Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.

Tag: food

Recipe for Maccabee salad

Stuck for something to have for dinner the other evening, and realising we had a tub of Greek yogurt and some leftover feta in the fridge that needed using, Bee and I improvised this quick bean salad which turned out to be very delicious indeed. It’s the gherkins that give it that special kick, I think.

We had it with steamed chicken and mangetout, but it would be equally good with fusilli as a pasta salad. Serves three or four, depending on how greedy you are.

More…

###

Pancakes of the World

My first contribution to Omnivore, entitled Pancakes of the World, is now online for your reading pleasure.
Please try to ignore the handful of spelling mistakes and poor choices of words, the faults of which are entirely my own. I’ll do a better job next time, I promise.

###

Elephant & Castle: A Restaurant Review

Yesterday I enjoyed… okay let’s start that again. Yesterday I _endured_ a lunchtime meal at Elephant & Castle in Temple Bar. It seemed like a reasonably popular, hip joint upon first appearances, and I had heard good things on the grapevine, which is normally a reliable barometer for good food and good service. But this time it was off. Way off.
After ordering a beefburger with cheddar and fries not long after 1pm (a simple choice, yes, but I wasn’t in the mood for anything more complicated) I was left waiting somewhere between 35 and 40 minutes for the meal, if you can believe that. (My timing’s a little iffy there since I didn’t exactly set my stop watch, if you know what I mean.) There was no obvious reason for such a delay. Sure it was the lunchtime rush, but the restaurant was by no means full, and others who had been seated after me were being served in half the time. As the minutes ticked by, and my stoicism turned rapidly into passive-agressive bitching, I decided to decline having the dessert.
Eventually the meal arrived, without an apology. I mentally scratched the tip from the bill. Then I began to eat, tucking in to one of the most ordinary meals I’ve had the displeasure to experience in recent memory. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say I’d had more filling, even tastier food in the past at a fast food joint. To top it off, the burger — which I had ordered well done, but was obviously medium rare — wasn’t as much juicy as it was greasy; the mark of a cook who’s not really bothered.
The only redeeming feature of the meal that I can put my finger on was the delicious apple juice which kept me going through the arduous half-hour wait for lunch. That the juice — like eating a fresh apple without the chewing part, it was _that_ good — is made by an independent company (Llewelyn’s, at a farm in Lusk, north Co. Dublin; can’t seem to find any info online) and not prepared at the restaurant itself, is no surprise.
I think it’s safe to say that the staff of Elephant & Castle shouldn’t look forward to enjoying my custom ever again.

###