New player on the Northside

Grabbed the opportunity of the day off to wander down to Moore street. I wanted to check in with the guys in the Paris Bakery, who finally got their doors open on Monday. Although it's very early days for Yannick and co. the baguette we just had with dinner is testament to his baking abilities.  It worked as the perfect mop for the juices from the pork belly. Wonderfully French! 

The Bread Basket

First off the Paris Bakery is...a bakery, with a collection of breads all made fresh on site overnight - baguettes, sour-dough, walnut & raisin, apricot & hazelnut - matched with some wonderful madeleine, chocolate & honey tarts, lemon meringue pies, brownies, and soon to be followed with a selection of pastries. After that the Bakery is a cafe, soon-to-be restaurant and eventually completed with a function room.  

When I first got wind of the project I was not convinced of the Moore street residency. However, the Bakery I think will be a great addition to food life on the street which includes the fruit & veg. market stalls, FX Buckley butchers and further down the street the underground maze of the Moore St Mall, which is a hive of food activity. I will be keeping an eye on them as they develop and grow, and plan on making myself one of their best regulars....it helps that it is on my route home!

Fish Friday

Taste of the Sea, Glasnevin

In the last couple of months there has been a great little addition to the northside of Dublin the guise of Taste of the Sea up in Glasnevin. I have been planning a visit for weeks and come hell, high water or car-clamps, I was not going to miss the chance to finally visit today.

Whitebait

Taste of the Sea offers a great selection of seafood and related items for both the budding chef and those whole live in fear of cleaning, filleting and cooking anything vaguely related to a fish. The variety of fish is very impressive - monkfish tails, swordfish steaks, frozen octopus (adult and baby), crab claws, scallops, whitebait - many of which have useful little suggestion recipes to go with them. The unique selling point for the shop however is that all this comes freshly frozen, which brings advantage to those who want to shop for the days ahead. It also allows the shop give such a wonderful variety where smaller fresh fish stores cannot due to a smaller demand for quirkier items.

Octopi!

In my extra lazy state today, I decided to give one of the pasta dishes a whirl - the fagottini with salmon - slow fried up in the pan. (Roughly) following the recipe suggestion I popped in a little chilli and ricotta at the end.  I fried off a single king scallop to sit on top.  It did the trick and I'll be going back for more!