Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival

Industries Hall looks a lot nicer when it's not set up for insurance exams (shudder!!) 

So you collect your glass and wrist band on the way in. Paid €2 to upgrade to the goblet glass. 

Didn't notice the route map so we basically "winged" it :-) 

Great choice of beers and ciders with a couple of distillers thrown in!!

Was good to see so many of the brewers there representing some very fine drinks indeed. 

I did try some beers such as Vincent van Coff by Mountain Man and the Rascals / 250 square coffee beer...

My favourites had to be the special ciders I tried from Toby's (saddle sore scrumpy) and Macivors (festival special) 

The honey cider from Doyles was a lovely way to start the journey. 

Food wise I chose sweet potato fries from Dave's woodfire pizza co (with rosemary & sea salt), thai curry from Bitchin kitchen and then some cookies from the Dublin Cookie Co. Sean went with the fish and chips from Say Fish. 

We tried the salt caramel, chocolate and beer and apple cider cookies. They were really good so we got a box of cookies to bring home! 

We were lucky that we went Saturday afternoon when it wasn't that crowded but the heat in the hall can get unpleasant!! We also managed to get a seat outside in the tent to eat our food and enjoy some tunes. 

My only issues were the lack of seating inside and the greenhouse effect inside the hall. 

Get your legs to Klaw

If you like seafood you will love this new place on Crown Alley!! 

Klaw is teeny little shack type place with a beachy vibe serving up fresh fish dishes packed with flavour. 

We managed to get a table just inside the door. You can hear the musicians playing live music outside which is pretty nice. 

We ordered a bottle of white wine. I ordered the half pint of prawns and the lobster roll. They were €14 each. 

The prawns are served in a Guinness half pint glass with some fried bread and brandy spiked Marie Rose sauce. 

The lobster roll was absolutely amazing. I liked the bread which I think was sort of fried. The sauce they put on the lobster is really tasty :-)

Sean ordered the torched oysters. It's a very nice touch that they blowtorch the oysters table side and the smell is incredible when they're cooking.

The staff are lovely and very attentive. My only issue is that the prawns are peel and eat but that's only me not enjoying having to "work" for my dinner.

You could very easily walk by it but you definitely need to visit - amazing!

Weekend treats

Sean and his little brother went to London for the 2015 Great British Beer Festival and to do some touristy things. 

That included a trip to Choccywoccydoodah on Foubert's Place... 

The windows are something you should definitely experience - the cakes are incredible! 

But what's best of all is the bars of chocolate he brought me home - chunky monkey (milk chocolate with peanuts, peanut butter and honeyed banana) and a bacon chunky bar (milk chocolate and bacon flavouring)

Only tried the chunky monkey and OMG! Just wow - it tastes as good as it looks :)

We went went out for dinner on Saturday evening and had decided on a return visit to Platform Pizza Bar, Strand Road Bray. 

First stop was Brew Dock on Amiens Street.

I had a bottle of Savanna Dry Cider here. 

Thanks to a delay in finishing our drinks at Brew Dock on Amiens Street (that sign makes me giggle everytime!) we missed a DART and ended up being 15 minutes late but there was no issue raised which I find really impressive. 

We were sat across from the entrance to Narnia (the toilet!) so got a better photo of it this time :) 

For starters we shared some of the boneless chicken wings. We chose the Bootleg (sweet smoky BBQ sauce) and Caribbean Jerk (Mellow Jamaican Jerk seasoning) wings... They were sweet, tangy and had just a little kick. They went really nice with the Craigie's Ballyhook Flyer cider I drank to start. 

For main I ordered the same pizza as last time - goats cheese, mozzarella, pancetta, walnuts and maple syrup. I should really apologise to them again - I'm so fussy as I don't like tomato sauce based pizza and so I ordered it without. Unfortunately it came out with tomato sauce. They had no problem at all swapping it over - they really were so good about it but I still feel guilty as I hate being one of "those" people that make a fuss.

Sean chose the pizza with anchovies, tomatoes, capers & green olives. 

His brother went with the chorizo, mozzarella and tenderstem broccoli - no photo of that though ha!

We ordered a side of sweet potato fries 

There were three v clean boards when we were done and no fries left either! 

Then it came to dessert. Sean's brother wanted the pecan pie but I suggested ordering the Nutella pizza. I didn't realise it was so big until we were ordering it and Kate (I think that was her name, she was excellent!) advised that it's the size of their pizzas with a slightly different base. We agreed we'd share that between the three of us and if there was any left then we could take the rest home. The pizza is served with strawberries and ice cream...

I am not ashamed to tell you there was none to bring home in the box - another empty board! It was absolutely amazing - chocolate lover's nirvana!!! 

The second visit (its actually my third visit it a quick stop to pick up a takeaway pizza counts) was as good if not better than our first. I can only tell you that the food is delicious, the staff are lovely and it's well worth a visit out of the city to try here! 

How the bill is presented... The damage!!!

So completely stuffed we headed into town. Knowing the city centre would be very busy after the rugby we took a stroll to Alfie Byrne's (a Galway Bay Brewery bar) in the Conrad Hotel. They actually had Founder's Breakfast Stout (my favourite stout!) on tap so I got that. 

Sean and his brother got whiskeys and so I got to try Teeling Whiskey's 21 year old. Smells and tastes v good! 

On Sunday we visited Avoca Kilmacanogue. Had their white soda bread and tea before sharing a slice of deep dish apple pie with Sean... 

The crust was nice (and seeing as it's GBBO season) with no soggy bottom!! The apple filling was sweet and tart and moreish!! 

Last stop then was to pick up stuff for dinner. I got a Honey Roast Ham Sandwich (Honey Roast Ham, butter, mayonnaise, whole grain mustard & salad on sourdough bread) from Poulet Bonne Femme - decided I needed to mix it up from getting their chicken sandwich everytime!!! 

That was washed down with some Craigie's Dalliance cider ;) 

So that pretty much sums up my weekend... How was yours?! 

Nothing Ugly about this Duckling

You may have noticed from recent blog posts that I'm a bit of a fan of the prawn po'boys at Ugly Duckling in the Epicurean Food Hall so you can imagine my delight when they invited us along to a preview evening at their George's Street Arcade branch.

The menu... 

The sega mega drive and Nintendo 64 on their counter... Total childhood throwback - I love it!

The preview included wine, craft beers from 8 degrees brewing company, Sam Adams, Galway Hooker & Little Creature. I think the cocktail was a fancier G & T - the nicest one I've tried!

As good as the alcohol was the main event was obviously the food! Sample platter included mini (not very!) versions of  the Brisket, Pittsburgh, Po'Boy, Shredded Chicken & the new addition - Grilled Halloumi!

The crispy onion strings on the brisket were sooo moreish! The gravy on the brisket was finger licking good.

I loved the BBQ pulled pork and coleslaw. I actually don't like potato but their fries are fast becoming a new addiction! 

Of course my favourite was still the Po'Boy and this little slider version was the perfect introduction if you've never had it before! 

I really REALLY want to bring home the Cajun Mayo that they use on the Po'Boy and same goes for the BBQ sauce!!! Derek might've mentioned something about them bottling and selling this - I hope that's true! Will definitely be picking that up.

When Derek asked about more food I prob v cheekily asked for another Po'Boy (don't ask, don't get!) but when they brought out this tray I was v reluctant to share! :)

Great hosts, brilliant food, the drinks flowed and good chats in a really fab setting.

I'm so so glad these sort of sandwiches are available in Dublin. I can't criticise anything about my Ugly Duckling experiences so far. Darragh & Derek should be v v proud. Keep reaching you guys!