Dining "Now" Guide. This Week's Choices In Cork

 Dining Now Guide. This Week's Choices In Cork

(Contact me before 1.00pm Wed with a sentence or two, a pic and a link to menu)

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An amazing wine-maker in the shadow of the Dolomites!

 Contact:  info@latitude51.ie

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Glass Curtain menu below
contact: 
http://Theglasscurtain.ie/

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Tapas for Two

Menu here

Greene's marvellous Click and Collect continues as usual.

Get all the details here

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O'Mahony's Watergrasshill are travelling to India for this Weekend's 'Saturday night takeout' - menu goes live tomorrow. Also our farmshop O'Mahony's stores reopens Thursday morning. We can't wait to serve great coffee, soup n sambo combo's and yummy sweet things to you.

Order at 086 831 6879

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Liberty Grill

Liberty Grill are holding the final trials of our Brunch to Go over the next 3 day up to 2pm

Join the virtual queue for our Brunch menu of the freshest ingredients, locally-sourced with seasonal highlights

Our New England influenced all-day brunch menu features classics like Eggs Benedict and French Toast and from 12 midday we will add a selection of our fine burgers.

How to join the queue

- Via the @WalkUpLdn APP

- Phone us on 0214271049

- Call inside the restaurant

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Cornstore Mother's Day

MOTHERS DAY

ROAST BOX with DESSERTS

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(Includes 3 Meats & feeds 4)

• Rib of Beef

• Pork Porchetta

• Rolled breast of Turkey.

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Al meats are roasted to finish off at home, simply carve and serve with our “finish off at home” trimmings - Cornstore creamy mash, duck fat roast potatoes, bread stuffing filled yorkshire puddings, seasonal roast veg, buttered cabbage & pan jus roast gravy.

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DESSERTS: 3 Desserts to choose from...

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All this for €55 and You will be able to PREORDER these boxes and choose your collection time on Friday 12th, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th but don’t delay because when they’re gone, they’re gone!!.

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CORK www.cornstorecork.ie for CLICK & COLLECT

or

CALL & COLLECT 021-4274777 opening times Thursday 4-8pm, Friday 2-8pm, Saturday 11-8pm and Sunday 1-7pm.

Or

ORDER at the DOOR

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CELEBRATE
MOTHER’S DAY &
ST. PATRICK’S WEEK
with HEAT AT HOME from MARKET LANE

Comes with FREE ‘Always Cork’ tote bag (while stocks last).

Children's Menu also. Contact here

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This is a trial run!! (For future inclusions, please contact me before 1.00pm Wed with a sentence or two, a pic and a link to menu)

Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Is Your Anytime Ace. Not Just Valentine's!

Piper-Heidsieck Champagne

Is Your Anytime Ace. Not Just Valentine's!

Piper-Heidsieck is one of the most famous houses in Champagne. It is known for its structured, fruit-driven house style made predominantly from Pinot Noir, with smaller portions of Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. The company has its origins in the cloth- and wine-trading company Heidsieck and Co. which was founded in 1785 by Florens-Louis Heidsieck. 

The current winemaker is Émilien Boutillat.  “Émilien was born in the heart of champagne. He has made wine around France, in Chile, in South Africa and in New Zealand. He has a global perspective, a scientific approach and is one of the rising stars of the wine world.” Not a bad intro at all from Liberty Wines MD David Gleave as he introduced Émilien Boutillat during a masterclass last year. Judging by the two wines here, the intro was well deserved.

Piper Heidsieck Essentiel Cuvée Réservée Extra Brut, 12% 

Émilien Boutillat

Through the pale gold colour, fountains of bubbles race in profusion towards the top. Nutty notes in the aromas. It really makes you stop and take notice on the palate, pear and apple amidst the lively citrus contribution. And, after that full and flavoursome combination (enhanced by the contribution of the reserve wines), comes a persistent dry finish. One of the very best Extra Brut champagnes I’ve come across (not that I’ve come across that many) and Very Highly Recommended.

Info:

Extra Brut.

Mise en Cave (cellared): 2015.

Degorgement: Jan 2019.

Winemaker: Émilien Boutillat.

Blending: Harvest 2014 and 18% Reserve wines

Grapes: 50% Pinot Noir , 30% Meunier, 20% Chardonnay

The Essentiel wines are produced exclusively for independent merchants and the on-trade. The Essentiel Cuvée Réservée Extra Brut and the Essentiel Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut are made in limited quantities and for the table, with their low dosage (6 g/l and 4 g/l respectively) making them ideal for whetting the palate or serving with seafood.

* I got this bottle as an unexpected gift at Christmas. You can get it in Mitchell & Son (Dublin) for €66.95, details here. 

Piper Heidsieck Cuvée Brut NV, 12%, on offer €39.95 (was €54.06), O’Briens Wine

This signature Brut has a really bright gold colour, lots of bubbles catching the lights. Aromas - fruity, biscuity.  Again fruity (citrus) and biscuity on the palate and it certainly lives up to the Brut with the persistent finish delicate with that lovely citrus prominent.

So what would you pair this beauty with? Lynne Coyle MW, of O’Briens, suggests it’s perfect with “the antics of Bridgerton and their society parties”.  "Enjoying the antics of Bridgerton and their society parties? then Champagne is the perfect match. Champagne would have been flowing freely during this period, establishing itself as a luxury celebration wine." 

Of course, you would need something to nibble on. Again Lynne has the solution: Rustic Bread & Black Olive Tapenade. Just ask the servants.

I got this bottle in “Deck the Halls” Feast Hamper that I bought from the excellent Glass Curtain restaurant in Cork City at Christmas.

India At Home. Thanks to The Glass Curtain

 India At Home Thanks to The Glass Curtain

So what are Bombay Potatoes. Aloo is the word for spuds there. But Aloo is different to ours and indeed there are many variations, usually involving some form of spice (including the likes of ginger, turmeric, even curry, not necessarily all together!). 

Both Jamie Oliver and BBC Good Food suggest ginger in their recipes. Not too sure what the Glass Curtain used but they certainly used ginger in the butter in which the greens were cooked. Perhaps that’s why my tall glass of gin (the Christmas Cake version by Blackwater Distillery) and ginger ale went so unexpectedly well with the Glass Curtain main course, part of a splendid "At Home" meal at the weekend. 

By the way, Bombay Aloo or Bombay Potatoes turn up, in various versions, regularly enough locally. Enjoyed them as part of a tasting evening in Richy’s (you might come across them  in the Blue Haven as that is where Chef Meeran, Richy’s former chef, is now operating) and, with Crowe's Farm Pork in Nash 19, with lamb in Market Lane and as part of a Nepalese dish in Thali (where they were served as fritters).

Irish greens, oriental sheen

Anyhow, back to our Glass Curtain At Home meal. Each week they offer a new menu which is available Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. There is one dinner option each night which they prepare in the restaurant for collection and you finish at home in a few simple steps. They give some instructions on how to finish everything and some tutorials via their social media channels "hoping to create a fun interactive service". They also offer their wine list and craft beers at retail prices.

We liked the look of the Friday menu last week and ordered it early in the week. The two courses for two people costs fifty euro and this is what we got when we collected from MacCurtain Street:

Mains: Tandoori Monkfish tail, coconut dal, Bombay potatoes, garlic and ginger buttered greens, roti flatbreads

Dessert: Poached rhubarb, cardamom custard, crack pie.

Crack Pie? I hear you ask. Okay, I’ll try and keep it short. Many of you will know Chef David Chang from TV cookery shows and his Momofuku chain, part of which is The Milk Bar where Christina Tosi leads the way. The Milk Bar is famous for desserts and one of the most popular, from day one, was the crack bar. It was advertised on the basis of its addictive qualities and the name became a problem and eventually Tosi decided that it should be known as the Milk Bar Pie.

Sweet!

The Milk Bar Pie might sound innocent but it is not! Here’s a link to a recipe. If you haven’t time to switch over, I’ll let you know that the filling, under the granola type crust, contains sugars (brown, white), salt, milk, butter, cream, vanilla extract and egg yolks. Put it all together though and it’s yum! And that rhubarb and custard was pretty cool too!

But we spent most of the evening in India! There were a few pieces of finishing to be done but the Blog Chef displayed faultless coordination and timing and all elements were ready together, the microwave being the unsung hero, as is often the case with these At Home meals. On the plate, the monkfish (which had been cooked on the bone), the Dahl, the potatoes, the garlic and ginger buttered greens, along with the wafer thin Roti breads, looking promising and that promise was certainly fulfilled. 

Monkfish, plus a squeeze of lime

The first bite transported us east and our stay was pleasant, an amazing feast of colour, spice, flavour, textures. Reckon we’ll have to travel east again sometime soon. 

We’re really not travelling very far at all these days of course and our recent meals, all click and collect, came from nearby restaurants such as Mirco, Greenes and the Glass Curtain. I notice that Greenes have announced a delivery service on Fridays and Saturdays, joining the likes of Liberty Grill and Good Day Deli on the road.

The Glass Curtain, 

Unit A, Thompson House, 

MacCurtain Street, Cork

Check out their At Home offers here.

Latest from The Glass Curtain:

"Thank you all for a great first week back doing 'The Glass Curtain @ Home'.

We are overwhelmed by how quickly this past weekend sold out, sorry to any one who missed out! We are back with three more meals this coming weekend, available to order from midday, on Tuesday 2nd February... set your reminders now to avoid disappointment."

Fabulous Festive Feast from The Glass Curtain. "Deck The Halls" A Christmas Highlight

Fabulous Festive Feast from The Glass Curtain

"Deck The Halls" A Christmas Highlight.

Christmas bubbles!

When we picked up our "Deck The Halls" feast from the Glass Curtain just before Christmas, we knew we were onto a good thing. Just how good, we'd discover over the next few hours. It came in their own specially designed tote and they packed the very best into it, including a bottle of the excellent Piper Heidsieck champagne.

We didn't get around to everything on the first night and not everything is included in the photos here. One of our starters was a beautifully presented, in a jar, Duck Liver Paté topped with a mulled wine jelly. There were two cheeses also included: a small round of Ballylisk Triple Cream Brie and a hefty chunk of Aged Ballinrostig Gouda. There was even a Mulled Wine Spice Bag. 

The GC tote bag was designed "so all your savoury items complement each other and are a perfect selection to share around the table". All very true indeed. And there was little or no cooking required. The instructions were simple: Unpack your items and let come to room temperature, warm your buns, bake your cookies and pop your bubbles on ice. Even I could do that!

It was by far the best "take-out" of this strange year. Imagine how I feel now though, having just missed out on their New Year's Eve offering! The offer came through by email yesterday. I didn't see it immediately and when I tried to get through, I failed, and failed. When I did succeed in connecting, all I saw was the Sold Out sticker. Damn! Still glad I got that Christmas one though. And the good news is, that after a short and deserved break, Brian Murray and his team "will be thinking up some new and exciting menus to bring to you at home in the next couple of weeks".

Milk buns (with Chicken Schmaltz)

Venison and black truffle hand-raised Pie, (with pickled walnut relish).
From this hearty pie to light snacks (like the popcorn below)
The Glass Curtain came up trumps every single bite!

House cured salmon pastrami (and herbed Crème Fraiche)

Chocolate chip cookies (with Salted Caramel sauce)
and below Mince Pies

Popcorn: Caramel Crunch/white chocolate & Macadamia nuts/
dark chocolate & chilli.

for the cookies, just one of a series of
super relishes and sauces.

Festival Food & Drink Favourites #2. Eight Degrees "Devil’s Ladder: Belgian Tripel

Glad I Got The Glass Curtain At Home

Glad I Got The Glass Curtain At Home

From Thursday next, MacCurtain Street’s Glass Curtain will be welcoming the public back into their lovely new (more or less) restaurant. Like many others these past few months, they have been serving up dishes via a call and collect system and I’m glad I gave it a try at the weekend. It was superb and also that bit different.

Golden goujons

Their Friday menu offered: Fish Tacos - Panko breaded cod, pico de gallo, sweetcorn salsa, shredded cabbage, flour tortillas, bravas potatoes with lime chipotle aioli, fish skin chicharrones. Dessert was White chocolate and strawberry iced parfait. All for €40.00 for two people. Actually portions were quite generous and we had more than enough.

Cotton Ball Beers were available too and they also suggested a wine off their list: the lovely Verdejo by Bodegas Menade. And there was also the offer of their Pineapple Mezcal Margarita from the cocktail list. The drinks on the Saturday night were along the same lines with a Tempranillo from Castilla instead of the Verdejo. That red would have paired well with BBQ Brisket, house slaw, jalapeño cornbread, mac n’cheese  for two. Dessert: Chocolate chip cookies salted caramel sauce. On both nights, the Veggie Option was Veggie Tacos Panko.

In our case, there was, of course, a little bit of cooking to be done. The tortillas had to be rolled out and cooked in the frying pan while the patatas bravas were heated up in the oven. Simultaneously, the goujons were frying in oil, turning golden in no time. Indeed, the whole thing was ready in about 15 minutes.

Dessert

And then we tucked into the feast, assembling the tacos with a bit of everything, the shredded crunchy white cabbage, the delicious grilled corn salsa and the tasty pico de gallo. The eight large goujons were top notch, the cod was a glistening white wrapped in its slightly spicy coating. No shortage of spicy bits but nothing too extreme once mixed in, not even the chipotle aioli and excellent spuds. And those fish skin chicharrones also added to the ensemble. Haven't had cod skin close to this since we enjoyed one on a baked white onion in Nerua, the Michelin starred restaurant in the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

Very happy with the Glass Curtain mains and we allowed a decent gap before tackling the dessert which had been in the freezer. And there was no letdown here either with the big tub of White chocolate and strawberry iced parfait. Very enjoyable and plenty of it, indeed so much that we left close to half for the following day!

The restaurant opened last December. Brian Murray and his team were doing very well indeed as we found on our January visit (check it out here). And then Covid put in a full stop. No wonder, they’re “delighted to be welcoming the public back into the restaurant from Thursday 2nd July. We will be starting with limited availability to ensure all possible steps are taken to protect patrons and staff alike.”  You may book your table now by visiting their website and clicking the reservations button here.

* Must say that our At Home (or Call & Collect) offerings over the past few weeks have all top notch. We stayed pretty local as we collected from Greene's, Micro's, and the Glass Curtain. Good Day Deli delivered and their offering was also of the highest quality. Best of luck to all the restaurants opening up this week. And do look out too for Call & Collect as these could well continue for some time to come.

TablePath's Helping Restaurants Go "Click & Collect"

A classy take-away from Greene's!

TablePath's Helping Restaurants Go "Click & Collect"

With the food service industry being turned inside out these days, you have to be quick to adapt.  And helping Cork restaurants such as Greene's Sage and Da Mirco take the Click and Collect route is well established restaurant booking service TablePath, making it easier for the restaurants simplify and automate what can be a complex process. 

By the way, one of the partners in TablePath is Martin Poucher who is also the tech brains behind NeighbourFood with Jack Crotty, another brilliant food related service and one that doesn't seem to be getting the credit it deserves.

I just clicked into DaMirco's website there and here's what it looks like for this weekend.Tempting - you'd better hurry.

Other local restaurants on the TablePath system are:

www.greenesrestaurant.com (Bryan)

www.theglasscurtain.ie (Brian)

www.sagerestaurant.ie (Kevin)

www.12tables.ie (Dave & Cat)

www.damirco.ie (Mirco)

www.thewhalestail.ie

www.freddysbistro.com (Limerick)

www.oneillsbistro.com (Tipp)

Andrew Monaghan, Sales Manager with TablePath: "All their orders come through to them on their TablePath account and they can decide how many orders they can handle every 15 minutes and the system will work with that figure. Can also handle the maximum amount of orders they can handle per day.

The system automates all the payments, orders placed and time slots. Many of those now working with us had initially gone down the ‘pen & paper’ route of taking orders, payments etc. but once we had given them a demo on how simple the TablePath system was they were happy to work with us immediately!

from The Glass Curtain.

We manage all the set up (free of charge!) and we also manage all their Menu / pricing updates so there is very little for the restaurateur to do except process the incoming orders and drop them to the hungry customers in their cars.

With ‘Social Distancing’ going to have a big impact on the number of diners each restaurant can handle from June 29, we believe that the takeaway aspect of each restaurant will work ‘hand in hand’ with their core business once they re-open their doors! Our system integrates with STRIPE who handle the secure online payment process. 

We are delighted to work with many of Corks top restaurants and look forward to working with more over the coming weeks!"

Class Cuisine at The Glass Curtain. New Kid on the Thompsons Block

Class Cuisine at The Glass Curtain

New Kid on the Thompsons Block

The Glass Curtain has made an impressive debut on MacCurtain Street, the latest food outlet in the bustling area of Cork city, with something for every palate and wallet. And the buzz goes on - lots more to come. Much of it in the old Thompsons Building, once a key bakery for the city. 

Brian Murray’s Glass Curtain is one of the smaller developments in the cavern of a building. There is much more space being filled between the street back as far as Wellington Road. Another restaurant, a bar and a micro-brewery are coming soon as the Lynch family (who own the Cotton Ball brewery) continue the exciting development.

"Low Fashioned" on the right

But back to Brian and the Glass Curtain. He is very much  supporting local and indeed the craft beers on offer are from the Cotton Ball. They also have about a dozen tempting cocktails including one that I enjoyed on my recent visit. The “Low Fashioned” is a very tasty combination of Kinsale “Wild Red” Mead, Angostura, Demerara and Orange. 

Other local drinks featuring in the cocktail list include Longueville Apple Brandy, Blacks Gin and Kalak Peated Vodka. And one cocktail that you may well fancy, some of you for nostalgic reasons, is the Turkish Delight (Lychee liqueur, rose, orange blossom and soda). Those of you who remember Thompsons in its prime probably know that Hadji Bey Turkish Delight was made across the road. Quite an extensive wine list also and spirits too. So that’s the drinks. What of the food? 

Pic courtesy of The Glass Curtain.

Those of you on social media will have seen the Glass Curtain publish their first food pic (above) in mid January. In the comments, chef/owner Brian said “the menu has been a living restless thing since we opened last month. Changing daily, still defining our style and still a lot of work to be done. Here’s one our guests and ourselves have taken a real liking to: the tandoori monkfish, chargrilled, with roast cauliflower, mussels, saffron and baby leeks.” 

As it happened we were in the evening the photo was taken and one of our mains was that very dish and we gave it a big thumbs up. Don’t think there’s too much work to be done on this one, aside from seasonal variations of course!

Pork and cabbage and "gravy", but not like Granny's

My mains that evening was based on a collar of pork. You don’t see this very often on local menus. More’s the pity as it’s absolutely delicious. And the Glass Curtain version was even more so. Pork collars are a familiar item in Europe and because of their intense marbling are used to make traditional sausages such as coppa. 

The collar is cut from the shoulder portion that runs from the neck to the tip of the loin. Bord Bia have a recipe on their site here and say that the cut is very good value and that leftovers can be used in pulled pork sandwiches.

Brian, who cooks with “a lot of love and a little fire”, declares on their website that “flavour is our holy grail” and he certainly got that spot on with this dish, the umami of sauce an outstanding factor. The menu description is: Pork collar, miso, grilled winter cabbage and peanut rayu. Tender and delicious. Go for it!

Hake starter

Starters here are called Small Plates. CL enjoyed her Confit Hake, house XO sauce, and grilled broccoli, while my Cured red gurnard in roast onion dashi also went down well. That dashi was probably the star and I asked for a spoon to make sure I didn’t leave one delicious drop behind.

Gurnard and dashi. Should have had a sake with this!

Just three desserts on offer and, while our shared Honey Custard Tart (with nutmeg and fresh cream) was not quite on a par with the earlier courses, it was nonetheless polished off. Perhaps you may prefer the cheese offering: a selection of Irish cheese, Peter’s Yard crackers and honey.

The place itself is comfortable, seats about 35, and the service is excellent. Some seats will give you a good view of the open kitchen. We were absorbed when they started cooking their Beef Chop. This “monster” is about three  inches thick, I guess, and is for sharing. It is 35-day aged and they grill it on the bone. You may need one of the side dishes here, perhaps the  Smoked Heritage Potatoes with Beef Dripping! 

The Glass Curtain 

Thompson House

MacCurtain Street

Cork

Tel: (021) 451 8659