A lovely salad, flower and all, that I picked up last Saturday in Cork’s amazing English Market. Twere the tastiest leaves I ever did eat.
Cork is lovely. Really lovely. But you knew this already.
Got to use twitter to its full potential before we travelled to Cork by sending out a message of ‘Know any good restaurants in Cork?’ Got loads of replies and ended up going with Cafe Paradiso in the end. So glad we did. But thanks to Sweet Oblivion, Essentially England, @ClaireFeely, @Euphiophone, Eat Like A Girl, Mick Adebisi, City Local Cork, The Daily Spud and Italian Foodies for all the suggestions.
We went to wonderful Cafe Paradiso for the pre-theatre deal which is two courses for €24 and three for €30. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
My starter of mixed leave salad with broad beans asparagus tips and crispbreads in a citrus dressing – absolutely gorgeous and fresh and the broad beans…man! Good shit.
His starter of grilled potato and wild garlic gnocchi with peperonata and Cratloe Hills sheep’s cheese – twas delicious. I know coz I had a bit. For the blog, like.
My main course of Beetroot Risotto with Oisin goat’s cheese, lemon oil and broad beans – and not that gross beetroot you get pickled in a jar, the real stuff is….lush!
His main course of eggroll pancake of asparagus and Coolea cheese with a warm cherry tomato and fennel salsa and wild garlic mash – again, yum.
We had to run to catch SEBP in The Pavillion so we only had time for a macchiato and some hand-made truffles. Twas lovely. The staff were great and we had some lovely white wine with our meal, which was €12 for a carafe. Obviously we ended up ordering a second carafe. Should have known.
And, hello? The English Market?? We have nothing like that in Dublin! Why the hell not? It’s amaaaazing. We bought some good veg as well as lovely olives and the most incredible wild garlic pesto I’ve ever had. Jaysus. Here is The English Market in pictures. Sort it out Dublin City Council!
Let me tell you, there was LOADS more where that came from. The main bit of the indoor market is actually all butchers but raw meat looks a bit yuk in photos so I didn’t bother with them. But yeah, it’s great. And it’s not just a Saturday thing, it’s open Monday through to Saturday, only closing on Sunday. Nice! If I lived in Cork city I’d be there all the time. Make sure you pop your head in when you’re next in Cork.
Oh, and we met Eric Cantona in Cork which was pretty cool. He was nice, if a bit intense.
Woah nelly!
MP3
On the back of a recommendation from Sweet Oblivion, we popped our head in to the very sweet Plugd Records shop on Washington Street in Cork. I could not believe my eyes when I spotted the soundtrack of the late 60s cult soft-porn ridiculous erotic horror romp Vampyros Lesbos (Sexadelic Dance Party). We used to listen to this soundtrack when I was in Uni in London and we thought we were dead cool. We even watched the movie once but let me tell you, it’s up there with Bicentennial Man as one of the stupidest movies of all time.
Sadly, the soundtrack wasn’t quite as good as I remembered. It’s pretty cool though and this opening track is certainly a bit of a swinging number. Niall said it was like a cross between Ravi Shankarr and Austin Powers. Nice!
Manfred Hubler & Siegfried Schwab – Droge CX 9 – Vampyros Lesbos Soundtrack
Categories: Blog Trips, Dinner Tags: Cork is great
May 12, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Go wan the Cork, like!
Sounds like ye had a fab time altogether – the meals look delish! Great pics. Can’t believe I’ve never been to Cafe Paradiso – fail.
Did you like the Pav as a venue? I’ve only been clubbing there, never to a gig yet. It’s a cool old building.
The English Market…god how I miss it.
And I’m so glad ye went to Plugd, (www.myspace.com/plugdrecords) it’s one of my first stops when I get back home. Jim & Albert are the soundest dudes.
Delighted ye had such a nice trip!
May 12, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Hi Aoife – Cork was really lovely. It’s my third visit and definitely the best yet. My first time in The English Market you see! How fab.
The Pavillion was cool actually – it’s a really cool room, kind of like a big ship or something. The sound was good too and we had a good ol’ night of dancing and being silly.
Plugd was a lovely shop all right and the dude working there was a sweetie! Thanks again for all the recommendations
May 13, 2009 at 4:10 pm
This post really makes me miss living at home in Cork! You’re right, Dublin really has nothing that can compare to the English market…that olive stall is a-maze-ing…even just to look at! Did you try the Farmgate cafe upstairs there? Always jammers, but lots of tastee delights!
Next time you’re down, visit O’Conaill’s Chocolate on frenchchurch st. It’s all handmade- their hot chocolate is a modern wonder!
May 13, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Hi Paula – seriously, we need The English Market in Dublin! The Saturday market in Temple Bar is lovely and I really appreciate it but it would be great to have such a good meat and fish market at our disposal every day.
We didn’t make it to the cafe upstairs but we had an ice-cream from a little stall and we ate it in the park across the way, ah twas grand! I had bought a few hefty bags of extreme olives so that was in a way our lunch. It was lovely!
Definitely will be checking out O’Conaill’s, never one to say no to a trip to a chocolate shop
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