Posh Not-Irish Food

I am currently attending the first ever Irish Discworld Convention in County Clare, Ireland. The hotel is a lovely spa resort place which is still very Irish in ambience named the Falls Hotel.

Afraid that I might be forced to go hungry this evening, I made an early reservation for dinner at the Cascades Restaurant, not realizing that the Dylan Thomas Bar offers food all day long, proper Irish food like Yorkshire pudding, mash and boiled cauliflower.Er. Proper pub food anyway.

The restaurant menu is really quite posh, offering no more than five options for each of its three courses, and the silverware is laid out in proper sequence. I ordered Chicken and Mushroom Vol au Vent in creamy Tarragon sauce for my appetizer. Alas, I forgot my impeccable upbringing and used my dessert spoon. Very embarrassing. The vol au vent was a huge thing, floating on a creamy white pond of sauce and chicken slivers. It was at least as wide as a tea saucer and about as high as tea cup. The pastry was both soft and crispy, and the chicken so tender than it fell apart when I poked it, although it was still very tender and the flavour of chicken was still very strong and fresh.

For the main course I selected Seared Escalope of Salmon with Cream Sauce and Some Other Stuff I Forget What. The salmon came on a flat mound of smooth potato mash and a pile of some fried herb or vegetable rode on top of the slightly browned escalope like a bonfire made by pixies. Some cauliflower and carrot sticks with more mash arrived on a crescent plate as a side dish. I usually hate hate hate carrot, but the sticks looked quite nice, so I gave one a nibble. Wonderful. It must have still been lying in the soil earlier today or at the most yesterday because it was the sweetest, tastiest carrot I’d ever had.

The salmon also arrived swimming in creamy sauce and though it was all very lovely tasting, I could barely finish half of it. I was very apologetic to the waitress who came to clear my plates, and I used my cold as an excuse.

The final course was a soft, light white and dark chocolate mousse, that had a ring of syrup surrounding it like a holy circle. I could not quite identify the sauce, which was made of two flavours. The dark brown sauce was definitely cranberry, and tart enough to counteract the rich sweetness of the mousse. The other sauce paired with it was light yellow which I thought was mango, but there was no trace of mango in it. The base of the mousse was a fluffy sponge which was so light that I barely could tell it was there at first.

All in all, a wonderful dinner, although it is rather expensive, being over 40 Euros. I don”t regret having it, but I do think my next dinner will be upstairs in the bar, selecting robust pub food.

Previous dinners from alnedra

• Waffles - July 4th, 2009
• Duck Duck Aubergine - March 31st, 2009
• Creme Brulee and Yakitori - March 31st, 2009
• Salmon Steak Tartare - March 31st, 2009
• Breakfast for Dinner - March 31st, 2009