ljr

Seeing as its potatoes I felt ye needed a posting from Ireland. Of course the best I have every tasted are the ones my mother used to grow - particularly Duke of York a first early variety no longer grown commercially but still much in demand from gardeners (in Ireland and the UK) - my grandfather ran the market garden for one of the "big houses" in Munster and he swore by Duke of York. Best potatoes I tasted last year were organic Orlas (a variety developed in Ireland to be blight resistant and hence very popular with organic growers here). Currently in Ireland we are all eating Home Guards from Wexford and East Cork which are stunning and way better than the imported Italian, Israeli and Cypriot new potatoes we have had to suffer. the Irish like their potatoes to be "little balls of flour" so the Home Guard (a first early) are dropped as soon as the British Queens arrive (this is a second early). Personally I adore the earthy, nutty, slightly waxier texture of home guard (Irish people do not use the word waxy - a potato is either floury or soapy!). I think Ireland is rather unique in this preferance as most of the varieties mentioned above would be considered soapy by your average Irish person. Incidentally you need floury and waxy potatoes for Irish stew - you need the waxy ones to retain their texture and the floury ones to thicken the sauce. This year I finally got around to growing potatoes in various pots, buckets and bins (no garden) and I was quite restricted in what I could get small quantities of but my Lady Cristal (dutch early), Sapro Axona (organic blight resistant Hungarian main crop variety), Pink Fir Apples and Charlottes (both waxy main crops) are growing away. I also used a potato barrel (see this link) which seems to be working best of all. I could go on and on as in Ireland the quality of the potatoes you serve is more important than the quality of the bread and probably even the meat...

Corinna - you found me out! I keep forgetting to look at the board (and Ernie's one which I know you also contribute to). I was in Venu on Sunday for lunch and v. much enjoyed it, even had friendly service (if a bit French). V. good lamb kebabs and v. tasty dauphinoise. You should start the posting on lunch in dublin and I promise to contribute! Any thoughts on Hugo Arnold's job at food and wine? As I contributer I dont much mind as long as he takes my articles but I wonder how he will approach it...

So what happened last night - who won? I keep forgetting to watch this as it is on when I cook dinner (my dinner being more important obviously). the bbc site has no information as usual.

Friends from the UK stayed in Jurys ChristChurch recently and also had a miserable experience. They were over for a plastic surgeon conference (the type that put people's faces back together after traffic accidents not the breast enlarging kind) in nearby Dublin Castle. One of the main topics of conversation at the conference was how bad Jurys was - down to simple things like plain unhelpfulness, "no you cant bring food to your room you must eat it in the bar" etc.. If you ever do have to stay there Burdocks Fish and Chips on Werburgh street next door might cheer you up - it still fries its chips in beef fat so is worth checking out (batter too heavy but still tastes great). If you are a malt person and haven't tried Bushmills 16 year old malt you haven't lived - I have yet to taste a better scotch than it - it is half and half bourbon and sherry matured but spends 6-9 months marrying in port casks prior to bottling; sublime stuff. The Bushmill 10 year old is Bourbon cask aged and is good also but I actually prefer the considerably cheaper Black Bush which is a top quality blend with around 80 per cent malt - mostly sherry cask matured. The Irish Distillers ones are worth checking out too (Powers 12 year old, Jameson 18, Midleton etc) and also the Irish owned Cooley Distillery Connemara (peaty) and particularly their Tyrconnel (bourban cask aged I think but quite fine). By the way whiskey over here has an "e" like Bourbon. Would love to name and shame the place you visited. Blueberry Restaurant is one place along that road but i dont think that was it - it is near moyvalley on the dublin side of Kinnegad and is well off the road (while still being visible from it). People say that Mother Hubbards has acceptable food but I am not so sure. If I have to stop I usually stop into Kilbeggan to the little cafe beside the old whiskey distillery (with water wheel etc.). Food is simple but almost all home made. So glad you had a nice time in Athlone (my home town) as people often hate the place!

Maybe I was a little unfair on Rolys in calling it overpriced... I probably just order too much wine when I go there and only remember the final bill! Sadly I have never been to McNeans but hear nothing but good reports. I have no reason to go to Cavan except to go to this restaurant, and I keep promising myself to do this very soon, but I end up in Galway, Clare or Cork instead... It is also possible i am put off by the terrible TV persona of the chef proprietor Nevin McGuire! He is just too nice!

You will also need some bread so I presume you know about "Cherchez le Pain" by Steven L. Kaplan which is a guide to the "meilleures boulangeries de Paris". It is written in rather academic French but is well worth struggling through. In the 11th he recommends Eric Becaert at 7 rue Sedaine (M. Breguet-Sabin), Franck Lamet at 61 Oberkampf, Les Bannetons de Charonne at 149 Bd. de Charonne (M. Philippe Auguste), and Michel et Brigitte Nicolle at 11 Av. Philippe Auguste (M. Nation). Best bread for me is at Julien or Gosselin on rue St. Honore. If you find yourself in the 14th check out Augustine the winner of the 2004 Grand Prix de la Baguette de la Ville de Paris and you are not too far away from Eric Sanna on rue de Retrait (M. Gambetta) in the 20th - the 2005 winner who will have been supplying Chirac with his daily bread since February.

As Corinna says this is an old post but in case you stumble upon it looking for info on Dublin. First off I do not particularly recommend Capatin Americas unless you have kids - it is in the not bad category rather than the good category. Even if you do have kids I would suggest the Elephant and Castle in Temple Bar instead (though admittedly not as good as it used to be), or better still try Odessa off Dame St. I endorse everything that is said about Cavistons in Glasthule and would go further and say it is one of the finest fish restaurants for lunch anywhere. Relaxed and informal with outstanding quality seafood. Fair point about first sitting of the day but I also recommend the last sitting for lunch which gives you more time to linger. Try squid, halibut, cod, mackeral, scallops (queen for starter, king for main) - hell it is all good. Bridgestone guide reviews are best found in the books - the all inclusive Irish Food Guide or the more circumspect top 100 guide; Some othre reviews to be found in the megabytes newsletter at this link: http://www.bestofbridgestone.com/mb/index.html home page here: I need to declare an interest here as I am one of the guides editors at large and you will find some of my reviews at the link above. Some recommendations: Indian: Vermillion in Terenure, Jaipur in various locations including Dalkey and city centre, Rasam in Dun Laoghaire Chinese: Generally quite ordinary so Dim Sum is the best way to go for interesting flavours - the best by far is the Ming Court in Blanchardstown (terrible location but the only place native Chinese recommend unreservadly), Universal on Sth King St., Imperial on Wicklow St. and Good World on Georges St will also suffice if you are in town. For the cheapest (and one of the most enjoyable) meals in town try China House on Parnell St. with starters for one Euro and mains for around 6-9 euro. For general Good but not too expensive: try Town on Kildare St, Bang on Merrion Row (the head chef used to be sous chef in the Ivy - he was the one that turned Madonna away from the Ivy at 1.30 am), Cellar Rest. at the Merrion Hotel, Gueuleton on Fade St, Mermaid cafe on Dame St., Eden in Temple Bar (lunch outside on Sat. recommended as the Temple Bar market is on), Franks at the Malting Tower on Grand Canal Quay, Rolys in Ballsbridge (prepare to be crammed in but food is usually reliable if a little overpriced), La Mere Zou on Stephens Green - think old fashioned french bistro - good for lunch Very good Wine Bars that serve food: Dax on Pembroke St, Ely on Ely Place, Enoteca delle Langhe near Morrison Hotel on the Quays (my definite favourite), La Cave on Sth anne St., French Paradox in Ballsbridge Lunch spots -Dunne and Crescenzi on Sth Frederick St and related outposts such as Bar Italia on the Quays, La Corta in the Epicurean Mall Middle Abbey St. (most places are good in this mall - including Itsabagel), Gruel on Dame St. (same owners as Mermaid next door), Cellar Bar in the Merrion Hotel, Cafe Bar Deli on Georges St and soon to be in the old Bewleys on Grafton st., Steps of Rome for Italian style pizza - staffed and frequented by Italians. Fancy and expensive: Best food is Thorntons (2 michelin) best fun is L'Ecrivain (1 michelin), most formal is Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud (2 mich star), most creative is Chapter One (looking for a star), best (and ludicrously expensive) steak is Shanahans (they have their own herd of cows), most ambitious: One Pico off Molesworth St. (also owns Bleu Bistro Moderne and Ocean), for politician spotting go to the Unicorn on Merrion Row for lunch In the Other category - Aya for sushi (some think it is the world class some think it is mediocre - I am somewhere in the middle), Mao - asian fusion usually full - be careful what you order..., La Maison des Gourmets on Castlemarket for takeout baguette (artisanal) sandwiches and excellent pastries etc. aslo a small restaurant for lunch, Burdocks Fish and chips on Werburg St. near Christchurch Cathedral - batter is too heavy but if eaten straight away can be fab - cooked in beef dripping

Thanks Robert. I am indeed reading back over the John Talbott's media digests and following the links. I suppose I just wanted to see if there was a dissenting voice about the bistros and also to see if they were still changing. so many places to go, so little time...

Thank you john. I will try to choose wisely and report on my findings... I'll assume this revolution is continuing as there is lots of recent mentions of places you (and Steingarten) mention... I cant wait...

Due to spend 16 days in Paris from next Monday and am keen to try out some of the new and classic restaurants so I have been reading this page with much interest and will follow some of the recommendations. My question concerns the Bistros Moderne which J Steingarten writes so eloquently about in his two collections ("the man who ate everything" and "it must have been something I ate") - e.g. Yves Camdeborde's La Regalade (I see he has moved on) and l'Os a Moelle. Has this move to the suburbs by top chefs continued and are there good examples still opening..? I welcome general and specific thoughts on the Bistros Modernes concept and whether JS was right to call it a movement or not...

This is a better link if you want to hear the radio interview... if you are trying this today (Thursday 27th) click on the link that says "Click here to listen to the latest Gerry Ryan Show" click here... move the arrow forward to about 1:40 minutes... l.

thank you blondie (I too am blond btw!). site is huge - afraid to look up too much or I will never get any work done! Sad to tell you that it is indeed a slug of ribena (or more usually a cheaper brand such as MiWadi or Quosh). If you ask for a vodka and orange you might also get a vodka with a slug of dilutable orange such as MiWadi in it - but this is more likely to occur in an old fashioned pub in the middle of nowhere. I haven't heard anyone ordering a guinness and blackcurrant in a long time but by coincidence I heard it mentioned on the radio this morning (see below) - in the negative of course. In my experience it is usually orered by young women who find Guinness a bit too bitter. Black Velvet (Guinness and Champagne) is more respectable and is quite nice - best with the bottled fermented guinness in pint bottles rather than the draught version... Guinness drinkers are long suffering here and are not treated well by the company (as you may have gathered). They have been gradually cooling the pint over the years to try to recruit new young drinkers. They even introduced an "extra-cold Guinness" which seemed to emphasise all the bitter notes and tasted revolting. They have tried to introduce new taps that allow a pint to be poured in 25 seconds rather than the usual 2 minutes and other things - all these ideas ultimately fail but they keep persisting. More sad news is that Diageo (who now own Guinness) announced yesterday that they have decided to put up the price of a pint by 6c. which will translate to 15c when you add tax and pub mark-up etc. - in some (trendy) pubs this will push the price dangerously close to or over 5 Euro a pint - another reason to stick to the traditional pubs where prices are more consistent. BTW did you try Beamish and Murphys? Murphys is a bit too sweet for many people but a pint of Beamish from a pub with a good flow (lots of people ordering it), for example in Cork, beats Guinness any day imho. In blind taste tests Beamish usually comes out top followed by Guinness and then Murphys. If you are curious about the mention on the radio this morning it was an interview with Mark Griffiths who has written a book called "Guinness is Guinness" - a history/celebration of Guinness. This was on the Gerry Ryan Show on 2fm - I only heard a tiny bit but it should be possible to hear the whole show, if not now then later today, as they update the site fairly regularly - the interview occurred around 10.45am and the show runs from 9am-12noon so you would need to go about half way into the download. Ryan is a good broadcaster but he can really get on one's nerves with his smugness so be warned...

The French (and they invented the term) define a creme (according to Larousse Gastronomique) as a "sweet liqueur with a syrupy consistency... obtained by soaking various substances in Brandy or spirit containing sugar syrup" Confusingly of course "creme" is also applied to creamy soups and the like. I notice no mention of the more usual cremes as in creme de cassis, de framboise, de mur, de fraises etc. Everyone should have at least Cassis and hopefully one or two others in the house as they are essential for cooking with summer fruits plus cocktail cabinets. Creme de cassis is surely easily available (it is in Ireland) but the others are worth picking up if you see them for kir and kir royale. Mur (blackberries), Fraise (strawberries) and Framboise (raspberries) all make v. interesting alternatives. Similarly I use them when making ice cream and sorbets from these fruits. Grand Marnier or its Armagnac equivalent Pousse Rapier also make a lovely drink mixed with sparkling wine and make wonderful ice cream... maybe you all knew this already... (not on the board long). Intrigued by creme de mezcal and will watch out for it when next in the US. I buy my cremes in France and they are usually 16 per cent alcohol so they keep for a good length of time - the sirops do not keep and are a waste of money in my view.