a picture is worth...

To pass the time while I was dining solo at Cooke's near the International Bar in Dublin I started taking a few shots to commemorate the scrumptious lobster and scallop pasta I was feasting on in a gentle, creamy arrabiata sauce.

After taking this shot on the left the very cute french waitress asked to see the image and she was so impressed she thought I was working for a food magazine! Before I could answer "um no i was just messing around" she already fetched the manager and store owner (mr. cooke himself!).


We ended up chatting for over an hour and sampling various different wines that paired better with my meal...including sampling a delicious Pinot Grigio with an off-the-menu parsley salad with a balsamic vinagrette, capers, cherry tomatoes and artisan mozarella cheese (mrs. cooke is a cheese maker!).

All in all... a very memorable meal and made some new friends along the way - who could ask for more!

Wicklow + Glendalough

When I think of Ireland, I think of green hills and old castles and stuff, so I wanted to make sure that I get some of that in during my trip this time. And boy did I! It's amazingly green (probably due to the fact that it's rained at least a little bit for the last 87 days consecutively with perhaps one.

So here are some of my favorite pics to show off the lovely emerald isle.

the Tea Room

Pics of the food from The Tea Room - the restaurant in the Clarence hotel that is co-owned by Bono and the Edge of U2 fame. All I can say is that it was one of the best meals of my entire life. I'll let the pics say the rest....

a funny thing happened

there are two versions of the story of the first night spent here in dublin. Pick the one that you prefer =)

After a relatively pleasant journey from SFO, I arrived in Dublin at 3PM local time and was promptly taken to my home away from home the Westbury Hotel. It's smack in the middle of the city center, literally 20 steps from the main shopping/eating area in Dublin. I am greeted by a man in full formal-wear (top had and all) who ushers me in to the hotel lobby to check in.

The plush carpet is ornate but not flashy, plush and surprisngly fun to walk on. The foyer adorned with exotic looking flowers that are artfully tipped at a diagonal to point (intentionally or unintentionally i don't know) to the stairs that take you to the check in counter. I walk up and present my credentials as a bonafide american and quickly the hotel clerk begins tappity-tapping away at her terminal. She whispers to her colleague "Mr. Chu is here" and her colleague then scurries off to whisper the same message to yet another hotel employee in a game of telephone that I wasn't aware my name would spark. As about 5 minutes passed and the hotel clerk as clearly typing random characters into her terminal at this point and waiting nervously awaiting the moment that I would ask what was going on... I finally decided to put the poor girl out of her misery and asked "Pardon me, is there a problem?"

"Oh no sir" she replies, flushing a bit. "we're just waiting for the Duty manager."

Deinitely something was up.

Now at this point there are two version of the story that are circulating around. So, you get the option of picking which one you'd like to believe:

1) Turns out that the hotel was overbooked and being one of the later arrivals for the day a room was not available for me that night even though I had a reservation. They arranged for a room at a nearby hotel that was just as nice, and while inconvenient, wasn't all that terrible. So I went on my way to the other hotel and came back to check in the next morning.

When I checked in again, the murmurs flew around again and the Duty Manager comes out and begins apologizing profusely. It really was OK, but for whatever reason, he found it an incredible novelty that I didn't just pick him up and throw him out on the street by his coattails. So to thank me for me "unyielding patience" the hotel was going to upgrade me into the executive suite.

2) Apparently because the room was booked under my name "Jimmy Ch00" the hotel staff thought that I was the acclaimed shoe designer. So the Duty Manager insisted that he personally checked me in and because they were desiring to make a good first impression, decided to upgrade me to the executive suite (with champagne and all!).

bottom line - I'm typing away at this blog post while in my jet-jacuzzi tub in my bathroom that's the size of my normal bedroom. i love ireland.

adventures in Ireland

Top 10 travel tips when flying abroad

1. exit rows in coach are the best. Coach price fare, business class leg room.
2. british airways and KLM have on demand movies/tv in coach. they may be slightly more expensive but oh so worth an extra 50 bucks.
3. order a non-standard meal. I pick non-lactose meals. This way you get your food first and don't have to wait.
4. have a separate carry on paper bag to stuff the things that you want to have handy during the flight - books/ipod etc.
5. invest in a airplane adapter for your laptop - then you can enjoy your movies/laptop while you're in the air!
6. noise-cancelling headphones are nice but they're pretty uncomfortable if you fall asleep with them on
7. if you're prone to pretty bad jet lag - try the no-jet-lag pills from Whole Foods. I hear it's awesome, but I like to adjust au natural. that and I just take Unisom and I'm fine =)
8. If you fly enough, look up airline partners and earn points on each flight.
9. Send your itinerary to one co-worker at home, one co-worker to the place you're visiting, your family, and one friend somewhere. It comes in handy in very unexpected ways...
10. ask the hotel if they have a shuttle service from the airport. If they do not, ask if they can arrange a car to come get you and charge it to your room. the last thing you want to worry about is getting to your hotel from the airport after 8+ hours in a confined space...
    

Scampi Saturday

As the maiden entry to this new blog, I find no better subject than to indulge in perhaps my greatest passion - food! This past saturday marked hopefull the first of many culinary experiments. I'm not one for recipes but I've added some directions to give an idea of what was done in the kitchen. No pics this time (boo!) because I was too busy cooking and eating to remember to take any pictures... but promise that there will be pics of the next cooking adventure.

tangent: the movie Ratatouille definitely get you in the mood to cook!

Le Menu

Appetizer:
- Triple melon skewers of Honeydew, Watermelon, and Santa Claus Melon (I kid you not that's it's actual name) wrapped in prosciutto
- Summer Tomato freshly picked off the vine sliced and topped with a drizzle of Olive Oil and sprinkled with rock salt and hand crushed white peppercorn - topped with fresh chopped basil

Main Course:
- Shrimp scampi in a Pinot Grigio reduction with shallots, garlic and buttercream sauced on top a bed of fettucine
Directions: first peel and de-vein the shrimp. Let them soak for about an hour in brine to get some flavor into the shrimp (brine = water + salt. you can add some lemon/lime). Then cook the shrimp and just as they become pink take the shrimp out. Add 1/2 stick of butter, minced garlic and minced shallots and cook until brown. add shrimp to the mix and cook on high for about 2 minutes. Then add white wine to cover the bottom of the pan with liquid and let that reduce until only a thin layer of liquid coats the bottom. Take out the shrimp and top cooked fettucine and garnish with a sprig of fresh parsley.

Side:
- Italian bread pasta made with freshly baked bread torn to bite-sized wedges and tossed with a cherry tomato/italian parsley/red onion/red wine vinagrette (no real directions, just rip up the bread, cut up tomatoes/parsely in parts that basically look ok, and add red wine viagrette. finito).