Taste of the Week

Taste of the Week
Black Pudding with Teeling Whiskey
 by McCarthy's of Kanturk

 The picture below shows most of the ingredients you need to make black pudding. Add water and blood and you have it. But if you want something extra, then add some special ingredients just like McCarthy's of Kanturk did as they made this one (left), our Taste of the Week. As well as the blood and water, cream and some of the superb Teeling's whiskey were mixed in. We had a taste in Nash 19 on Culture Night and will soon be getting more. It is soft and flavoursome, spicy but not salty, crumbly and moist, just irresistible!

Teeling Single Malt. Dare to be different!

Teeling Single Malt

Dare to be different!
Teeling Whiskey Single Malt 46%

Teeling Whiskey, The Spirit of Dublin, say they “dare to be different”. And yet the first words that came to my mind when first tasting their Single Malt are “This is Whiskey!”.

The words are, of course, a compliment. For this smooth and beautifully crafted spirit is not just of Dublin but of Ireland, the character of hand selected casks bottled just for you. And me! And no doubt this flavoursome Irish spirit is a distinctive gem that will travel well and far.

There is a leather feel to the label but read it as well as feel it and you’ll see that the tradition and experience of the Teelings, which, at least in recent centuries, mirrors the Irish whiskey story (should that be stor-ey?) where quality is the consequence of skill and time and not just the rushed result of some accountant’s bottom line.

It is made from 100% Malted Barley and consists of a “vatting of five different wine casks (Sherry, Port Madeira, White Burgundy and Cabernet Sauvignon). It is bottled at 46% ABV with no chill filtration, allowing for all the natural flavours… to be retained.” No argument. Take just one sip and slip into agreement!

The nose is vibrant and inviting. The palate is an agreeable melange of fruit flavours and spices and the long finalé offers sweet harmony and a dry denouement as you deliciously slip from paradise promised to the realisation of whiskey heaven. The Spirit of Dublin indeed!

I've been talking this up to virtually everyone I meet. Someone asked: What would you match it with? I said, thinking of cool, Miles Davis.

Perhaps not my best one-liner. That, IMHO, came after a nosy tea-lady badgered two males (including me) as to who was wearing the expensive aftershave in the office. My buddy cracked under her persistence. “Which one?” she asked. “Joop” was the reply. She turned the heat to me. “Couldn't afford that,” I said. She kept at it, so I admitted to using a cheap copy. “What’s it called?”. “Duplicate,” I said.

Teeling Whiskey is fairly widely available, including at airports. Bradley's of Cork are selling it while Dublin's Celtic Whiskey Shop also have it.
See also: Teeling Whiskey Distillery Visit

Summer Days in Dublin. Capital Food and Fun

Summer Days in Dublin

Capital Food and Fun

View of Dublin Castle and surrounds from rooftop garden of Chester Beatty Library

 Just back after a terrific trip to Dublin in the sunshine. And I enjoyed every minute (almost!)  of the three sunshine filled days. On the fourth day, it rained and we met our one and only grumpy taxi-driver of the break, but we were then starting on our way home. Before that, we had very courteous humorous taxi-drivers and the fares seemed reasonable throughout.

Our first trip though was by Luas and that took us close enough to our base, the Trinity Lodge. Didn’t know much about it when we booked a few months back. It is very convenient for the city centre, situated on Frederick Street (just off Nassau Street), next door to Dunne & Crescenzi.

Dublin Castle and State Apartments yard

It is spread over four Georgian houses. There was no lift in our building and the breakfast room was across the street. But everything was up to scratch. Very welcoming and helpful with city information (including maps and taxi calls), a good choice at breakfast (no buffet here - cooked from scratch), there is free Wi-Fi and security is excellent and an Air Coach stop is just 50 metres away.

That afternoon we headed for the Teeling Distillery (€14.00), a new operation in the heart of the Liberties where we had an excellent tour and tasting.

St Patrick's

Next stop was at the nearby St Patrick’s Cathedral. Admission here is five euro. The present building dates from 1220. The Cathedral is today the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland (a church of the Anglican communion) and also serves as a popular tourist attraction in Ireland.

No shortage of history here as you'd expect and there are busts of Douglas Hyde and Erskine Childers (both Irish presidents) and Jonathan Swift ( dean of the cathedral). There too you’ll see the Boyle monument, erected by Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, in 1632 in memory of his second wife.

Queue for Book of Kells

 Then the mood lightened as we reached Grafton Street and its entertainers. This became a daily stop such was the high standard on offer. All kinds of fun on the street including music, magic and acrobats. You know you're in a capital city when you have to slow down to stroll through the crowds. Later, that evening we had a capital meal, and a great welcome from Cork chef Ross Lewis, at Chapter One .

The sun continued to shine on day two. After a stroll around St Stephen’s Green, we entered Trinity College (€13.00) to see the Book of Kells . We took the general tour - you sign up just inside the main door. It costs just a few euro more than the Book of Kells admission and is well worth it. Our guide, Johnny, took us around the grounds, explaining the buildings, the place and its people (past and present) with no little humour.

Arnaldo Pomodoro's 'Sphere Within Sphere' at Trinity

We had to join a “five minute” queue tour for the book itself. And it was crowded inside as people squeezed in around the display. Might be better to come here in the off-season! The famous Long Room in the Old Library is also part of the tour. Here some 200,000 of the library’s oldest books are stored, the heaviest on the bottom shelves, and all are overseen by a great collection of busts that include Mr Swift again!

The afternoon was spent at the Chester Beatty Library (free). Here the emphasis is very much on the Middle East and Asia, the source of the world's main religions and, in the permanent displays, you'll see a massive collection of related books and other materials (including the “armour” of a Japanese warrior) illustrating the religions and the cultures of that part of the world.

Grafton Street

The current exhibition is Damsels for Dinner: Tale of Oeyama. The Chester Beatty’s mid-17th- century version of the story, produced in a set of three magnificently illustrated scrolls, is on display in the ‘Arts of the Book’ gallery until January 2016.  

Downstairs, you'll find the highly rated Silk Road Café which offers a range of mouth-watering menus from Afghanistan, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Morocco and Palestine, as well as Ireland. You will, of course, pay for your meal but there is no admission charge for the library itself.

Ely Dessert

That evening, on the way to the 3 Arena, we called to Ely at CHQ for their fabulous Early Bird. Great value too at €22.95 for two courses. The restaurant - they have another one in Ely Place, off Stephen’s Green - is noted for using local produce (much of it from the family farm in Clare)  and its fabulous wine list. Highlight was the main course of Braised Beef Cheek with a vegetable tagine and butter beans, tender and delicious. Very convenient for the arena, and other venues, but well worth a visit in its own right.

There was a great buzz there on that Friday evening, packed upstairs and downstairs. The vaults downstairs reminded me of the old bond in Cork. Wonder would Ely be interested in taking that over?

Diamond's forever

Off then to see Neil Diamond. Think I'd have been better off if I had booked dinner, rather than Early Bird in Ely. But I must also say that mine was very much a minority opinion. The place was packed with fans and he told them they loved him and they enthusiastically agreed. Good finish with Sweet Caroline but lots of the earlier songs, even those from his new album (one of which, Art of Love, took five years to write!), sounded old. Glad to get out in the fresh air.

Got a taxi up to the fantastic Botanic Gardens (free) on Saturday morning and had a great couple of hours there. Read the account here. You can walk through a gate from the gardens to the Glasnevin Cemetery and Museum. Here we saw the graves of many famous Irish men and women. We’ll call again as there is much to take in. Time was running out for us, otherwise we'd have taken a guided tour.

Tower marks grave of Daniel O'Connell

 After getting the bus back to the city and working our way through a protest march, we felt we deserved a beer. And we got a very good one from the micro-brewery in Sweetman’s Pub on Burgh Quay, just at the south side of O’Connell Bridge. They have seven of their own beers on offer but I settled for the outstanding Pale Ale. Great buzz there and very highly recommended. Oh, by the way, they do sell other craft beers and some ordinary beers as well!

Another call to Grafton Street and its entertainers on the way back to the Lodge before heading out that evening to a splendid finale at Restaurant Forty One where we absolutely enjoyed the meal and a little chat with chef Graham Neville. A great way to finish a fabulous few days in Ireland's capital city.

Glasnevin grave of O'Donovan Rossa

See also Teeling Distillery visit

Chapter One Restaurant
National Botanic Gardens

Dublin’s Teeling Whiskey. New Experience in the Liberties

Dublin’s Teeling Whiskey

New Experience in the Liberties

Left to right: 24% - 65% - 85%

The Teeling family and their whiskey is back in Dublin’s Liberties, an area that once was outside the city and indeed, outside the law, home in the 18th century to some 37 distilleries not to mention houses of ill repute. So I found out during last week's tour of the new Teeling Distillery in Newmarket Place.

The official opening took place in June and the fully functional distillery is the first to be opened in Dublin in 125 years and is “the only operational distillery in the city”.  But the Teeling connection with whiskey goes back to 1782 when Walter Teeling set up a craft distillery in nearby Marrowbone Lane.

The new whiskeys are positioned at the premium end of the market and the promise is of “new flavours and aromas”. “The company is small, so the quality must be high.” There will be no Teeling gins or vodka but there is a Poitin. You may read all about their award winning products (and the family’s recent whiskey adventures in Cooley and much more) here.

Our informative tour guide told us that whiskey was invented by Irish monks in the 6th century and was called uisce beatha (water of life). But it was regarded as a medicine. Luckily, you need no prescription nowadays! Treat it with care though, as the Teeling whiskeys weigh in at 46%, somewhat higher than most.

The ingredients are simple: barley, yeast and water. The water is local, coming from the River Poddle that runs underneath Newmarket! The basic ingredients are first processed into a “beer” which has an abv of 8%. Then it is put through the magic of the three stills, the first one ups the abv to 24%, the second to 65% and, at the end of the third distillation, the abv is 85%.

By the way, US Bourbon has just one distillation, Scotch has two, while the Irish has three. Our guide told us the climate here is ideal for maturation “not too hot, not too cold”. At the end of the distillation process, the liquid is clear; flavour and colour is added during maturation in casks that have been previously used for making Sherry, Port, Wine, Bourbon, Madeira and other similar products.

The Teeling Single Grain is made from corn (which makes it that bit sweeter) and it spends six years in wine barrels. The Single Malt (100% barley) is matured in five different types of wine barrels.

A Favourite!

Their flagship whiskey is the Small Batch and is very smooth and is the one that you get to sample if you've paid for the basic tour. You are also given a cocktail; the current offering is a very seasonal and every enjoyable Teeling Summer Ice Tea and the ingredients are Single Batch, Orange liqueur, Pineapple syrup and ginger. Read all about the tours and the distillery here.

It is early days yet at Teeling in Newmarket but, as you may have seen on the recent TV series, this is a serious venture by a family well experienced in the trade. Just the other day, they appointed Sheila Baird as general manager of the visitor centre.

Sheila Baird

Sheila has over 20 years experience working in the hospitality industry, having been with a number of well-known hotels over the course of her career including the Quinn Hotel Group, the Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links and the Marine Hotel in Sutton. Most recently, Sheila worked with the Cara Hotel Group, as the general manager across a number of their properties.

In her new role, Sheila will oversee the day-to-day running of the visitor centre and will work with the marketing team to deliver an exceptional experience for visitors. The experience at the moment is not bad at all but looks as if it could get even better under Sheila: “I am delighted to take up this new role with the Teeling Whiskey Company. It’s an exciting opportunity to be involved in a brand new tourist attraction from the very beginning. I look forward to working with the entire Teeling team to deliver a stand-out customer experience for visitors from both home and abroad.”

Best of luck to Teeling and to Sheila. She could do worse than start with the taxi drivers - I had to give my taxi driver directions!

See also:
Dublin's Chapter One Restaurant
National Botanic Gardens
Dinner of Delights at Restaurant Forty One