June 22-25. a datefor your diary

Murt10

From todays Indo


Top chefs to offer cut-price samples

FOODIES will be able to sample dishes from Ireland's top chefs for as little as €3 at an upcoming food fair, writes Edel Kennedy.

'Taste of Dublin' is taking place in the grounds of Dublin Castle on June 22 - 25 and will see chefs including Jean Christophe Novelli, Derry Clarke, Patrick Guilbaud and Darina Allen preparing their signature dishes in front of their customers.

The entrance fee to the gastronomic fair is from €25.

Once inside the grounds members of the public will be charged a small fee for each dish.

Speaking at the launch yesterday, Derry Clarke, Chef Proprietor of L'Ecrivain said: "Taste of Dublin will be an incredible experience that no foodie or wine lover can afford to miss."

"It's essentially an haute cuisine picnic."

Sponsored by Oceanico Developments up to 15,000 people are expected to attend the fou-day event.

Tickets will go on sale next month from Ticketmaster.




http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1556986&issue_id=13646

rsta

looks brilliant, will definatley be at that....

found the website too to add to Murt10's information:
Taste of Dublin 2006

:v: :v: :v: yum

Shabadu

Just a thought, why don't we get a gang of Boardsies to go together? Could be a good opportunity for a few pints afterwards.

Sarsfield

Shabadu wrote:

Could be a good opportunity for a few pints afterwards.

Cognac surely?

Shabadu

Of course! Nothing like a few pints of Cognac after a good meal.

Sarsfield

Shabadu wrote:

Of course! Nothing like a few pints of Cognac after a good meal.

That made me laugh.

Murt10

Heard it advertised on the radio today. Can't make up my mind when to attend.

http://www.tasteofdublin06.ie/introduction


Murt

*Tripper*

Thats pretty cool. Might go.

babaduck

I'm really p*ssed off - we're going to London that weekend (had it booked before we heard about the festival) and the London version is the week BEFORE :mad:

However we did buy a pair of good tickets for my parents, so they should enjoy it to the fullest!

Hermione*

Shabadu wrote:

Of course! Nothing like a few pints of Cognac after a good meal.

Ooh, what a great suggestion!

MB44

Im going today. CANT WAIT!!! VIP all the way

dudara

€25 to enter, plus a fee then for each meal? sounds a bit steep to me.

Did anyone actually attend and did they feel that it was worth it.

Soulgirl

Have to say it was extremely bad value. I had a lovely day, but only because I was chatting friends, nice surroundings etc. But from a food point of view - scandalous how much they were charging for miniature portions.

Nothing particularly mind-blowing.

Donnybrook Fair had a great spread - really nice people doing the stand, and knew alot about the wines. Couldnt say much for any of the rest of them.

The Mushy Peas/Fish/Chips from the Cellar was very good, but I thought overall it was a complete rip-off.

NewFrockTuesday

I tried to get in but the only tickets left were the €75 ones. A bit expensive for samples I thought so....I went to Chez Max and have the best meal at a great price. Foisgras to start and then lambshank and creme brulee and wine x 2 . Including tip €140.00. Happy out!

catho_monster

we paid the 75 yoyos for the vip tickets and had the best day ever.
spend far more money than just the 25 included in the price of the ticket, but every cent was worth it. the size of the portions worked to our advantage because it meant you could try more and more and more before getting full, and then we just took a break and tried more and more and more. and from the day i shall say that i will never ever ever go to the Unicorn. their food was a disgrace. really horrible. biggest hits of the day were l'ecrivian and roly's bistro.
and as for the vip tickets... indoor bar when it was lashing rain outside, and complementary champagne and cocktails from waterford crystal glasses... now that is the life.
will definately be going next year...Im gonna start saving now!

Vok

Thank you, Soul Girl. I thought I was losing my mind.

I went there with my girlfriend Sunday evening, foregoing the England match, so sure I was that this event would be worth the sacrifice.

We'd gotten the 25 euro tickets and had 5 florins which we didn't expect to be spending straight away since, no doubt, the place would be filled with people cramming free food and wine into our gobs, trying to convert us from lukewarm browsers into devoted and lucrative repeat revenue streams. After all, that was, presumably, the whole idea behind the event. Not to mention that it was also sponsored by a well known overseas property investment company so it wasn't like there wasn't some cash floating around to inspire some largesse.

What fools we were. The whole thing was a complete gip! It was essentially only a glorified farmer's market with a few dubious pleasures tacked on.

Yes, there were nibbles available but they were definitely nibbles. Comparable to what you'd expect from any decent market where you *don't* have to pay 20 euros to get in. We walked around the various exhibits and it slowly dawned on us that the exhibitors obviously hadn't been informed of the whole cramming food into our mouth plan. Best of the bunch was probably Douglas Fair who were offering wine, cheese and smoothies with reasonable abandon. Least favourite: Douglas Food Company who sunnily tried to entice an older, affluent-looking couple into checking out their stand and 1 second later practically scowled at me when I said hello and made me feel like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel even though I only wanted to know what kind of stuff they did.

Not only were the nibbles disappointing, when you went to buy some of the products, they seemed to be at least full price. 3 florins/euros for an Innocent smoothie? Special deal of 2 breads for 5 euros from La Brea? Why that's only twice as expensive as the equally nice bread in my local bakery! Have a 40-foot container load shipped to my house immediately!

I'm sure some of the exhibitors were making some kind of effort to shift their wares at reduced prices - Brady's Meats comes to mind - but, if any of the rest were, then their normal prices must be absurd.

I sat in on the first cookery demonstration but realised that making Strawberry soup wasn't top of my cooking agenda, particularly when the chef himself, though I'm sure he was very good, wasn't inclined to say anything to explain what was going on. Came back later on to find a funny, entertaining chef who would have retrieved the situation somewhat until he revealed that he was going to be cooking lobsters. For all three courses. "Great," I thought. "I was wondering what to do about that massive lobster surplus in my in-wall kitchen aquarium."

But it wasn't until we actually went to queue up for the restaurant food that the final insult was delivered. I went to the L'Ecrivain counter and ordered some kind of rare tuna with a sweet pepper escabache and lime and avocado dip. I've eaten there a few times recently so I know that their portions are fairly petite but I was flabbergasted when I was handed a paper plate with a piece of tuna the size of one and a half euro coins side by side along with a tiny dollop of pepper and dip - none of the dishes were on display before you bought. I know it was only 5 euros but, honestly, there physically wasn't even enough to get a taste of what the dish was like. Unless the actual full-size dish tastes largely of paper plate.

My girlfriend had gone to the Diep counter and ordered a red prawn curry for 7 euro. What came out was about a third of the size of the normal portion you get in their restaurant. Which you can have for 10.50 on their take away menu which was helpfully left nearby. Whatever about L'Ecrivain, who may have some sort of defense, there is something definitely wrong with this picture!

We may have just been unlucky - the Cellar Bar's fish and chips didn't look too bad, and there were some reasonable portions of ravioli left abandoned around the place but reasonable-sized dishes seemed to be the exception rather than the norm.

Just to break away from the curmudgeonly tone for a second, I just want to underline that I like food. A lot. I like thinking about it, buying it, cooking it and eating it. This whole event sounded exactly like what I was looking for. So maybe my high expectations were a factor in how disappointed I was by the whole experience. But I'm finding it difficult to understand how getting tiny portions that leave you feeling hungry for more and require you to spend more money is a good thing? If this is a new consumer trend, I'm going to start selling individually-wrapped Maltesers for one euro each - "You can finish one and still have room for another!"

It also baffles me how we've reached a point where - unless we're talking about a truly surpassing dining experience here - people can feel they're getting a good deal paying 140 euro for a meal for 2 with wine. Though, in fairness, the dishes you had, dellgirl2, wouldn't be the cheapest option in any restaurant.

But that seemed very much to be the over-riding atmosphere at the event. The majority of the well-dressed, well-coiffed denizens of South Dublin who made up most of the attendees were smiling and laughing, seemingly more than happy with their over-priced amuse-bouches. Though, that good mood may have stemmed from the fine weather, their recent "spectaaaacular" trip to South Africa, or purely the fact that they were surrounded by their socio-economic peers where ever-increasing levels of "I'm grrreat! How are you? Fantaaaastic!"-ness seems to be the default social posture.

Meanwhile, for us, the whole event only served to associate all of the exhibitors and restaurants involved with the kind of laziness, bad value and take-it-or-leave-it attitude that any body who eats out regularly in this country is fed up of encountering.

Maybe I'm spoiled by the fact that the restaurant I go to most often combines superb food, wonderful service and incredible value without any great fuss. I hesitate to name it and jeapordise my chances of getting a table on Saturday night but I'm talking of the Enoteca Torino in Inchicore, which, for me, simply shows all other restaurants in Dublin how things should be done.

We went in there one night recently, ordered a very nice bottle of Nebbiolo for 26 euros, and had superb and ridiculously generous starters, mains and desserts for the grand total of... wait for it... 56 euros! That's for both of us. Bottle of wine included. I would still come away very happy if I was paying double that amount for the quality of the food and the wonderfully friendly and attentive service involved.

Despite all the references to price and cheapness in this post, I'm not a complete skinflint and my gripe really isn't about the cost - it's about value. I eat in L'Ecrivain and consider it reasonable value for what is normally an outstanding dining experience. But judging A Taste of Ireland by that metric, the event was offensively bad.

I'm resisting the urge to wrap up this post in an "it left a bad taste in my mouth" gingham cap. But I really felt that, beyond the nice weather and the smiling faces, the whole thing was a really unpleasant marriage of smug, self-satisfied insouciance and hand-rubbing greed.

But, hey, maybe it's just me.

Blub2k4

Vok wrote:

Thank you, Soul Girl. I thought I was losing my mind.

I went there with my girlfriend Sunday evening, foregoing the England match, so sure I was that this event would be worth the sacrifice.

We'd gotten the 25 euro tickets and had 5 florins which we didn't expect to be spending straight away since, no doubt, the place would be filled with people cramming free food and wine into our gobs, trying to convert us from lukewarm browsers into devoted and lucrative repeat revenue streams. After all, that was, presumably, the whole idea behind the event. Not to mention that it was also sponsored by a well known overseas property investment company so it wasn't like there wasn't some cash floating around to inspire some largesse.

What fools we were. The whole thing was a complete gip! It was essentially only a glorified farmer's market with a few dubious pleasures tacked on.

Yes, there were nibbles available but they were definitely nibbles. Comparable to what you'd expect from any decent market where you *don't* have to pay 20 euros to get in. We walked around the various exhibits and it slowly dawned on us that the exhibitors obviously hadn't been informed of the whole cramming food into our mouth plan. Best of the bunch was probably Douglas Fair who were offering wine, cheese and smoothies with reasonable abandon. Least favourite: Douglas Food Company who sunnily tried to entice an older, affluent-looking couple into checking out their stand and 1 second later practically scowled at me when I said hello and made me feel like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel even though I only wanted to know what kind of stuff they did.

Not only were the nibbles disappointing, when you went to buy some of the products, they seemed to be at least full price. 3 florins/euros for an Innocent smoothie? Special deal of 2 breads for 5 euros from La Brea? Why that's only twice as expensive as the equally nice bread in my local bakery! Have a 40-foot container load shipped to my house immediately!

I'm sure some of the exhibitors were making some kind of effort to shift their wares at reduced prices - Brady's Meats comes to mind - but, if any of the rest were, then their normal prices must be absurd.

I sat in on the first cookery demonstration but realised that making Strawberry soup wasn't top of my cooking agenda, particularly when the chef himself, though I'm sure he was very good, wasn't inclined to say anything to explain what was going on. Came back later on to find a funny, entertaining chef who would have retrieved the situation somewhat until he revealed that he was going to be cooking lobsters. For all three courses. "Great," I thought. "I was wondering what to do about that massive lobster surplus in my in-wall kitchen aquarium."

But it wasn't until we actually went to queue up for the restaurant food that the final insult was delivered. I went to the L'Ecrivain counter and ordered some kind of rare tuna with a sweet pepper escabache and lime and avocado dip. I've eaten there a few times recently so I know that their portions are fairly petite but I was flabbergasted when I was handed a paper plate with a piece of tuna the size of one and a half euro coins side by side along with a tiny dollop of pepper and dip - none of the dishes were on display before you bought. I know it was only 5 euros but, honestly, there physically wasn't even enough to get a taste of what the dish was like. Unless the actual full-size dish tastes largely of paper plate.

My girlfriend had gone to the Diep counter and ordered a red prawn curry for 7 euro. What came out was about a third of the size of the normal portion you get in their restaurant. Which you can have for 10.50 on their take away menu which was helpfully left nearby. Whatever about L'Ecrivain, who may have some sort of defense, there is something definitely wrong with this picture!

We may have just been unlucky - the Cellar Bar's fish and chips didn't look too bad, and there were some reasonable portions of ravioli left abandoned around the place but reasonable-sized dishes seemed to be the exception rather than the norm.

Just to break away from the curmudgeonly tone for a second, I just want to underline that I like food. A lot. I like thinking about it, buying it, cooking it and eating it. This whole event sounded exactly like what I was looking for. So maybe my high expectations were a factor in how disappointed I was by the whole experience. But I'm finding it difficult to understand how getting tiny portions that leave you feeling hungry for more and require you to spend more money is a good thing? If this is a new consumer trend, I'm going to start selling individually-wrapped Maltesers for one euro each - "You can finish one and still have room for another!"

It also baffles me how we've reached a point where - unless we're talking about a truly surpassing dining experience here - people can feel they're getting a good deal paying 140 euro for a meal for 2 with wine. Though, in fairness, the dishes you had, dellgirl2, wouldn't be the cheapest option in any restaurant.

But that seemed very much to be the over-riding atmosphere at the event. The majority of the well-dressed, well-coiffed denizens of South Dublin who made up most of the attendees were smiling and laughing, seemingly more than happy with their over-priced amuse-bouches. Though, that good mood may have stemmed from the fine weather, their recent "spectaaaacular" trip to South Africa, or purely the fact that they were surrounded by their socio-economic peers where ever-increasing levels of "I'm grrreat! How are you? Fantaaaastic!"-ness seems to be the default social posture.

Meanwhile, for us, the whole event only served to associate all of the exhibitors and restaurants involved with the kind of laziness, bad value and take-it-or-leave-it attitude that any body who eats out regularly in this country is fed up of encountering.

Maybe I'm spoiled by the fact that the restaurant I go to most often combines superb food, wonderful service and incredible value without any great fuss. I hesitate to name it and jeapordise my chances of getting a table on Saturday night but I'm talking of the Enoteca Torino in Inchicore, which, for me, simply shows all other restaurants in Dublin how things should be done.

We went in there one night recently, ordered a very nice bottle of Nebbiolo for 26 euros, and had superb and ridiculously generous starters, mains and desserts for the grand total of... wait for it... 56 euros! That's for both of us. Bottle of wine included. I would still come away very happy if I was paying double that amount for the quality of the food and the wonderfully friendly and attentive service involved.

Despite all the references to price and cheapness in this post, I'm not a complete skinflint and my gripe really isn't about the cost - it's about value. I eat in L'Ecrivain and consider it reasonable value for what is normally an outstanding dining experience. But judging A Taste of Ireland by that metric, the event was offensively bad.

I'm resisting the urge to wrap up this post in an "it left a bad taste in my mouth" gingham cap. But I really felt that, beyond the nice weather and the smiling faces, the whole thing was a really unpleasant marriage of smug, self-satisfied insouciance and hand-rubbing greed.

But, hey, maybe it's just me.

So did you like it anyway?........oh wait...

Vok

Blub2k4 wrote:

So did you like it anyway?........oh wait...

LOL. Ok, I deserved that

Shabadu

What a phenomenal post, Vok! I made it my 'post of the mo'' (see signature).

Soulgirl

Vok, you're absolutely correct - and now I feel like a bit of a muppet for having been ripped off so badly :mad:

DO you know why I think alot of people didn't complain ? Its because a huge number were there on "freebies" anyway - anyone with any kind of media related job had dozens of free "Florins" and they weren't going to complain about the lack of free food. I had a particular gripe with the Organic Sausages stand - I must have been in the vicinity for about 20 mins, and no sign of a tasting. Then, they finally emerged - chopped up into pieces the size of the top of my finger where they were devoured by the few people around the stand - you'd get better samples in Tesco from the woman promoting Denny sausages!

Also, I think most people just cracked into the wine when they realised there wasn't much food on the go and just chatted, so that took the pressure off the exhibitors to keep giving out food.

Oh - and one more final insult - on Sunday evening, I bought some "Florins" quite late in the day, only to discover that most of the stands had ran out of food, so I was left going around all the stands, hoping to get the dregs of what was left with my florins (I didnt think they'd be much use to me once I stepped outside Dublin castle for paying for anything!).

Trying not to get all miserly though, as we had a laugh in the group we were in, but I think we were taken for a ride.......

As regards good value, in Dublin city - perhaps we should keep each other updated on restaurants/cafes etc ?

Vok

Wow! This is a pleasant surprise. I was half-expecting showers of rotten cauliflower for being so negative.

Soulgirl, don't feel too bad. That was the genius of the thing - everyone else is really enjoying it, so, if you're not, just shrug it off, because you're obviously the one with the problem here. It was like having your wallet taken off you by an expensively-dressed, well-spoken and charming mugger. Your incredulity at the turn of events means you're still kind of conditioned to just smile along out of politeness.

And, with respect to the florins, I'd actually forgotten about how they oh-so-conveniently only sold them in packs of 5, resulting in us trawling around the stands to find something we could get for our orphans. Not because we wanted anything but, by that stage, I couldn't have slept knowing that I had let even another 2 euro slide into the organiser's greasy till out of laziness. I handed over the last tainted remnant of the day to the artisan butcher, gritted my teeth and headed for the exit.

And as I walked out of that gate in disgust, clutching my White Pudding in bitter defiance, I thought to myself, perhaps I should have bought something a little less phallic for the purposes of this sentence. No. I thought, far more innocently, "Yeah, suck on it, you b*stards!"

It really is sad, in all senses of the word, that I felt compelled to write such a screed afterwards. It's a really great idea for an event. Just a shame that it seems to have been pitched as two different things to two different audiences. I was told:

"FOODIES will be able to sample dishes from Ireland's top chefs for as little as €3 at an upcoming food fair" [See above].

Exhibitors, on the other hand, rather than being told "A unique opportuntity to create a relationship with thousands of motivated and interested consumers", appear to have been drawn in by something along the lines of:

"15,000 people with more money than sense! 3 words: Fish. In. A. Barrel."

On the topic of keeping each other updated on the good value tip, yeah, I'm all for that. But would it not fall under the Restaurant Guide sticky, though? Unless you want a thread that highlights good value specifically?

And, Shabadu, I'm seriously flattered. Did a little clicking, read your blog and now feel like covering up my post's ragged sentence constructions and unsightly pendulant clauses and scuttling out of view.

Speaking of which...

mambo

I agree it was pricey. Some of the sampler dishes were... tiny and none were generous for the price.

I know the restaurants involved were catering off site which no doubt adds to their costs, but at the rate some of them were churning the stuff out, I can't see how they weren't making a mint from it. Plus all the revenue they'll get from people following up by visiting their restaurant on the back of the samples.

And any samples of wines, food, etc. were... tiny

And I can't think of why they had the whole "florins" thing, except that they hoped people would buy too much and not use them all. The cheek. A lot of the stands seemed to be taking Euros anyway.

Mo-Mo

mambo wrote:

A lot of the stands seemed to be taking Euros anyway.

When i was there they were too, mainly because the organisers seemed to have run out of florins, and that was on the Friday night. I was completely underwhelmed by the whole thing. Although I was one of those in for free, so that's something at least. We did have to pay for food though. I ate in 3 places, thought all 3 were fabulous and would go to those restaurants on the back of it. Which I presume, is the point of the event, but since these 3 samples cost me €17 altogether I wasn't tempted to go anywhere else as I'd spent enough at that stage and was still starving.