LIBERTY GRILL

LIBERTY GRILL

When you walk into the Liberty Grill, you are struck by the happy buzz. It is full again this Friday evening (we started at 6.45pm), all enjoying the good food, well cooked, well presented and served by a smashing staff.

A share of people are dining en famille. Don’t come across it much around town. The well behaved kids are well catered for here; they even get their food ahead of the adults.

Are you to limited to burgers and chips here? No. Far from it. There is a huge menu in this early 'til late venue. Burgers for sure, all made from the best local produce. Then there are tempting salads, fish, poultry, lamb and beef along with vegetarian dishes. Something for everyone.

Started with a Southern Fried Chicken salad: slices of southern fried chicken on a bed of

seasonal leaves with Jalapeño peppers, toasted cashews and tomato salsa. The advisor enjoyed the Deep Fried Cambozola (Italian cheese) with a cranberry coulis. Mine cost €7.95, hers €4.95. Promising start.

 My main dish was the Tennessee Flambé (17.95). This consisted of tender medallions of the very best beef, peppered and flambéed in a shot of Jack Daniels and served with mushrooms, sweet balsamic onions and crispy garlic potatoes. This was absolutely brilliant, couldn't recommend it highly enough.

The other main course at the table was a Salad Niçoise (14.95), a truly healthy and tasty mix of line caught yellow fin tuna, potatoes, hardboiled eggs, olives, French beans and seasonal salad leaves. This was quite a substantial dish and lived up to the description.

 There is an adequate selection of wines available, most between twenty and thirty euro, though the house wine costs just €17.25 (4.65 per glass). There was also a Wine of the Month available at 5.25 a glass. I enjoyed my Montemartel Cotes du Rhone (Syrah, Grenache and Carignan) very much.

 But the white, a Claire Moreau Muscadet Sur Lie, was a really gripping drink and you needed only the tiniest drop to become aware of the quality. Both wines are available at the Wine Buff, just across the road. You also have a number of sparkling wines available and a popular feature is the non-alcoholic Mocktail, a favourite with kids and adults alike.

Overall, the choice and the value are fantastic (through breakfast, brunch, lunch and evening) and you really need to check out the website http://www.libertygrillcork.com/ to get the picture. Even then, you won't see the bunch of seasonal dishes that are added every month.

Denis O’Mullane and Marianne Delaney own and operate the Liberty and also the nearly Cafe Gusto (another interesting venue for coffee and lighter bites).

We asked Denis how the name came about and what it signified in food terms.

 “It is actually a shortened version of our first shot which was ‘Liberty Belle Cafe and Grill’. After seeing the room with its large windows and dark furniture, we knew we were going to do an American East Coast Neighbourhood restaurant, where grilled foods make a rather large part of the menu.”

BL: Who are the key players?

Denis: “Our customers, staff and suppliers.  Our customers for their loyalty and critical honesty. Our staff who work extremely hard and who have the unenviable job of starting from scratch everyday to ensure most honest product possible without a lot of shortcuts. Finally our suppliers who have to listen to us moaning if the quality isn’t right.”

BL: You must be pleased with your Bridgestone listing? 

Denis:  To be honest I feel a little uneasy about professional reviews as Liberty Grill is a neighbourhood restaurant which can be found on every block in major cities in the US, with a very simple function to feed from dawn to dusk.  An eminent restaurateur on our street queried whether being a member of Good Food Ireland sets expectations which don’t marry with what we are doing, we are currently considering our position.

BL: What of the future?

Denis: Cork is actually buzzing on the food front with most restaurants doing pretty well. I think with a little more co-operative effort, we have an interesting couple of years ahead.

CURRENT FAVOURITES

UPDATE


Top five from recently visited restaurants in Cork:

Fenns Quay, Nash 19, Bramley Lodge, Liberty Grill and Continental.

Next five:

Boardwalk, Boqueria, The Brick Oven, Rising Tide, Farm Gate (Cork).

You’d expect the Farm Gate to be in the top rank but it is too bloody cold up there these days. I don't fancy eating lunch, no matter how good, in my overcoat.

Twebt Mystery Bottle

Have you got your hands on the mystery bottle for the Twitter wine event (#twebt) on Sunday March 7th? Time is running out if you want it delivered to your house for the fun event which apparently trended in Ireland last month. All the details are here while the wine (€19.00, inc. delivery) can only be ordered from Karwig Wines

CRAWFORD GALLERY CAFE

THE CRAWFORD GALLERY CAFE

The Crawford Cafe, in the art gallery of the same name, is a lovely place to visit, not least because of the friendly and helpful staff. With walls painted light blue and art works exhibited all around, the cafe is spacious and a great city centre spot to meet someone.

The menu is quite inviting with excellent lunchtime mains courses and plenty of drinks from water to apple juice to wine available also. The prices range from about ten to fourteen euro.

With a dinner date on the agenda for the night, I didn't need that much when I called at lunchtime today. Got myself the most beautiful tomato soup (€5.50) in a big bowl and that coupled with two lovely slices of brown bread was a decent filler.

Thought I’d finish off with a coffee (2.40) but then spotted some cakes and went for a chocolate and orange shortbread (pictured), recommended by the manager. Gorgeous, but will have to put the dinner back a bit.

Baking Emporium in Dunmanway

BAKING EMPORIUM

Dunmanway’s small scale Baking Emporium makes a variety of cakes, breads, confectionery, muesli and seed breads. So do other bakeries. So what is different about Dunmanway?

I put it to the taste recently when I bought some of their stuff in the city. My choice was Emmental Cheese and Pumkmkin Seeded bread. Loved it and will be buying more, for sure.

This is organic seed bread and the range has won awards. They make four Wheat varieties and two Spelt varieties. They say it is a delicious crunchy alternative to normal bread and I agree. Worth watching out for!

They are on sale at farmers markets and also at On the Pigs Back in the English Market. For more details, check out their website http://www.bakingemporiumltd.com

Check out my review of Baking Emporium - I am cork - on Qype

Milleens Cheese in Cork

MILLEENS CHEESE

Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) once said that the French had 365 different cheeses. The French politician was familiar with the southwest of Ireland but when he visited the country he would have found it difficult to locate any real cheese.

Milleens is generally credited with producing the first modern Irish Farmhouse cheese in 1976 and the company improved it over the following years. It is still going strong. Picked one up recently at On the Pigs Back in the English Market and enjoyed it.

It has a mottled peach, and sometimes orange, washed rind and within is a paste that goes from semi-firm to spilling cream. The flavour is a complex mix of delicate herbs along with a spicy tang. That spicy tang doesn't suit everyone but personally I have no problem with it and is in any case tamed when mixed in with a salad.

My piece was marked Milleens Dote. Wasn't too sure about the Dote but it is simply the term use to indicate a 200g round, the smallest size.

The soft cheese is made by the Steele family from the milk of Freisan cows on the rugged Beara peninsula. It is a regular award winner and features regularly on the cheese board of top class hotels and restaurants.

Check out my review of Milleens Cheese - I am cork - on Qype
Photos show fishing boats at Castletownbere and De Gaulle memorial in Sneem

WINE MYSTERY

WINE MYSTERY

Enjoy a little mystery on your Sunday evenings? Enjoy a little wine at the same time? Now you can combine both in the third Twitter Blind Tasting Event.

The wine will be delivered to your door but won’t have the usual labels visible. A bit of scouts honour is required here but remember this is a fun 90 minutes or so. Have a look, have a nose, have a taste – all at a leisurely pace.

You and your fellow drinkers will all the time be updating twitter with your opinions. If you don't have any, then just read the others (some are very witty) and have another sip. No competition here, no prizes, just a bunch of wine lovers having a bit of Sunday night fun, starting about nine.

The wines in the previous tastings were supplied by Curious Wines and Bubble Brothers and Carrigaline outfit Karwig Wines are doing the honours for the March event. The mystery bottle costs €19.00, including delivery in the Republic.

Don't worry if you are new to Twitter. Brian Clayton, one of the organisers, has all the info you need, in plain English, on his excellent introductory post.

Kevin Crowley of the famous Fenns Quay restaurant in Cork is another man involved behind the scenes and you’ll be following him and Brian on Twitter as they’ll be guiding you through the process:  when to open, when to taste and so on.

You can also follow the event hashmark:  #twebt. Don’t worry at all about the technical side of it – Brian’s post is very clear on twitter and how to use it. Just enjoy the wine and enjoy the company. Enjoy the craic.


So what are you waiting for? Click on Karwigs above and take the first step towards solving that mystery.

Blackrock Market in Cork

More pics at http://corkandabout.blogspot.com/

BLACKROCK MARKET

It may be one of the smallest markets around but Sunday morning’s gathering in Blackrock is not without its fans. Some drive in, some stroll down, even spotted a pair roller skating to the venue today!
And why not? It has a lovely riverside location and plenty of parking and space enough for the dozen or so stands that start opening for business around the 10.00am mark and stay there until 2.00pm.
Despite the small number of stands, quite a lot is covered. Here you can get hot drinks (O’Connaill’s coffee and chocolate among them) and hot bites such as crepes. Then there are burritos and soups and more substantial food items like fish and bread. Even noticed a jewellery stand there.
So, if you missed out on the bigger presentations like Mahon (Thursday) and Midleton (Saturday), then all is not lost and a visit to the bottom of the Marina and the fishing village of Blackrock could well save the day for you!

Check out my review of Blackrock Market - I am cork - on Qype

O'Connaill Chocolate in Cork

O’CONNAILL’S CHOCOLATE

You never know where you’ll find O’Connaill’s Chocolates but everywhere wouldn’t be a bad answer.
Not alone do this Carrigaline based company have their own outlet, well positioned in city centre French Church Street, but their products are sold by many top rate food outlets (such as O’Keeffe’s in St Luke’s) and, in addition, they never ever neglect a market space, being regulars in Mahon and Midleton.

They have chocolate products galore, the strength of their bars going from 30 to 100 per cent. And they can heat you up on a cold day with some delicious hot chocolate (€2.50). Well I find it delicious any way but, taste being what it is, some people do find it the sweetness just too much.
That is the way we are built but you still don't lose out if you find yourself in front of an O’Connaill’s stall as they also sell some decent coffee (€2) to go. My most recent visit came on a Sunday morning in Blackrock and, as the frost lingered well into the day, I really enjoyed my hot cup as I watched the rowers pass by on the river.

Check out my review of O'Connaill Chocolate - I am cork - on Qype

The Boardwalk Bar and Grill in Cork

BOARDWALK BAR AND GRILL

Make a visit to the Boardwalk Bar and Grill to check out their inviting €22.50 three course early bird offer.
Made feel at home straight way by the friendly staff who were excellent and on the ball throughout the meal in the busy buzzy comfortable dining room. The bar at the other side looked equally inviting.
After sampling a tasty seeded bun, picked the squid from a choice of four starters. The rings came in a nice thin batter and were accompanied by a sweet chilli dip and some lettuce leaves (nicely presented in a little paper cone).
Again there was a choice of four dishes for the main course. The salmon and spinach looked good at a nearby table but I went for the Angus steak. It was a fine piece served with onion rings, the sauce coming in a separate container (a sensible way of doing it).
There was some piped out tasteless texture-less mash on the plate and that was left there at the end. Then three little saucepans were placed on the table, one containing well cooked broccoli and green beans, another with some decent chips and the third, more potatoes, this type a gratin (with some hard overdone pieces). That made it three types of spud with one course! Hardly necessary and a record for me, I think.
Desserts chosen were New York Baked Cheese cake and a Citrus Tart. Both were okay but we’d have been better off to have taken the glass of wine instead. The offer is for three courses or two courses with wine but you are asked at the very start to nominate your dessert with the order.
We did have two glasses of wine, each costing €5.50. One was a South African Cabernet Shiraz, the other a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, both very pleasant and fit for purpose

Check out my review of The Boardwalk Bar & Grill - I am cork - on Qype

FENNS QUAY

FENN’S QUAY

Very enjoyable and top class from start to finish. We lingered over every tasty morsel as we ate and sipped our way through close on three delightful hours in Fenns Quay last night.

Drank a Kir while studying the extensive menus, the a la carte, the set menu and the long list of specials. Then, after a sip or two, stopped reading to concentrate on the Kir as it was perhaps the very best we’ve come across in decades.

Sipped away until the mains arrived.  Had been told that the Chargrilled Slaney Valley Lamb Chump (€22.50) with roast vegs in an olive and tomato sauce with curried roast potatoes was “massive”. It lived up to expectations, a gorgeous piece of meat, cooked to perfection as were the veg and potatoes.

Though 100 per cent happy with mine, I couldn't help glancing towards the other dish: Baked Monkfish (€24.50) with flat cup mushrooms, roast parsnips, rustic potato's and a butternut squash puree. The advisor would have been thrilled with the fish itself but again the accompaniments were also spot on.

The restaurant serves quite a few wines by the glass and I choose Cave de Tain Syrah 2006  to go with the lamb. It is the current house red and a superb example of the type from the northern Rhône. San Giorgio Pinot-Grigio 2008, light and crisp with a good flavour, went well with the fish.

Then on to the desserts, one described as Homemade strawberry jelly with vanilla ice cream strawberry jelly, an understatement, as this was a delicious pot of pureed strawberries, just gorgeous.

I too enjoyed my Bread and butter pudding with custard but I must tell you that I had a glass of Oremus Tokaji Aszu 5 puttonyos 2000 with it and that was a (shared) highlight. Even the tiniest sip of this nectar of the gods made all the sensors of the mouth and nose sit up and take notice as it reverberated gently around, lingering a long pleasurable while.

Kevin Crowley is one of three person team that owns and runs Fenns Quay and is the wine expert: “I have a passion for finding high quality, interesting and great value wines. I tend to seek value in places where others wouldn't; be it places like Austria, Portugal, Sicily, or Greece. Nothing is too strange and uncommerical for me not to consider. If the wine tastes good and is a great price, who cares where it’s from!”

Over a later glass of Cremant D' Alsace sparkling wine – we were celebrating a wedding anniversary – Kevin introduced us to his cousin Kate Lawlor, the Head Chef since 2006 (having started under the previous owners in 2001). The third member of the current group is Kevin’s partner Pennapa Wongsuwan. “Between the three of us, we cover every aspect of our business, but we also have excellent staff who are very dedicated and hard working.”

Fenns Quay’s policy is to use good quality local produce and being in the city centre is a help according to Kevin: “Yes, we are fortunate to have on our doorstep in Cork access to such fantastic local produce, be it fruit or veg, cheeses and artisan products from west Cork and fresh fish and high quality meat from the English Market.”

All the hard work, from sourcing to cooking to service, is being recognised and Fenns Quay has been honoured by Michelin. Kevin again: “We are very fortunate that the restaurant has been recommended in the Michelin guide for a number of years, and with this latest recommendation (2010) it’s very pleasing to have our hard work recognised by a worldwide institution such as the Michelin Guide.”

FOODISTA

Foodista.com, the online cooking encyclopedia that everyone can edit, is looking for recipes to feature in an upcoming Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook.

Melissa, the Editor and Community Developer, has been in touch: "If you would like the chance to have your recipes published in a cookbook, enter them into the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook competition. But hurry, the deadline is February 28th, 2010!" 


"Check it out at  http://www.foodista.com/blogbook?src=bo_3 
Please let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help. I look forward to seeing you soon in the Foodista kitchen!"

Hawthorn Bar on the Lough (Cork)

HAWTHORN BAR AND BISTRO
The Hawthorn Bar and Bistro has one immediate advantage and that is its lakeside location, overlooking the famous Lough.
Called in there this morning for coffee at eleven, having circled the Lough, on foot. Wasn't on my own – far from it, as quite a few customers were enjoying the break.

I enjoyed mine as well, as the swans and ducks floated by outside under a blue (though cold) sky. Two decent coffees and two excellent scones (hot from the oven, just like mother used to make them) went down a treat, total cost €8.00.
While the staff and chefs were busy preparing the upstairs for lunch, there was one modest, polite and efficient barman on duty who looked after the snacks and tidied up the place quickly.
They also do lunch and dinner and, on the basis of the morning snack, I would definitely call there and try out the more substantial menus available later in the day.

Phone:	+353 (0)21-496-2768
Website:	http://www.hawthornbar.com/

Check out my review and contact details of Hawthorn Bar - I am cork - on Qype