Oysters here and there...

Well,  St. Mary's County, the oysters have been shucked, dishes have been cooked, beer has been consumed, venues cleaned and tidied, and we have determined the 2012 National Shucking Champion.

 

Mike Martin defended his (two time) National Championship and will be returning to Galway for the International Opening Competition next September.  Speaking of Galway, the clever writer segues into resumption of his dining log.  We have recounted a couple of nice dining experiences and we have a couple more to round out the food picture..

The rest of the story kind of revolves around this little slip of paper (slightly altered for anonymity)

 

It began Friday night at the Ireland Championship when it was announced that a local restaurant, Aniar, had been awarded a Michelin Star, the first one in Galway if not the western part of Ireland.  Much Hoopla. The next day before the Championships, the chef/owner of the restaurant, Jp (his usage) McMahon, did a cooking demonstration.

 

After his demo, MFO went over to congratulate him, and said it was probably impossible to get a reservation now, and lamented that we would be leaving the following Thursday.  Whereupon he whipped out a pen, grabbed that piece of paper and said, “here’s my cell phone number.  Call me on Monday and we’ll see what we can do”.  Wowee!  A starred Michelin Chef passing out his cell phone to us..  Did we feel important!

That was Saturday, and as you hopefully remember Sunday was more cooking demos, with not only our "buddy" Jp, but several other chefs from the area, including Martin Shanahan from  “Fishy Fishy” in Kinsale, who is much reknown for his fish preparations..

 

 I asked him about “skin side up” and he said he never does it, as evidenced by this Hake dish that he prepared for us

 

 

Other chefs were featured..

 

And after the demos, they all lined up for a group shot - Chefs are good folk

 

After watching them perform their magic with food (how do they do that...?), I watched my first ever Hurling match for the All Ireland Championship between Galway and Kilkenny (Galway was thrashed).  Was not a happy crowd in the tent...Guinness flowed.  We headed back and that was the evening we ate at Ard Bia (previously posted)..

Next day (Monday) we moved up to the Meyrick Hotel (a classic wonderful old hotel where service means service, and found we had been upgraded to a executive suite).  Oh, my goodness…  But, this is about food.  After requesting an early check in, “of course Mr. Moody” we hopped a bus for a ferry over to Aran Islands where we spent the day.  That is a story for another day.. this is about food.

After returning home a bit tired from our day we opted for supper in their bar.  Before going down (while getting DFD) I hesitatingly tried the magic number for Jp.  My cell phone thought I wanted to call China.  Uh oh.  Try again with plusses, leading zeros (how DO those people use cell phones??) all a failure.  Empty feeling starting to build in the stomach.. In desperation I called the Arian restaurant number (which worked) and left a rambling loony message about our offer from Jp, and could we get in Wednesday night, our last night, yadda yadda.  Down to the bar for a hamburger and steak sandwich... and a pint...

Tuesday we drove over to Clonmacnoise (another story for…) Upon arriving back to the hotel, no message from the restaurant…  Crap.  But, besides owning Aniar, Mr. McMahon runs a tapas restaurant next door, called Cava.  All the social restaurant sites seem to praise the place, so on a whim I called and was able to reserve for seven.  Cava is across the river from the hotel so we taxied over.  When we went in, we were the only customers, but it did fill up as we went along.  It’s kind of kitchy and rustic

 

Do you see those hams on divider?  They are real..  I ate dinner next to one.

I have to admit here (always full disclosure) that I have trouble in Tapas/Small Plate venues.  There are usually many, many, options, some lighter (more like appetizers), while some dishes are more substantial and seem more suited to a main dish.  My problem lies in trying to order.  Being rather traditional in my approach toward food, I like to stage the meal with lighter things first, then progress to a main plate, followed by a salad and then maybe a cheese course.  Quandary one:  do you order dish by dish, eating as you go and building in delays?  Or do you order all you want and hope your server figures that out?  Should you be so presumptuous to tell her/him?  Anyway after much deliberation we ordered several items ranging from toasted filberts, to a blackboard special of Paella (which came with a glass of wine), chicken coquettes (an MFO experiment), a plate of serrano ham and olives and I think that was it.  Oh we ordered had a bottle of wine.

Okay, I won’t get this exactly right, but the order of dishes brought to the table was something like wine, ham,

 

the Paella

 

(with “here’s your (extra/superfluous) glass of wine”) filberts, coquettes, all in fairly rapid order.  Push the glass here, squeeze the dish there.. bon appétit!  By the time we enjoyed the "first course"  of the lovely ham and olives, and the filberts, my paella was tepid and congealing, the coquettes were, well, cold.  My fault? Their fault?  And I have to admit each dish was quite good, just not piled on top of each other.  I guess the Michelin Star didn’t leak over.  And after dinner, fueled the bottle of wine (and the “extra” glass), on the way out I stopped in at the next door Aniar.  I chatted with Jp’s brother, repeated the whole story and he said he would definitely call later and let us know about Wednesday.  I did what the hell I could.

So on our last full day in Ireland we drove around Lake Corrib, at times narrowly missing scraping mirrors with oncoming traffic (and a few muffled screams from MFO).  We had an interesting lunch in a little pub in Oughteard, but we’re not on pub level yet.  Upon returning to our lovely hotel room we were treated to a wonderful view of showers over Galway Bay

 

There was a voice mail on my phone (upon returning to coverage) from Aniar apologizing and saying they were booked for Wednesday, but if we would like to book for a later date, be sure to let them know.  Thank you so much.  Our dreams were crumbled..

Eliminated from Michelin stardom, we wound up at the last of the recommended restaurants, Kirwan’s Lane.  For a finale to Ireland, it served quite well.  It’s down a little side street from the “pedestrianized walkway” and is kind of secluded and nicely tucked in a corner, advertised on the main walkway

 

Once inside the lighting is subdued and it is quiet as well…peaceful. Wwe were seated at a corner table which I like because I can observe the action.  Servers were low key, no speeches, just asked about drinks.. we again employed the strategy of going for a bottle of wine rather than dealing with cocktails.  The restaurant is pretty much centered on fish and seafood, not surprisingly.  Besides the regular menu they had a daily menu, from which we ultimately selected.  We decided to split an Irish Wild Smoked Trout appetizer, and MFO tried a Sea Bass with Thai Fish Cake, and I took the Baked Hake with Pea Puree and Lemon Grass coulis..  The smoked fish was really good, and disappeared before I thought of the camera..  however by the time the main dish appeared I was prepared.  The Hake was really good,  the lemon grass coulis was incorporated in the glaze and provided a nice little bite..  the logs of polenta, were…… there.

 

And you guessed it, the Sea Bass arrived sporting it’s outside facing up.  At least they are consistent..  

 

We decided to split a pear tart, which was very good.  About this time, a newly arrived table next to us ordered up a dozen “native” oysters.  I had noticed them on the menu, with a hefty price of 16 Euros for a half dozen.  Then, I got to thinking..  you know what?  I may NEVER be in Ireland again.  What the hell,  screw the cost, it’s my last night..  Waiter!!

 

After that, we staggered home up the “pedestrianized street” past the pubs, the happy people, and felt good about our last night.  Up the next morning, and drove to the airport (on the "other side" of the road), commencing the trip home with yet another harrowing adventure in Heathrow.

Although there are some pub meals to talk about,  the (for want of a better term) fine dining we had was excellent.  Although I would handle the Tapas differently, the food was good.  I would say that presentation in general was better than we are used to, they pay attention to that... the seafood was always excellent.  I could live there.

 

next time, a mention of that whole culture of Pub Food... for which the requirements for

 

DFD vary..