Eating my way through Dublin

Dublin was fun! It's such a charming city--cobblestone streets, old buildings, and most of all good food! I gained a katrillion pounds over the weekend! I think the best way to explain would be through photo-captions, enjoy!

Day 1 - Have your cake and eat it too!

My first day in Dublin, I set off in search of this cafe I read about online, Cake Cafe. It was about a one hour walk out of the city center and was ridiculously hard to find but well worth it. I had this salad first--greens with goat's cheese, butternut squash, and hazelnuts. It was fantastic.

This was still at the Cake Cafe. I got lucky because this was the last slice left. It wasn't really the best chocolate cake I've ever had but it was pretty good-- not too sweet and very fudgy.

I didn't have any gingerbread men, although I wanted to!
They were just really pretty so I couldn't help but take pictures :)

Isn't it lovely?

 Day 2 - Something's fishy

It was around 6ish and I'd just gotten back from a half-day tour of Newgrange (a passage-tomb older than the pyramids!) and Hill of Tara and I was walking around Temple Bar, starving, when I saw this nice Italian dessert place and I had my second chocolate cake of the trip. It was good! Too sweet though, but good!

Still hungry post-chocolate binge, I saw this fish & chips place that was supposed to be really famous (at least according to their sign). I went in and saw that they'd served Hillary Swank, Kate Moss, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and other celebrities..and hey, if it's good enough for Bono, then I'm having at it! I had the smoked cod and chips which reminded me of daing na bangus for some reason. Anyway, it was a huge plate of chips and a slab of fish bigger than my head, but I finished it all! It was that good!

Day 3 - Color me Irish green

The B & B I stayed at served a very filling traditional Irish breakfast everyday. It was so filling that I'd only eat breakfast, skip lunch, and then eat dinner--which was great because I got to save money!

I'd sworn to myself that I wasn't going to leave Dublin without having a proper Irish meal so I went over to Gallagher's Boxty House, a traditional Irish restaurant, and had a three-course meal that started with this salad. It had greens, caramelized pears, blue cheese, candied walnuts, and a sort of pesto dressing--heavenly!

This was my main course--traditional Irish stew with Guinness bread. I think out of all the meals I had, this was the most disappointing. I kept on adding salt to it--and still it was as bland as cardboard! But I finished it anyway! hahaha

Oh, this was DIVINE! It's a Bailey's cheesecake with raspberry-chocolate sauce. Food-wise, this was the highlight of my trip! Absolutely delicious! Every bite was heaven! Dare I say the best cheesecake I've had EVER!

And that was my Dublin foodtrip for you. I might actually try some Irish dishes soon..okay, probably not.

Happy eating!

Turkish food and the church on the hill

"Kabak Mucveri" - Turkish Zucchini Fritters

"Köfte" - Turkish Meatballs

"Yayla Corbasi" - Yogurt soup with rice and mint

Köfte and Chicken (I don't know what it's called)

In celebration of her newly-purchased couch, a colleague of mine invited me over to her place for an authentic Turkish dinner. I'm not really that familiar with Turkish food and I haven't had the chance to eat that much of it in my life so I was excited to be able to have a proper Turkish meal. She made Zucchini fritters, an interesting yogurt-rice-mint soup, Turkish meatballs, and some chicken. Everything was surprisingly really good! I went home totally stuffed and a big fan of Turkish food. I might even try some recipes of my own soon :) 

To digress, today while exploring on my bike I discovered a lovely little reading spot atop a hill with a pretty church on it. The view was spectacular and it was so quiet, so peaceful--a perfect place to unwind. 

Here are a few pictures so you'll get what I mean...

View from the top of the hill

Pretty church

On my way up

When I got back down

Baked Salmon and Curried Chickpeas

I just finished dinner and I have a stack of dishes to clean (some of them are from this morning!) so I'm going to hurry this up. This baked salmon was gooood. The curried chickpeas I didn't like so much, but the fish was fantastic!

I didn't really expect it to turn out so well because I made it in a hurry and just covered the fillet in salt, pepper, olive oil and some flour and stuck it in the oven, but it ended up tasting great. I got the fish out of the oven at just the right time too!

I made too much of the chickpeas though so I'm going to have to eat those for lunch tomorrow..darn.


Anyway, those dishes aren't going to clean themselves!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Sauce

I had some leftover chicken satay and half a head of lettuce so I decided to make chicken lettuce wraps. This recipe will work with grilled chicken, fried chicken, baked chicken--just as long as it's chicken breasts. So the fun part is the peanut sauce. Just mix some plain creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy), with some lemon juice, garlic powder, chili flakes, olive oil, salt, and some pepper and that's it. Just wrap the chicken up in some lettuce leaves, add the peanut sauce and eat up! These would work great as appetizers too.

Happy eating!

Coconut Shrimp Curry

Explored Innsbruck on my bike today. Was riding for about 3 hours or so and when I got back to my apartment I was starvinggg! I finished that whole plate of curry and rice you see up there--the whole thing! I'm stuffed! 

To make it, I sauteed some garlic and onions and added the sliced potatoes. When the potatoes were a bit brown I added the shrimp and some chicken stock. Covered that for about 5 or so minutes and removed the shrimp and boiled the potatoes in the broth until cooked. When the potatoes were ready, I put back the shrimp and added the coconut milk, some ready-made gram masala paste, and some curry powder. Stirred everything until the sauce was thick and that was it! Poured the whole thing on some rice and stuffed myself silly.

Here are some photos from my bike ride...


 

Gouda and Prosciutto Omelet with Grapefruit

Today's shaping up to be a really nice day. The sun is shining and it's fantastic outside. And what better way to start a beautiful day than with a wonderfully-tasty breakfast?

This is the first time I made this omelet. I was looking through my fridge and the ingredients just jumped out at me. You'll need 2 eggs, prosciutto, garlic, gouda, and some chili flakes. 

Just beat the eggs in a bowl, add some salt, pepper, and chili flakes and set aside. Fry the garlic in some olive oil. When the garlic turns brown add the egg mixture. Add the prosciutto and gouda to one side of the egg and when it looks like it's ready, cover it with the other side. Sprinkle some chili flakes if you want some added kick, slice the grapefruit lengthwise into quarters and enjoy!