Adventures Abroad & At Home: Part II

Because I am feeling guilty ahem, I mean generous I am posting two days in a row! It’s not like I have any reason to atone… or maybe I do… after all it was only like twenty-something days ago I made my last post. Regardless, here we are – so let’s carry on, shall we?

Our first day in Dublin actually started in a small shop in Maynooth, where Nora is studying at the local university. Because we weren’t very hungry and we wanted to save our cash for the “big city”, we opted to share a breakfast sandwich and grab a tea.

Breakfast & Bus Fare

 

There is something so special about simple and fresh foods coming together in flavorful combinations. Our breakfast sandwich was stacked with hot and fresh eggs, ham, rich cheese and sliced tomatoes on toasted sesame seed bread.

The same day we stopped in on an intriguing little joint called 37 Dawson Street, which is familiarly called a late bar & food emporium. Although we didn’t ever get a proper look at the right time of day, we still enjoyed the food and atmosphere immensely!

The food was great & so were the bubblies. I was definitely fond of Orchard Thieves and drank it several times while I was over seas. The salad featured above was light and jam packed with flavor. To name a few: Avocado, Cucumber, Feta, Olives & Some Tangy Vinegar and Oil Dressing that was prime.

The other restaurant we were especially fond of was Queen of Tarts! True to it’s name, the patisserie was chalked full of delicious desserts. Nora and I both ate sandwiches, and in the spirit of trying new things I had the house soup! A sweet potato and lime puree that was a major surprise. It was perfectly complimented by the rich notes of goat cheese and pickled beet root in my sandwich.

Take a good long look at that tart! That’s 4 inches (inches!) of meringue piled onto smooth lemon filling. Alright everybody, let’s say it together… “Yum!” There were countless other mouth-watering desserts arranged in the café, but I am not so tech-savvy so the pictures were not so nice. So you’ll just have to take my word for it until you can visit yourself!

Well, it wouldn’t be a proper visit to Ireland if I didn’t try any local fare. Here are the remnants of a traditional Irish Breakfast – the mini version no less, supplied by the lovely and charming The Coffee Mill in Maynooth.

Before

After

I also tried the traditional Irish Stew. Unfortunately I didn’t get any good pictures of that either, but I will break it down for you. In my opinion, it was like any beef stew: meat, potatoes, root veggies… with one quirk… Can you guess it?

Corned Beef, my friends. Corned Beef.

It was certainly enjoyable, but it didn’t hit the spot quite like the rest of the food we had eaten. Maybe it was because we hadn’t walked ourselves ragged that day, or I had finished half a pint… Either way, it was just not the meal for me.

Now are you ready for Part III?

(Too much rhyming? Too bad!)

The Green Chile Convert

The Green Chile Convert: How a New Mexico Native became a Prodigal Daughter

“Some are born to love chile … others have chile thrust upon them.”

For most of my life, I have been the odd-man out in my family. If you are unfamiliar with New Mexican cuisine, you are about to become very familiar. The good ole Land of Enchantment is the square-ish state smushed between Texas and Arizona, and is decisively forgotten by the rest of the country. It’s like the other 49 states skipped 5^th grade and refused to learn states and capitals. They dropped New Mexico and adopted Puerto Rico. You may think I am kidding, but I have LITERALLY been asked if I needed a passport to leave the STATE.

Now that’s off my chest…

The food in my favorite state revolves around our favorite vegetable fruit (Sorry science – we just don’t see it that way!) Green Chile. Usually the star of any dish, it is often accompanied by the dream team:

Cheese. Beans. Rice.

If you ask any New Mexican, if your green chile isn’t hot, then you are eating a bell pepper. Canned chile is sacrilege, and buying it freshly roasted is the optimal (and only) choice.

That doesn’t leave a lot of room for a girl whose tongue and tummy are linked directly to the Anglo-Saxon side of her. Meanwhile, everyone else in my family, and the state, eat like this…

I have always loved the smell of roasting chile outside of our local grocery store when fall rolls around the corner, but I have never been able to withstand the spicy pepper it comes from. It never logically occurred to me that it is a good thing to put something in your body if you have to double glove your hands to peel it. Even then, a faulty brush of forehead sweat, and you could be sending your eye into a frenzied state of panic.

My first experience really enjoying chile was when I was working a baseball game a few summers back, and all Dion’s was selling was a large pizza slice with Green & Pepperoni. Now I don’t know about you, but running around in the hot sun, makes you hungry. Hungry changes a person. One bite, then two, and suddenly I was on the bandwagon, shouting, “full speed ahead!” I didn’t forget the burn, I embraced it.

That night, I went home and broke the news to my family.

“Mom. Dad. Today, of my own free will, I ordered and ate green chile and enjoyed it.”

You would think I was waiving around a Yale acceptance letter – my mom even put it on the calendar! Being part of a chile loving family will always mean that someone will like chile hotter than you, or they may chuckle when you pour yourself a glass of milk to chase down that green chile stew. But one thing I have learned, is that they’re not laughing at you anymore, they’re laughing with you.

I’ll leave you with this.