Come Dine With Me Behind the Scenes: Shopping

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Strawberry Champagne (Prosecco) in my messy kitchen

Two weeks ago, we had our first heat of Come Dine With Me. As I said earlier, I was waiting for all of the votes to be sent in to our neutral score keeper until I revealed what went on behind the scenes.

I think I managed to maintain a stress-free good-host exterior, but I can now reveal that I did, in fact, have a bit of a freak attack on the Friday of CDWM.

You see, I had gone to great list-making lengths of organising myself for the evening. I made different lists for shopping – not only what I needed to get but in which shops I would get them as well as what times I would be going to the shops and in what order etc.

I had also made an organisational plan of my cooking process. I had everything included, like what time I would start peeling the spuds, when I would wash the strawberries, to when I would take the spuds out of the oven, etc. Everything.

Now, being organised does not come naturally to me. So it was no surprise really that about an hour and a half before the guests were arriving, I realised that I had LOST my bloody cooking plan! That really says it all. It threw me into a tizzy which poor Niall had to bear the brunt of. We laughed about it afterwards (much later afterwards, mind).

Let’s start at the beginning, though, before the panic attacks and tears and throwing down of aprons in frustration. I finished work at around 1pm and set off to get my ingredients for the night.

First stop was Avoca on Suffolk Street (near to Grafton Street for out of towners), where I needed to pick up my place mats and napkins for the evening. Doesn’t matter how much of a tomboy you are, one foot inside Avoca and you catch Girly, making you squeal with delight over the frills and sparkly things everywhere. Beautiful shop.

The place mats are my favourite, as they come in packs of 50 paper placemats with four different designs. They’re maps of central London, Paris, Tokyo and New York City, so you can eat in (or on shall we say) a different city every night.

As you can see under the plates, I was eating in Tokyo for the evening.

Next I popped in to Fallon & Byrne on Exchequer Street for the leeks, the Parma Ham and a few other bits and bobs.

The nice girl at Fallon & Byrne sliced up some beautiful Parma Ham for me. I got 12 slices and was expecting to pay a fortune as Fallon & Byrne can be realllllly pricey. It was just over €3.00 which wasn’t so bad, was it?

Although my American reader (I think you’re still my only regular Diva!) will think this is crazy, one of the reasons I like Fallon & Byrne is that in among the beautiful olives and meats and fresh fish and fancy tea, you can also find imported products that you can’t find anywhere else. Like Paddy’s Day Parade, Lucky Charms cereal was invented by Americans, and not us. A box of this sugary, marshmallowy, leprauchan fuel cereal will set you back €8.75, which is just over $12. Which is, in fact, crazy.

It was on to M&S on Mary Street to get some fresh cut flowers for the house, my strawberries (had to get 4 punnets in the end as it was a strawberry extravaganza of a menu) and the herbs for the fish.

It looks terribly grim from the outside, doesn’t it?!

On to the Asian Food Co on Mary Street for my halloumi. It’s a great spot for tinned beans and all the Asian spices you would ever need. The brothers who run the shop are very sweet and if they like you they call you ‘Brother’ or ‘Sister’. After months of perservering and smiling my head off at them, the CDWM day was the first time they called me Sister. It gave me a boost like no other, I tells ya.

I dropped my goods so far off at the flat and headed over to Kish Fish on Bow Street, which is between Capel Street and Smithfield Square. It’s down a wee lane called Bow Street and it’s without a doubt the best place to buy fresh fish in the city centre.

It’s only a small little shop but it boasts a varied selection of fish as well as a knowledgable, friendly staff. They also have some great specials so you can get great quality fish for very cheap indeed.

I was looking for a white fish with the skin on and went for the Haddock, of which I got six big fillets for €9.45. Bargain!

With my haddock in hand, I went in to Little Italy which is a wholesale and retail space where you can get some lovely Italian goods. Unbelievably friendly staff too. They’re on North King Street, very close to Smithfield Square and the Cobblestone pub.

After buying a lovely bottle of balsamic vinegar and good olive oil, I arrived at my last destination. Fresh supermarket in Smithfield Square. I was here purely for the booze, as they have had a lovely bottle of Prosecco for under €10 for the last few months. I picked up a few bottles of that and a few other bottles of white and a couple bottles of red.

I needed to get that booze into the fridge.

I arrived at home at around 4.30pm feeling only slightly behind schedule…it was then that I realised that my Organisational Cooking Plan was missing and the flat still needed to be cleaned! Egad! I panicked and lost the head…..