Marina Market Munch
Lights Up Grey Autumn Day
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| Latke with salmon |
Q - So, what kind of food can you get in the Marina Market? Why is everyone going there?
A - Oh, you can get all kinds there. Hansum and maybe not so handsome. Sinless and sinful. Messy and brand nua. Deli and delights. Soul and blues…and.
Q - Stop messing. Listen, tell me what cuisines can I sample there?
Okay. No messing. Not too easy to answer though as there’s all kinds of fusion going on. For instance there’s one stall with a French name, Poulet Vous. But on Insta, they say they have Korean Chicken while, on their website it is Bold Nashville style with a Korean twist, so that’s four different nations involved in that small space: Us, US, France and Korea!
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| The Original by Poulet Vous |
Then there is a Sicilian place, a Mexican (Burrito & Blues), Asian with sushi, Brazilian with wood-fired beef, one stall from the Maghreb, and another with Jewish style latkes. Of course, we Irish are well represented with Prátaí!
We’ve sampled quite a few in previous visits, including Nua Asador using wood and fire to give an amazing Latin American makeover to Tom Durcan’s beef. We’ve also enjoyed the fare from Taylor’s Deli (see below), serving Latkes, Jersey Rolls and “the best NY subs you can find”.
In the earlier days we went to town on two offerings from the Wild Hogs (no longer operating here), enjoyed their pig-fest in a bun, the “Ze Octoberfest”, plus their West Cork Gourmet Sausage Bap.
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| White Rabbit Menu |
Another visit saw us at Sicilian Delights and there we got their sensational Parmigiana. It consists of shallow fried sliced aubergine with tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, then baked. We combined that with a call to Prátaí for their Nacho Fries, a base of fries topped with Bean Chilli, guacamole, Salsa and Sour Cream, one of their Loaded Chips specials. Olé.
Our visit last week began with a call to Taylor’s truck. They, and Soulful, are somewhat unlucky with their placement as their wagons are parked outside the main hall, just outside but you could easily miss them in Autumn and Winter, easier to spot though in the other seasons when many people decide to eat on the outside tables.
We wanted to try their potato pancakes called Latkes. They had three or four versions and the one we picked was “Fish In The Jailhouse": 3x Potato Pancakes, Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese & Chive. The pancakes, a bit like the Swiss rosti, can take a bit of time as they do everything from scratch but soon we ended up with a delightful box of pancakes and smoked salmon for 8 euro.
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| Part of the Egg menu |
Our normal practice here is to share and that is not that easy with many of the meals. They are well packed into their containers and the wooden forks and knives aren’t up to much. So, the tip is to bring an old knife from home to do the dividing and it may be no harm either to bring a small plate or two! Might be easier to get one meal each.
Mostly though you’ll get by with what the vendors supply and they certainly draw in the punters. We were there last Tuesday and there was no shortage of customers, customers of all ages. And if you have a baby in tow, then there are a few baby seats around the place.
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| More Egg! |
Our other call on this visit was to "multi-national" Poulet Vous and we could see from the menu that it looked like Korean all the way, not that I know much about Korean food other than kimchi!
They promise: you won’t find our flavours and colours anywhere else! We serve it all hot, fresh and in a format that’s affordable and comfortable for urban Corkonians to enjoy. They highlight four on their website.
KOREOLE
House Fried Chicken, Fries Kimchi Mayo House Pickles in a Golden Pitta
GOCHUJANG CHICKEN TENDERS
Sweet & Spicy Signature Fried Chicken Tenders
KFC BAO BUNS
Korean Fried Chicken, Kimchi Slaw, Pickles
WINGS
Honey Soy Garlic Maple Hoisin Gochujang
All interesting, though I usually steer clear of BAO buns as they themselves are fairly tasteless. Of course it is what’s in them that counts.
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| Trick or treat? Poulet Vous. |
Anyway, we picked the top item on the menu called The Original: Korean Fried Chicken, fries, Kimchi Mayo, Shredduce (what language is that?😉) and house pickles in a golden pitta bread with sesame and chive. Not easy to make two halves of that! But it was well worthwhile, full of flavour and texture and nicely spiced as well.
They also had an offer to make a dinner of any of their mains by adding fries and a drink for another four euro. And they don’t forget the kids with a box of Fried Chicken pieces with fries for €6.50.
Took the opportunity to do a walkabout or two and found a few menus that will result in another visit to the food market that keeps on giving!
Previous visits
Featuring Wild Hogs Food Truck
Featuring Taylor’s Deli and Nua Asador
Featuring Sicilian Delights and Prátaí
Bad News...and Good
Just as I was wrapping up this post, Taylor's Deli were posting some bad news.
"We have made the very difficult decision to close our doors after this Bank Holiday Weekend.
The rising cost of everything has made it unviable for us to remain open without drastically increasing our prices which we don't want to do
We want to extend a massive thank you to all our customers who Made It Rain and kept a smile on our faces 😊 and to our amazing local suppliers
@panabreadcork
@carthyjack
@rebelchilli
@eastferryfarm
@buddswestcork"
The first wine, cheese and meat bar in the Marina Market and just in time for Jazz 🎷
Try Cork's most unique new bar in a one of kind venue.... Delicious meats and cheese sourced locally and the finest wine this side of the Lee."
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