tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23708497571920727182011-11-15T03:01:54.475ZRobert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.comBlogger351100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-10255792317896552362010-09-05T03:19:00.002+01:002010-09-05T03:35:31.394+01:00

Kris Kristofferson once said that “the Devil haunts a hungry man”. He may not have delved into the specific food types that Satan uses to tempt us, but everybody has their own preferred indulgence; for some it’s chocolate, others a plate of curly fries. One dish you can expect to find its way into almost any list of sinful comfort foods is pizza, truth be told perhaps the most popular food in the

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-32931710850059677712010-08-17T19:03:00.004+01:002010-08-18T04:03:27.356+01:00

For somebody who aims to eat out as often as I do, you’d think I grew up surrounded by restaurants and visiting them from the day I could walk! As it happens, this couldn’t be any further from the truth. For one, I only began trying new places to eat in for a hobby some five years ago. It’s a good enough time-span in which to build up an appreciation for cooking and the restaurant industry but

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-23341349981180844342010-08-08T01:08:00.017+01:002010-08-08T01:55:10.798+01:00

Up until the last couple of days, black food colouring - and how to get it - was something of a serial enigma to me. I knew it existed, but always presumed you could only obtain some in a Fallon & Byrne-esque eclectic food market or from catering suppliers. Infrequent expeditions to find it always ended one of two ways: failure and presuming I’d have to resort to Ebay (ala liquid smoke), or

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-25054899499617115042010-08-02T03:50:00.002+01:002010-09-05T03:21:21.370+01:00

Over the past month I’ve discovered two of the pitfalls involved in blogging. The first is that if your internet breaks down then you’re altogether screwed. Well, unless you have the time or money to spend an extra seven hours in your local internet café or can cope with posting entirely via an iPhone, neither of which I’m able to! The second is that getting back into the flow of writing and

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-84313737165346120972010-06-13T21:45:00.000+01:002010-06-13T21:45:33.335+01:00

As any or most Dublin foodies will know, the talk of the past four days will have been dominated by one thing and one thing only: the Taste of Dublin Festival. For the last five years it has landed itself in the Iveagh Gardens, playing host to some of the biggest names in the British and Irish celebrity chef circles, many of Dublin’s finest restaurants and innumerable food related companies from

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-91463966413754455872010-06-08T15:30:00.008+01:002010-06-09T03:12:54.147+01:00

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of being amongst Boojum's first customers. They arrived without so much as a whisper on the Millennium Walk, serving up burritos on the spot and other Mexican fare in keeping with the 'fast casual' style of catering that the US is so familiar with. The emphasis was squarely on fresh ingredients, and everything was made from scratch on the premises (for

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-61791579192339852032010-06-07T20:58:00.001+01:002010-06-08T01:59:58.426+01:00

Even though there's a deluge falling outside as I write, it's fair enough to say that the weather hasn't been too bad so far this summer. Well, comparitively I mean. Normally, May tends to be a bit of an annual wahsout in Ireland; this time around we actually managed a week or two of sustained sunny weather! The measure of which in this country is - typically - the number of barbeques you can

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-37028207358737960282010-06-06T14:57:00.004+01:002010-06-09T03:24:01.479+01:00

The sunshine’s been (for the most part) rolling in, I’m off on a week’s holiday with the Taste of Dublin Festival inclusive, my laptop is back from its own little excursion and in general, the summer’s turning out to be an almost perfect one! Well, I say almost perfect for a reason, one that almost everybody in Ireland no doubt understand over the next month. That’s right, it’s time for the 2010

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-54029495536112748472010-05-29T21:32:00.001+01:002010-06-06T15:14:40.757+01:00

As far as weeks go, it definitely could’ve been a more productive one where all things blog related are concerned. First of all, it turns out my beloved laptop (we shall call her Kerrigan) must remain I the shop for another short while. Then if that weren’t annoying enough, any spare laptops that were at my disposal have closed up and gone packing down to Kerry for the weekend! In a way I’m glad

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-53814600783074250042010-05-23T01:10:00.001+01:002010-05-29T21:36:47.544+01:00

A few weeks ago, Donal Skehan of the Good Mood Food Blog decided to update his blogroll. He was aiming to create a list of the most regularly updated Irish food blogs; something that I hadn’t as of then come across in any of the internet’s many corners. If that wasn’t enough, he also planned - with the help of Bord Bia – an ‘event’ to facilitate this update that would see a whole host of the

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-89860641670936416562010-05-20T00:25:00.001+01:002010-05-20T00:26:24.606+01:00

‘You’re a liar’, ‘it was just a dream’, ‘don’t be stupid, they’d never mix yoghurt with cola’ and ‘my, haven’t we an active imagination?’; all replies I got to my recent suggestions that a Yop that was cola flavoured could be found on supermarket shelves at one stage during the early nineties. Up until two years ago, Google went at least some way toward backing me up with a few sporadic

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-17066252014649484602010-05-17T04:47:00.003+01:002010-06-07T20:42:49.042+01:00

One of the many things Rebecca, my wonderful girlfriend, is good at is baking. Particularly cookies; I discovered this one evening upon arriving home from a bad day in work to a plate of wholesome, chocolate chip delights were waiting for me. Yes, they were made from a dough that both of us had mixed up a couple of nights beforehand, but her way of forming them produced a much more satisfying,

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-51752665512666567542010-05-13T00:46:00.001+01:002010-05-14T05:42:30.556+01:00

A few weeks ago, Rebecca and myself had lunch in Rathmines’ newest restaurant, Extreme Pizza. Any of you who are following Consumed will remember that I was excited about finally trying out the menu I’d read so much about prior, but ultimately left disappointed with what had been served up. There’s no need to elaborate, the pizza we ate on that day just didn’t live up to our expectations. I wrote

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-28394265074176739262010-05-07T02:40:00.007+01:002010-09-05T03:28:18.623+01:00

Working full time in Xtravision is not exactly what you’d call difficult. Thorough, yes but hard it most certainly ‘aint. Then again, I’d like to bust the myth that all we do is sit around and watch movies when nobody’s visiting during the day; they’re lies, and you’ll be very disappointed if you aim to build a nonchalant career based on them (especially once the local skangers pay you a visit!)

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-78923720319220982832010-05-04T18:02:00.003+01:002010-05-05T02:30:50.831+01:00

Wine bars are something of a little pet fear of mine. Just a tiny one. I see them, look at their menus, might be very interested in what they’re actually serving but ultimately hesitate to step through the door if I do actually decide I want to go in. The reason behind this is, of course, that I still amn’t the world’s biggest fan of wine. When I do order it, Rebecca tends to come home with me on

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-83022847549499769012010-04-30T04:47:00.002+01:002010-06-07T00:28:29.249+01:00

It may have taken a bus journey from Ashbourne, a brand new coat for Rebecca and a borrowed umbrella to combat the wettest day in several weeks, but the destination made our travels on Sunday more than worthwhile. That’s right, it was time for the very first ever Taste of Ranelagh Festival! And, in fact, my first visit to a food festival in Dublin outright. Bearing this in mind, writing about

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-87303766427511087252010-04-24T00:41:00.004+01:002010-06-07T00:28:39.075+01:00

I said it at the beginning, in that little 'about me' paragraph to the right and I will say it again: this blog is as much about my own foodie learning experience as it is yours, if indeed those of you who read it have any learning left to do! I make no pretences to being able to cook effortlessly, and I have a long way to go in terms of exploring the rich tapestry of Dublin's epicurean scene.

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-22169506787647092542010-04-23T23:35:00.003+01:002010-04-24T00:53:48.391+01:00

I have a confession to make: I'm a slave to Tesco. Yup, it's where the majority of my had earned money that isn't being spent in restaurants goes, on an almost nightly basis at this stage! Whilst other Dublin foodies are off buying fresh ingredients from the various markets and high quality food halls dotted around the city in their ample spare time, I walk the aisles at midnight looking for

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-5674712985438050812010-04-20T23:40:00.003+01:002010-06-13T21:13:59.323+01:00

It's the one event of the year that every Dublin foodie should have penned in on their calendar: the Taste of Dublin Festival. Now in its fifth year, you'll find it held annually for several days in June at one of the city's most picturesque locations, the Iveagh Gardens. What normally is one of Dublin's more quiet and secluded parks will, for four days, play host to a collection of the most

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-55570887817238269912010-04-20T02:08:00.010+01:002010-09-05T03:32:02.385+01:00

Over the past week, there’s been something of a pizza binge going down in the Jones household. It kicked off on a lazy Sunday evening that involved one of Tesco’s finest pizzas (with the addition of some much-needed feta cheese!), quickly followed a trip to a Pizza Hut takeaway on Stephanie’s request the following night. Strike three came after Áine had invited us out to eat on Tuesday, whereupon

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-52876697494122510172010-04-13T20:52:00.014+01:002010-04-13T21:51:31.422+01:00

When I was first told about Mexican lasagne, it was touted as being the ultimate seduction food. Since then, I’ve never had the appropriate opportunity to validate these claims. What I have done, however, is cook it twice and experimented a little (the first time was with the help of a packet spice to save time, the second with fresh ingredients) with one or two of the base recipes available in

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-61430547899752628892010-04-11T01:20:00.018+01:002010-08-08T03:48:24.177+01:00

It might as well be said now rather than later: the meal I had at Darwin’s on Tuesday night was one of the best food experiences I’ve ever had. Yes, you read correctly, it was indeed up there. Actually – all things relative considered – I’d go so far as to say that it may very well have been the best thus far. Strong words, right? Especially when coming from a pedantic, biased-toward-katsu curry/

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-70300070670623922512010-04-09T03:08:00.010+01:002010-04-14T22:19:36.079+01:00

Guacamole is one of the little delights of Mexican cuisine, but as with many others it has fallen firmly into the ‘often bought, seldom made’ category alongside refried beans, spice mixtures and even entire recipes. Blame Old el Paso, even though I will admit to being partial to a couple of their products. Their guacamole in a jar certainly isn’t one of those; anybody who’s tasted a homemade

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-75953985506623838992010-04-05T03:39:00.020+01:002010-09-05T03:38:33.817+01:00

The Gourmet Burger Company has always been on my list of priority restaurants to visit. I discovered it roughly two years ago when investigating whether or not Ireland was home to any branches of the similarly named (and easily confused) Gourmet Burger Kitchen, after having seen one or two during a trip to Manchester. Since then, said Kitchen has completed overnight invasions with over six

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-37581568108151315212010-03-29T03:09:00.014+01:002010-09-05T03:38:05.528+01:00

Despite the obvious benefits, I’ll never quite be persuaded to turn vegetarian. If I had to sum up my reasons as to why in one word, it would be ‘steak’. I think a lot of you will agree. Yes? Good. Let’s not beat about the bush, the human race has eaten meat in mountains for millennia, and it’s an integral part of cooking throughout the present day world. Dishes like the veggie burger or quorn

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-35320130541493777822010-03-27T02:47:00.008Z2010-03-27T03:01:51.046Z

Darwin’s Restaurant on Aungier Street is one of those (few and far between) places in which an extra bit of love and effort goes into the desserts on offer. For me, this makes a huge difference; not just in Darwin’s alone, but any restaurant that shows a bit of initiative or inventiveness when it comes to the final course of a meal. The major hint is just that: it’s the final course! Wow somebody

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-85404707287842311992010-03-22T17:26:00.008Z2010-03-27T03:24:08.559Z

Everybody has their own version of spaghetti Bolognese. It is, after all, probably one of the ten most popular dishes in the western world today! Some of you take the time to cook it from scratch, but many of us are happy enough to let Dolmio do most of the work. I used fall into the latter, until I started experimenting with ways to actually make a sauce that was similar to the jarred type;

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-1420891933679381442010-03-16T22:51:00.012Z2010-09-05T03:38:56.899+01:00

Yes, the title of this entry is a terrible play on words that has probably been recycled a hundred times in any number of food blogs. It also wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of people thought it extremely stuck up; not everyone is particularly bothered about whether or not you get a smile when the Subway girl hands over your change or how much in depth knowledge a waiter has of his wine list after

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-30357062079736749912010-03-13T00:36:00.011Z2010-09-05T03:39:39.938+01:00

One of my earliest proper foodie experiences happened in America. What I find surprising about this is that I was fourteen at the time and surrounded, of course, by Pop Tarts, quadruple Macs, Oreo breakfast cereal and 32 ounce soft drink cups that you could refill at any decent petrol station for a mere fifteen cents! Basically, most of the prominent foods in America at the time were geared

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-45327170895575933402010-03-07T23:51:00.021Z2010-04-24T00:48:20.490+01:00

Dublin City is full of little secrets. Some are incredibly obscure, others well known enough to be more accurately described as common knowledge but out of plain sight. One of my favourite secrets to advertise (I am well aware of what irony means) amongst friends is a little bakery of cakes and café called, aptly, the Cake Café. It falls under the latter ‘well known but physically obscured’ type

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-66540655504392911032010-03-05T02:32:00.008Z2010-03-27T03:25:24.880Z

I love tomato soup. Really, really love it. Specifically what used to be Campbell’s but is now Erin condensed cream of tomato soup; that one I loved to the point where it became an unhealthy culinary obsession. On any given day (ten years ago) you might have caught me having it for lunch, dinner, breakfast... Even a midnight snack at times! It was as much guaranteed to be in our cupboard as salt

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-46711163219599899542010-03-05T02:27:00.006Z2010-08-08T03:46:28.291+01:00

A picture says a thousand words. When there’s food involved, they have the power to get your stomach talking as well! Food photography has developed massively in recent decades, a lot of focus (pun unintended) having shifted from representing exactly what had been cooked in a defined manner to making the food in question look as tempting as physically possible. Depth of field has become a

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-79473175242985475872010-02-27T00:51:00.014Z2010-03-22T17:44:30.418Z

I know your secret Eddie. Rocket, that is. I’ve always had a big thing for their malt shakes, as does almost everybody else who I’ve ordered try one at some stage or another. Nothing quite beats one when you’re surrounded by 1950’s style decor with the Beach Boys piping in from above (NB: I don’t care what those signs on the wall say, the Jukeboxes do not work!). It doesn’t take a genius to see

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-49472534670072334352010-02-24T16:10:00.018Z2010-09-05T03:41:03.787+01:00

I’ll be honest now rather than later to save you any disappointment: I’m not the person you should look to when trying to decide what wine to have with a meal. Cheap wine or expensive; I couldn’t even begin to tell you the difference between a cabernet and a chardonnay beyond that they’re red and white. Also that it would be very easy to write a poem about them. More importantly, I never did

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370849757192072718.post-38495418124838572242010-02-16T03:40:00.013Z2010-02-27T02:14:19.825Z

Food. I like food. I like it a lot. Burgers, pies, steak, truffle, sushi, I like it all. I probably like what I haven’t even tasted yet! That's not to say I've liked food forever; there was a time that I felt sick at the thought of pizza, all kinds of ham and, shock horror, cheese too but thankfully, those days are long since gone. As they passed, I started visiting restaurants. Many, many

Robert Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09022217098735525001noreply@blogger.com0