Dear Ouzo...
I like seafood. Your restaurant serves seafood. It was recommended to me so I went. And in fairness it was Saturday, busy and warm.
The starters were fine -can't really go too wrong with mussels. The crab claws were more than yummy, succulent and tangy. The bread was fresh and flavoursome, the wine delightful. But oh Ouzo, what the hell happened with the main course?
Lobster chops wrapped in bacon? Bacon?
Why Ouzo? Why?
Lobster has a delicate flavour, it's lobstery. Bacon has a strong flavour, it's bacon. When ya wrap bacon around lobster and roast it the lobster gets very tough and tastes like bacon.
Now I like bacon, I like it in the morning with eggs, I like it on white bread smothered in pepper and ketchup. I even like it with pasta. But what I'm not too keen on it bacon flavoured lobster. I like lobster to be...well...lobstery.
When I poured my broken heart out to your very fine waitress I was pleased to discover that I was not the only one confused by this conflation of two tastes. See, Ouzo, when customers say...'golly, this doesn't work at all, ' they are not being meanies. They don't want to make the chef cry, but what they probably do want is dinner that tastes nice. If my dinner was Ronseal paint it should do exactly what it says on the tin, but it ain't paint, and that wasn't a dinner that tasted nice.
So anyhoo, I might be return some time in the future, but I might not as I'm a fickle sort. The paramour's cod wasn't yummy either, but that's his business.
I was so disappointed I had to have many rums afterwards to feel better and two glasses of Baileys.
Yours, with a really terrible headache,
Fatmammycat.
The starters were fine -can't really go too wrong with mussels. The crab claws were more than yummy, succulent and tangy. The bread was fresh and flavoursome, the wine delightful. But oh Ouzo, what the hell happened with the main course?
Lobster chops wrapped in bacon? Bacon?
Why Ouzo? Why?
Lobster has a delicate flavour, it's lobstery. Bacon has a strong flavour, it's bacon. When ya wrap bacon around lobster and roast it the lobster gets very tough and tastes like bacon.
Now I like bacon, I like it in the morning with eggs, I like it on white bread smothered in pepper and ketchup. I even like it with pasta. But what I'm not too keen on it bacon flavoured lobster. I like lobster to be...well...lobstery.
When I poured my broken heart out to your very fine waitress I was pleased to discover that I was not the only one confused by this conflation of two tastes. See, Ouzo, when customers say...'golly, this doesn't work at all, ' they are not being meanies. They don't want to make the chef cry, but what they probably do want is dinner that tastes nice. If my dinner was Ronseal paint it should do exactly what it says on the tin, but it ain't paint, and that wasn't a dinner that tasted nice.
So anyhoo, I might be return some time in the future, but I might not as I'm a fickle sort. The paramour's cod wasn't yummy either, but that's his business.
I was so disappointed I had to have many rums afterwards to feel better and two glasses of Baileys.
Yours, with a really terrible headache,
Fatmammycat.
posted by fatmammycat at 9:56 a.m.
3 Comments:
When in doubt, eat in. Does that funny place that sells all manner of mollusc and crustacean still exist in the harbour in Dun Laoire?
I ate in with some Drummrelations the other evening - the three of us polished off 4+ bouteilles of rouge and no aching brain the next day.
I have no idea. But there's a tremendous shop called Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer Street that sells all manner of yummy seafood. Really I heartily recommend it.
I adore eating out and I'm usually very up for trying new things, but even as I read the menu last night I thought, hum, bacon will surely overpower lobster. But then I thought, well, they must know what they are doing, so I ordered it. More fool me.
My headache is gone now, I had a very good fry. Nothing gets rid of a hangover quicker than a fry.
You're right about the fry-up (mmm, Clon' white puddin'), it's the only man for the heaving head, and would set you up nicely for the match this afternoon.
I must check out that place next time I'm in Dublin... perhaps instead of the bacon they should have wrapped the lobster in a good waffer-thin cured ham after cooking, or served it with it on the side...
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