking bashful and apologetic. They didn’t need to, the message came across loud and clear; this guy is going to be huge.

Please please please RTE, make more programmes like this. The desires I expressed in my last review were all fulfilled by this show. Please tell me why it’s only a once off. I guess it is costly to make deep, incisive, educational, moving television. So dump the fluff and make more of these. Now, where’s the telephone number for Mint……

The Poacher’s Inn is the nearest eatery/pub to our house. In a previous incarnation as Ted Amber’s it was an ok pub and a pretty poor restaurant that was barely above the level of a carvery.

The place was bought maybe 18 months ago (or even longer?) and reports have been steadily good. I had a pub lunch there recently and was very impressed so we decided to try the full restaurant last night.

It started badly with no record of the booking we had made a few hours previously but they slotted us in and we were first to dine at 7pm. Service was genuinely friendly throughout with none of the fake bonhomie you often get. The place itself is above the pub with sloping roof, an intimate feel and tables not too close together.

I liked the look of the menu immediately since they were unafraid to have seafood up-front and center. A small set of starters and mains always impresses me more than the kitchen sink approach where you know the freezer and microwave are the main cooking tools.

We were both interested in similar dishes so we made sure to get different things. Missus went with a “Tapas” starter and I went for “Thai” fish cake. I put both in quotes because I’m not sure how accurate either description is. But that doesn’t really matter since both were gorgeous.

The Tapas was a wonderful selection of mussels, shell-on langoustine, salmon, goats cheese, hummus and olives. The fishcake was a big ball of crab and prawn, jam packed with flavour and with a plum sauce (more like diced plum than sauce but beautiful nonetheless).

For main I had scallops and cauliflower puree which was cooked to a tee and very tasty. D’Wife had seabass on a bed of risotto which she adored. In all cases the fish appeared to be ultra fresh and so much better for it. The side veg was a bit of overkill even tho I enjoyed one I couldn’t identify (Fennel? Celeriac?). The big chunky chips were very tasty but we didn’t need them to be honest.

Both of us were too full for desserts which did look lovely. I’d like to have seen a couple of lighter ones on the menu tho. We went with double espressos instead which were fab.

It wasn’t that cheap, coming in at €103 including €27 wine but we thoroughly enjoyed the meal, the music and the feel of the place. As I said in the summary, it is such a joy to have somewhere this good within walking distance of the house. The reputation is clearly spreading too since I have a lunch invite there for next week where the person said “the chowder is gorgeous”.

A big hurrah, Bandon is finally becoming somewhere that foodies can visit. Take that, Clon!

This is less of a review and more of a vote of support. Last week Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall kicked off a campaign to get people eating Free Range Chicken. He did this through a series of compelling programmes comparing intensively raised chicken production with Free Range.

Because no-one would let him film in a “normal” chicken production unit, he was forced to build his own. He split it down the middle with half as free range and half as intensive. Watching the differences become more and more apparent as the birds grew was a real eye-opener for me. Whilst we mainly buy free range, I had started to become dubious about the differences when I saw the same producer names on both types. But after watching this, I’m a total convert.

Quite simply, the methods used to intensively rear chicken are disgusting. If you want to eat meat that has been sitting in its own shit for its entire 39 day life, go right ahead but apart from any issues of animal welfare, if you want to see where Bird Flu will make the leap to humans in Europe, that’s where it’ll be.

Hugh’s campaign to get shops and restaurants in Axminster using free range were reasonably successful even in Tesco and the local kebab shop. His efforts with a local working-class community  to rear their own birds, whilst laudable, teetered on the brink of condescending. However the emotional scenes during slaughter did drive home the reality of where your meat comes from.

I’d love to know how many people who eat frankenstein chicken also support a ban on fois gras. I know which one I have a much bigger problem with.

I did think the focus on whole birds was mis-directed. Most people only eat a full bird once a week. My feeling is that the bulk of chicken sold is skinless chicken breasts and ready-meals. This obsession with breast meat should be tackled too since it addresses the issue of cost head on. We have 1KG of free range drumsticks sitting in the fridge. They cost €4.99 and will give us a fabulous meal when we roast them up in the oven with some spicy coatings.

One thing that interests me hugely is the numbers angle for a company like Tesco. Looking at it as a simple punter, surely pushing higher margin products like free-range benefits the bottom line? Whilst in the 70’s and 80’s when everyone was broke, price wars on a loaf of bread could cause people to change supermarket, is that really the case nowadays? I find it bizarre that somewhere like Tesco Wilton will be jammed with “Value” chicken plus a few exorbitant organic ones whilst being out of stock of free range constantly. Increasing demand for free-range will increase supply and drive down cost and hopefully make the Frankenstein Chicken just a short term historical aberration.

I was a bit shocked to see the Tesco manger in Hugh’s programme using a green-screen VDU. I assumed all their real-time analytics would be in multiple large screen dashboards showing exactly what was happening where in the shop. Maybe that’s why Wilton rarely has free range?

There is surely a huge PR coup to be had by the first supermarket which goes 100% free range on chicken and eggs whilst using the “animal welfare and customer health” advertising angle?

If you can catch the repeats of this, please do. If not, at the very least sign up for the Chicken Out campaign and if you have a blog, add the badge to it like I have done.

We all know to expect snooty service in Paris but I’ve rarely found that and have enjoyed most meals that I’ve had there. So I was a bit gobsmacked by the Jean Marie Le Pen supporters running Buddha Bar in Paris.

The “evening” unfolded like this.

1. We’re at Le Web 3 conference in Paris and we want to get some food. We also want to do so near the NetVibes party later on Rue de Rivoli
2. Tariq Krim says that it isn’t a good area for food but Buddha Bar is ok.
3. Four of us take the tube over, arrive into Buddha Bar and I ask if they have a table for 8 people (the expected number)
4. Stormtrooper behind desk snaps “have you a reservation”. No, sorry, we don’t.
5. Stormtrooper snaps “for how many?”. We say 8.
6. Stormtrooper snaps “how many here now”. Emmm, only 4.
7. Stormtrooper snaps “well come back when there are 8″. Oh ok.
8. We go to the Bar. Then the beer rip-off story happens.
9. Three people cancel on us, so we are now 5 and we go back to desk
10. Stormtrooper snaps “yes?”. Emmm, we’d like a table for 5.
11. Stormtrooper snaps “have you a reservation”. We were just here 15 minutes ago.
12. Stormtrooper snaps “how many here now”. Emmm, 5.
13. Stormtrooper picks up walkie-talkie and shouts into it. Someone shouts back.
14.  Stormtrooper snaps “follow that woman” and turns away from us
15. Stormtrooper II shouts into Walkie talkie and points down the stairs
16. We descend and encounter Stormtrooper III shouting into a walkie talkie
17. She brings us to a table
18. That’s it. We never received any other service from them
19. After 40 minutes without menus, water, bread or anyone to flag down, we walked out.

If I’d had a few drinks on me I’d probably have found it hilarious but as it was actually the worst non-dining experience of my life. You’d be better off in McDonalds.

We walked up Rue de Rivoli and found a nice pub bistro doing steak, frites and wine. A decent solid meal. I only wish I’d written the name of it down.

A bunch of us geeks attended the pretty weak Le Web 3 conference in December 2006. The main party was on near l’Opera and we wanted to get something decent to eat (we’d had a Chinese the previous night!).

Jan from Touristr is French and knew of an “institution” called Au Petit Riche which has been around since the mid 1800’s. It was only a few minutes from the incredible Haussmann animated shop-window Christmas display which made the Switzers/BT display look like a sad joke!

I was immediately impressed by the stall outside the restaurant selling Oysters.

It turns out that the people selling them have been supplying the restaurant for generations. Could you imagine something so cool outside an Irish place?

Inside was broken into large booths with maybe four tables in each. A giant cheese sat on the counter. The waiters were grumpy which made me happy.

There was no problem seating the 6 of us.

The menus came out and I realised they served traditional classic French food; escargot, fois gras, tete de vache, oysters. I drooled. Then I saw the fixed price menu cost - €30! I was gobsmacked. All of us went with it except Joe who wanted the fois gras and who will probably be stabbed by Keith the next time he meets him

I went with snails to start which were awesome, dripping in garlic butter in one of those compartmentalised dishes.

Unfortunately I decided to be adventurous and have the calf’s head for main. This was a mix of cheek, tongue and brain. It came out in a mini crock-pot thing and was basically a watery stew with those components and some veg along with a nice side gribbiche sauce.

The problem was that most of the meat was wobbly non-rendered fat and just wasn’t very appetising. I was glad to try it but won’t do it again. Brains were fine!

We nearly all went with the creme brulee which was killer - one of the best ever. Great coffee too.

The highlight for me was the fun we had with the wine. I was brow beating Jan about how the French approach of having 16-word titles on wine had no hope of working in the modern world where the Aussies just said “Shiraz”. He argued that there is far more to wine than the grape and that needed to be highlighted on the bottle. Yes terroir came up.

The waiter gave Jan the wine menu and to his credit he admitted defeat! It consisted of maybe 8 or 9 sections. Within each section was a type of wine and then just a list like this:

• 2004 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye
• 2003 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Les Quartiers
• 2004 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Tin Pan Alley
• 2003 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Yama Lama Ding Dong
• 2004 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Nanoo Nanoo

Over and over.

I asked him what the difference between each one was and he didn’t know. He called over the waiter who was similarly stumped. He called the sommelier and had a detailed chat of which I caught a tiny part. The sommelier had narrowed it down to Yannick Amirault Bourgueil La Coudrayeand Yannick Amirault Bourgueil Les Quartiers.

I said “Jan please tell me that I misheard and he didn’t say that the only difference between those two wines is the side of the valley they were grown on in the vineyard.”. Oh yes indeedy! However the sommelier had described the differences between them. One fruitier, the other more dry etc. So we got one and enjoyed it immensely.

My googling afterwards showed that it is a very highly regarded but inexpensive Cabernet Franc from the Touraine region of the Loire Valley.

We finished the first bottle and then agreed we would try the other variant “just to see”. Conor is a donkey - we could all bloody tell the difference and none of us are wine experts. Wow! Sodding Aussies have been conning us for twenty years.

Only problem is that my brain is too small to remember all the French info.

Back to the restaurant. Great great food in a lovely location with a killer price. If you are around l’Opera in Paris, you should definitely give it a go.

★★★★★ Well over a year ago, I blogged about the lack of burger innovation in Ireland. I recently did a pit stop at the new Midway Food Court on the M7/M8 split outside Portlaoise but was disappointed to only find O’Brien’s open. I went back again on Monday to grab a quick sambo and noticed that one new place was open - “Real Gourmet Burger“. I ran as fast as a fat man can to the counter and was handed a menu. Tears of joy welled up in my eyes as I read “original chargrilled burger with red onion and tomato relish”, “lamb burger with mozzarella and pesto” “spicy chorzio sausage….. I had to sit down to compose myself.

It’s a lovely setup with disposable wooden cutlery and recycled cardboard trays and beautiful seats. I ended up plumping for a guacamole burger “zesty guacamole, aged Irish cheddar, crispy pancetta and tomato relish”, chunky chips and a latte which came to a bit over €14. That is pricey but it was more of a dinner than a lunch and all the ingredients are top quality. The burger was fabulous in a bun by the Bretzel Bakery but I’d have preferred it a smidge less well done (they quote it as medium). Chips were fab and the coffee made O’Brien’s look like a bad paddy joke. It does take 15 mins to get the burger but it is well worth the wait. I was the only diner at 12 midday just after opening but a few more had arrived by 12.30.

This is fast food done right and I hope hope hope that enough people become regulars to allow them to grow into an empire that stretches to at least Cork. If you live in the midlands or are going anywhere on the N7/N8, this is a must-try.

Their web-site is just a holding page right now. If anyone is interested, I’ll scan the menu and post it here. I’m sure they won’t mind a bit of copyright infringement if it drives some business their way.

A few weeks back we took a run to Skibbereen to see if there was anything special in the Farmer’s Market with the Taste of West Cork Food Festival being on. Sadly it seemed to be the usual fare with a few great stalls including the awesome Gubbeen stand along with the standard crusties selling knitted bodhrans. We were very disappointed and I’ve only just realised from reading the web-site that the big food event was on the Sunday - damn damn damn.

We tootled off to Union Hall for some grub and had three pubs to choose from. We randomly selected Dinty’s which is a lovely airy pub and was not too busy yet (around 12.30). The barman was friendly and good with the kids and I grabbed a few menus off him. I was immediatley very disappointed by the selection of seafood for a few reasons. They call themselves a seafood restaurant, they have a picture of lobster on their sign outside, they are 20 yards from an awesome fish shop and wholesalers (Antcar) and they are in a fishing port!

I went with fish pie whilst Catherine and the kids all had plaice plus a few rounds of chips. I have to hand it to them, they broke the current record holder for getting fish to people in a pub who have kids by a couple of minutes. Up until now that record was held by the Bosun in Monkstown which is a fantastic pub/restaurant. I think Dinty’s did it in under 4 minutes which meant the kids didn’t even have a chance to think about misbehaving. They know their stuff in this place.

My fish pie was good but the plaice was superb - top top quality and ultra fresh from what I could see. A few leaves on the plate were dressed well but they shouldn’t have bothered with it for the kiddies. Chips excellent.

Lunch/Dinner for two adults and 3.5 kids plus one pint and soft drinks came to over €60 which I found pricey. By the time we were leaving the place was mobbed and with good reason. Recommended for good solid food. Next time we’ll try the other places and compare.

Technorati Tags: Union+Hall, Dintys+Bar, Bosun

I find it interesting that many people are still more comfortable sending me e-mails to ask questions rather than writing comments on the blog. I include all of my family except big sis in that group.

Do feel free to post any comments you like, you don’t have to give your full name (most don’t) and only I’ll see the email address. Blogs should be conversations rather than monologues.

In any case, I got a question from Clare asking about Indian restaurants in Bandon and I thought I’d post the gist of my reply here.

I haven’t done sit-down in either of the Indians in Bandon but I’ve had plenty of takeaways from Anarkali (023-29762). They are a bit hit and miss but the good dishes are really good.

The chilli garlic dishes are lovely, saffron chicken very nice, bhunas are good, dopiazas are good but their chicken tikka masala is awful for some reason. They seem to do creamy dishes badly.

All of their starters are really good. The restaurant itself is quite basic (and has a lot of take-away customers coming and going) but they are extremely friendly people. It’s a husband and wife team, one Indian, the other Pakistani. I also think they do BYOB.

I haven’t eaten anything from the one that was The Chapel Steps but it has already changed hands after only a few months in operation. My wife heard that it was not good when it was called Moghul. I’m not encouraged by the new owners describing it as “exotic cuisine”. I think currys stopped being exotic in the 70’s

We’ve eaten in one of the Indians in Clon too. Not sure if it was Cobra or the other one (it’s on the same side as the bike shop) and it was in the category of not too bad. Tiniest kitchen ever!