food geek

Restaurants, recipes, rants.

>Spago Portlaoise

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>www.theheritagehotel.com/bar-&-restaurants/spago–italian-bistro

On our way home from Dingle we stopped late in the evening in Portlaoise looking for some good home-cooked Italian food. Some might say we were being a tad ambitious, but this is 21st century Ireland and I was hopeful. We stumbled upon Spago, a new-ish Italian housed in the Portlaoise Heritage Hotel right in town.

A friendly maitre d’ with a broad Dublin accent seated us in a rustic-looking (but not as far as checked table-cloths) restaurant and immediately served us warm marinated olives, virgin olive oil and sourdough bread. A good start.

We opted for main courses only at that late hour. The two pizzas were freshly made with only the best and freshest toppings. Not too big and perfectly cooked (the Doyles like our pizzas done well). Connor’s chicken and mushroom pasta could have been ordinary but it tasted delicious. Not too creamy and the chicken flavours dominated. I ordered linguine vongole, one of my favourite comfort foods. Tomatoey and with a hint of chilli, I devoured it.

We could not be tempted by the desserts. Mum favours traditional fare such as her favourite, Knickerbocker Glory, and doesn’t go in for the usual Italian treats such as tiramisu. Ashling was sorely tempted but it was getting late. The last-minute coffee I downed was again freshly made and ended a very enjoyable but brief meal. Pity it doesn’t open Sundays or Ashling and Connor’s dad my brother Bernard) would make this a weekend hangout.

nat’s baked beans recipe from bill granger

~ maireaddoyle ~ 1 Comment

>We met some friends at a Sunday lunch a few weeks ago, at Ann’s house where everybody brought a dish. Nat kindly gave me her recipe for home-made baked beans, this one from Bill Granger.

Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
2 x 400g (14oz) cans cannellini beans
1 garlic clove, sliced
½ tsp chilli flakes
1 small red onion, sliced into thin wedges
250 g (1 punnet) cherry tomatoes

To Serve
1 tsp olive oil
8 slices prosciutto
1 Tbs fresh oregano leaves

Method
Preheat the oven to 200◦C (400◦F/Gas 6).
Place the olive oil, beans, garlic, chilli flakes, onion and tomatoes in a small baking dish and stir to combine.
Loosely cover with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the onion is tender and the tomatoes slightly shrivelled.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tsp of olive oil in large frying pan over a medium to high heat and cook the prosciutto until lightly crisp.
Remove and place on paper towels.
Serve the baked beans sprinkled with fresh oregano leaves and the crisp prosciutto.
Serves 4.

Nat used bacon instead of prosciutto and just sliced it and threw it in with the beans to all cook together and it worked well, too.

Bis Cucina

~ maireaddoyle ~ 1 Comment

>Foster Street, Sale, Victoria

There are two restaurants in Sale listed int he Good Food Guide – no, make it one. Marlay’s closed down recently.

We are left with Bis Cucina, in the modern Arts Centre building. From the outside it looks more like a casual cafe, but in the evening the ambience is inviting as you drive past the floor-to-ceiling windows.

I have eaten there twice, once alone and once with a colleague. On both occasions the service was outstanding: friendly, attentive, knowledgeable and discreet. Their home-made ravioli with a carrot, corn and parmesan sauce is to die for, but I bet you’ll never finish a full portion. No matter: the maitre d’ will happily package your leftovers for you to take home.

A lovely wine list full of local options too.

Almost worth a trip to Sale just to visit!

Walter’s Wine Bar

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Southgate, Southbank, Melbourne
www.walterswinebar.com.au

A reunion with old friends back from Blighty saw us convene at Walter’s, the venerable old reliable on Southbank. A bottle of red on the balcony bathed in the heat of the heat lamps was a great start to the evening, as was the gossip and reminiscing with Robyn and Chris.

Dinner was warm and comforting – starting with a big bowl of onion soup. A beetroot prawn and chorizo risotto was divine, as was Orlando’s seafood pie. An amusing mistake was the jug of pepper sauce (as in what you put on your steak) that Orlando got when he looked for pepper (chilli) sauce. It didn’t stop him using it on the seafood pie…

Service unobtrusive and excellent. Food about the same. What a lovely night.

Cafe Barcelona

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Another rainy night, another stupid decision. We were looking for somewhere cosy out of the chilly night air. Despite my previous assertion that I would not eat there again, we found ourselves back at Cafe Barcelona.

Sadly it was pretty empty (well it was a Monday night); despite this the waiter tried to place three of us at a table which was patently designed for two, and appeared a little put out when we asked to move. The front door would not close properly so we spent the evening shivering with our coats around us. They couldn’t get the door to stay shut for more than a few minutes.

The food was mostly good, I’ll grant you that. The tortilla was a bit ordinary, but the garlic mushrooms, meatballs, chilli prawns and everything else was lovely. Service (as before) was hit and miss. It took a few tries before we successfully scored more bread to mop up the delicious juices, and we had to defend the dishes stoutly in the meantime. I felt we were in the way to be honest.

The Spanish tempranillo (Vina Albali, one of my favourites) went down well, but we had to spike Shanna’s sangria with a slug from the bottle. It was mostly fruit juice.

Again, a disappointing evening all told. This time I will tattoo it on my forehead: don’t go back. The thing that annoys me is that Lola’s Tapas is only down the road. Why can I never remember to go there?

>Southern Cross Bar & Restaurant

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Southern Cross Bar & Restaurant, 35 Abel Smith Street, Wellington

The Southern Cross has been around for years I am told. We went there for a low-key dinner on our second evening in NZ. The place has a huge outdoor section which would be great in the hot weather – we sat out there to accommodate the two smokers amongst us but it wasn’t too chilly.

The meat pie had been recommended to us, so three of us chose it. But they had sold out. The fish and chips was excellent – perfectly cooked fish and lots of it. Helen’s vegie risotto was fabulous, so much so that Claire and I helped her finish it. Orlando’s sausage and mash was pretty good – nice meaty sausages, tasty gravy and excellent creamy mash.

The bar staff were a bit vague – I was sent from one small outdoor bar to the indoor bar in search of Claire’s pink bubbly, and then the guy still didn’t know what I was asking for. He insisted they didn’t serve it until I explained we had just had one glass already.

The wait for the food was a bit long too, although I believe after they took our orders they started to tell people of the long wait when they were ordering.

The atmosphere was a bit low-key as the place was less than half-full. I expect it’s a lot more lively at other times. In fact I’m not sure how comfortable a place it would be to eat once the drinking crowd kick in. I suspect it turns into a bit of a meat market some nights.