My highlight of Taste of Dublin: steak frites from the Saddle Room. Simple, unfussy, and perfectly cooked.
The Shelbourne Hotel lost its character when it was revamped, but its restaurant seemed reason enough to visit. I headed there with our good friend Geordie Sue a few weeks ago to check out the early bird menu; €22 for two courses and €25.95 for three. It’s quite a large space with an open kitchen, lots of waiters buzzing around, and quite a few covers. The early bird seemed a popular option, but the crowd thinned out as the night went on.
Having so thoroughly enjoyed The Saddle Room at Taste, I had high hopes. Both Sue and I opted for a carpaccio of tuna starter, served with a sesame and soy sauce. The starters arrived promptly, but one of them was not what we had ordered. No problem, it was immediately taken away and replaced within a minute, with a very nice (although unnecessary) apology from the manager. We were even offered an extra drink as an apology. Excellent customer service, but I declined the kind offer.
We have regular whinges about bad customer service here at CheapEats, so it’s always nice when we can point out the good.
Last week, I spent four successive days swearing that I wouldn’t be hungover again until September (I was marking the end of summer). With so much alcohol residue coursing through my veins, the cravings kicked in; I stumbled up to Centra in Sandyford (south Dublin) for a can of Coke. Or three.
I’ve always found Centra the most tolerable of all the convenience stores. Their deli is reasonably high quality, they often have offers to match those of the main supermarkets, and it’s usually clean and well laid out. Their staff are, for some peculiar reason, friendlier than in other local shops.
So there I was at the till with my three cans of Coke, costing just under €3 altogether. The shop assistant then very kindly pointed out to me that there was a special offer on Coke that day - six cans for €3, if I was interested. No gain for the shop assistant, no manager nearby, and no extra money for Centra - but I got three cans of Coke for free. Score! I gave them to my friends and they thought I was great. Thanks, Centra man.
Readers, can you share a tale of an unnecessary act of kindness or good customer service from a shop assistant?
02 Sep, 2010
Winner of our Milano Create Your Own Pizza Competition
Posted by: jean in: Competitions
This week, Milano offered our readers a chance to win dinner for two to promote their great new ‘Create Your Own Pizza’ challenge. 85 of you said ‘me please!’ and the lucky winner is:
Here are your random numbers:
79
Timestamp: 2010-09-02 11:08:39 UTC
So well done Catherine, commenter no 79! We’ll be in touch to let you know how to claim your free meal for two, and we really hope you enjoy it.
Don’t forget to visit www.milano.ie/createyourpizza where you can enter your own pizza creation for the chance to win a trip to Rome.
02 Sep, 2010
Recipes: Blackberry season
Posted by: rercy in: Main Meals | Recipes | Sauces & Condiments | Sweet Things
Photo source: The Guardian
The blackberries are out and it’s your chance to get free food. You can use them to make jam, cakes, ice cream, compote, crème brulée, coulis and even tea.
You can also use blackberries in savoury sauces. Venison goes well with autumnal purple-red produce and this Pan-fried venison with blackberry sauce is very fast and easy to make. This recipe can be cooked and prepared in less than 30 minutes.
The trick is to cook venison as you would beef. Good quality steaks and tenderloin can be pan-fried but try to avoid overcooking. The venison season is soon approaching and although it’s not the cheapest meat it is really healthy and has higher iron levels than any other red meat and contains less fat than a skinned breast of chicken. This dish goes very well with celeriac mash.
If the idea of eating Bambi is all too much and you don’t have the cash to splash, why not use your picked produce to rustle up something sweet. I saw a lovely looking ‘Blackberry and star anise friand’ recipe in the Guardian this week. Very very good looking. Read the rest of this entry »
Lots of Italian special buys this week at Aldi, including:
- Panini press - €25.99
- Italian biscuits - €1.99 each
- Italian spice mills - 99c each
- Premium pesto - €1.39 each
Nothing for picnic goers, but I’m jealous of you all so HA HA. No tents for you: that’ll ruin your weekend, right? Click here for details.
The current Super6 offer - valid until September 11 - includes pears, kiwis, apples, and carrots for 69c. Click here for details.
Food offers
Current food offers at Lidl include:
- Red/ white cabbage - reduced from €1.29 to 79c
- Pinot Grigio delle Venezie Blush (750ml) - reduced from €5.49 to €3.99
- Something called “chicken olives, with pork, sage and onion stuffing” (answers on a postcard please) - €2.79
Remember, new set of food offers every Monday at Lidl. Click here for details.
Super Saturday offers, meanwhile, include diced steak and half price fruit drinks. Click here for details.
Special buys
Not much in the way of special buys for Electric Picnic-goers this weekend, although for some ladies’ wellies. You can, however, pick up some bed linen, kid’s clothes, and plants. Click here for details.
Next Monday’s special buys include laundry baskets, ladies’ clothes, and vacuum cleaners. Click here for details.
Also at Lidl
Lidl’s Taste of the Orient promotion includes a selection of Sharwood’s sauces for €1.49. The same sauces cost €1.85 at Tesco. There’s also some good deals on back to school specials.
M&S is to start selling branded products* in its Irish stores. Up to 450 brands, including Coca Cola, Kellogg’s, Barry’s, and Tayto will be phased into all 20 M&S stores by the middle of September.
It’s a big leap for the retailer, which has always prided itself on selling only its own produce, but it’s worked successfully in several UK stores since last year. M&S say that all the branded products will be competitively priced, and that key lines will be price matched weekly with other major supermarkets.
M&S are focusing on areas where they typically have a low market share: soft drinks, confectionary, beer, laundry, personal care, and pet food; or on areas where they have no own brand equivalent. I’m surprised to see confectionary on the list; M&S sweets and chocs are delish. And why buy Colman’s mustard, Jacob’s Cream Crackers, or Nescafe when M&S own brands are so much tastier?
Although I rarely go to M&S for the basics, M&S are one of the best supermarkets for offers; with judicious shopping last weekend, I brought my bill down from €76.99 to €46.09. Some of their range - notably the fruit - is a bit expensive for most, so it’ll be interesting to see how the price of branded goods at M&S compares with those in other supermarkets.
Readers, what do you think of this plan? Would you go to M&S for your Kellogg’s Cornflakes and other brands?
Click into the post to see the full list of new brands at M&S.
I’m a big fan of “supper clubs” - I call them that for lack of a better word - and we’ve written about the idea several times here on CheapEats. Simply gather some friends together, get one person to make a starter, another the main, and someone else the dessert. A great alternative to eating out.
Now, I’m planning another supper club on Thursday September 30, to mark Amnesty’s Taste for Freedom day. I can’t say enough good things about Amnesty, and don’t want to get all preachy here, but will say that their focus on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been a steadfast voice for justice and against tyranny, across the world.
Amnesty are asking people to hold a fundraiser on that day, big or small, centered around food. Hold a coffee morning, lunch or dinner, banquet or BBQ, wine tasting, or just a pizza and beer night. Throw a fiver in the hat if it’s all you can afford (after you chip for the food, cheapskate!), or offer more if you can.
Between now and the end of September, CheapEats will offer a few suggestions for the day. If you have any ideas, recipes, or tips, please share them here!
01 Sep, 2010
Mezze recipes, part two
Posted by: rercy in: Cookbooks | Healthy Eating | Light Meals | Recipes | Starters, Salads & Soups
I’m really loving Anissa Helou’s fantastic mezze recipes, as well as the stories on her wonderful blog. She currently has a lovely tale to tell about chocolates made from camel milk. Here’s two more mezze recipes from her excellent book Modern Mezze; check out more of her books here.
Mezze are so versatile: they make great snacks, dinners, and lunches, whether just for yourself or a larger party.
Aubergine salad
Serves 4-6
01 Sep, 2010
Product Review: Tesco Finest Dinner for Two
Posted by: jean in: Bargains & Special Offers | Product Reviews
M&S’s Dine in for Two for €12.50 offer must be one of the most attractive and successful supermarket special offers of recent years. It’s been running for ages now, consists of a great selection of unfeasibly luxurious food (both ready-made meals and fresh ingredients to cook) and is clearly hugely popular. I’ve seen people charging around M&S with trolleys loaded up with six or seven Dine in for Two meals. It isn’t really surprising that other supermarkets are offering similar deals, such as the Tesco Finest Dinner for Two for €10 (update: it has recently gone up in price to €12). The price was even more competitive than M&S’s offering, but then again, Tesco does not have quite the same stellar reputation for its in-house food line.
I’d been meaning to try the Tesco offer, but needed to wait until I was in the right frame of mind for buying Tesco ready meals: ie, exhausted and full of self-loathing. Sure enough, I had a particularly long and stressful Thursday at work a while back, and on the way home, found myself wandering around Tesco in the Jervis Centre blankly picking up and putting down food. I slowly twigged that it would be the perfect time to try their Dinner for Two; I was far too tired and hungry to even care what I was eating, let alone cook anything from scratch.
The selection on their Dinner for Two shelf had been fairly well picked over, and there didn’t seem to be anything fresh in the range, only ready meals. But the Steak in Pepper Sauce, the Horseradish Mash and the Lemon Tarts are all dishes that I like, and they didn’t look too bad. The wine selection was pretty impressive, and I picked up a bottle of Malbec. What I found when I got home and prepared the meal was pleasantly surprising:
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