Tag: food

Post author By barry
Post date October 5, 2022
1 Comment on Wexford

Some 6 or 7 years ago, Claire and I decided to get out of Durham for 4th of July and go somewhere different to watch fireworks. After a quick run through the local papers and websites, we decided on Butner, about 20 miles or so north. A town more famous for its variety of prison facilities, including the federally run minimum security establishment that housed Bernie Madoff, among others.

We quickly found the lake where the fireworks were supposed to be held, but we were practically the only people there. We got directions to a different lake. Same story. After a couple of hours and a glorious sunset, we went home, eventually to learn that Butner’s fireworks display had been held the weekend before. That’s forgivable on those occasions when July 4th falls on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, but not when it’s already on the weekend. Butner quickly became a running joke in our household, and then a simple punchline that needed to introduction. We’d just look at one another and say, “Butner!” without any obvious prompt. Always funny.

Wexford kinda filled that niche for us in Ireland, for a different reason. We’ve planned numerous trips to Wexford on our various visits, but somehow none of them ever came off. For our anniversary this past weekend we talked about trying again, but had to hold off till the last minute because we’re still waiting on the arrival of our main shipment of goods from the states. I expect every morning to receive a call from the shipping company to arrange a time for delivery that day, and every morning so far I’ve been disappointed. So Thursday night we cashed in a Hotels.com voucher and booked a room at the Crown Quarter on Wexford’s main quay for Friday night. A second night was unavailable, so we planned a busy day Saturday, and figured on catching the latest bus back to Youghal through Waterford.

When we checked in the woman at the desk warned us that there’s a disco on the ground floor on Friday nights, and we might get some of the bass coming through the floor, but that it would end by 12:30.

Pro tip: The disco at the Crown Quarter on the weekend runs right up to the legal 1 am limit, and is outside in the courtyard, where the sound carries extremely well into the rooms. Possibly even the best seat in the house. On the plus side, we heard both Come On Eileen and the Weezer cover of Toto’s Africa. So, a successful mini-vacation on that front.

Waterford itself is a quite lively place, lots of pedestrian activity along the narrow Viking era streets that make up the commercial district. Outdoor dining options everywhere, from cafes to white linen restaurants. We had dinner at the Thomas Moore Tavern where I ate some of the best mussels I’ve ever had, and Claire enjoyed the daily special of a local cod and spinach fritter with a beetroot carpaccio, which even I was able to take a bite of, and I despise beets. Even with appetisers, drinks, and dessert, the bill was only €80. We also had coffee and scones at Franks Place, and a quick lunch while waiting for the bus at Mi Asian street food.

Our big excursion for the day was the Irish National Heritage Park, a 100 acre site about 10 minutes out of town by bus. The walking tour of the park takes you through the various stages of Irish habitation, from the Neo-lithic era through the Norman settlements of about 900 years ago. Relatively educational, and not very strenuous. I confess I wasn’t paying attention to wheelchair accessibility. The park’s website states “The woods, paths and trails that lead through The Irish National Heritage Park are maintained as close to their natural state as possible, in keeping with the landscape as it would have been historically. Surfaces are therefore uneven and unpaved in parts. The installations and reconstructions themselves, are designed to reflect the actual experience of ancient and historical buildings. Care should be taken when accessing some of the low dwellings, the Ringfort stairways and all steps.”

The funniest part of our trip happened on the bus back, between Waterford and Dungarvan. A group of four teenage boys boarded, possibly at the Waterford Tech stop, possibly the one after. They sat in the back and were fairly loud. But shortly before disembarking at Crotty’s Pub stop outside Dungarvan to meet their girlfriends, they decided that a contest over who could say the word “penis” the loudest was going to be the most important thing ever. An utterly hilarious 5 minutes that I may never forget.

Claire and I agreed that we were glad not to have visited Wexford prior to our choice of settling in Youghal, because it would have been a tempting alternative. But living so far away from the bigger city of Cork, not to mention the likelihood of not having an ocean view, would have been second best. But we’ll definitely be back. But not to the Crown Quarter.

Tags Boats, castles, food, Harbor, Irish Heritage, Vikings

Cork City Ireland

One Month, Part Two

I mentioned that we’d tried to anticipate all the things that could go wrong on a lengthy trip and prepare for them. Obviously we couldn’t predict a global pandemic, but we did pay for most everything using cards that provide travel insurance, and we bought pretty comprehensive health insurance at a surprisingly reasonable price with a very low deductible. So, yay us. It’ll be very disappointing if our little side trips to Dublin and Paris later in the month have to be cancelled, or worse, our 3 weeks in Portugal in April, but we’ll deal with that if it happens.

Neither could we have predicted a stock market crash, whose ramifications on our savings we’ll have to deal with on our return. But again, much of the trip was paid off in advance, we live pretty frugally, and our budget so far is unaffected.

But hey, on to our trip so far.

Our apartment here in town is possibly the best location available. This past Saturday, for instance, we walked to a farmers market, fancy gourmet shop, 3 supermarkets, and the English Market to pick up food, dry goods, and booze. For the most part, fruits and vegetables (or veg, in the local vernacular) are cheaper than back home, often significantly so. Avocados right now are about 70 cents each. Red & yellow bell peppers similarly priced. Potatoes around 50 cents/lb ($1.20/kilo). Kerrygold butter is roughly $3.00/lb; other brands of Irish butter are much less, and just as good.

On the other hand, booze is quite expensive. Standard size bottle is 700 ml, so about 8% smaller than US bottles. This local gin, one of the least expensive, is a little over $25.

On the other hand, the generic Indian tonic water at Tesco is comparable to any of the craft tonic waters that have sprung up in the States, and it’s a quarter a liter.

So, eating and drinking in the apartment, which we do maybe half the time, is probably cheaper than back home. And the streaky rashers i bought the other day at The English Market for under $3/lb were better than any bacon i’ve had in the US in a good long while.

This is the view down our block, probably taken on a Sunday morning last fall. There’s Indian, Malaysian, kebabs, pizza, and tacos within two blocks. Two further blocks, and more pub food than i can count. We’ve ended up with The Silly Goose as our local – they have a Wings and Pint special for 10 Euro, which includes essentially a full order of pretty decent wings.

*Looking south on Main Street, a block or two from our apartment.*

*The beginning of “Pub Row” on Washington Street, 4 blocks from our apartment.*

The bartenders and cook at the Goose all remembered our names the second time we went in, always a good sign. Barry, in the kitchen, took the time to fill us in on some local scenic spots off the tourist trail. We got to visit Crosshaven yesterday on his suggestion.

Chris runs a small gaming cafe called Tabletop about 3 blocks away. We’ve spent a few rainy afternoons there our first month, learning a few new games (Unearth and 7 Wonders, if you’re curious.)

Jack and Leon behind the bar at The Old Town Whiskey Bar provided us with an extensive history lesson of Irish distilling, and a wide range of whiskeys to taste a couple of weeks ago.

We’ve been out to the theater twice so far. The Everyman is a larger, and more ornate room that seats about 600 people. The production we saw there, A Holy Show, is based on a real event, when an Aer Lingus flight was hijacked by an ex-monk, and spent 7 tense hours on the tarmac in Paris. We also went to the Cork Arts Theatre, a more intimate venue, to see a production of The Parish. The funny story about that night is we showed up without tickets, only to learn that the show was sold out. But it was pouring rain outside, so we chatted with the box office attendant for a bit before heading back outside to continue our night. Before we left, the manager came by, and said he had gotten a call from a patron who had two extra tickets that she wasn’t going to use. He gave us her phone number (!), Claire called her, and we met in the lobby a few minutes before curtain and acquired tickets. Theresa turned out to be a charming lady, and after we met her sister and brother-in-law, i said to Claire that he had clearly been to Blarney and kissed the stone. Both plays were two person productions, with each actor playing multiple parts. The Parish was written pretty much about rural County Cork, so there were a lot of local references that went right over our heads. But funny people are funny, no matter the specificities, and we enjoyed it very much.

We’ve also fallen in with a science fiction/fantasy reading group. In February, we read the short novel This is How You Lose The Time War, and the dozen or so of us had a lively and wide-ranging two hour discussion over a few pints. For March, we’re slogging through Neal Stephenson’s ridiculously long Seveneves, about which i’ve shared some thoughts on Facebook previously. Let’s just say that, having finished this thing, i don’t have any greater opinion of it. Should be a fun group next week.

More regular photo blogging to come this week. Thanks for following along!

Tags drink, food, Theatre

Cork City Ireland

Just hanging out

The initial wave of OMG Let’s go see everything has worn off a bit, so a lazy morning at the apartment doesn’t seem such a crime. I’ve traded my view of the trees in our yard and neighborhood dog walkers for watching the clouds and the seagulls floating past the window. Occasionally a parade of pigeons waddles past on the balcony.

Barry has been making good use of the laptop for editing his many photos. The appliance behind him is our combo washer/dryer. It’s very quiet, but also small and slow, so our usually routine of two loads on a Sunday night (followed by folding and an episode of Star Trek) will likely change to a small load any night we’re here at home.

Barry also cooked a huge breakfast of bangers and eggs and potatoes this morning, so we’re both moving pretty slow.

Tags apartment, food

Athlone Ireland

A couple days in Athlone

Barry has clearly been spending more time on this blog than I, since I’m still several days behind. We were in Athlone Thursday through Saturday. Why Athlone? When we went there in 2017, it was because I wanted to see the town where my maternal grandfather grew up. On that trip we discovered Sean’s Bar, supposedly the oldest bar in Ireland, founded by Vikings some time around 900. Since we were just passing through, I got to quaff a brew with my ancestors’ ghosts, but Barry the Driver did not. So we returned so that he could enjoy Sean’s together (it was lovely, with a small fire in the fireplace, quiet on Thursday afternoon but hopping on Friday evening).

We managed to explore the town, as well as take some walks along the River Shannon and the canal that parallels the river. It’s a wide and very swift river, and apparently both the river and Lough Ree just to the north are noted for fishing, especially pike.

Our first afternoon was quite balmy for Ireland, in the low 50s, but the next morning was pretty windy walking along the river. We also had our first taste of Italian food in Ireland. The mushroom risotto was lovely, but don’t get Barry started on the pizza.