A Tale of two Bi......

Valves that is..  this kind

To paraphrase Mr. Dickens, “it was the best of times, it was the ………BEST of times”!  Recently, two events, one in Ireland and another here in St. Mary's County, are linked by the little buggers, best and best...

As you recall, we were talking about the International (Oyster) Opening Contest in Ireland, and you might notice that continuing that story has been interrupted for a bit.  Last weekend was our St. Mary’s County Oyster Festival, where the winner of the U.S. National Shucking Contest is the National Champion who then represents the United States in the World Opening Championships in Galway Ireland.   Got it?  In the span of less than a month, I attended both!  It was for the third time at the Irish event, and the whateverth on ours.  Both are kind of unique, but both center around the humble Oyster.

Galway Festival Edition

After dinner on "the Weir", we enjoyed fun of watching the Irish Opening Championships with Michael Moran competing on Friday evening, we got up the next morning after a good rest in the luxurious Meyrick Hotel, situated in the Heart of town on Eyre Square.  Another of the grand old hotels.

Just look at those hallways.. not your Courtyard style

We took a little stroll on “Shop Street” a pedestrianized street (no cars) where there are little shops, including one of MFO's favorite book stores, and lots of interesting people to entertain you and relieve you of a couple of coins...

The events leading up to the opening contest included a “parade of flags” where the Champions from the competing countries carried their flag, including Duke Landry, our Champion 

(along with a dour faced unidentified opener from an unknown country).

The main festival doings were held in a marquee (we would call it a tent) with plenty of Guinness and other beverages, samples of seafood, and lots of music, sort of modernized traditional

Finally they got ready for the contest itself, and this year the evil technology appeared again with a flat screen to show the contestants

Duke poised, ready to shu…. er, open his bivalves

While the contestants toiled away, it was all projected..

A quick cultural note here, I am not sure you can see in the reduced Blog image, but look at the “audience” to the right of the action.  See all those arms raised in the air?  Think they’re cheering for their favorite contestant?  Nope, they’re all holding some device recording the action.  Anymore, seems that the only reason you attend an event is to take pictures of it.  Never enjoy the moment, just get that picture.  (I note that the feeder is almost as guilty, but I have an obligation to help others enjoy it vicariously).

Anyway, all the trays got filled with opened oysters and taken back stage for the Judges.   They use pretty much the same model we do over here (or vice versa) in that the opening time is adjusted by “penalty seconds”, assessed for cut oysters, off the shell, oysters not cut cleanly from the shell and so on.

Lagniappe (okay, i don't know the Irish term)

Kind of some inside stuff here that might be of interest.  This was my third time attending this festival, and my last trip as King Oyster was in 2012.  Because of my august status, I was called the “North American Observer” and was allowed to be in the judging tent to make sure things were on the up and up, and also to help consume some Guinness. I think I probably blogged about that in some obscure 2012 feeder.  Anyway, they do go over each tray as it comes in, but unlike us, they have a “specialist” for each evaluation category (cut oysters, etc.,) and that person assigns a penalty for his area of expertise.  These then are collated to generate a total bunch of “seconds” to be added to the time of opening on the stands.  Another difference is that there is a category for “presentation” which takes away time.  Well, as with all subjective things if you say contestant number three gets a (minus) say of ten (max) and then contestant number 12 comes in with a “better” tray, they have the latitude to “adjust” the scores so that in the end the best tray gets the best presentation numbers.  So, it takes a while for the results to be finally announced.  Duke ultimately finished out of the top ten, and actually the winner was a repeat from last year.

All that stuff is done kind of mid-afternoon, since the evening is given over to more music, dancing, and a big deal kind of progressive parade through the city with stops at various locations for food and drink.  Kind of a Mardi Gras thing.  It is NOT FREE and is pretty pricey, a couple of hundred Euros or more. We did that when there in 2012 so did not feel compelled to repeat it.  We would rather spend our Euros on…..

Food.  In 2012, it was announced that a restaurant in Galway would receive the City’s first Michelin star.  A place called Aniar, with Chef J. P. McMahon at the helm.  He deserves a column himself, but not at this time.  We tried in vain then to get a booking but of course they were overrun with people.  So this time, we secured a booking WELL in advance of our trip, deciding to that instead of the hoopla. Aniar is situated in what you would have to call a storefront.

We were offered the “showcase” table in the window, and nothing would do but that the server HAD to take our picture, which I normally am against, but I finally acquiesced (and now am probably glad we did)

Another story for another time, but we are trying to get JP over here for our 50^th Oyster Festival next year, so I had been in some communication with him.  He sent out a glass of bubbly for us to enjoy before tucking into our wine of the evening.  

Oh well… The Feeder began toasting passerby’s in the street.. good fun.

Aniar is very informal, and the menu is a daily Prix Fixe arrangement with several categories of starters, mains, salads, etc.  The diner can pick the number of courses that suits their palate and wallet, plus you can add flights of wine.  It gets a bit confusing, but the servers are willing to help you wend your way through it.  One feature I thought was nice is that instead of cluttering the menu with sources (greens from the third row of the north forty of So and So Farms;  Happily raised roaming chickens from …..a  trend that I personally hope is waning) there is a sign on the wall with their sources for those interested

We made our choices and I pretty much left my point and shoot in my pocket during the dining.   Well, I did sneak a couple, here is what is described on the menu as “Scallop, apple, and Roe”

As we experienced at Dax in Dublin, the servers carefully described everything on the plate (which I appreciated) for instance the wafer-like vertical item is “Scallop Bacon” a smoked slice of scallop.  That dish was typical of the care of the kitchen to feature each item plus all the lovely accompaniments.   The only other picture I sneaked was the intermezzo of Jasmine Tea Sorbet

All in all, it was a lovely experience with all the pieces of food, service, and presentation in harmony.  Apparently those Michelin folks get it right..  Next time you’re in Galway get a booking.  Well in advance!

That concluded our stay in Galway, the next morning we left for points south.

Well, I’ve done it again, despite my well thought out plan of “A Tale of two Festivals” I fear that I’ve rambled on long enough to give us both a rest before yakking about our local version of the Oyster Festival.

I hope you noticed in the photo of the Feeder and MFO, we WERE

DFD

Sea to Shining Sea...

           

After our delightful Dublin dinner at Dax (note how the clever author uses alliteration), we got up the next morning for the cross country trip from Dublin to Galway.   From the Irish Sea to the Atlantic Ocean in one day.  So the bags were piled in the lobby

And we boarded our coach

Singing “Piltown Coaches sing this song….” Well, maybe not, but it was mentioned as a way to remember and find the coach when in a coach park with fifty other ones. Once all souls on board, we bid adieu to the lovely Brooks Hotel (still a bit confused about those breakfasts)

 

Our first stop was about half way along at the small town of Aughrim.   It was also the site of an(other) important battle between the Jacobites and the Williamites in the late 17^th Century.  There was a visitor center and lots of those typical  “battle” kind of signs with multi colored arrows and such

Without going into the history, the outcome was another loss for the Jacobites, kind of precipitated when the commander of their forces (French General Marquis de St. Ruth) was unexpectedly killed by a stray cannon ball.  At the time, they had the upper hand, but this incident precipitated the crumbling of their forces leading to a Williamite win and thousands of losses for the unfortunate Jacobites.   As you travel around Ireland you can hardly be anywhere which has not been the scene of some battle or another.  Usually with tremendous loss of life.

But our visit (a few centuries later) was much more pleasant, because it included..... LUNCH!

Which was served sort of family style to our intrepid travelers in a little pub called “Valerie’s of Aughrim”

Lunch consisted of a selection of sandwiches and a bowl of the common soup we saw all over

Both of which were tasty, no froo froo stuff here, just typical good solid Irish luncheon fare.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t or didn’t avail myself of the fare at the other end of the room!

As we were leaving, a wedding party arrived, complete with their own videographer.  

Note the “C’mon Galway” sign over the door supporting the Galway rugby team.  It was a very common practice we observed all over Ireland, they fly their team’s flag everywhere.  Pubs, lawns, garages, you name it..  Satisfied with the lunch, we boarded the coach and hit the road again.

Our next stop was in the small town of Cong

It is on the map because in 1952 the filming of “The Quiet Man” with John Wayne was done here .  There are little shops with souvenirs and stuff for the film buffs.  Not me.  I sought out something else in a little bakery/coffee shop

And enjoyed a nice cup of coffee with the still warm scones.  We strolled about the town a bit while others shopped.  There is a ruin of an Abbey there, but MFO and I had seen that on a visit in 2012 so we just enjoyed the local charm

Back on the coach once again, and made our way finally to Galway.  Galway was on the itinerary on purpose so we could attend the International Seafood Festival, featuring the World Championship Oyster Opening contest (the Irish do not use the term “shucking” for semi-obvious reasons)..  Before going into town and the Festival for the (Friday) evening festivities,we stopped in at Moran’s Oyster Cottage on the Weir for dinner.   Really alert readers might remember that Michael Moran was here for our St. Mary’s County Oyster Festival, and the Oyster Cottage is the family restaurant.

Dad and son were both there to greet us with their delightful Irish hospitality

Inside, Duke Landry, the USA champion from the St. Mary’s Festival there for the “worlds”,  joined Michael for some lighthearted demonstrations of “opening” an oyster 

Right before dinner, Ed Cole the trip host joined Willy for some reminiscing.

And then we tucked into dinner, started with of course the star of the weekend

After more of those along with more of the beverage of choice we went into town, and some of us attended the Irish National Championship Opening contest, which Michael competed in

What a great day, capped off with some real action

due to traveling and such, I’m not sure we were exactly

DFD

But were DFF(un!)

the "D's", Dublin and Dax

A surprise Technology helper

Well, Microsoft and Word being much more intelligent than the Feeder, in the last blog, it helped me by changing the Irish word for Ireland “Èire” (it just helped again) to a lake around Cleveland.  Thank you so much..

DUBLIN

Anyway after a nice dinner hosted by the Brooks hotel, we arose the next morning for our first full day of “touring”, to return to the same hotel for the evening.  But first, you have to have breakfast!   I had remembered from our previous visit to Brooks in 2010 that there was lovely buffet (the Irish norm) full of sweets, meats, granolas, cheeses, and breads.  Mostly it was the same, but the only way I could get the so called “full Irish” breakfast was to order it off the menu.  I am not sure given the Feeder’s failing memory if that was the case before.  But, I did order the full Monty and received

Which contained all the items that you (generally) would find in any Irish hotel for breakfast:  white and black pudding; “bacon”; an egg to taste; a link sausage (with the same smooth consistency); some form of potato thing; mushroom; and tomato.  Only fairly common baked beans were absent.  I did pretty well, but as usual some of the black pudding was not consumed.  I still have not developed a taste for that.

After breakfast, on the coach and we visited Malahide Castle, which for us was a return visit.  That castle was home to the Talbot family (from 1185 into the late 20^th Century!), into which Cecil Calvert’s sister married.  Talbot county is named after them for instance.   It is said on the day of the apocryphal Battle of the Boyne in 1661, all fourteen of the extended male families had breakfast, went to the battle with only one survivor.  Just another example of the bloody and ferocious struggles between Catholic Jacobites and Protestant Williamites of Irish history.

Although Malahide has undergone many additions from it’s original form, it remains a formidable structure.

We toured the building which provides many wonderful views of the grounds

and of course a visit to the fateful breakfast room, and along the way I found an interesting feature incorporated in the railing of the stairs; 

Turns out there is the remains of a ancient Chapel on the grounds which our tour director (Dr. Henry Miller) told us contained some interesting decorations, which I won’t describe here.  Well, it turned out that it was not open to visitors.   No matter, our agile and intrepid director announced: “Where there’s a will there is a way” and made his own entrance and exit (shown here)

Perhaps his photos of the Chapel interior will eventually find their way into the blog. 

After the Castle experience, we coached back to Dublin where we had the afternoon on our own. MFO and I decided to visit the (go figure) Archeology portion of the National Museum of Ireland.   They had a stunning collection of goldwork dating back to a mere 2200 BC!  I am continually amazed at what beauty humans created even that long ago

Incredible stuff.  Besides the gold things there were numerous more “modern” pieces on display

Dax (the food pages!)

That evening was our first “Night Free”, so we visited the first of the restaurants I had ferreted out from research, called

I never did learn the genesis of that name.   Anyway we got at taxi at the hotel and navigated over to the restaurant.  As this is getting lengthy with a couple of courses remaining, I’ll save the whole subject of Irish Taxi drivers till later.  They are an interesting bunch.   Anyway, the ride turned out to be much shorter than planned and we arrived a full twenty five minutes before our booked time of six thirty.  MFO checked the door to the restaurant which appeared to be locked.  It was down a small flight of stairs.  However you see that sign below the Dax that says Pembroke with the lovely words of “Café/Bar”?  so we climbed up those stairs and found a lovely bar with a barkeep who made a lovely martini for me, and MFO had to fall back on G&T as nobody over there ever heard of a “Gimlet’.  

Eventually we went back downstairs to the restaurant which proved to be a lovely room tastefully done in blacks and whites.

Who wouldn't want to eat here!  

We were seated at a four top in the corner which afforded the view of the room above.  Given we were at the American hour of six thirty, the place was virtually empty, although by the time we left it was pretty full.  Service was through a series of servers, all courteous and attentive without being obtrusive and no “Hi Im….” speeches.  Too classy for that.  Being sort of on display, I held the foodie camera shots to a minimum, and I won’t pester you with them. Although I do have each of the starters, mains, and desserts.  It was a great menu.  Knowing we would be seafood centric for most of the trip, MFO selected a main of:  Irish Spring Lamb (Fitzpatrick Farm, Castledermot, Co. Kildare) Chickpea Fritter, Ratatouille, Broad Beans & Garlic Jus, and I got a Magret of Duck, Celeriac Purée, Grilled Baby Aubergine, Baby Beetroot, Red Wine Jus.  For starters she had a “Castletownbere’ crab salad with Avocado Puree and pickled cucumber, and I found my always sucker starter of Seared Foie Gras, Caramelised Apricot, Pomegranate, Candied Almonds & Brioche.  Which I can’t help but show you

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God it was good.... For wine, what the hell we’re on vacation let’s have that 2010 Gevrey Chambertin, Domaine Marchand-Grillot, a vintage which Mr. Parker gives mid nineties.   It was a heavenly wine, all you could ask for in a Burgundy.  Silky smooth, lovely nose, and a delight on the palate (sorry).

Service remained excellent, timing was perfect, things served at just the right time, temperature, with great presentation (I am resisting adding those pictures).  For a final course we had the cheese plate

Freshly cut, perfect temperature, nicely served.  You just can’t beat the cheese plate, the first of several we would enjoy on our journey.  

So Dax went down in the “win’ column.  Notice I didn’t bring up prices..who cares.. worth every ….. Euro…

Upon returning to the hotel and with bed close by, I indulged in a nightcap

And you know what? when we left the full restaurant, there was nobody I could accuse of not being

DFD

Irish Eyes at Last

Well, the world has started spinning on its axis properly again, so maybe just a few introductory ramblings before we start our virtual tour of the Emerald Isle..

Technology Update

Thanks to all of the readers who took a moment to let me know you still received the Feeder via email, despite the outage of the bottom feeder dot com email.  Besides lowering my anxiety quotient it was heartwarming to see that there are many people “out there” who actually read the thing, keeps me going.  Some of the names have been with me for years, as we are starting to approach the 20^th year of Bottom Feeders.  Go figure… as I used to say, where DOES that time go?

And, speaking of the BF email outage, after many, many, MANY, emails back and forth from Bangar, Rajeet, Narji, and friends, asking me for my IP address (huh?), directing me to this site, that site (“page cannot be displayed”), yesterday it started flowing again.  Greatly relieved.  That kind of stuff just upsets me.  I don’t need to understand it; I just want it to work!  Fingers crossed, we return to the happy Blogger!

Home again

Somebody once said (something like): "it’s nice to leave, but it’s nice to come home again".  We greatly enjoyed the trip, but it’s also nice to (yes, we’re retired) arise in the morning when you want to, not when some electric device wants you to, so you can get your suitcases in the hall for transfer to the bus, er, I mean coach.  As a quick aside, we stayed at some wonderful hotels, all of which have “porters” which means young men who take your suitcases from curb/coach side directly delivered (pretty smartly) to your room which might be three floors and a long way from the “car park”.  And then in the next day or so, they reverse the process.   Fortunately the ones we saw were pretty well built for the task.  Guess I can see why.  Fortunately our tour organizers (Cole Travel) arrange to stay at least two nights in a given spot so it isn’t every day pack unpack.  We find that a thoughtful touch.  In addition they sponsor a dinner in the hotel the first night, and “on your own” the second providing the feeder with ample opportunity to seek out pleasurable dining places in new towns.

Touring Dilemma

So now I face the age old question of how to share our Ireland trip.  As I so aptly demonstrated with the journey to the Netherlands, I can take longer to talk about it than it takes to live it.  Plus, this being our third trip to Erie (Irish for Ireland), there are a few places we visited that were repeats for us and while just as lovely, 9^th century castles don’t look much different or go anywhere over the years.  The theme of the trip was to explore “Maryland Ties”, that is, places that related to Maryland History and Lord Baltimore.  We kind of concentrated on southeast Ireland which maybe you can see

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We started out arriving and staying in Dublin, headed west through Aughrim, up to Cong, then staying in Galway, down past the Cliffs of Mohe in the Burren to stay in Killarney, visiting the (beautiful) Dingle Peninsula, staying in Cork, then back to (Malahide)/Dublin and home.  Of course along the way we visited several historical sites.  Soooooooo..

The journey of …

Began at the Hollywood “Social Hall” in a Keller bus, welcomed by Mr. Cole of Cole Travel.  

We had a flight that left Dulles at 10:30pm arriving Dublin at 10;25am (local time - 5 Hour differential).  The flight was, well, a flight,

with ;ousy audio and limited classical selections, and I didn’t waste any pixels on the food.  Once on the ground we did the usual shuffle being electronically welcomed to the city

While standing in lines to show the nice young man your passport.

And then a brisk walk to the coach

That concluded what a savvy friend calls “the travel bubble”  which is what you enter at your departure point and emerge from at your destination.   All the lines, crappy food, rude people, regulations, etc., are behind you and you can begin to really enjoy the trip.

Ours started with a drive around Dublin

We were given a little time for lunch on our own, and MFO and I wound up in “The Duke”, apparently a favorite watering hole.   Well, I didn’t have water

Ahhhhhhhhh it’s still better in Ireland

After that we stopped at some small, local craft brewery

Although I will continue to enjoy their product, they know what they got..   Bud’s place in STL pales by comparison

And the lines at that mega gifty shop are long and continuous, with credit cards and cash flashing.  There is a self guided “tour” that covers multiple floors of the seven(!) story facility, full of exhibits explaining the ingredients, process, and loving care that goes into that lovely caramel liquid.  The top floor is given over to the “Gravity Lounge” where you can trade a little tear off portion of your ticket for a pint.  They can’t pull them fast enough.  I will give them credit though, they strictly adhere to the “two minute” resting period in the glass before releasing it.  It was crowded, but does provide a picturesque view of the Dublin skyline

After that, our slightly woozy travel troupe headed for the Brooks hotel where we had stayed before.  More on that later, but we rested and then got

DFD

Technology

This is like the old "raise your hand if you're not here" thing, but the people who host this blog site have changed DNS servers with the result that i do not receive any emails sent to the "Bill@billsbottomfeeder" dot com address.  It happened while i was in Ireland so timing was sort of nebulous. 

Those of you who signed up for delivery of this by email may or may not be affected.  i have reports that some have while some have not.  the last one published was the fishy fishy one.

i am working with the people to resolve it but it is painful.

meantime, I would recommend clicking on the link once in a while. this of course has thrown me for a loop so i may not have a new Ireland journey post for a couple of days..

if you want to contact me, send any communications to the "wcmatpax" at the md dot metrocast dot net email..   This drives me nuts.

IF you subscribe via your email and do see this i would appreciate a note confirming receipt..

thanks and it's always something.

DFD