5 things we want to eat in Dublin this week
Filipino lunch specials, tasty buns, and a starry-eyed pre-dessert that demands you find a good reason for a special occasion dinner. Here's what we're going to bed thinking about this week...
1) The new lunch menu, Kaldero
Kaldero is officially open for lunch from Thursday - Saturday, and their three new dishes are a nod to where it all began with Bahay. There's Lugaw (chicken, ginger and rice broth, house chilli oil, soft egg, herbs and "crunch"), Bisteak Sambos (dry aged beef rump, grilled peppers and onions, calamansi salsa verde and Pinakurat garlic black pepper mayo on a house pandesal roll), and Garryhinch mushroom kebabs (grilled over coals with adobo glaze and seasonal atchara slaw on house pandesal flatbread). You'll need three visits then.
2) Tasty buns, Fennel Bakery
Our little hearts broke this week when Ballsbridge micro bakery Fennel posted that they hadn't sold one bun all day from their pop up at Lulu's on Aungier Street. How did everyone just walk past all this good stuff!? Especially at €6.50 for a bun and an Imbibe coffee - the rarely spotted city centre bargain. After their refreshing honesty and some sharing of the story their week majorly picked up, and now we want all the tasty buns. And doughnuts.
3) All the soup, The Pepper Pot Café
The Pepper Pot are right - ever falling temperatures would suggest it is officially soup season. Their seasonal flavours change every couple of days, but we are totally hung up on this leek and potato they catfished us with yesterday. You can add a cup to any sandwich too.
4) Chengdu style golden crispy sea bass, China Sichuan
Another way we like to warm up in winter is with damaging amounts of spice, and this Chengdu-style golden crispy seabass from China Sichuan has so much dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns you might want a hose on standby to cool off. Crunch, heat, málà - all roads point to Sandyford.
5) Baked Alaska, Mark Moriarty Studio
If you've questioned whether a meal at Mark Moriarty Studio is a special enough experience to justify the price, have a gander at this pre-dessert - not even the main attraction. A mango, passion fruit and Jasmine tea concoction is encased in salted coconut ice cream, and Italian meringue, before being topped with caramelised lemon and honey crisps, honey vinegar and passion fruit caramel. We spy stars in their eyes...
