SEAFOOD
Situated on the River
Liffey near the Irish Sea, Dublin is full of tasty fish and
seafood. The Irish love making songs about their food and the most
famous one is "Molly Malone" about a pretty fishmonger
selling "cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!" Molly has
even her own statue in Grafton Street called humorously "The
Tart With The Cart" or "The Trollop With The Scallop".
To try fresh seafood, we
went to a quaint seaside town of Howth, which can be reached by DART
rail in less than 30 minutes from Dublin's city centre. Having worked
up an appetite during a stroll on the pier, we decided to order a
seafood platter for two in Deep restaurant recommended by our friend.
But because it was a sunny Sunday afternoon, we
weren't the only ones wishing to have lunch on the seafront and the
restaurant was fully booked. We went resignedly next door to Brass
Monkey, where we managed to seize the last free seats at the counter.
I've got mixed feelings
about Brass Monkey. Some dishes were really tasty, especially rich,
creamy chowder (fish soup, EUR 6.50), but some were almost inedible,
for example extremely sour Thai soup (EUR 5.50). Similarly, the fish
platter (EUR 40) contained lovely grilled salmon and fried calamari
as well as breaded fish which didn't have any flavour at all. And the waiter
was very nice but he tried to cheat us out of 1.50 Euro. I know it
isn't a lot of money and he apologized profusely when we pointed out
the mistake but still...
PUBS
Fortunately, Dublin pubs
were as great as I'd expected or maybe even better. To shelter from
the rain, we went to cosy Peter's Pub near St Stephen's Green. When
we asked a friendly bartender for a drink to warm us up, he gave us
warm cider with cinnamon sticks and cloves (EUR 3.90) and Irish
coffee decorated with the shamrock - the symbol of Ireland (EUR
7.00). Both drinks were delicious and warming. What surprised me in
Peter's Pub is the fact that it's a meeting place for everyone: from
families with kids, to tourists like ourselves, to the elderly, who
enjoyed themselves (and drank ;)) as much as the younger customers.
Peter's Pub
Address: 1 Johnson Place,
Dublin 2
Website: www.peterspub.ie
IRISH BEERS
The aim of our second
outing to the pub was to taste famous Irish beers. When during our trip
from the airport I had told the taxi driver that I didn't like
Guinness beer, he gave me two pieces of advice. Firstly,
Guinness doesn't like to travel so you must drink it as close to
the brewery as possible. Secondly, if you don't like its bitter taste, you ask a bartender for some "blackcurrant". But the second tip applies only to women because, according to the driver,
drinking beer with juice isn't manly. ;)
When the other night we
went to O'Neills Pub near Trinity College, we found out that the taxi
driver was absolutely right. Guinness tastes much better in Dublin
than in Kraków and if you add some blackcurrant juice it is even
more delicious. We also tried some local pale ale charmingly called Galway Hooker (EUR 5.60) and I couldn't resist hot chocolate with Baileys Irish
Cream and marshmallows. Yum! :)
O'Neills Bar and
Restaurant
Address: 2 Suffolk
Street, Dublin 2
Website:
www.oneillsbar.com
After such an amazing
weekend filled with lovely food and drinks we didn't really feel like
coming back to snowy Kraków. But duty called and the following day
we boarded the return flight, carrying with us 5 packages of Irish cheddar
and planning to buy Baileys as soon as we land. Slàinte! :)
