GAMBIENI'S

HEAVY ON THE SALT

The latest visit to Gambieni’s Restaurant in Carey’s Lane started well. We each had the Spicy Meat Balls, Tasty & Juicy Meat Balls in a Hot & Spicy Sauce. They lived up to the billing and we had no worries ahead of the main course.

The advisor ordered Pollo Alla Romano, a dish we’ve had on several occasions here before. It is Grilled breast of chicken topped with red onion, roasted peppers, mushrooms in tomato & red wine sauce. She tucked in but soon discovered a very salty taste indeed.

I had chosen the Pollo Alferado, Grilled chicken breast with mushroom, red onion, scallions, garlic in a creamy white wine sauce. Very salty also. So salty in fact that I thought they had mixed in salty rashers among the strips of chicken. I even checked it out in the dim light but no, the salt taste was coming from the chicken itself.

We advised the staff and they were astonished, didn't know where the salt had come from. They checked behind the scenes but no answer. We were offered free desserts but instead settled for a cup of coffee each on a rare disappointing night at this city centre venue.

MARKED DOWN - BIG TIME

MARKS & SPENCER

TOP MARKS

Marks & Spencer had a “Dine in for Two” offer, the weekend before last. I suspect it’s finished now but keep an eye out in case of a repeat as it was good quality and good value.

For €12.50, you got a main course, a side dish (veg or potato), dessert and bottle of wine. When my four parts were totted up on the register, they came to about €23.00, so the saving was substantial.

The main course in our case was an excellent Mousaka. The tasty Dessert was a Summer Berry Terrine (easily enough for four) while the wine was a totally adequate good quality Dolphin Bay Shiraz from South Africa.

I’ll repeat it, if they do. Well worth it!

Calling all home cooks

the chance of a lifetime for all home cooks

THE ELM TREE

You can safely add the Elm Tree to your list of lunch venues on the eastern side of the city. It is just beyond Glounthaune on the old Cork Midleton Road and can be easily found if you exit the current new motorway via the Cobh sign but instead of going to Cobh on the first roundabout after the exit, turn back left (1st exit) in the Glounthaune direction.

I was there today. Service is by way of carvery. There is a choice of about six main courses. I took the roast leg of lamb, with gravy and stuffing, along with roast and mash potato and, as she says herself behind the counter, “all the vegetables”.

It was quite a generous plateful. More importantly, it was excellent, well cooked, and very tasty. The roast potato I got was slightly on the hard side but the mashed was perfect . Not bad at all for €12.00.

Reconstruction is taking place there at present, so space is much more limited than usual. Get there early.

The Elm Tree

Glounthaune,

Co. Cork.

Tel: (021) 4351024

Fax: (021) 4524946

info@elmtreebar.com

www.elmtreebar.com

THE ISLAND GATE

EARLY BIRD AT THE GATE

The Island Gate is one of a few restaurants that have recently advertised Early Bird offers. The Four Liars is another and I have heard good reports from a couple who went there within the past fortnight.

The Island Gate has a two course offer at €20.00. You can have a mains with either a starter or dessert.

There is choice of about four starters, including soup. I enjoyed my spicy potato wedges with salad.

Main courses (a choice of six on the early bird) at the table were Pork Medallions with a creamy cider sauce) and a Basil Chicken Dish. Both were good quality, tasty, no complaint at all. As an accompaniment, you may pick two from salad, fries, mash and vegetables.

One of the party finished with a gorgeous Bailey’s Cheesecake, delicious and so light.

The wine list is being changed at the moment. The current house wines come in at a very reasonable €17.50 – let’s hope they don’t change that. The presentation of the wine was a little on the sloppy side. No tasting was offered and there was no keep it cool facility for the white.

Service was friendly, no delays. Overall, the meal was good and so too was the price.

LUNCH IN THE LANE

A TALE OF TWO SOUPS

The Lunch menu in the Market Lane is not that much different from the Evening Menu.

And the Seafood soup (€6.95) is not that much different from the ordinary soup (€4.95). At lunch today, the advisor got the regular soup, a nice tomato one. I got the Seafood variety which was the same tomato soup with cheese shreds, croutons and a few fishy bits added. Both were quite good – no complaints on that score. But I felt they took the lazy way to an extra two euro with the seafood soup.

The Quiche, well made and studded with pieces of tomato, pepper and even nut, was very very tasty and was served with an herby potato salad and leaves (which were beautifully dressed). It was excellent, a lovely main course for lunch.

We opted for the our usual desserts here and, with a half litre of house white, the bill came to €56.90.

Market Lane is highly recommended. The phone number is 021 4274710 (note that they don't take bookings for less than six people).

FORGOT THE STARTER?

HERE'S A TIP>>>

Staying in tonight? You have your main course and your dessert? But forgot the starter!

No bother.

Just pop in to your local Aldi – they have stores all over now. Get one of the bowls of Les Olives du Marché. They have a variety under the Crespo brand and the one I enjoyed lately consisted of pitted green olives with chilli and parsley. Top class and you get 110g, with cocktail sticks included, for just €1.79.

VIENNA WOODS -- RISING TIDE

Lunch Venues
Just a reminder that if you find yourself on the eastern side of the city at lunchtime, you have a choice. Two recent venues for me were the Vienna Woods (near Glanmire) and the Rising Tide (in Glounthaune). Both are in scenic locations, though the tide needs to be in at Glounthaune if you are to see it at its best. Both continue to do good lunches. I enjoyed my chicken at the Woods and the Lasagne (Irish style) at the Tide.

SCOOZI'S

QUEUESIES....

No problem finding parking downtown last Saturday night. The streets looked deserted. Where was everyone?

Quite a few in Market Lane – no table available for an hour, we were told. Up the street to Scoozi’s. Twenty minutes wait here. They usually overstate it. We waited and were at a table in less than five minutes.

Enjoyed my La Reine Pizza, the smaller one served with salad and chips. Two in the company took the lasagne. This was the usual Irish style dish, loads of meat. Very tasty. The fourth mains was chicken, called Pollo Alla Scoozi, breadcrumbed and stuffed with garlic cream cheese and chives.

No complaints about the food and none either about the house wine: a bottle of Merlot (18.75) and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc (4.75). Total cost, including tips, for a very satisfactory meal was about €90.00.

Then onto the nearby Long Valley for an after dinner drink. This long narrow bar is of the traditional variety and none the worse for that. Quite a popular venue but with many calling for the just the one drink there is quite a turnover and you can usually get a seat, very important if you are of a certain age.

ASK ABOUT FOOD

www.askaboutfood.ie

John Maguire tells us that the site was created in order to provide a forum for the discussion of all things related to food (and drink) in Ireland.
"If there's something you'd like to know about food, have information to offer, or simply want to let Ireland (and the world) know about a food-related service that you provide or that you've tried, then AskAboutFood is the place to be.
The AskAboutFood community is growing fast and we're aiming to be the largest, most comprehensive Irish food information exchange site."

http://www.askaboutfood.ie/

WINE ON TAP

Harvest Feast 2008

The Harvest Feast, launched in conjunction with the Drumshanbo Flower Festival, will be based in Drumshanbo on the 13th and in the Organic Centre Rossinver on the 14th. For info, click below:.....

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddtdjkcd_178f6fdvsgd

NOT LIKE MOTHER'S!!

Not like mother used to make it!

That was my first thought as my Orange and Vanilla Bread and Butter Pudding arrived on table during a recent visit to Market Lane, a quite competitive restaurant at the lower end of Oliver Plunket Street.

This was a superb sweet, moist with a very negotiable crust on top and so so tasty. I had to fend off attacks from the other side of the table. I must admit a counterattack or two as well as the Raspberry Sorbet with Fresh Fruit was also a smashing dessert.

Main course was Hake with a Dill crust and Lime sauce, the most expensive on the keenly priced menu at €17.95. The fish, served with scallions and salsify which provided a welcome crunch element, was top class and the meal, which followed an introductory bowl of olives (€2.50), was excellent overall.

From my own point of view, my own taste, I thought the Dill crust was a little on the heavy handed side. Dill, as those of you who poured gripe water into the kids in the good old days will know, has quite a perfume and a heavy application of the curst tended to overshadow the fresh fish. Sundried tomatoes were also part of the dish and again I thought they were bit too much for the hake. On the other hand, the cherry tomatoes were absolutely spot on and very juicy and tasty.

These are small personal points and tie in with my own philosophy on food which is simply: keep it simple - good ingredients and not too many of them.

Wine was a medium dry Chenin Blanc, Cape Storm – South Africa. Pure fruit driven, zingy with a slight apple flavour.


http://www.marketlane.ie