Wednesday, December 10. 2008Adventures in Irish Cuisine, Part IV: Café Togo
For lunch Tuesday, we walked to a nearby cafe and had some more sandwiches - I chose the "Southern Fried Chicken" and - at Radar's suggestion - a bottle of Lilt, while MJ picked the "Spiced Beef". After one bite of his, MJ and I split the two sandwiches half-and-half.
The "Southern Fried Chicken" was quite spicy, with just enough heat to make you aware of it but not so much to make one uncomfortable. It had a cheese on it that the owner identified as "Durrus" (see the wikipedia entry), a distinctly Irish cheese with a sweet but sort of nutty taste. The Lilt tasted (to me) exactly like Squirt. The "Spiced Beef" tasted, to my distinct horror, exactly like my Mother's goulash. Now, I'm not trying to disparage my Mom's cooking here - the woman was a saint, and I know it had to be hard to satisfy four distinctly different growing boys and my Father. However, somewhere along the way she got me confused with one of my other brothers and thought that her goulash was my favorite dish. Let me be clear about this - I never cared for the goulash. However, since she thought this was my favorite, she'd cook it for me on "special occasions" such as my birthday, and I just didn't have the heart to tell her "Mom, I don't like this". The problem only grew when I got married and my Mom, believing she was doing me a favor, told my wife that this was my favorite dish and gave her the recipe, and my wife started to cook it for me and beam proudly as she served me this dish. It took a long time for me to find the wherewithal to explain the situation to my wife, and over that period my dislike for goulash only increased. So imagine my horror when MJ managed to con me into swapping half-sandwiches with him, to find something that tasted like my Mom's goulash with the additionally questionable decision of adding mixed veggies. It was not good. Not good at all. Southern Fried Chicken: 6/10 Lilt: 5/10 - I can get this in the US in Squirt bottles Spiced Beef: 0/10 - can I give negative scores? By the way, if you have any suggestions on foods I should try while here, I'm glad to take them - I will, however, NOT be following the suggestions from Radar and Daboo that I eat a pastie...ew! WTF is wrong with you two? The Wikipedia article even states that "deaths have resulted from men being injured after attempting to remove pasties with their mouths". Trackbacks
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Sideshow on :
I'm thinking series of blog posts is becoming about as incorrectly named as calling The Hitchhiker's Guide a trilogy.
Where's the Irish food? Southern Fried Chicken? Really? Although I will say Go Lilt. I really miss that stuff. Radar on :
Put a Lilt and a Squirt next to each other and drink them. You will see the difference in taste. The closest I have found here in the states (other than paying a dollar for a can of Lilt) is Cactus Cooler.
As for Pasties, I would not recommend eating what wikipedia listed. But if you go to Gregg's Bakery and ask for the Chicken Pastie you will not be disappointed. Here is a link to their site to see some of the things they offer: http://www.greggs.co.uk/customer_care/our_products/. I also recommend you put in the postal code you are currently in (on this page http://www.greggs.co.uk/customer_care/our_shops/) and see if one is close by. Next time get the Orangina. Swatson on :
I just want to know. Who's scaring the pigs away in Ireland? That's not very nice when someone would like to try some pork delicacies.
Ancient of Days on :
h8chu Watson - why did you poison all the pigs?
Daboo on :
Rhymes with "nasty," by the way, for your conversation with Gregg at his bakery.
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