Corinna Dunne

My grandmother used to make this, and I still do. There is a recipe in Joy of Cooking, actually. One of my very favorite desserts. If you're careful you can unmold the thing so that the cake is on the bottom and the custard on top. ← I thought there may be an American connection, as it doesn't seem to exist in the UK. I wonder what it's ultimate history is. ← Delia Smith, the doyenne of British home cooking, has a similar recipe in her 'Complete Illustrated Cookery Course', which interestingly was voted one of the top cookbooks (I think No 2), by a number of experts recently, primarily because she is a very safe pair of hands and excellent as a reference for the basics. (The same panel of experts did also say that Larousse is a big load of rubbish, which I don't agree with). But Adam, your recipe looks better. She only uses 2 eggs and 2 lemons. She calls her version 'Lemon Surprise Pudding', but doesn't give any background on its origin.

I'm just back from a week in Roslare, Co Wexford with the family and had a chance to visit La Dolce Vita in Wexford Town. Well... Doorley considers this to be possibly the best Italian restaraunt in Ireland and I couldn't agree more. Even before we went in the door, I was predisposed to like it. It has the advantage of a particularly good location, on a wide lane with mature trees and a church ruin at the end. The traditional green, white and red awning ensures that its an easy find, and the room itself is one of those spaces that always seems to work: a balanced rectangle with windows all down the long side. The tables are packed pretty tightly and the place is buzzing. There is nothing formal about this restaurant. Indeed, its so informal, they don't even take reservations. Lunch is from 12 - 4pm. We arrived at 2 minutes past 12, and were lucky to get a table (after that, the queue starts). As we live on borrowed time with our 2 girls (aged 5 and 3), we didn't have a starter and tucked right into the main course. We ordered risotto of the day (wild mushroom), basil, ricotta and parmesan gnocchi in sage butter, Italian sausage with lentils and my mother (more conservatively) ordered pasta with sirloin strips. Now, never in a million years would I have ordered this dish, as I felt it was their concessionary nod to meat and 2 veg palates. But I was wrong. It was really, really good. and confidently so. The pasta was cooked perfectly and very lightly tossed in a piquant tomato sauce. The seared strips of beef were charred on the outside, medium on the inside and had that great steak-frites flavour that you only seem to get in France. The Italian sausage with the lentils was meaty and wholesome and the gnocchi - served with a fairly good salad - showed a surprising lightness of hand and avoided the starchy, gluey pit they so frequently fall into in Dublin restaurants. The wild mushroom rissotto was made mostly with porcinni. It was quite wet and the stock was thicker than you'd expect and seemed to be thickend more from the rice grains than just butter and parmesan added at the end, but the redeeming qualities of the porcini carried the dish, and our 3 year old ploughed into it with a fervour. For dessert we had icecream (cherry and vanilla), chocolate semi freddo, tiramissu and orange and lemon tart. So yes, the straight forward, classic Italian line-up, but all were obviously made on the premises and were the authentic tasting, real deal. We finished with great espressos, sporting the all important crema which seems to have gone missing in action in many nobler establishments. Now, I haven't mentioned the price. This place is unbelievably good value (which is why I can forgive the rissotto so easily). The mains (which are extremely generous) are all around the 8 - 10 euro mark and a nicely chosen and reasonably priced wine list offers plenty of wines by the glass at 4 and 5 euro. This restaurant has to be the best value for money in Ireland and whilst it may not be 'worth a special journey' it is certainly worth a very affodrable detour if you are anywhere near Wexford town. Be warned though, the 'Michelin' effect of Tom Doorley's reviews and its listing in the Bridgestone Guide has ensured that this restaurant is no secret. It is packed to the gills with wide-eyed, open-mouthed Dublin holiday makers who can't believe that such a place exists which contrasts so sharply with Dublin 'fleecings'. It's open Monday - Saturday for lunch only (6/7 Trimmers Lane), and as I mentioned, doesn't take bookings. If you don't get there at noon, the tables start to turn around 1.15pm, so take your chances then. And if you like, you can stock up from their great selection of Italian comestibles and wine when you are leaving. We also went to La Marine Bistro at Kelly's Resort Hotel in Roslare. To give a bit of background, Kelly's Hotel is somewhat of an Irish institution and is popular as an upmarket, family getaway, the emphasis being on quality, comfort and genuinely warm hospitality. The room is relaxing (nearly casual) with bistro style banquettes and you get the sense that everyone is on holiday, but in a convivial rather than plastic way. As it happens, it looks out onto the road, rather than the sea, which is a bit of a missed opportunity (but I'm sure there are logical reasons for this). The menu is disappointing. I expected to have a really good choice of seafood, but instead it seems to champion the meat led family pleasers. I am sure that this is what works for the hotel, but it makes 'La Marine' something of a misnomer in my book. Anyway, the menu was not without its seafood choices, so we decided to take what they had on offer. The seafood chowder for starters was exceptionally good, in fact the high point of the meal. It was light, flavoursome and had plenty of interesting chunks of fish (with not a bit of salmon to be seen, which I always consider to be a good thing, as it acts as cheap bulk in most cases). Our other starter was seared scallops with rocket on celeriac puree. A pretty straightforward dish, with perfectly cooked scallops but perhaps too much celeriac puree which - although its texture was very pleasing - would have benefitted from less potato, and of course, provided little contrast in the way of colour for the scallops. So, on to the mains. There were only 3 fish choices: crab, scallop and salmon mousse in puff pastry (I kid you not); roast hake with potato cakes with crab and bacon; and cod with Thai butter. As I generally give fusion a wide berth, we steered away from the latter and ordered the mousse and the hake. To our surprise, the mousse was pretty good (it was sliced on, rather than in the puffed pastry), but I would have preferred more options. The hake presented me with quite a surprise. It was served with a soy and wasabi sauce (nope, no mention of this on the menu). Whilst the sauce was very good with the fish, it entered a severe battle of continents when it traversed the plate to greet the 'down home' potato cakes enriched with corn and bacon. Luckily, this provided a barier to the leeks in cream on the opposite side of the plate which managed to avoid the invasion. It was the most unsuccessful combination I have ever tasted. Terrified, I decided to follow with cheese alone and skip dessert. The cheese plate, padded out with salad leaves provided a morbid end to the meal with 3 uninspired and badly kept cheeses. Now, this was the first time I have eaten at La Marine, and by all accounts, it was punching way below its weight the night we were there. Clearly, the chef can cook, but there is something of a disconnect here. The menu needs more tightening and focus and I think in some cases, simpler would be better. But the people here are really nice, the Maitre D' was so warm and charming, and the overall ambiance was so friendly, that we left feeling OK about the experience. But we did find good fish on our holiday. Kilmore Quay is a fishing port not far from Roslare which has a number of restaurants, none of which we tried. Instead, we had wonderful deep fried hake and chips for 3.95 euro at a great fish and chip shop: The Quarter Deck. Sitting outside at the picnic tables, it tasted great as we breathed in the fresh sea air. And further down the road (just opposite the carpark) is Viewpoint Fish Shop which is truly wonderful. Good and traditional, it only opens from Tues - Fri (I'm not sure about Sat) and has an impressive selection of eye-wateringly, fresh fish at very reasonable prices. So, delighted with our find (which, surprisingly doesn't get a mention in the Bridgestone Irish Food Guide), we bagged a large turbot at 15 euro per kilo which sustained us handsomely for yet another day on our holidays.

Adam. really enjoying your blog. If you want a solution to a slightly lumpy hummus, Paula Wolfert has some wonderful advice on this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=70271&hl= Apparently the key is leaving the skins out. The shoulder of lamb sounds wonderful. We await your return.

... the only thing was, there was a table of Thai people (seemed like family) using chopsticks, so I'll blame them for leading me astray! Now that I think of it, I had actually been using my hands until the mains arrived and it was at this point that I picked up the offending knife and fork. Thanks for the info, very interesting. Edited to add: Adam, how was the Thai restaurant that you went to?

Oh dear, I am all for the show being inclusive as opposed to 'ivory tower', but the range of the pitch last night was extended beyond belief with the delicatessan piece (and this comes in the distant wake of the furore over Delia's 'how to boil an egg' piece a number of years ago!). Both Merrilee and Richard Johnson looked visibly embarassed after the clip. It's a shame, because all things to all men will never work. There really is only 30 minutes TV in this show. And yes, the glue is missing. AA Gill presenting? Hmmm... wouldn't that mean that we'd probably see a lot of Clarkson too?

I was in Edinburgh at the weekend, but sorry Persian Cook, I didn't go for seafood or great dessert, so will just do a topline update for the thread: I had booked the restaurant at Harvey Nichols (for the view) but discovered that there is only a 3 course menu, so switched to the bistro, as we wanted something light. They had a 2 course light lunch for about £17. This place is definitely not about the food (goats cheese tart = a piece of chevre on top of a round of puff pastry, confit = crisped skin but dried to death, stringy meat), and I really don't think the space is that great either. But the Harvey Nicks own brand champagne is good (a girlie weekend) and the service was very pleasant too. La Garrigue was the venue for dinner on Saturday night, which we really enjoyed. This is very authentic, honest, French food and the chef clearly cares deeply about what he cooks. It's rustic rather than sophisticated. I particularly liked the soupe de poisson, although would have preferred a more fiery rouille (accepting that his version may be typical of the Languedoc region and my preference is Mediterranean). His confit was nothing short of perfection (a beautifully crisped skin with wonderfully succulent and tender meat underneath); and his cassoulet, robustly earthy and satisfying. We also had a saddle of rabbit which was served stuffed, rolled and sliced in a light broth with some vegetables. It was extremely good, although I did find that the vinegar and dill came through a little bit too stridently. The service was competent and friendly, indeed, the people who run this place are exceptionally nice. If you are going, ask for one of the tables by the window, or on the LHS as you enter, as the tables on the right are somewhat under the shadow of the enclosed lift shaft. Thai Me Up (the local food critics had promised), is an offputting name but a good restaurant. I wouldn't agree. The name says it all. I had booked here in the absence of anything else being open on a Sunday night (although Centotre will be opening on Sunday from August). It is a lovely room (no Thai pastiche) in a Georgian building, and our first impressions were very good. As there were 4 of us, we went for the set menu for a minimum of 3 people (at £24 per person). I have no idea why a minimum number of people was required, as there was nothing exceptional or of a real 'cook to order' nature. This, I accept, was a lazy choice to save us trawling though the menu, but as it was the more expensive of the set menu options, I expected it to be reasonably good. Unfortunately, apart from the hot and sour soup (not exactly rocket science), nothing stood out. For our starters, we forraged through the excessive padding of lettuce leaves for unexciting morsels; and for the mains, the overuse of peanut butter was all too obvious and only served to reinforce the absence of the light floral, herby, fragrance I associate with Thai food. Not a light touch in evidence. Added to this, I realised half way though my meal - as I uncomfortably struggled with a fork and no knife - that there were no chopsticks on the table, and I had to ask twice to get some. It may sound silly, but I think that Eastern food is infinitely better eaten with chopsticks, and frankly, their absence is worrying. Unfortunately they did little to lighten the half hearted food and when a plate of lukewarm, congealed noodles were served, we simply had to return the dish, wishing that we could return the lot without ruining the congenial atmosphere of our eveining. So, a big thumbs down to this place for its small servings of lack lustre, lazy food.

If they can just take a little more care with each topic, dump the celebrity cooking spot, and quit with the near-pointless trips to the far corners of the globe they'll have a damn good half-hour food programme. And no Clarkson - bonus. ← I agree that the celebrity segment just doesn't work. On Top Gear it works because they have a league table and every celeb is required to drive on the same track (although the weather brings its vagaries, which adds to the interest). This gives it more relevance and acts as a thread of comparison. So when Tim Rice beats tough man Vinnie Jones on time, it gets a laugh. So what task could be set in a cooking format? The highest rise in a souffle, or the fastest time to stiff peaks, whisking egg whites with a balloon whisk? It all just sounds a little bit like watching icing dry. And yes, I think that a snappier edit and a compressed time slot of 30 minutes would inject a much needed shot of energy.

I really like the programme, although I'm the first to admit that it's not perfect. The highlights for me are definitely Richard Corrigan and Heston Blumenthal, but I am also very impressed by the 'How does your garden/meat grow?' segment. It may not be the most compelling and beautifully shot piece, but there is at least an honourable attempt to present a balanced report on these hot topic issues. 'Full on Food' clearly seeks to be more inclusive and avoids the usual preaching to the converted diatribe. It accepts that not everyone is going to be able to afford to buy organic and seeks out the best of the rest without demonising. This is important if pressure is to be brought to bear on the bottom feeders in the low cost, low quality dregs of the market, which looks all too attractive to uninformed budget shoppers. I applaud them for embracing the media responsibility to cut back on the 'us and them' polarising on the organic issue. Those who are privileged enough to have a choice and a voice on the matter shouldn't throw up their hands in organic disbelief, but try to find some middle ground.

Very cool!

Marlene, I've just landed on this thread now, and your individual Yorkies look amazing. People who have failed to make perfect Yorkies everytime (like me), can take consolation from the fact that even Gordon Ramsay worries about the rise in his Yorkshire puddings (on"Hell's Kitchen").

Thanks for this Pedro. I see that they also have the El Bulli Vol 3 English edition which doesn't seem to be available on Amazon yet (I was cross checking the prices).

I don't think the link below has been posted. Apart from starting the sous vide topic, Nathan also started a topic on where to get an immersion bath (great info on eBay etc). You'll get it here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=60181&hl= Also, just one question. I am assuming that Joan Roca's book is an American edition. Does anyone know if there is an English edition?

The heat in pimientos de padrons varies. I too had them in Barcelona a few months ago and didn't hit on a killer padron either. However, I have had some eye wateringly hot ones. A friend of mine brought some back from Madrid some time ago that were nearly impossible to eat... but wonderful all the same!

Our blowtorch came in particularly handy one Christmas when the turkey we had ordered was not properly plucked and there were a lot of stubborn quills and feathers left behind to taunt us. It just torched them off! I have to admit that my blowtorch is totally under utilised, so nice to see this thread. I need to resurrect it.

Perhaps this point is key: that our interest in food has become a substitute for religion, and has filled a void, not that it is a religion in the true sense of the word. Regarding lobster and religion, there actually is a close link this side of the Atlantic. It was traditional in Ireland (where most of the population is Catholic) to eat fish on Friday and even though this is not required by the Church any more, there are still some people who uphold the tradition. So for some of the older members of the population, fish is seen as penance. And a few generations back, lobster was viewed as among the least desirable of the Friday options and was regarded as a poor man's food. I'm not sure why this was (probably because it is more labour intensive to eat as opposed to the bottom feeder issue). But the knock-on effect of the close link between fish and penance means that as a nation, our interest in fish is only starting to flourish now that most of the shackles have been caste off and left behind. As an aside, there is plenty of Irish lobster landed on our shores during the summer months... but most of it gets exported to France!

After all your great advice, I forgot to soak some dried chickpeas for dinner this weekend and ended up using an organic canned variety for the hummus I was making. And I discovered that my food mill was broken, so had to skip this step and ended up using the food processor on its own. I was amazed at how inferior this hummus was to previous batches when I had cooked my own chickpeas. But for the first time, I was also very conscious of the skins. So even though I have not yet managed to follow your recipe, you have a complete convert here. It will definitely be 'skins off' in future! Thanks for the good steer.

I was thinking exactly the same myself. In many ways, food has become one of the new religions, along with football as you mention and yoga. And Jack, what you seem to be talking about is the 'food fundamentalist' sect, the fresh food, foam and new gastronomy brigade. And yes, they have their followers,. and yes, I'm one. Maybe some of us food fundamentalists are too evangelical and effusive about the ecstasy experienced (yes, tongue in cheek) when we taste the sweetness of a young pea plucked from the garden and released from its perfectly formed pod (tongue still ifirmly n cheek), but it is a joy, and if you don't believe in God, you can at least pay homage to mother nature. Enjoying food is like enjoying the simpler things in life... although I'm the first to admit that some food is far from simple.

I agree. I'm not sure that a marinade with garlic would respond well to freezing, but I've never tried it. Has anyone tried it?

I think your pepper could be a pimiento de padron (pepper of the patron), which is very popular in Spain. They are small, (but larger than a chilli) and are generally quite mild. But about one in ten is hot. They are a very popular tapas dish. The peppers are griddled (a la plancha) with olive oil and plenty of salt and then served hot. You eat the whole pepper (apart from the stalk) and play a game of Russian Roullette as you wait for the hot one to strike. They are absolutely delicious and wonderful washed down with a cold beer. Unfortunately, they are not available in Ireland but are catching on in London where a few of the better vegetable shops stock them.

I agree. I think something sharp is needed to offset the richness of the crab. I mix homemade aioli with an equal amount of creme fraiche and find that this works very well. Not only is it sharper, but the texture is a bit lighter too, which is nice against the denseness of the crabcakes. And as many others have mentioned upthread, I think arugula is particularly good with them too.

I had a particularly good couscous dish at El Cellar de Can Roca a few months ago. I've pasted in my comments from the Can Roca thread below: Next up was red mullet with cus cus of his liver. Another extraordinary dish; the skin of the fish was heavily salted and crisped, which contrasted beautifully with the soft, almost caviar like quality of the wonderfully flavoured cus cus. This was served with an orange oil and some samphire. It was paired with a grenache blanc Rioja. It was truly wonderful. I remember it vividly.

Ian, these are two great lists. The only point I would disagree with you on (apart from the Thornton's v Guilbaud's issue), is Burdocks. I know it is a Dublin institution, but I just don't like the chips, I find they get soggy too quickly. I must get to One Pico again soon. Thanks for reminding me on this one. It had inadvertently slipped off my radar. And I must try Mint, I've been intending to go for ages. I read that Oliver Dunne (no relation) makes very interesting use of foam sauces and is pushing the boundaries a bit. Did you find this on your visits? On the restaurants you have yet to visit, I would put Chapter One first, but there is a 4 week wait for weekend bookings, weekdays seem to be OK though. A simply must have here is the phenomenal charcuterie trolly starter. It is less formal than the Michelin starred restaurants and I love the genuine warmth and friendliness. It has a very loyal following. I have not been to The Tea Room recently and have found it a bit inconsistent in the past. I suggest you give the lunch a try as it's great value and the room is beautiful. I did a short post on it on this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=46353&hl= I haven't been to Jacob's Ladder in quite some time. I liked it at first and then went off it. Their set menu used to be good value (I'm sure it still is), but I found that you could really run up the bill if you went a la carte, and the food didn't merit the prices (butter mounted sauces with cornflour being one of the worst offenders I remember). Bijou in Rathgar (a suburb not far out of town) is very good on the early bird menu during the week but not such good value for dinner a la carte. The starters tend to be much better than the mains. It is very much a neighbourhood type place. Actually the proprietor has bought the premises beside Bijou and rumour has it that she intends to do a French Paradox type place, which would be welcome if the price point is right. Unfortunately, some of the walls on the acquired building collapsed during renovations and it is taking some time to get sorted. One of the better Indian restaurants, Poppadom is also in Rathgar and has a slightly modern take on its food. Unfortunately, the last time I was there they had taken some of the more interesting items off (which included a venison done in a 'dry' sauce), but it was about 6 months ago. This is much better than Vermillion in Terenure which a lot of people recommend, but I think messes too much with silly fusion ideas. On Shanahan's, well, it depends how much you want to pay for your steak. It is really, really expensive, and I personally would prefer to spend this sort of money in Thornton's or Guilbaud's. My husband has been a few times for business dinners and reckons that the steak is no better than he does on the barbeque at home (although he is exceptionally good at it!). I haven't been to Seasons and hear that it's OK, nothing special. Just one more restaurant I'd like to add to the list. I was at a wine tasting in a place called Cobalt Bistro on North Great Georges St last night and it has to be the coolest place in Dublin! Eddie Kelly and his wife, who live in this imposing Georgian house open the ground floor up for lunch only (not sure about the weekends) and it is a wonderfully boho, literatti, eclectic room. Plenty of paintings on the wall and a lovely back garden which I think is also open to the public. Apparently the food is simple, fresh and really good, although I can't personally vouch for it. Anything short of poison would make this place worth visiting. It is conveniently located near the Municipal Art Gallery and Writers Museum, so if you are that way inclined you will just love this 'salon' type atmosphere. Oh and in this vein, I just have to mention Le Cave on South Anne St which is a restaurant and wine bar which has been around for years. It drifts in and out of fashion and moves from being a cool, seedy place with an interesting arty crowd to just being seedy sometimes. But there's something great about it, and the food's not bad either. You can set up stall for a very long night here! Edited to add: I've just realised that most of the good restaurants have actually been around since before the 'Celtic Tiger' and in many ways, it has contributed to the increased number of really bad mid-priced places. It also took some noble establishments with it in its wake, notably Conrad Gallagher's Peacock Alley, The Commons on St Stephen's Green and Ayumiya, the only half decent Japanese restaurant the city had. On the positive side, the coffee has improved beyond belief! Dunne & Crescenzi on South Frederick St is my favourite and they do very good light Italian food too. Great for a light lunch. And after assessing the market from the sidelines for some time, Starbucks has finally taken the plunge and moved in. So that must mean that we are officially a cafe society! Two restaurants to watch for are: * La Stampa when Jean Christophe Novelli takes over as patron chef later in the summer * And George's (previously of George's Bistro fame, nothing to do with it now) new venture over 3 floors which is to open on Baggott St soon (opposite Tesco, which I presume is the old Ayumiya premises). Apparently he is going for a Le Cirque type club with bistro, piano bar etc. Sounds like a bit of competition for The Unicorn! And edited to copy Ian's clarity!

Yes, this is very welcome indeed. And it is much more honest and frank than the usual guides tend to be. I am really only familiar with the Dublin recommendations, so will add my comments on a few of them: * 101 Talbot: I am very surprised that he included this. I don't like the room and I find the food boring, or at best derivative. It completely lacks a sense of occasion and just feels like a tourist trap to me. * Ely Wine Bar: I was so relieved to see that he described the food as 'basic but pleasant' although even this might have been generous. This is a very popular place to go for dinner, but I just don't get the food. I find the menu very limited and uninspiring and it tries to get too much mileage out of all of the free range and organic mentions without actually delivering anything particularly special (apart from the fact that the salmon they use in the fish cakes is farmed). The wine list is very good though. The only problem is that most people don't go here for the wine and most of the staff haven't a clue about it. Last Friday, one of the waitresses incorrectly brought two glasses of Brown Brothers dessert wine to our table and when I said that we had ordered one Banyuls she insisted that what she had was Banyuls. I explained that Banyuls is red, but she still insisted and I just gave up as I wasn't in the mood for arguing. The previous time I went there, our booking was for 9.45pm and we weren't seated until 10.45pm. The girl behind tha bar could barely speak English, so we got no wine recommendations and nothing on the house for our long wait. It's a golden rule, if you can't turn the tables on time, don't take the booking. This is also an extremely noisy room (brick walls, wooden floors) and noisy beyond a chattering buzz. Very popular with girls on a night out with expensive handbags. But the cheese is good * French Paradox: His main gripe is that it is too expensive and I agree on this. I too would go much more often if the prices weren't so high for simple cold plates. * Bang: Good to see that he agonised over its inclusion. I have found it inconsistent and the room downstairs is oppresive (make sure your table is upstairs if you're booking). And he included a few of my favourites: * Chapter One: The best value for top end food in Dublin. Remarkably (and maybe thankfully) it doesn't have a Michelin star. There's a little more on this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=46353&hl= * Cavistons: The best fish restaurant in the country. More on it here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=23131&hl= *L'Ecrivain: This is a great restaurant too, but since it got its star, I think a lot of people (who are not on expense accounts) have defected to the more affordable Chapter One. * Eden: Admittedly as he says, it has had its 'ups and downs' in the past, but is really performing at the moment. Here you'll find good ingredients, well cooked, without too much fuss and in a really nice space that is buzzy but not too noisy. He forgot to mention that Eden does a pre-theatre / early bird menu which is very good value, 25 euro I think. The obvious ommission is: * Thornton's which is extremely good. It is Michelin 2* and very expensive, but so too is Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud which he includes. If I was spending the money, I'd choose Thornton's and even if I preferred Guilbaud's, it would not lead me to exclude Thornton's. This smells like a publicity stunt to get people talking about the 'unbelievable exclusion'... but maybe I'm just cynical. * Kerrier I agree, I too would have included Frere Jacques which is a wonderful old style French restaurant. I think the problem here is that a lot of people find it quite expensive and think 'I could have gone to Chapter One for that'. And yes, you can run up the bill, but the set price menu offfers extremely good value. See here for more details: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=46353&hl= * The Mermaid gets a lot of mentions on this Forum. It gets a lot of tourists early in the evening and is not on the Dublin radar in quite the same way, although it does have its loyal following. But the food here is extremely good, probably best described as mid-Atlantic / modern European. They do an extremely good large ante pasta plate which is great if you need a quick but lightish bite and in general the ingredients are well sourced and 'treated with respect'. I have really enjoyed the food every time I've been here. I just don't like the room. It is too rustic and doesn't have a sense of occasion to match the quality of the food. But this really is my only gripe. Great service and really nice people. They also do a good fixed price lunch menu (I think it's 25 euro). Other places worth mentioning (his list was the top 100 in Ireland and did not intend to be exhaustive) are The Elephant & Castle in Temple Bar for chicken wings and casual dining and Roly's Bistro in Ballsbridge for its great value set lunch on Sundays (a family favourite, great place to bring your parents). I was so relieved to see that he did not include any Japanese restaurants (as they are shameful by international standards) and that the only Italian restaurants included were the more casual 'quick bite type' spots. Unfortunately Dublin (and I think Ireland) has no decent Italian restaurant, although he does mention one in Wexford town (La Dolce Vita) which I intend trying when I'm down that way later in the summer. And as an aside there are 2 non-restaurant Dublin experiences which I think merit mentioning: * The Farmers Market in Temple Bar on Saturdays: You can eat your way around the stalls and even sit down and have a half dozen oysters with a glass of chilled white wine. * The Bombay Pantry: This is Indian takeaway food and is unbelievably good, better than any of the sit down restaurants. Nothing out of a jar here and no multi-coloured rice, just great Indian cooking with amazing complexity and layers of flavour.

I know exactly what you mean. I 'hit the culinary wall' from time to time and try to ensure that my freeser is in a position to respond to my temporary malaise. Frozen favourites are bolognaise sauce, homemade hamburgers, Mexican taco filling and lasagne or moussaka if they haven't already been gorged. I've just realised that all of these things are made from mince/ground meat, but they are all things I make in a larger quantity and put away for the 'refusal' days. They are very much in the comfort food zone too. I once did a 'culinary wall' list of tasty, quick and easy to prepare dishes for my sister for days like these, but can only remember carbonara and barbequed steak off hand (not feeling terribly cullinarily inclined at the moment myself). And when I simply don't want to do a thing, I get a takeaway from a place called Bombay Pantry which is unbelievably good (in fact better than any sit down Indian restaurant in Dublin). Yes, this is probably the best solution: get a really, really good takeaway. Sushi would be wonderful if you have somewhere good nearby.

I vividly remember the taste of the wonderful grilled/barbequed pigeon I had a long time ago in Cairo. I read somewhere that it is a different type of pigeon. Is this true? Is a marinade used to keep it so succulent and if so, do you know what is in it?