Green Nineteen

I actually hadn't planned on going to Green Nineteen this night. It was on my list, but I had really been hankering for some feijoada. So I had walked to Sabor Brazil and found out that it was closed. It looked like they had gone on holiday or something, and wouldn't be open again until the next day. The next day I would be leaving town. I had passed Green Nineteen on my walk to Sabor Brazil and noted to myself, oh, that's where Green Nineteen is. Well good thing I saw it, because I was starving, and then I had to end up going there. This place is cool. Yes, they have a big poster of Obama in their entry. It's modern, clean, and cool. Just cool. Lame description, yes, but it's true. This place seems to be quite popular, as I saw many people being turned away. I was lucky to get a spot right in the front where they have a couple of high tops.
I started with a red fruit smoothie that they made fresh just for me. I had wanted green but they only had this one available. It was super tangy and full of so many different fruits and berries. It was extremely seedy... but certainly tasty.
Their menu is actually quite small. And shocking to Dublin standards, these prices are positively cheap. Most things are 10 Euros or less. Seriously folks, that's cheap for Dublin! I asked the server for recommendations and one of the things he recommended was the lamb chump tagine. I went for it. It is a big hunk of lamb served with couscous and root vegetables. I'm not normally a lamb person, but I really enjoyed this. It had a tomato based sauce with lots of spices and it was delicious. The couscous was the perfect companion and even the root veggies (aside from carrots, as I dislike cooked carrots) were good. And this was only 10 euros! For something that equates to about $14-15 bucks, even that's cheap. They could, and should certainly charge more for a dish like this. That's even super cheap for american standards.
Service was great and super friendly. It's a cool place, but it's a totally relaxed and casual atmosphere. It's no wonder so many people want to eat here. I'm having good luck with Dublin eats on this trip!

Food Shopping In Dublin

What's food shopping like in Dublin? I set to find out. There are little convenience type stores all over the place. Like this SPAR. I think they're open pretty much all the time.
Or this Centra. These convenience stores all carry staple groceries, as well as lots of prepared foods.
But let's explore this proper grocery store called Superquinn. If you look real hard, you can see the "Cheesemonger" sign!
The Irish love their sparkling waters.
In Ireland, Uncle Ben makes asian sauces. Does he do this in the US? No idea.
These strawberries look amazing. Strawberries in the US look gross compared to these adorable little beauties.
It is Ireland people... there are plenty of potatoes to be found.
Here's some bread just sitting around. This would never happen in the US.
Some pies just sitting around too, without covers. Again, you would never see this at home.
Hee.
Brown sauce! You know it's the UK now!
These eggs are just sitting on a shelf. And not refrigerated. Again, you never see this in the states. Food prices aren't too crazy here. But you have to remember it's the Euro. It's the restaurants that tend to be on the expensive side. And oh, you have to pay for bags.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yum.

Celebrating My Irishness

I was invited to celebrate my Irishness over the weekend with a low-key and not too overly Irish outing to some of the finest haunts of Lansdale. Ah... Lansdale... a town I'd never ever hung out in before. First stop? Huey's Grill & Tavern on Main Street. It's kind of a funny place with totally random clientele. There were cheesy St. Patty's day decorations everywhere. We were hanging in the bar and our booth had an awesome frog lamp on it. It excited me so much that I spilled my water all over the table. In the dining room, each table has unique salt & pepper shakers (no two sets are alike!). It's quite random! We had a bunch of beers (this check can't be wrong) and moved right along.

The next stop on the fantastical tour of Lansdale was the Sumney. They dub themselves as an American bistro with an Irish accent. The place is pretty damn Irish. They sat us at a table in the middle of the room, and we were a bit bummed. There was a choice booth right next to us. Then they sat the people behind us in the booth. Drat! Then an even choicer corner booth became vacant. J worked his charm and got us in there. It was fantastic!

We started with the appetizer sampler, which came with chicken fingers, wings, mini crab cakes, and cheese coins. You also get free bread and scones. These little mini scones were awesome. And the sampler was pretty good too.

They have a fairly extensive menu, but had irish lamb stew as a special. All four of us were extremely creative and all four of us got it. The stew had big hunks of lamb with potatoes and carrots and onions, and of course, tons of gravy, and the whole thing was served in an irish loaf (aka bread bowl). Damn, this was a lot of food, and damn, this was good. I ate as much as I possibly could, and even scraped out the soft bits of the bread. They did a great job with this dish. Seriously, they should serve it all the time. I'd order it.

K went crazy and got the bread pudding special. It was a giant hunk of the densest bread pudding I'd ever witnessed in my life. It also had a huge ass dollop of whipped cream. A took one bite and couldn't eat any more. K barely ate any of it and he ordered the darn thing. J took a few more bites and then made me try it. I tried it, enjoyed it, and gave up after few bites. The giant stew was sitting at the bottom of my stomach, and as much as I enjoyed it, I kinda wished I'd left a bit more room for the bread pudding.

The service was good. Our server was quite chipper and helpful. The food came out quite fast. The stew itself was surprisingly not hot, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was still good. Right before we left, the live music for the night had started - Twirlin' Martha. They actually have a little dance floor / performance space in the middle of the main dining room, so this seems to be a regular occurrence. There is another main dining area and a big bar.

The last stop of the evening was the Astor Place Restaurant / Lounge. It's kind of a weird place, but kind of cool. Rather big and strange yet decorated well. We stopped in the lounge area for cocktails. The bar is pretty groovy, with way too many flat screens than any bar should be allowed to have. Every single bartender asked us if we had been helped. They really wanted to make us drink. I ordered a caiparoska, which apparently, they had never made before. It took the chick awhile to figure it out. It was a bit weak. K and J both got some gross gin martinis. A got a girly drink like I did, but I think hers was of regular strength. If I lived anywhere near Lansdale, I could actually see myself hanging out here a bit. It's almost tragic that it's in Lansdale!

Irish Pub in Baltimore

Saturday night was supposed to be something completely different than what it turned out to be. I won't bore you with the tragic details, but let's just cut to the chase and say that I ended up at some random Irish pub in Baltimore instead of where I truly wanted to be. This random Irish pub was Claddagh Pub in the Canton neighborhood. Can I just say, parking here blows? There's only street parking and absolutely no lots. So you just drive around and around until you find a spot. And at 9PM on a saturday night, it's a pain in the butt. It took us way too long and way too many rolls around way too many blocks. Ugh.

It was a pretty lively spot, but most people were just drinking, not eating. There were multiple large dining areas. Where we were, there were these giant nice, yet creepy, paintings above us. Why does the laughing violin guy have a black eye? We were puzzled.

J ordered crab toast. When in Maryland, do as the Marylanders do... so I got a bowl of the maryland crab soup. R got a cup. It was good. There was real crab in there, not from a can, as I found some big shell chunks. So in a way, I didn't mind, as it seemed more authentic that way.

J ordered the rack of lamb. I don't remember the last time I ate rack of lamb. Ok, I do. It was many years ago and it was in Michigan at a russian restaurant. Man, that was a fun meal.

R ordered the mussels. She did not enjoy these at all. She said they were rubbery. I tasted one, and it didn't seem rubbery to me, but they were very smoky tasting.

I went with the small portion of the steamed shrimp appetizer as my meal. I know I'm not typically an appetizer girl, but in this case, I went with two appetizers as my meal. They said these were jumbo shrimp, and boy, did they ever mean it. It's hard to see the scale from this photo, but trust me, these were JUMBO! They came doused with old bay and some deliciously sweet onions. I was worried that this wouldn't be enough food, but man, there were 7 of these bad boys, and I was plenty filled up.

I was happy with my food here. The service was good. I even asked for a wet nap, and even though they didn't have one, our waiter fashioned one for me. He even heated it up for me. That's service! Oh, and you can't smoke in restaurants and bars as of Feb 1 in Baltimore. Whoo hoo!