Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Taste of Dublin 2008

I think it was really more Drink of Dublin 2008. I can't keep up one for one with the Irish. Or if I try, I should at least eat more food - you would think that would've been obvious considering that I was surrounded by it.

Anywho, the Taste of Dublin ("TOD") takes place in Iveagh Gardens (pronounced Ivy - obvious right?), which is very close to my office. During a nice day, people will bring their lunch there and sit in their suits with their friends for an hour. It's actually a really nice break from the day. The organizers of the TOD did a great job transforming the field to accomodate an un-countable number of kiosks for the best restaurants in town.

Picture below of one of the areas in the park. There were many twists and turns.


This is a waterfall that's in the gardens and I have never noticed it before! Great find. Remember - all right next to my office. Crazy how this can exist right next to the corporate world.


This is called black pudding. It is made of blood. Everyone here eats it. I made my attempt (noticeable below). It actually wasn't that bad. Out of principal and grossness of what's in it, I will never be eating that again. It did have a very nice scallop on top and the pea and bacon foam underneath was yummy.


The picture below is of a chocolate tasting. I thought this was pretty cool! The guy doing the tasting is a chocolate "creator" at Green & Black's which is one of the best. It is called Green because they try to be a "green" company and Black's because their first chocolate was a dark chocolate. He showed us the process of how chocolate is made from cocoa bean to bar. Then he let us taste all of the bars there from white through dark chocolate. The coolest part of it all was he told us to put a piece in our mouths and hold our nose as we chewed. Once you're finished chewing, he told us to stop holding our nose. It was the craziest thing!! You really didn't taste anything until you let go of your nose and then the flavor just hit you. Unbelievable - try it!



Here is one of the sponsors. But that was basically the event. Food and wine. And beer, and martinis, and champagne, and more wine (there was a wine tasting tent). Phew.


Since the event lasted until 4:00, I basically started my hangover at about 6:00 and was pretty much done with it by the next day.

Overall it was such a great event. Next year I think I would go to 2 sessions (4 hours doesn't seem long enough) and maybe take more time in the wine tasting tent instead of trying to get it all in in a half hour before my time runs out. Lessons learned!

3 comments:

Isabelle Baranda said...

I'm a bit confused....did you go to this during business hours? If so, are the Irish as lackadaisical as the New Orleanians about drinking during lunch? Looks like it was a lot of fun.

nikki said...

Nope - I went on Saturday but I think it started on Thursday or Friday of last week so maybe they are!

Jude Boudreaux said...

So if Iveagh is Ivy, when do you start spelling your name Nikeagh?