Seasonal Sandwich Search no. 4 - Santy Bagel in Itsa

So we got a bonus sandwich added to our search for the best Christmas sandwich in Dublin this year.

We made a quick stop off in the city before Ciaran headed off for Mayo later in the day. Both of us were a little bit hungry so we decided to go for a Christmas sandwich and ended up in Itsa Bagel (in Arnotts) were we each had their "Santy Bagel".

They were very tasty but the cranberry was quite sharp so I asked for some mayonaise and added that to my bagel to tone it down.

I haven't had a bagel in a long while and this one was particularly good but perhaps quite sweet.

Here's the pic of the Santy Bagel, which was made of all the usual Christmas trimmings.

Keenly priced at just under 8 euro, here's how it scored overall.

1. Price.                                     Enid 4/5   Ciaran 4/5
2. Ingredients                            Enid 4/5     Ciaran 4/5
3. Construction / aesthetic.     Enid 3/5     Ciaran 3/5
4. Atmosphere/ Experience      Enid 3/5     Ciaran 2/5
5. Tradition                                 Enid 2/5     Ciaran 2/5

With a score of 31 out of 50 this is a good sandwich but unfortunately not in the top two scoring sandwiches. See here to read about the current top Christmas sandwich from Greenville Deli in Rathmines

And below is the receipt saved for posterity.

The search continues!

Seasonal Sandwich Search - No. 3 at Greenville Deli

For our 3rd Christmas Sandwich of the season we returned to Rathmines in order to visit Greenville Deli where I had seen their seasonal sandwich offering on Instagram and it looked promising.

We ordered one sandwich between us as they seemed sizable enough and Ciaran also ordered a coffee while I had a Coke Zero.

We seemed to have hit the cafe at a bad time, literally peak lunch time, at about 1.30pm and there was a long line ahead of us and then more people after us with the place being packed and having no seats available. Seating generally is quite limited in the place and we ended up at the counter facing out on to the street with a high stool for me and Ciaran standing.

And finally after a bit of a wait, our number was called and this was the sandwich we collected at the counter.

Looks good doesn't it?!

On the Greenville Deli insta they list the following ingredients in the sandwich: Roasted Turkey, hand carved ham, sage & rosemary stuffing, brie, pickled red cabbage, cranberry sauce and mustard mayo on sourdough! Comes with our homemade cranberry aioli dip and a little bag of crisps.  And altogether it sure tasted good......even the brie - of which I am normally not a fan.

And so it was on to the scores for the sandwich:

Price: Enid 5/5 Ciaran 5/5

Ingredients: Enid 5/5 Ciaran 5/5

Construction/Aesthetic: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 5/5

Atmosphere/Experience: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Tradition: Enid 2/5 Ciaran 2/5

With a score of 38 out of 50, Greenville Deli is on top at the moment having beaten sandwich no. 2 (Farmer Browns) by 2 points. See here for the Farmer Brown results and pics

I forgot to take a pic of the receipt but coming in at 9 euro this sandwich ranked high on quality and taste versus price, and while there was not a whole lot of Christmas spirit in the cafe (barely a decoration in sight and no Christmas music being played) it is looking like this sandwich could win out to be our ultimate winner!

Seasonal Sandwich Search - No. 2 at Farmer Brown

After two strikes on our Christmas Sandwich Search this afternoon (no seasonal sandwich in Brother Hubbard Ranelagh and all sandwiches sold out by 3pm in Greenville Deli in Rathmines) we ended up in Farmer Browns in Rathmines where we both ordered the "Turkey & Ham Yorkshire Pudding Wrap" for 12 euro each.

We were unsure what was going to be served to us - but I was happy enough to wait, and see, while sitting outside sipping a glass of proseco. It was a cold day but we were seated under an outdoor heater and there was also blankets on all of the chairs which was a nice touch.

Well when it arrived we were quite surprised by what it was!

We shouldn't have been surprised as what arrived at the able was was exactly as described on the menu. Check it out!!

It was basically a Christmas dinner wrapped in the most massive Yorkshire Pudding. Quite whether it could be classified as a "Christmas Sandwich" gave us pause for thought as we ate the dish. 

But either way we went ahead and scored it against the same criteria as KC Peaches which was our first sandwich as part of this seasonal competition that we do. See here for KC Peaches sandwich score and pics.

And this is our scores for the Farmer Browns seasonal "sandwich" (debateable!)

Price: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 3/5

Ingredients: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Construction/Aesthetic: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 3/5

Atmosphere/Experience: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Tradition: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Both our scores were added together and this sandwich got a total of 36 out of 50, which means that it takes the lead......but still lots more sandwiches to go so it's certainly not guaranteed a win at this point!

Edit - so seemingly the Yorkshire Pudding Wrap is a viral trend!

After reading my blog, my younger sister let me know that she had seen a video of the Yorkshire Pudding Wrap in borough Market, on Tik Tok. So I went in search of more info and found lots of places serving it. Let me know what you think?  Are you intruiged and will you be visiting Farmer Browns to taste it here in Dublin?!

Christmas is coming.....

After the terrible events of Thursday evening in Dublin City when the city was overtaken by a rioting mob (truly a dark day) I was happy to sit back and relax and watch the Late Late Toy Show.

I didn't plan to wear my Christmas jumper this early in the season but my sister texted this pic in to our sisters what's app group with a note that she was ready for the toy show.

So after seeing Katie in her jumper, I changed in to mine and then took a pic to send to the group - along with Bones because he was going to watch with me!

I've written about the Late Late Toy Show before on my blog and you can read about it here

This year we had a new presenter with Patrick Kielty taking over the helm. Well he did a great job and I really enjoyed the show. I reckon it was the best show in years!

So once the Toy Show has been on, it is really the start of the Christmas season here in Ireland.

So because of this, Ciaran and I started our Christmas Sandwich Search / Competition. 

We have a thing where we select a few places that serve a Christmas Sandwich and we go visit and taste it and then rate it.  We each get to select 2 places but then go to 5 in total because the winner from last year automatically gets in to the following year's lineup.  

Well KC Peaches was the 2022 winning Christmas Sandwich so we put it first on the list and visited there this afternoon.

Here's the pic of the sandwich (we made a small modification where we removed the spinach which was an ingredient on the sandwich)

Well it was a good start but we hope to have some better sandwiches after this one. Here's our scores for the KC Peaches one

Price: Enid 4/5 Ciaran 4/5

Ingredients: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Construction/Aesthetic: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 3/5

Atmosphere/Experience: Enid 3/5 Ciaran 2/5

Tradition: Enid 2/5 Ciaran 2/5

Both our scores were added together and this sandwich got a total of 28 out of 50 (a fairly good score for the first sandwich but I don't think it will be the winner).

For the record, here's the receipt for two sandwiches, 1 prosecco and 1 cup of tea. Watch this space for more Christmas Sandwiches and to see which one is the winner for 2023!

Hola! Back at learning Spanish

Here's what I've been getting up to over the past few days. Unfortunately I took no photos so will just have to see what I can find online.

Thursday evening brought me back to somewhat formal Spanish learning with a teacher led conversational Spanish class in the library.  I'm currently doing Duolingo but am finding that that the less Spanish I speak the more I am losing my words and any fluency that I have built up. So it was good to be back conversing in Spanish. At the first class we spoke about food that we like and in the next class the plan is to talk about the airport.

And then on Friday, I took half day from work in order to meet my mother and niece for a lovely lunch in a Chinese restaurant on Wicklow Street (my mother's choice). Both Mam and Eleanor had curry (chicken and vegetable) while I had chicken with satay sauce which was so good. There were lots of tasty veg in my dish and the sauce was perfectly peanutty with the slightest bit of heat. We shared starters of spring rolls, salt & chilli chicken and Satay chicken skewers. With some nice red wine to wash it all down it was a great meet up in the centre of Dublin

And later that evening on Friday, I suggested to Ciaran that we should head over to Capel Street on the north side of the city as Dublin City Council were running a night market street event with loads of activities on Capel Street.

We took the Luas to O'Connell Street and from there we walked to Capel Street. When we got to the street, a screening of "The Goonies" was just starting at the top end of the street (not the Quays end) and we walked from the top to the bottom and took all the activitiy in. There was live music, games and market stalls along with cooking demonstrations.  

It was so busy with the street packed with people so I couldn't event really see if there were stalls selling hot food - this is what I had hoped for, as Ciaran hadn't eaten all day so I thought he could get something here. We even tried to get in to All Bar Chicken but that was fully booked.  So perhaps for the next night street event like this there could be food trucks as part of the event. But fun all the same!

We took the bus home and cooked chicken wings for dinner along with a glass of cava while watching Big Brother live evictions. 

All in all another great day in Dublin City!

Tomahawk Steak for 7!

 7 for 7

- that's how it went this Sunday evening when we hosted a dinner of 7 people starting at 7pm.

Prior to the dinner I had a scavenger hunt on my hand having set myself the task of sourcing Tomahawk Steaks. Not easy! 

With a search that took me from Dun Laoghaire to Rathmines and beyond, I finally settled upon two 30 day aged steaks from the butcher in Ranelagh, hitting about the 2kg mark in total.

Cooking these bad boys normally involves a reverse sear method and a very smokey kitchen - which isn't great for an open plan kitchen and no dinner guest likes to be sitting in smoke!

So this time I decided to the reverse of the reverse sear method and instead seared the steaks when guests arrived and while they had a pre-dinner drink in the front room. After searing a nice crust on each of the steaks I popped them in the oven with a meat thermometer set for 52 degrees celcius in order to achieve a rare cook.

It all worked out perfectly with no smokey kitchen and, after a starter of a blue cheese wedge salad, followed by some tomato meatballs on a small ring of pasta and some smoked salmon blinis (with cream cheese and sweet chilli sauce), we all enjoyed the meat along with brocolli and hasselback potatoes. 

I sure was glad it worked out because (1) I didn't want to ruin the good meat and (2) truth be told I was very nervous about cooking for 7!!

What's better than a dessert after dinner?!

Why 2 desserts of course!!

Fiona brought a delicious chocolate cake (Darina Allen receipe) while I made a strawberry cookies and cream "ice box cake"

Both so so good!

And the empty wine bottles all tell a story :-) 

And conveniently I signed up for a glass bottle bin collection service so the next morning clean up was very little hassle with the bottles all just getting put in the bin in the garden with no trip to the bottle bank having to be organised. I highly recommend this service.

Halloween Cycle in Dublin City

Friday brought the start of the Bank Holiday weekend (wahey!) 

After leaving work I headed to Dublin City to meet up with Ciaran at the start of the Critical Mass Halloween cycle. Unfortunately I had a bit of a false start after I realised that I left my phone in work, just as the train left Dun Laoghaire Station. I had to get off at Monkstown Station and cycle back to DL - in fairness it was a nice cycle on the protected cycle path of the DLR Coastal Mobility Route. After picking up my phone from my desk I returned to the station but unfortunately I just missed a train so that set me up to be late for the start of the cycle.  So I reassessed my plan and texted Ciaran to say that I would meet up with the cycle gang on Capel Street.  And that's what I did having got off at Tara Street and cycling down Abbey Street directly to Capel Street.

Many of the cycle crew were in full costume but we just wore masks - red dragon for me and werewolf for Ciarán.

Always fun to take part in this event and have a nice saunter on the bike around Dublin. But I particularly like the themed critical mass cycles depending on the time of year. I look forward to the Christmas one now that the Halloween one is over for the year.

And after the cycle it was back to Capel Street where we had wings & wine in All Bar Chicken......

....well I had wine, the werewolf had beer!

Click here to see my very first Critical Mass cycle - which coincidentally was a Halloween cycle too (and I dressed in full costume for this one)!

You can join Critical Mass if you like - just come along to the start at Parnell Square opposite the entrance to the Hugh Lane Gallery, at the side of the Garden of Remembrance. It is on the last Friday of every month and starts at 6pm. See you there!!