Cheap Eats!

Well I have square eyes from checking out the fantastic new Irish website Cheap Eats, its brilliant!  Its one of those sites that has me bashing my head off the keyboard, wailing "I wish it was mine!", set up and run by graphic artist Jean O'Brien (check out the dotey graphics!!) and journalist Peter McGuire, and with fantastic ideas and recommendations all through the effortless dialogue.  With tips on where to find great food bargains, which restaurants are feeding us well for less, and a general encouragement, in the face of a recession, to continue with the chin up and mouth open, for great food is still within our reach! There is sections of all aspects of food in Ireland, from recipes to food news, great restaurant reviews and even a Bloggers recommend section!! 

I love it!! 

Check it out here!

Poor Show at La Paloma

We went for dinner last night - it was a last minute thing as due to one thing and another (lost shoe and bad hair day) we missed our dinner reservations on saturday. So instead we took the kids to our fav family restaurant La Paloma which is in Temple bar.


We had one of our first dates there and it has become an old favorite, a comforter, a home from home. So in we went, in the lashing rain, and grabbed one of the little booths set into the wall at the back of the restaurant.

We were surprised to see how empty it was and mentioned it to the manager, it has been almost 9 months since we were last there and we noticed they'd changed some things - the chatty spanish waitresses were absent, the booths along the window had been replaced with rather plain tables and the usual spanish shouts from the kitchen were no longer, peering in I spotted two rather lost looking asian guys...

We ordered the usual table of tapas that we recommend to everyone and it arrived - covering the table with colour. I realised swiftly it was not just the decor that had changed.

First noted absent was the smells and aromas, then slowly I noted one difference and another. The bread had changed - I would say it was bought in par baked, rustic loaves were now pale french baguette. The chorizo salad (listed and usually with chorizo and butter beans) was limp iceberg lettuce, (yack) chorizo, chalky tinned chickpeas and not a butter bean in sight. The calamari (which I have recommended to many) were rubbery and tasteless... I felt like I had lost an old friend.

We spoke with the manager as we paid our bill and he told us he didn't think they'd last much longer... I have to agree, the interior is gorgeous, the restaurant very welcoming and the location handy for all but the standard of food has slipped big time. It seemed like they were just going through the paces, their location becoming more and more a drinking and dancing arena more than a place to hunt out a good restaurant. Temple bar used to be where you'd find gems no matter what you were looking for, food, clothes, music - it was where you'd go for the 'alternative'... now its rife with stag and hen parties and tourists looking for a pint of the black stuff in some sham Irish pub.

La Paloma has suffered because of it, and seems to have already left the building...I used to dream of the food and talk highly of the restaurant to my friends - now I am hoping none of them take the recommendation...

Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the outing and we were fed but it left us with a bad taste in our mouths and a sadness in our hearts...

no cook book day!

Ah saturday...

I rarely cook on a saturday unless I am gripped by an overwhelming desire to create, but thats usually staved off until another day... although in fairness I am never in a position where there is no other option and I think thats why I still really enjoy cooking meals for my family, even after 11 years of it!

Saturday, however, is an unofficial day off... usually a brown bag of fish and chips arrives at the door, or a mouthwatering freshly made pizza, or another of the amazing range of delivery food we have in our area.

This saturday was an extra special one, as it was a "no cook not even a cup of tea shall I make" day - out for brunch, out for dinner day! Yeay!

As Mary was off in her cousins for the morning, the three of us left went off down to Dun Laoire to mooch around the book shop. I bought a camping cookbook to use this summer when we get our new van... which has a lovely range of recipes that can be cooked on open fires, barbeques or small stoves, perfect!

Some others found the visit productive as well!



Hughes and hughes is a really nice book shop, its huge and complete and has chairs placed about for you to sit and browse, there is a nice cafe with huge windows overlooking the town centre and an amazing travel section which I love love browsing through... weird since I don't do flying so most of the destinations are not in my league.

There is something lovely about a cafe within a book shop, it is such a relaxed atmosphere. So we popped our bums on some lovely cosy couches long enough to enjoy a latte and an iced raspberry bun! As I was rooting to pay I was overjoyed to discover a long forgotten gift of a voucher for my favorite homeware shop Meadows and Byrne and so we made a quick stop and I got a new pan, long needed, and I've always wanted a really really good one, but I would never have gone for it without the voucher! A couple of other bits needed to come home with me too, like a new egg poacher, a proper metal sieve and some cute molds for sweet making (for mary!)

We're going out to dinner now so... bye for now!