Ya gotta sleep, ya also gotta eat. Despite what you’ve been told, food in Ireland isn’t all about potatoes.
So the bean has been at me to get my poultry-loving butt down to Hatter’s in Athlone and try their duck. For the last few weeks he has been there at least one night a week scarfing down what he calls, “The best duck I’ve ever had in my life - ever.” Before he left for France for two weeks he fixed me with a stern look,
“If I find that you haven’t been down to Hatter’s to try that duck by the time I get back . . .”
What could I do? It had been a while since I’d taken wifey out for a nice meal, so I made reservations and hoped for the best.
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I mentioned the newly opened Genoa Cafe a couple of weeks ago, but I took the occasion the other day to actually stop in and give her a go.
Well, call me old-fashioned, but the new place just doesn’t FEEL the same. Admittedly, it’s good to have a chipper located so close to the middle of town otherwise desperate late-night munchers might have to resort to eating at the nearby Subway sandwiches (a grease-less option that would do little in the way of absorbing the alchohol in one’s stomach *grin*), but I miss the character of the old Genoa. Run-down as it was, it was different than other chippers in town. The new one . . . not so much.
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Athlone has a lot of good places to eat. The Irish sandwich bar is something of an institution in this country, although the prevalence of ham&cheese with coleslaw sandwiches have diminished significantly in the face of Ireland’s growing economy and fast-expanding palate.
The O’Brien’s Sandwich bar franchise is a real Irish success story. They’ve got shops all around the world at this point. I should point out that, in general, I’d tend to avoid franchise food chains because I like variety - franchise homogeny detracts from the experience for me.
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So there you are in your self-catering Irish accommodation and you think, “Hey, I’ll pop down to the supermarket and get everything I need for breakfast!”
May I suggest doing otherwise?
It used to be that you’d get your bread from a baker, your newspaper from the newsagent, your beer from your publican and your meat from your butcher. No longer, poor old Ireland is going the way of the USA and supermarkets carrying shelves of name and store-brand shopping items are springing up even in small villages. …
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It was Easter morning and wifey, the munchkin and I were taking the scenic route back home along the strand when we noticed chairs and a table right at the water’s edge.
Looking up, we noted that the strand fishing tackle shop had recently undergone some renovations and was now a bright, friendly, white and blue shopfront with tables set around it.
Sure enough, the tackle shop has opened up a little cafe!
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I had to do a post on this place because I’ve been eating my lunches there an awful lot lately and it’s not just the proximity to my place of employment - sure, Supermacs is closer!
Triple S stands for Salads, sandwiches and smoothies, which is exactly what they do. For €4.95 you get a massive salad with four ingredients of your choosing. I usually go for warm chicken, olives, broccoli and peppers with oil and vinegar - mm. My only criticism on the salad front is that all their salads are built from a base of iceberg-like lettuce. I would much prefer spinach or some sort of healthier mixed leaves but, that said, the crunchy leaves make an acceptable base.
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Ah, I’d say most Athlonians wont’ recognise their town in a few years. Along with the beheamoth and the new town centre, there are innumerable smaller changes happening across the town that are slowly, irrecoverably changing the face of Athlone.
Among these can now be counted the Genoa Cafe which opened yesterday after a major remodel.
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It was one of those weekends when you find yourself in Ballymahon for some musical event or another.
VE leaned across the table with a brown bag of chips. A heavenly aroma wafted from the open end.
“Chip, Sean?”
Folks I am here to tell you that that heavenly little golden sliver was possibly one of the best chips I’d had in Ireland. Within short order I had managed to demolish most of poor VE’s chip stock. Guiltily, I enquired where he had procured the little brown bag so I might replentish our stock.
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What you see above you are a few sample photos I took last night during a 5-course meal at the Hodson Bay Hotel here in Athlone.
I really must get around to writing something on this luxury hotel poised just north of Athlone on the shores of Lough Rea, but for the moment I shall content myself with detailing what the meal I had last night with my coworkers was like.
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Just look at that there.
Don’t you wish you were sitting right there, about to tuck into that gorgeous, steaming platter of roast chicken, rosemary stuffing, steamed veg and half mash and chips with a frosty, beautiful pint of stout standing proudly behind it, sweating chilled beads of condensation?
Oh lord, it hurts just to describe it.
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