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The Food of Carlingford

2012-05-22T18:10:21-05:00

Contributor: Christina Irene
By my second day in Carlingford, Co. Louth, Ireland, I couldn’t walk down the street without hearing someone yell out my name. To indicate the source of my popularity, the shout of my name was followed always by the question, “How’s your head?”

Carlingford felt like home to me, not just because everyone knew my name upon arrival, and I theirs, but because I could partake in one of my favorite hobbies, the consumption of alcohol, without the assigned shame I’d have back in the States. We began at eleven in the morning, a group of us at the Carlingford Arms. My first order was a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich (made differently every day) and a bloody Mary (merely a shot of vodka on the rocks in a tall glass, a bottle of tomato juice, the bottle of Tabasco—I kept forgetting to ask for Worstershire). Here, as well, they continued to inquire about my head.

The three other pubs in this medieval fishing village are all within a block of the Carlingford Arms, and I’d see the same faces in each of them, as if there were four of every citizen. The town handyman (the one who got me up into a dangerously crumbling castle tower by threatening to the owner to never work on his pub again unless he allowed us up) said of this, “We like to keep them all in business.”

After the bloody Mary, I began on the beer, my preference becoming Smithwicks with a Guinness head, as recommended by the village barber, whose shop is above one of the pubs. (I got my hair done, which, said with their accent sounds startlingly identical to “I got my hard-on.”) By eight o’clock in the evening, with all the beer from the daily pub crawl, I was full, so I had to switch to whiskey. It was like butter. Of course everyone asked about my head in the mornings.

Now, since I write this for a food blog, I must take a moment to talk about the food in this village, besides the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. The village has a candy shop with local and British candies. Fantastic toffee. Also, there's has a coffee shop owned by Italians, so it has proper espresso. If it’s starting to sound like heaven, that’s because it is.

On the day of my birthday, I dined in the finest restaurant in town, McGee’s. I asked the staff, “If it were your birthday, and you could have anything you wanted, what would you have?” I stayed directly with the recommendation and began with the appetizer menu item, prawn pil-pil (delightfully plentiful garlic, chili sambal, and olive oil served sizzling hot) and then on to the special, prawn tempura with black bean relish, quite delicious and balanced in flavor and in texture. Did I mention this place is heaven? Because indeed the food was divine. They treated me with a whiskey and a dessert with a sparkler in it, so I felt I myself was divine (as one should on a birthday).

I also had a fantastic meal at McKevitt’s Village Hotel, which is loosely referred to as the fifth pub, though it’s more a restaurant. There I partook in the “Early Bird Special” (served all night), where I could choose my three courses for twenty-five Euro. I began with the baked Portobello mushrooms, topped with fresh herb and chili cream sauce, garnished with fresh salad leaves and beetroot chutney. I am a fiend for Portobello mushrooms, and I was not disappointed. Then I moved on to the pan-seared salmon fillet (tender fresh salmon from Scotland) served on a light lemon butter cream (as amazing as something with the word “butter” ought to be), and for dessert, I had the rhubarb crème brûlée, an ingenious concoction.

Even the Carlingford Arms had marvelous cuisine, in addition to that sandwich. I had the breaded goat cheese rounds with berry compote and salad with pesto and balsamic. Absolutely incredible combination of flavors.

I cannot neglect Taaffes. It is the pub in the castle I climbed. They save their food for the weekend, so I only consumed liquid nourishment here, but I must say it is perfect Irish atmosphere. I mean, it’s an actual castle. Need I say more?

Ma Baaker’s is the pub where I spent long afternoons. Fine whiskey selection, and the finest collection of people. This is the pub above which I got my hard— I mean, my hair done. No food here, except when the bar man steps out to his adjacent apartment and returns with sandwiches he makes for everyone at the bar.

And while I wrap up my pub descriptions, I have to add in PJ’s, which is the first pub I went to, on my first night, and I sat and drank my Smithwicks while the man next to me, a cab driver from Dublin, originally from New York City, was baffled at how I arrived in this place, this night, where Henry Mac the musician played with five other men, all acoustic guitars, sitting around the fire, and the cabbie said, “It took me ten years to get here, to find this music in this bar on this night, and you’re in Ireland one day and you’ve already found it.” Sometimes I get lucky, but I like to say I’m smart.

Back to the food. I must include another delectable site: the Chinese takeaway, a bit scary-looking to a sober person, lovely to me, and just across from my room that was within the pub mecca of the village. It stayed open until one o’clock in the morning on a weeknight. It’s the only way they were able to get me out of the pub at all. The best was the night I had to have chips (fat French fries) and curry sauce (yeah, that soupy spicy red Indian sauce). I highly recommend this combination.
So in my rankings of all these fine meals I had in Carlingford, I will select a favorite, and my favorite is the every-day-different bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich I had every morning at the Carlingford Arms. This is where I could walk to the side of the bar and grab wood to throw on the fire myself. This is where the bartender asked me to help hang the Easter decorations. This is where a family of not-so-integrated tourists chose me as the drunk at the bar of whom to ask directions to the toilet. This is where I met the man who drove me to the top of the mountain so I could see the Mourne Mountains from above. This is where it was most apparent to me that the people of Carlingford have two things they love doing the most: to drink and to laugh. And they don’t laugh because they’re drunk; they laugh because they’re in the company of those people they drink with.

Restaurants are rated by the food, its taste, presentation, its fancifulness and popularity, plus the atmosphere of the place itself, its location, history, the service, who happens to own it. These are all fine ways to rate that savory morsel balanced on the end of your fork, and I will continue to rate so myself, but there is a ranking we ignore too often, one that skips the food itself and seeps directly to your soul in the form of pure joy (and isn’t this the ultimate purpose of great food anyway?), and this is the company you keep, the people you share it with, whether its your soul mate, your oldest best friends, or the rowdy randy drunks at the local pub. This is why an inconsistent BLT outranks the best prawn pil-pil every morning, every day, eternally.

(To those people up in the hills who work hard throughout the week and wait ’til the weekend to hit the pub, I'm sorry if I may have inaccurately portrayed your dear town as one of drunkards. And I'm sorry I drank all your whiskey.)

479 Degree Popcorn Review

2012-05-19T08:57:31-05:00

Contributor: Tony Brueski
I love this popcorn. I can't say that enough. I've never been one to buy a pre-packaged, pre-made, pre-seasoned popcorn, but this stuff changed all that. Meet 479 Degree Popcorn. An artisan popcorn popped in small batches by artisan popcorn maker Jean Arnold.

This stuff comes in multiple flavors, but the one I keep going back to, the one I crave in the middle of the night, the one that my wife would pick over me should someone point a gun at my head and say "its him or the popcorn", is the "black truffle & white cheddar" flavor. It's simply delicious and extremely addictive as you can see from this video review.

Wine Review: Totally Random Wine Peach

2012-05-17T07:43:32-05:00

Writer & Producer: Tony Brueski
Some wine rules are made to be broken. That is exactly what this wine does. "Totally Random Wine" from Alder Fels Winery in California has come out with a new offering in this line of wines, this time... its Peach! Not exactly a flavor you think of, when you think of wine.

It is not a "peach based" wine or fermented from peaches though. Its grapes are of the moscato variety and is infused with natural peach flavoring to give it, its pleasant peachy flavor. Its not a hard core wine drinkers wine, but it is far from fermented kool-aid as well. Its flavors stand up to any "fruity" white, which makes it a great choice when served extra cold on a hot day. It would also be a great wine for infusing into cocktails. Over all a nice offering from Alder Fels in the category of "non traditional wines".

Mothers Day Gift Ideas

2012-05-07T16:42:04-05:00

Contribuitor: Jen Brueski
Several times over the past couple of years, our family has received what I call “Magical Baskets of Goodness” from Wine Country Gift Baskets, and most of the time Tony says that I have to play nice and share. This time we received a cute canvas tote with leather trim that caught my attention and it was filled with assorted bath and spa products; body butter, body bar, bath caviar, body lotion shower gel, bubble bath, body scrub, loofa sponge, slippers, and sachet all in my favorite scent, Lavender.

When Tony and our daughter saw how interested I was in the basket, they glanced at each other and then said “Happy Mother’s Day!” This confirmed that the basket was just for me and I did not have to share, not this time! Much like a child on Christmas morning, I quickly gathered up the basket and its contents and whisked it away to my secret cabinet where everyone knows to “keep out; what’s inside is for mommy only!”

As for the products themselves, I am trying them all one by one in sweet indulgence. So far, my favorite is the body butter. Being 5 ½ months pregnant, I have found that I will slather anything on my stomach to keep stretch marks to a minimum, and I believe this products actually helps. I have to say Tony and our daughter hit the nail on the head with the Lavender basket for Mother’s day.

Aside from the basket of pampering, we received a second basket to check out from Wine Country Gift Baskets. This was filled with chocolates, cheeses and something that I am not allowed to touch (at least for the next 4 months) Wine. It wasn’t the bottom of the barrel wine either; it was 3 delicious bottles of Coppola. A cabernet, merlot and chardonnay. From what I could see, Tony and some friends did put them to good use. This would be a perfect gift for a stressed out mom (who is not expecting). It’s hard to go wrong with any of the offerings from Wine Country.

Until the next holiday that deserves a “basket”, Happy Mother’s Day!

Disclosure: Baskets were provided for review by Wine Country Gift Baskets. No compensation was paid for this review.