Entrées

April 6

Returned to Madigans pub for redux of beef and Guinness pie, fondly remembered from 4 years ago. No luck, as the regular menu wasn’t on offer on the weekend and what they had was a carvery — step up to the counter and point to the meat of your choice. Looked kinda dry on other folks’ plates, and we will doubtless see plenty of excellent pub food on the group tour. But still, Jameson and Ginger does much to restore the footsore.

Dinner was pizza at the restaurant a half a block from the hotel in the Italian Quarter, quattro stagione for Paula, and salami, gorgonzola, pecorino, and onion for me, and Ciprea wine, plus panna cotta for dessert. We earned it today.

April 5

They Breakfast in the hotel. Buffet (pronounced buffy) style but includes all the best — sausage, black and white puddings, rashers of bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, and broiled tomatoes in the finest island tradition, plus various cheeses, cold cuts, muesli, breads, pastries, fruits, fresh real orange juice, yogurt, jams, jellies, and Nutella, in the finest continental tradition. And Paula took a picture and posted on FB in the finest American tradition.

And we forgot to mention the wasabi snacks in the hotel bar last night. The kind of snack that makes your sinuses trade places with your hair follicles, and causes you to weep — with joy. Not available in stores without training wheels and a note from a responsible parent.

Ate at a Greek restaurant tonight, Corfu, on Malton Street. Starters were excellent, breaded and garlic-stuffed mushroom caps and mussels with tomato sauce and feta for me. Entrees were OK, wine was Spanish and not much more than that. No dessert. Better luck tomorrow.

April 4, 2013

First Guinness. Ahh!

Arrived in Dublin a little early, thanks to favoring west winds, and cleared passport control and customs in short order. Customs was actually empty of personnel, so we just blew by. Found our luggage in good shape, and after a quick consultation with the Aer Lingus staff about our return flight, we found the bus and traveled quickly into the city. Too early to check in to our hotel, so we hiked down around the corner to find a phone store to buy and install sim cards in our phones.

When we were in Amsterdam several years ago, I had to leave Paula alone with the luggage while I went foraging for tram tickets at the Centraal. That took a long time, and Paula was less than comfortable, sitting on a wall outside the station surrounded by suitcases and not sure where I had gone. Therefore mutual phonability is a now a necessity.

So here we now sit in the Morrison Grill, waiting for our room, and sipping beer. My goodness, my Guinness, and Paula, who doesn’t care so much for the Black Stuff, working on a Smithwicks (pronounced Smitticks here). Looking forward to a room and a nap.

Later, same day

Nap, then dinner. Wandered around Temple Bar reading menus, but finally decided to go back to the north side of the River to the Italian quarter close to the hotel in case sleep deprivation caught up with us. Just around the corner from the hotel, a little Italian restaurant called Taverna Wallace, a wine bar with food and part of a four location chain with wait staff hollering in Italian to each other. pizzas as big as your head, but not loaded with fats and nitrites, plus several more substantial entrees on offer.

Appetizer bruschetta, lasagne for me, hake and prawns for Paula. Hake was undistinguished, although well complemented with olives and prawns. Prawns come with heads on, so play value and occupational therapy value are are high. Lasagne was tasty. Very nice white wine, Ciprea. And for dessert, a simply frabjous panna cotta with fruits of the forest reduction, reduced not quite to gel, and a tiramisu, competent but not spectacular, followed by coffee latte to keep us awake for the 200 paces back to the hotel. May have to visit again. We didn’t take pictures of the food, but the wine label was worth a snapshot.