Stuff I've eaten in the last week

First mention is Beeftro on Balfe Street. Came here for lunch last Friday. I had the BBQ pulled chicken sandwich which is served with sweet potato fries. Had some white wine to kick off happy Friday! The staff are lovely and the food is fab. Will definitely be back to try beef :)

I stopped at The Cupcake Bloke on my way to Beeftro and picked up some of their Halloween cupcakes. Inchose spiced pumpkin, tombstone and ghostly chocolate - which clearly disappeared and a brack. The brack is delicious and made even nicer with just a little bit of butter. 

On Sunday we were in town for some Christmas presents shopping (I know!) and stopped at Coffee Angel on South Anne Street. I thought the coffee was only ok and to be honest we were kind of made to feel like we were disturbing the staff's Sunday. The macaroon was dry and far too flaky but the chocolate brownie was fab!!

This week I've been on jury duty. Thankfully I wasn't picked but I realised something. I'm very glad I don't work too close to the city centre - there's far too much temptation around! I don't think my waist or purse would be too healthy in the long run. 

On Monday I visited Love Supreme in Stonybatter for lunch before getting back to work. 

I had a lovely Americano and a pork, celery and fennel sausage roll. The sausage roll was still warm and just so tasty.

I got a second Americano to take away to enjoy in the November sunshine. 

When we were released on Tuesday I visited a Slice of Cake on Manor Place. I chose a dark chocolate orange slice - shortbread with chocolate orange. It was like eating a Terry's chocolate orange biscuit. I had a coffee here - they serve 3fe. Lovely spot but tends to get crowded.

I didn't get a coffee to take away. Instead I brought home slices of cake - coconut jam and a pomegranate and almond. 

After being let go early on Wednesday I made my way to Aungier Street to the new doughnut (donut) place, Aungier Danger. 

There's been a lot of hype around this spot and I wanted to check out the fuss. Luckily when I got there it was open (they're only open while they have stock) there wasn't much of a queue and they had plenty to choose from. Which caused an issue. I could decide so ended up getting a box of four to bring home - crime scene (red velvet with cream cheese), Banoffee autopsy, cherry gunshot and a jam five o. I think they use banana flavouring in the Banoffee. They were OK if a little denser than I'd like.

As I've a very sweet tooth my favourite was the very sugary crime scene. 

It's only takeaway so from there I walked to Krust bakery on Georges Street. Here I had an Oreo Cronut and a coffee. The Cronut was really fresh and the coffee was perfectly warming. 

On the last day of jury duty I visited The Pepperpot in Powerscourt Centre. 

As you can see I had a great seat overlooking the centre and it was really nice to sit back and listen to the piano - I think it's part of a lunchtime thing going on in Powerscourt. 

Here are the menus 

I ordered the roast pear, bacon and Montgomery cheese sandwich and an Americano. 

The sandwich - OMG! It was utterly delicious. I wouldn't have put bacon, cheese and pear together but wow does it work. The bread is thick but really fresh.  Amaze balls and I can see why that particular sandwich is a really popular menu item. 

The china wouldn't be out of place in my nanna's kitchen or on display on her dresser which I also really liked. Such a nice feel to this place and the staff are all so nice. Am only disappointed I didn't try here sooner!

So there's my highlights of my week. What about you?! 

Waggly tails for top (hot) dogs and drinks

First stop of the evening was the Dingle Whiskey bar on Nassau Street. They've recently won Irish Whiskey bar of the year (Leinster) 

I didn't want to start the evening off with a whiskey so I chose one of their Fish Bowl cocktails - Bowler hat. 

Amazing selection here but only stayed for one as I had booked a table for Porndog on Montague Street via Twitter for anytime between 5:30 and 6:00 on Saturday evening. 

What a great attention grabbing name! 

To put it mildly I've been very excited to try Porndog since I found out Dublin was finally going to be getting a place specialising in hot dogs. 

It looks small when you walk in first and you can see into the kitchen but it's deceptive. There's plenty of seating over two floors.

We were brought upstairs and had a choice of seats. We chose one of the low seats in front of the bar. I was fascinated by the jars of pickle fermenting away on the bar. The barman informed me that they are for pickle back shots which are v popular in the USA but I wasn't brave enough to try one. 

The music was mainly 70s disco. My mum played a lot of this when I was growing up so I loved it. Great tuneage. I found all staff to be very friendly and attentive but not over the top. 

Here are the menus:

I went with white wine. A glass of Cave L'Ormarine Picquol. Olivia Pope on Scandal would be proud of the size of the glasses. Their pours are generous. Sean chose a 1L growler of their Pale Ale. 

We ordered the hummus plate to share for start. Warm Garlic brioche bread, pickled vegetables (purple cauliflower, carrot & strips of courgette (I think) and a lovely harissa spiked hummus dip. The brioche was really good as were the pickled vegetables.

For my main course I chose the Voodoo dog. OMFG wow. Southern Panko Fried Chicken sausage with sriracha mustard, micro greens, American cheese, smoked bacon pork crackling and house fermented pickle vegetables. Now if you were left alone you could easily get the hunch on but had to be polite so mainly ate it with a knife and fork. The dog was just awesome! The chicken was crispy and tender and had a lovely kick to it. 

We also ordered a side of sweet potato fries which are served with harissa yogurt, salted seeds and Parmesan cheese. Utterly delicious!

Sean ordered the Hot Diggity Dog which is a smoked and charred beef sausage, chilli beef brisket, guacamole, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, creme fraiche and fresh chillies.

I still had room for dessert so I chose the tempura fried candy bar bites. These are little bites of Mars, Snickers and Milky Way with just a little batter. The chocolate was a little messy. Little bites of heaven :)

As you can see they're serving up some seriously good looking delicious tasting food porn. 

I did not leave disappointed. Sean had reservations before we went but he really enjoyed it too. Will definitely be back!!! :) 

Was still early so headed around the corner to Against the Grain. I had heard rumours that they were going to have Founders' Rubaeus on tap but it wasn't on yet so instead I tried the new Galway Bay Brewery beer, The Eternalist. Matured in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels for almost two years with a hint of raspberry and it costs €8:50 a bottle. Was it worth it? Yes! I'm not actually a beer drinker but I really enjoyed it. 

Then stopped at P. Macs for some more tipples. I had a couple of glasses of Lindemans Framboise. Sean chose the Siren Craft Brew Broken Dreams which is very like a Founders' Breakfast Stout but sweeter. I even liked it :)

Lovely crisp October evening so we then strolled along Stephen's Green crunching through the leaves and ended up at Alfie Byrnes. Took me a while to choose what I wanted but eventually decided to have another Eternalist here - they only had a couple of bottles left!