Basil Wood Fired Pizza and Café

Although I love pizza (who doesn’t?!), I’m still a long way short of trying a lot of the purported best pizza spots in Dublin. I mean the Independent Pizza Company and Da Mimmo are at least close by, but I’ve yet to try the likes of Di Fontaine’s, Manifesto or Paulie’s. Shocking, I know! Especially since all I’ve been dreaming of lately is up and flying to Naples so I can finally try the undisputed best Neapolitan pizza. Thing is, that’s expensive, and not a realistic option for whenever I crave a wood-fired slice. Luckily, I spotted a somewhat-hidden but conveniently located place that provided the perfect solution: ‘Basil’, a recently opened wood-fired pizza joint/café in Ringsend.

And when I initially drove past it, I’m pretty sure I had to double take! It had the look of an almost hole-in-the-wall, street food type of location that had popped up overnight. But I could have sworn I spotted a few chairs? Not to mention I hadn’t seen whether or not they actually did pizza, but the name was teasing it. A quick Google after I got home revealed it was like nothing I’d really seen before, but either way my interested had been piqued and there was definitely going to be some pizza had. No complaints there! Fast forward a week later and Rebecca was at a hen party for the day, so I took a big old stroll through the city centre to work up the appropriate appetite for a pizza feast.

The first thing you’ll probably notice about Basil is the somewhat cobbled-together look of the place. The gentlemen behind it all spent a good three months seemingly throwing everything and the kitchen sink into building it, so don’t be surprised if you spot cable rollers, a shipping container, old garden fencing and even a Buddha statue or two. Literally everything has been reclaimed from somewhere. The floors are lined with a faux grass carpet and canopies stick out over the tables from pretty much every direction! It all combines wonderfully to give the place a bit of an eclectic yet homely feel, like you were having lunch in the garden of that one friend who takes their mindfulness just a little bit more seriously than others. I am wondering what it’ll be like come the winter since there is only the one small indoor space, but for a nice summer’s day it could not be more perfect.

Speaking of how much effort went into building up the place, even the oven itself was entirely hand-made! And what comes out of it is definitely up there with some of the best pizza Dublin can offer, let me tell you. I ordered a plain Margherita and another with pepperoni, although the way in which you order means that you’re able to build practically any pizza you like from a list of extra toppings. Margherita is the default and you go from there; nice and uncomplicated. And starting at only €7 for a nine inch pizza (€10 for a twelve incher), Basil offers pretty much the best value you’ll find either side of the Liffey.

The pizza itself is amazing, everything I had been hoping for. The base was chewy and the crust good and crispy, perfect sauce to cheese ratio with neither overpowering the other. That said, the mozzarella is cut nice and thick so it really stands out. All too often you end up with overly cheesy pizza where the sauce is pretty much drowned out or invisible; complete sin in my book, but they got it absolutely spot on here. It’s no wonder I ended up scoffing most of the leftovers I meant to save for Rebecca (sorry! …I’m not). My only criticism is that the menu champions the pizza coming with basil and in my case at least, it was sorely missing. I asked for it myself in the end and it was happily produced, but it’s definitely something you don’t want to forget given is literally the name of the restaurant!  

They also do the rarely spotted and much fabled dessert pizza, which I am absolutely guaranteed to get no matter where I am or what I’m doing. Their version is a soft base, smothered in Nutella with banana, raspberries and cream to finish it off. Absolute decadence, you only need to look at the picture! …Although I did have to share the leftovers of that one.

Pizza aside, Basil also offers tea and coffee, as well as scoops of gelato at €1.50 a pop. They take great pride in sourcing the coffee beans which are roasted in Wicklow, and although I’m by no means a coffisseur, the latte I got wasn’t overpowering and tasted very nice. It’s a lovely spot to have a sit down and drink on a suitable day but good luck resisting the pizza if that’s not what you’re visiting for.

One final note: I was pleased to see a steady flow of people coming in and out while I was there, especially considering the wind was nearly blowing the entire place away! They’ve been open for just under three months, so it’s still very much in its infancy and word of mouth goes a long way at this point. And that being said, Basil is definitely a place people should be talking about. I mean what’s not to love about good quality, unpretentious and cheap pizza? I am still curious to see how they adjust going into the colder end of the year, but as the menu itself proclaims, they are constantly evolving so I’m sure it’ll be fine. Once the pizza stays that good, I’ll keep going back no matter what the weather! 

Basil

97, Ringsend Road,

Dublin 4

Tph: 01-2325600

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Basil/360229470768211

Pitt Bros BBQ Project

I’ve always dreamed about opening a restaurant. It seemed like a natural way for things to unfold what with me spending so much time in them, the joy of cooking and so on. Of course, I lack both the experience and vast funds necessary so I chose the only realistic alternative: keep on eating and become a blogger! *triumphant fanfare*

Not that I didn’t have a plan for if I did open a restaurant mind. We love adopting American culture here in Ireland, but I was always puzzled by the lack of an all-out American style barbecue restaurant, in Dublin or anywhere for that matter! Maybe I’d just spent too many evenings watching Diners, Drive ins and Dives, but I just didn’t understand how dishes like sweet pulled pork, smoked brisket and racks of finger licking, sticky ribs hadn’t already become a feature while other niche markets like gourmet burgers, burrito bars and grilled chicken were already exploding. No matter, I’d spotted the gap and if I won the lottery or somehow gained magical cooking skills, it was mine. Well, it had been until I was walking down George’s Street and noticed three neon red letters that spelled BBQ, framed by an equally neon pig shaped street sign.

And so I discovered Pitt Bros BBQ Project, the barbecue venue Dublin had been waiting for and I had been dreaming of running. Dammit! Ah well, at least I now had a good source of barbecued meat to soothe the pain, and that is exactly what it did. That was in 2013, and I’ve since eaten there at least five times. What better place then to visit so I can get back into the swing of writing? Not that I’m looking for an excuse to eat my weight in barbecued meat or anything.

This time, I went with my good friend Damien who is a confessed fan of barbecue but for whatever reason had never heard of Pitt Bros. I’d be lying if he was the first friend I’ve forced to go there, but thankfully none of them ended up regretted the kidnappings! And given the queue running out the door that greeted us when we arrived, I’m clearly not the only one doing it. My advice: try to avoid lunch time and dinner peak hours unless you can get there early or don’t mind waiting; I’ve never seen the place with a table to spare at either times and reservations are not taken so you might have fifteen/twenty minutes to kill. That said, the atmosphere is always buzzing and it’s a great place to have a social gathering if you can manage it.

When you do get your seat, things work very much like they do at say Nando’s where you pick what you like but order and pay up at the counter. It’s a straightforward system in a restaurant that takes a similarly straightforward approach with its food and menu in general. You won’t find starters, mains and desserts here, no specials or drinks menu, all you get is just a single page with ten meal options and seven sides. It’s pure, uncomplicated barbecue and comfort food, exactly as it should be.

Yet still it’s hard to choose something! Every time I’ve been I find myself agonising over whether to get a bun filled with pulled pork or just a plate with a few big slices of smoked brisket. Even after that there are other items I’ve yet to try like their ribs, sausage, half chicken or burger. When everything tastes good, it’s a problem in itself! This time I eventually went for the brisket on its own while Damien opted – on my insistence – for the Pitt Master’s combo, a bun (courtesy of the not-too-distant Bretzel Bakery) filled with brisket, pulled porn and a fried onion ring. Both come with some pickles and slathered in the house barbecue sauce, of which you can apply more at your leisure from the squeeze bottles on every table (hot sauce and a Carolina dressing included!). All meals also come with at least one side included as well, so please, for the love of all things that are delicious, do yourself a favour and try the macaroni and cheese. I won’t even describe it, it is just one of those dishes every city has that you simply have to try at least once. 

As for the meat, it’s as tender, crumbly and absolutely delicious as you’d expect from a fourteen hour, overnight stay in a smoker. My brisket fell apart the moment I took a fork to it and it was deceptively filling, every bite an explosion of hearty, barbecue goodness. Damien absolutely loved his Pitt Master’s combo, though he did a better job at polishing off his food that I did! Serves me right for ordering a second side. Speaking of which, all of the barbecue support acts like slaw, fries and corn on the cob are there, in addition to some of the more decadent sides like burnt end beans or bone marrow mash. There’s even homemade lemonade on offer, along with a respectable choice of craft beers and some wine available if it takes your fancy.

All the while, none of this food will set you back any more than twenty euros. Okay, I’ll rephrase it, if you want to stand any chance of clearing your plate, it shouldn’t cost you any more than twenty. All of the main meals clock in between ten and fourteen euros which is tremendous value, considering they come with at least one side anyway. Want another? It only sets you back €3.50. Oh, and everyone gets a free soft serve ice cream for dessert! But be warned, the machine has a bit of a kick so you might end up covered in it if you aren’t careful.

One other thing that desperately deserves a mention is the smart design that’s gone into the restaurant. You can tell whoever’s behind it has a genuine understanding of what barbecue means, as everything from the steel drum light fittings and wooden log counter front to the tin plates and rolls of kitchen towel at each table gives off exactly the kind of relaxed and rustic vibe you’d expect of an actual barbecue gathering. I can’t think of one other restaurant in Dublin where the look and feel goes so hand in glove with the food it creates, and it’s a wonderful, oft-overlooked thing to see.

So that is Pitt Bros in a semi-nutshell. Vegetarians beware, meat loves rejoice! They may have dashed my dream somewhat, but in doing so they’ve made authentic barbecue much more accessible to the Dublin public and filled a niche that was painfully wanting. If you haven’t already been, go now. And if you know me, take me with you. 

Pitt Bros BBQ Project

Unit 1, Wicklow House,

George's Street,

Dublin 2

Tph: 01-6778777

http://www.pittbrosbbq.com/

Hell (closed)

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 western world! And here in Dublin, we have the added benefit of being able to order it piping hot from the ovens of Hell itself. No, not Lucifer’s cooking range; what I’m referring to is Hell pizzeria of Wexford Street (sorry, the devil’s in the details).

Now I must admit that the first couple of times I saw Hell, I thought it was just a normal takeaway with a catchy name. Then again, this had always been at ten o’clock on a Friday evening with more than a handful of banteriffic lads spilling in and out the door! It wasn’t until my good friend Áine invited us into town for what she described as a ‘hunt for gourmet pizza’ that I finally took the time to look at Hell’s menu and realised exactly what it was they were offering. Five pizzas later and I was kicking myself not only for never having taken a closer look in the first place, but also neglecting to bring my camera to take the mandatory snapshots of what we’d just eaten (not for the first, seventh or twenty-sixth time either). Ever since then I’d been itching to return and photograph the food for a proper review, not to mention enjoy it! Thankfully, my friend and DVD jockey Niamh was recently in the mood for a lunch outing and although I mentioned several possibilities, I’d already made up my mind as to where we’d be heading.

*Fade in AC/DC’s Highway to Hell*

Before I get into the nitty gritty, let me fill you in on a bit of Hell’s back story. Like many a modern ‘gourmet’ restaurant, it serves unfamiliar variations on a familiar food type. Think ingredients that you look at and wonder how exactly such a combination is meant to work, yet alone when introduced to something like a pizza base. It’s the hallmark of an adventurous cooking style that originates all the way from far flung regions such as California or – in Hell’s case – New Zealand. Before this recent visit, I actually hadn’t the foggiest that Hell is a very popular restaurant chain in the Southern Hemisphere with multiple outlets feeding Kiwis and Aussies alike. The Wexford Street branch is one of a few locations to have opened across the UK and Ireland since 2006 when the franchise was being expanded further afield. Officially speaking, ours is a ‘pilot’ store, but hopefully that will change in the not too distant future. If Callum, Stu and Otis (Hell’s Kiwi founders) are reading this then here’s advice/plea on the matter: open a branch in North Dublin City, preferably smack bang in the middle of Beaumont. There’ll be little to no competition and you’re guaranteed to have one very loyal customer! Anyhow, back to Niamh and I’s journey into the pizza inferno.

Half of the fun in visiting Hell is to simply witness how stylishly designed the restaurant’s interior is. No opportunity to exploit the devilish theme is wasted, with cracked mirrors lining the wall, bare bulb lighting, red velvet curtains and a trio of big LCD screens that – depending on the day you visit – will either be displaying tongues of fire or Murnau’s Nosferatu.

Food is served on beaten metal dishes with ‘remains’ given to you in coffin shaped pizza boxes. Even the landline phone number ends with a 666! Literally everything that can be done to earn Hell the right to its name has been covered, bar being a deliberately unpleasant place to eat. It’s an altogether remarkable dedication to an image that you seldom see in most modern restaurants, yet alone one of many in a franchise.

When it comes to the menu there’s no let up in the Satanic send off either; the first handful of pizzas listed are affectionately named after lust, envy, pride and the rest of the seven deadly sins. Further on you’ll find the likes of ‘serpent’, ‘brimstone’ and ‘Mordor’, which feature some of the more exotic topping combinations.

If you’re expecting to find a basic margherita in Hell then you can forget about it; the closest thing to your average set pizza on the menu is a double ham, pineapple and cheese affair. There’s a create your own option if none of the pre-made choices tickle your fancy, and all pizzas come available in two sizes (seven/eight euro for an individual serving, fourteen/sixteen for a double). Oh, and you can order a cute ‘333’ size for the kids. In addition to Hell’s main fare they serve a decent selection of sides, salads, beer and wine, not to mention ‘dessert pizza’ which I’ll tell you all about very shortly.

So, after spending the best part of a decade oogling at not only the menu but also the restaurant itself, Niamh and I made our choice. She went for the brimstone (a Mexican style pizza with the whole shebang; avocado, onions, salsa, Cajun chicken and sour cream), whilst I chose purgatory (sun dried tomatoes, spinach, feta, onions, mushrooms, garlic and kalamata olives). The last time I’d eaten in Hell we’d tried some delicious wedges called kumara chips but unfortunately they weren’t available on the occasion. Shame, they’re almost identical to your average sweet potato chip; something I’ve a major weakness for! We settled for some Cajun wedges with a garlic mayo dip instead.

Ultimately, both of the pizzas were a success. I put this down largely to the base, which slots nicely into perfect thickness territory. It’s substantial enough to withstand the loaded toppings in most cases, but thin enough so as to not preclude any flavour – a very important aspect when you serve pizza with the likes of apricot and stilton cheese!

Niamh enjoyed her helping which had a distinct Mexican twang to it, whilst mine was definitely in and amongst the more flavoursome vegetarian pizzas I’ve eaten. The only let down was the Cajun wedges, which were just a bit too much on the salty side to properly enjoy.

As good as the savoury pizzas were, the star of the show on this particular day was the aforementioned pizza dessert. Unlike most other pizzerias that stick to the usual formula of ice cream, cheese cake and pie for afters, Hell offers us an interesting twist on their food of focus by serving a normal bread base covered in lashings of custard and other delightful sweet toppings.

At only a mere four euro, the combination of banana, chocolate and mixed berries was too enticing to resist, and it arrived looking even better than either of us could have imagined! The taste: absolutely divine. What else would you expect of hot custard laced with melting chocolate?

In total we paid just over twenty five euro for what effectively ended up being a two course meal for both of us; exceptional value when you consider the quality of food you get. Niamh was both impressed, and patient enough to wait for me whilst I chatted with the staff and Bruce, the head chef. If I didn't enough at the time, I'd like to thank him for giving me a great photo opportunity with a wonderfully presented dessert!

Hell is a rare example of a catering franchise that has a very obvious soul and sense of humour behind the ins and out of how it's run. The philosophy of their gourmet pizza is to present us with inventive and unusual creations, whilst their dedication to a very novel and 'damned' interesting theme goes far beyond anything else I've witnessed on such a large scale. Most importantly of all, they've given me a fantastic chance to get a few terrible puns into this write up. So, if you're disollusioned with any other Dublin pizerrias, then all I can say is that you should go to Hell.

Hell
32, Wexford Street,
Dublin 2
 
Tph: 1890-456-666
 
https://hell.ie/

Herbstreet

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 regular posting, even after just a couple of weeks without it is a lot harder than I thought. Admittedly this isn’t how it works for everyone out there; a lot of the hardcore bloggers out there would probably think nothing of taking a three day break and immediately launching back in at the same pace but as for myself, let’s just say that a combination of being a lovely noob, a very slight lack of confidence, limited funds and the distraction of Red Dead Redemption ultimately served to grind me to a complete halt.

Luckily, I never forgot that this blog is just about the one thing I’m good at doing, so the potential waste of it all was a constant reminder as to exactly why I should be picking it back up! With that said, I’m very sorry for the lack of any updates since the Taste festival and if any of you wish for a more substantial apology, I’ll personally cook you dinner on request. Yes, it’s dangerous to put an offer like that out there on a food blog, but it feels like the correct way to make amends; beyond writing another review of course.

Speaking of which, let’s get to it! In the week leading up to Taste, I discovered (thanks in no small part to the outbreak of Facebook ‘like’ pages) a small, quayside restaurant called Herbstreet. Everything about it from the name, the kind of food they served and their environment conscious approach to running the place screamed good review material. How could I resist?

Tucked neatly into a line of shops and bars on the dockland waterscape of Hannover Quay, it took us only a miniature pilgrimage around half of the surrounding area to find it in the first place! In hindsight, I really ought to have known exactly how to get there since I’d only passed it several hundred times beforehand whilst bussing to UCD but on the flipside, I’d been living on a diet of canned tomato soup and bread at the time; Dublin’s eating scene was, understandably, very much on the back burner. We ultimately arrived with one pair of shredded feet due to extended high heel exposure (disclaimer: the feet were not mine, just in case any of you were thinking it!) and thirty minutes less eating time.

As it happens, it was lucky things weren’t held up any longer since it quickly turned out that Herbstreet is not your average evening restaurant. In fact, they’ve only just expanded their opening hours in the last few months to accommodate diners after six, no doubt seizing upon the opportunity presented by the opening of the Grand Canal Theatre some hundred metres adjacent. This safe but calculated approach defines how Siobhan Kennedy and Vinny Mullen - Herbstreet’s husband-and-wife cum head chef/general manager duo - have developed their restaurant with as much attention being given to the efficiency of light bulbs as it is to the food itself! Indeed, the first thing you notice as you find your seats will be the Mondrian-esque array of LED lights that snake up the wall and across the ceiling. It’s just one facet of the sustainable attitude you’ll find upon closer inspection of how Herbstreet ticks. The water is charcoal filtered on premises, none of the wine is transported from any further than Europe to save on travel cost and recycled materials are used wherever possible.

Of course, you can’t run a restaurant on a sustainable ethos without also applying it to the food and Herbstreet doesn’t let up for a second. All ingredients are sourced locally wherever possible, with a distinctly modern Irish feel running through their four separate menus. Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner are all covered with each offering just enough of a different choice to stand out from the other. Everything from a full Irish fry up to French toast with peaches and eggs Florentine are available between breakfast and brunch, whilst the heavy hitters like quiche, a turkey club sandwich and the Herbstreet burger make appearances on the lunch and dinner menus. It’s a great selection that fills the day, and all excellent value with only five items (mainly steak dishes and platters for two) hitting over the fifteen euro mark. The best part of it all is that every page oozes a fresh and healthy feel with no dish coming across as overly contrived or complicated.

Had I done better research, I’d definitely have been gearing for a breakfast but the one thing that had caught my eye whilst skimming through their dinner menu was the real Dublin scampi. Unfortunately, the gods were against us and it was the only item unavailable at the time. Disappointing, but more than probably our own fault since we arrived very close to closing time! The rest of the menu had us covered regardless, so I ended up opting for the seafood platter for a shared starter with crab and asparagus risotto for the main. Rebecca, also having had an eye on the scampi, chose the Herbstreet burger and chips instead. Since they were available, we also ordered a side of sweet potato wedges with a chipotle dip.

The seafood platter turned out to be a delightful mixture of smoked salmon both cooked to flaky perfection and fresh, a crab salad served in a lettuce leaf and two kinds of bread, topped off with a salsa that was quite simply incredible. The salad itself was a simple affair of shredded crab meat, chives and a garlic dressing; uncomplicated but delicious.

Quickly following the empty plate came my risotto and Rebecca’s burger; not necessarily as healthy as the rest of what was on Herbstreet’s menu but healthy in portion size, make no mistake! The burger was thick, cooked well done and crowned with crispy onion strings. The accompanying fries unfortunately tasted as though they'd been cooked from frozen, but the sweet potato wedges were the perfect riposte; chunky, crisp and full of flavour.

My risotto meanwhile arrived as described; a creamy combination of finely shredded crab meat and soft asparagus. It has to be said that years of reading through restaurant reviews and food writing has led me to believe that a really, really good risotto was something of a rarity in and around Dublin’s dining scene, however I personally find the opposite to be true: a bad risotto has so far eluded me. Perhaps I’m just lucky, or perhaps the inherent criticism that seems to accompany a risotto dish with any kind of flaw in the slightest has scared it off the menu of any chef who doesn’t feel entirely comfortable cooking one. Regardless, the point is that Herbstreet did not drop the risotto ball; their own version is a wonderfully cooked dish.

While eating, it was impossible not to take in the fantastic view of the Docklands Herbsteet offers, especially if you manage a window seat. Only metres across was a barge filled with partygoers and that unmistakable wafting summer barbeque smell, whilst the docklands were bustling with theatregoers on their way to the evening show. There was something just so wonderfully suited about the location to the restaurant itself, almost as if there was no other place it could – or should – have been situated; an island of urban laziness and culture that you can’t but help enjoy.

That said, most of the fun we had was in strolling back home! Rebecca may or may not have a minor obsession with waterfront areas, so she was in her element by the end of it all. It’s safe to say that the food we’d just eaten played a big part therein; Herbstreet is definitely a restaurant that we can both look forward to dining in again at some stage in the near future. This in itself is a luxury when you consider how short the life-span of a catering business can be in the current economic environment, but the straightforward common sense behind how this little gem of a restaurant is run guarantees that it will have the longevity needed to satisfy us, and hopefully yourselves, time and time again.

Herbstreet
Hanover Quay,
Grand Canal Dock,
Dublin 2

Tph: 01-6753875

http://www.herbstreet.ie/

Taste of Dublin Festival

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 Dubliner cheese to Lindt chocolates and Aga cooking stoves. If that wasn’t enough, free entertainment in the form of fashion competitions, barber shop quartets and live music are all thrown in as part of the package. It’s a literal day at the races, minus any horses! Which – given it’s supposed to be all about food - I’m glad is the case.

This year’s festival was particularly significant given that it was my first outright Taste of Dublin experience. Yup, shameful for somebody who calls themselves a Dublin foodie! The truth is that I’ve only started to properly stick my head into the city’s food scene since starting up Consumed, so whatever happened afterwards was always going to be a series of adventures into unexplored territory. What a difference a blog makes, eh?

I’d bought two Taste of Dublin tickets each for myself and Rebecca; one set for the early opening on Friday and the second for Saturday evening (each ticket cost roughly forty euro, but this included twenty Euro worth of ‘florins’ to spend at the festival). I figured that this would be the best way to see what difference the weekend made to it all, as well as just varying the overall experience. A visit on Sunday had been part of the original plan since my old classmate and fellow blogger Donal Skehan was doing a demonstration at the event, but a few whispers about the food petering out by then and - more importantly – my holidays ending on Saturday meant that this idea quickly flew out the window.

So it was that by half twelve on Friday, give or take a small bank balance disaster, Rebecca and I strolled past a handful of bouncers and into the almost unrecognisable Iveagh Gardens. Knowing little to nothing about the layout I’d expected it to be centred mostly around the middle of the park but you literally could not walk anywhere without coming face to face with a pavilion of some kind.

Not that I was complaining, we immediately launched toward the first row we saw and grabbed every last morsel of complimentary food we could beg for, borrow or steal! There was plenty to choose from; Tropicana, Green & Blacks chocolate, spiced hams, Dubliner cheese, Prosecco, smoked salmon and many, many more. The best part was, of course, that given the volume of people passing by, it was easy enough to do a lap and shamelessly gobble up a second helping of each one! Rebecca summed it up perfectly in pointing out on our seventh time around that having a cup of Tropicana was like collecting out €200 on passing ‘Go’.

There was also plenty of food available to buy. In fact, I’d almost go so far as to say that the majority of bites on offer would have cost you! Nearly every second stall represented one of Dublin’s restaurants or cafés, amongst which you could find Roly’s Bistro, Jaipur, the comparatively new Salon de Saveurs and Town Bar and Grill.

All in all, nearly twenty restaurants were represented with backup from several food companies and associations also producing their own dishes. Over the course of two days Rebecca and I had a chance to sample a wide range of what was being catered, the highlights of which for me were Jaipur’s Tawa Gosht (slow cooked lamb with aniseed and curry leaved griddled in a light onion and tomato masala) and Bramble’s beer battered fish and chips with a minted mushy peas. I even got a photo of my dish from Salon de Saveurs with Conrad Gallagher himself!

Whilst the food itself was delicious, the prices being charged for each individual helping were just appalling. One florin equates to one Euro, and many of the signature main dishes hit the seven or eight florin mark, despite information about the festival claiming that the average price of the dishes on offer would be just five. Many that you did actually pay five for turned out to be little more than a small plastic cupful of strawberries and cream. In a nutshell, genuine bargains were practically nonexistent. Given, many of the restaurants are well reputed in and about the Dublin food scene but rational thinking would dictate that to promote the food you cook and entice diners into your restaurant proper, you would offer a proportionately better or discounted price. This is particularly relevant to a festival environment where you would expect the emphasis to be on creating a more inclusive experience. I don’t even need to begin talking about how the ‘R’ word should also be playing on the minds of whoever deems such ludicrous prices suitable. To put it another, simpler way, it felt like paying to get into a music festival but then being made to pay five euro every time a band played a song.

Thankfully and as you’d expect, the cooking presentations were, for the most part, free. We were lucky enough to squeeze into a presentation by the notorious Gino D’Acampo who spent as much time flirting with his army of female fans as he did cooking!

The end result was a pesto tagliatelle, tiramisu and plenty of culinary innuendo. For both lack of time and the difference in the number of people attending on Saturday we didn’t stay around long enough to watch a second presentation. It was however truly remarkable to witness not even the slightest let up in how quickly the food was being served, despite the park being about three times busier by my estimation!

Ultimately, I learned three things from my two-day visit to the Taste of Dublin Festival. The first two were very simple lessons: only buy tickets for one day and don’t make assumptions about how holiday pay is dispersed! The third, unfortunately, is far more serious and in all honesty, upsetting to think about. Taste of Dublin is advertised not only as the definitive food festival of this fair city, but also as ‘the world’s greatest restaurant festival’, or so claims the official website. The latter is a bit dubious and you all no doubt will agree but regardless, it’s puts out there as the gathering that should define interest in Irish food both as a pleasure and business. Indeed, food is something that unifies everybody in a fundamental way given that it’s something that everybody must and will experience throughout their entire lives. Despite all of this, the only feeling I got in walking around the grounds of Iveagh Gardens for those two days was one of threatening exclusivity. The stocky bouncers siphoning you into lines at the gateway; the well dressed socialites proudly displaying their ‘VIP’ tags; the shockingly overpriced cups of strawberries and cream; all of this drags the implied idea behind the festival kicking and screaming into the background where it becomes little more than an accessory to a fashionable outing.

Think for a moment of any decent food market or street festival you’ve been to. What defined them? For me, it’s low prices, fresh and good food, great smells, lively atmosphere and a generally all inclusive feel. Taste of Dublin features only one of those qualities, which itself is mired in the issue of cost. The atmosphere is stiff and the smells of any actual cooking are sealed in by screens and tarps, lest the festival-goers be exposed to the visual horror of somebody working a stove. What summed it all up in spectacular irony was that the guys manning the Donnybrook Fair stall handed us a Eton mess cup (five florins) on the sly which, had you bought the ingredients in their shop, would probably have set you back less than a euro. They understood, and looked to be trying to make as much of a laugh of it they could.

To summarise, the food on offer at Taste of Dublin was everything it ought to be and delicious. The presentations were fun and the weather played ball which made walking around during the quieter hours a pleasant experience. On a whole, the festival itself felt more like a celebration of food elitism, with less attention given to the former. It typified the refusal of certain castes within Dublin city to acknowledge how things have changed since the early noughties, and that the exclusivity associated with eating out has been somewhat broken down over the past twenty years. I’d definitely attend again based on the fact that I try to keep up with Dublin’s dining scene and write about it, but my advice to anybody with a just a casual interest in food would be to stay well away and visit one of Dublin’s weekend marketplaces instead. They’re cheaper, friendlier, and unequivocally aimed at food lovers.

Taste of Dublin Festival
June 10th - 13th,
Iveagh Gardens,
Clonmel Street,
Dublin 2

http://www.tastefestivals.ie

Free Burrito Day at Boojum Fresh Mexican

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 more info, check out the full review!). Roll on today and they've proven and instant hit with the everyday Dubliner, thanks in no small part I'm sure to yet another well run Facebook advertising campaign. Frozen mojito machines have been added, and in general it's looking like Boojum have established the benchmark for any other stop and go Mexican eatery looking to locate in Dublin's fair city.

That said, I'm pleased to announce that tomorrow, Boojum will be promoting themselves in the best way possible by offering everybody a free burrito. All day long. There's no catch, and you even have a choice between a normal burrito or fajita burrito! Service will begin at noon but at three o'clock there'll be a two hour break for the staff to regroup and tidy. After that, they're open 'til seven so there's plenty of time to stop in. And lets be honest, when there's an offer like this available then you have absolutely no reason not to.

See you all there, and lets do our best to keep the riots at a bare minimum!

Boojum Fresh Mexican
New Millennium Walkway,
Dublin 1

Tph: 01-8788152

http://www.boojummex.com/

Shakes (closed)

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 to see them go since all of them were slower than a roast cooking in Heston Blumenthal’s oven, but on the flip side it left me with no option but to resort to the iPhone or house PC to write this up on. I can barely manage ten words with that little touch qwerty keypad, so in very un-dramatic fashion and for the first time ever, I present to you a Consumed blog entry composed entirely on a near decade old family computer!

Apt (or ironic?) then that this entry via what’s quite possibly Dublin’s oldest PC be concerned with the very newest chapter in its rich foodish tapestry. That’s right, today we’re gonna look at Dame street’s latest institution for food lovers and students alike: Shakes milkshake bar.

                              

Open for little under the two-month mark by now, Shakes has been selling itself on the basis that it is Dublin’s only dedicated milkshake bar. Often you hear a line like that and take it with a pinch of salt; a certain pastry café just up the road will, after all, lay claim to serve up the best carrot cake in the city. Carrot cake - and the scale thereof - is entirely subjective of course, but that doesn’t stop such a line from drawing in the customers to try said baked goods. In Shake’s case however, their hook of a claim is nothing but the truth! Eddie Rocket’s may have carried the milkshake torch in Dublin over the last few decades, but it was always about the burgers for them; shakes and malts were simply a small part of the bigger picture. The only frequent alternative has, up until recently, been MacDonald’s. The niche was there to be exploited like bagels, smoothies and gourmet burgers before it. Ultimately, a young man named Wassim Dakik arrived from London, grabbed the challenge by the straws and did exactly that.

Two things will probably strike you about Shakes once you happen upon it: 1) their incredible location, directly opposite Starbucks on the College Green and only a matter of metres from Trinity College itself, and 2) the queue that will more than likely be spilling out of the door and onto the street. These two naturally go hand in glove, and as such you will have to wait to finally get to the milkshake itself but the sheer popularity of it all after only a matter of weeks should be more than enough to assure you that it is definitely worth the wait. If not, I will!

Ordering works like this: in front of you is a counter; behind it banks and banks of chocolate bars, sweets, biscuits, cereals and almost every other delectable that you remember growing up with. Custard creams, bourbons, Skittles, chocolate digestives, Cadbury’s Crème Eggs; they’re all there and in ample supply! Above the counter and a small army of staff you’ll find the menu board. Take note of it, you’ll be staring at it for a while in either awe at realising what’s about to be done with your confectionary of choice, or inability to choose from the plethora of options. If and once you get around to selecting a base flavour, toppings and boosts can be added afterwards. Vegetarian? Shakes will serve you up a milkshake of organic soya milk and ice cream instead of the regular fare. I was slight disappointed that they didn’t offer a malt option, but I’m sure that this will be suggested to Wassim at some stage given that it only takes a spoonful or two of Horlicks powder.

Edit: after having gotten in touch with Wassim himself, it turns our that Shakes do indeed offer malt as an option, but it was left off the menu by mistake.

As for the base options in particular, most of them fall under ‘chocolate bar shakes’. Without going into a novelised list, there are fifty-seven different kinds covered with almost equal attention given to Cadbury’s, Nestle and Mars. You’ll even find some interesting particulars in there such as Reese’s Cups, Terry’s Chocolate Orange and even Hersheys (well, the European version that doesn’t have that terrible aftertaste!), as well as everything you’d expect from your local newsagent’s. A handful of household name sweets, biscuits and cereals all get a look in elsewhere, as does fruit for those of your who can’t quite tear yourselves away from smoothie addiction just yet. All of these will set you back a paltry three euro for a small sized serving, three-fifty for a large. Separate to the rest is a (slightly more expensive at four-fifty each) VIP milkshake menu, which features a list of more intricate house recipes. I tried two milkshakes altogether: the VIP chocoholic that included Fererro Rocher, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a flake to top it off with, and a plain chocolate digestive shake. Both tasted exactly the part, and were far lighter than I expected them to be!

The only downside to the overall experience is of course that moderation means you can’t try everything on the menu, and with the number of tantalising options screaming at you it’s hard not to regret choosing just one. Or two. Or three, and so on. Sometimes an abundance of choice can be counter productive in the catering industry, but in Shake’s case, the fundamental simplicity of those options only serves as a means to draw in repeat customers from the word go! They also offer a ten percent discount for students, which will only serve to keep them coming thicker and faster if the idea of drinking something ‘random’ (shudder!) didn’t already appeal.

In a nutshell, Shakes has gotten off to a roaring start and looks to be setting the benchmark for what could become the city centre’s latest craze. They offer a simple fare that appeals not only to the typical Dublin love of all things trendy, but also our inner children that want nothing more than to see our favourite chocolate and sweets mixed up into a creamy beverage. The queues continue to run out the door on the worst of days, so it wouldn’t be any surprise to see this little business venture of Wassim’s expand in the not too distant future.

Shakes
15, College Green,
Dublin 2

www.facebook.com/shakes.milkshakebar