Sunday, July 3, 2011

The celebrity that fancied me (and food...mmmmm)

Food and celebrity: two of my favorite things.  So, why not celebrate food with two events:

  1. Fabulous Food Trails
  2. Taste of Dublin
When thinking of what Christmas presents to get for Derek, and trying to stay in the theme of getting him a present that I can use too, I ended up with a Living Social deal for 2 tickets to the Fabulous Food Trails - a food walking thingy.  A chance to see more of Dublin, while eating and gently walking off that last crepe? Um, OK!

The basic set up is they only take 10-12 people at a time and you meet in front of this deliciouso restaurant called Fire.  But you don't get to go in there.  Poop.  You set off from there onto the first spot, which is a....

Let me back up a step and just say that Derek hates cheese & garlic.  I know!  Weird, right??  Two major staples of a diet - you must obviously be able to see the hardship that I suffer in the kitchen.  So, the main joke of the morning is: Just as long as they don't have garlic flavored cheese (cue laugh) ahahahahaha....

Now back to our regularly scheduled program:  the first stop?  A cheesemonger!  Here is basically what happened next: 

Cheesemonger person: "Our first cheese has a lovely garlic taste."
Derek: "Crap."

Don't worry, I ate his portion.  A few other lovely cheese selections and then we were on our way.  Next we went to a place called Liston's - a place that I used to frequent with my friend Penny.  I picked up my first batch of quinoa and tried some lovely hummus and red pepper soup.  Then off to a crepe place that I pass every dang day and never even thought to go into.  The owner is actually from France so she knows her stuff.

For the rest of the 2 hours, we visited a coffee shop for a New Zealanders lesson on espresso, a wonderful little bakery called Nelly's for the best brownies (where I picked up some spelt flour which I've yet to use), a sausage roll in a fancy little kiosk, amazing chocolates at Cocoa Atelier and last but not least, quite a spread at Fallon & Byrne.  I was very impressed and would recommend it to everyone!

http://www.fabfoodtrails.com/dublin-tasting-trail/

But here's the most important thing, at the very start this couple came up to the group after most of us had arrived.  I'd say they were in their early to mid 20s.  I immediately noticed how freakin' adorable the guy was, but of course I wasn't going to say anything to my husband next to me.  Then Derek says, "that's one good lookin' guy" - and I'm totally like, "I know right!"  Just when you didn't think he could get any cuter, he smiles: cue reaction, "aw, COME ON!"  We putter along through the day and in a week or so, Derek is in the main grocery store and finds his face on a book!  He's apparently a home cook/rockstar.  How did we not guess this in the first place?

My next step, of course, is to research him on the internet and up pops his blog.  And what's there (??) but a post on the Fabulous Food Trail that we were on!  He was taking pictures the whole time and now the mystery is solved.  Now, when you look at the pictures, it's so obvious that he had a crush on me - proof:



Who is that person in the top left picture on the left in a brown coat?  Me!  And who is that person in the bottom right picture on the left next to the blurry girl?  Me!  I mean, so flipping obvious he was stalking me.  Anyway, you can read the whole post here:

http://www.donalskehan.com/2011/04/ever-been-a-tourist-in-your-own-town/

The second food event was the Taste of Dublin, which we make a point to attend every year.


It's situated in a little park right smack in the center of town.  It's not cheap, but you can try food from restaurants that are way outside your budget, so it's well worth it.  We got a beautiful day to boot, so off we went a tastin'.

Oh yeah, this is how we roll:


Derek is much happier after our first bit of food (and the "free" champagne):


It's alive!! I threw back that breaded ball of goats cheese, no problem:


Oh, hells yeah:


Oooh I don't know, do you have any bigger shrimp?


Oh yeah - I had two of those (don't want to be wasteful):


And who is this???  He's found me again!!


Nice cover Donal - putting together a free cooking demonstration for anyone. 

All in all, two fantastic events - now, go be a tourist in your town!