Hurrah for The Happy Pear – one of the loveliest cafes, nay, places in Ireland.

They’re holding a Veggie Pie and Cake and Muffin and Pastries and Crumbles and Beautiful Things Competition this Sunday the 29th of November in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

Have a look at their website here to find out how to get there as well as other rules and regulations of the Vegetable Cake-ing Competition.  How thrilling!

Behold! The Yeasty Elixir! With the Marmite Haters Soldiers fighting it off as well as my Marmite earrings to the right…

Gather round, friends, for I have something of the utmost secrecy and overwhelming importance to share with you.

Before you read on, I must ask you a solemn question.

Marmite: Do you love it or hate it?

If you answered “I love it” please click the READ MORE link which will take you further into the depths of this Marmite-induced adventure.

If you answered “I hate it” please skip to my post about Jocelyn’s cheesecake.  Sort of like a Choose Your Own Adventure Blog.

The Guardian of The First Circle

If you are reading this, then you obviously love Marmite.  You love the way it tastes on toast, or on toast dipped into boiled eggs, or the way it soothes your tummy after a night of boozing, or even how you can put it into sauces to enrichen their flavour.  Some of you may even love it because you understand that it’s only a select few who were born with the ability to comprehend the majesty and nobility of this most gracious yeasty spread.

Perhaps you have been told stories of The Marmarati.  Perhaps you felt, along with most other secret societies, that it was all just conspiracy theories and wishy-washy whispers around darkened pub tables that could never have any amount of truth in them.

But, no.  The Marmarati are real, oh yes.  They have been around for a hundred years, protecting the sanctity of Marmite and its secret recipe behind closed doors away from public scrutiny.

The Elders of The Marmarati

Now, the Elders of The Marmarati feel it’s time to find the next generation of Marmaratis, Marmite lovers who will uphold the spirit and protect the dignity of this most polarizing friend-of-toast.

I can humbly announce that I was invited into The First Circle of The Marmarati, made up 40 Marmite Lovers last week in London, at the beautifully plush No 5 Cavendish Square. Our host of the evening was Fotherington-Smythe, whom you may spot in the below pic as he is dressed in the most fetching manner with pirate cap and white knee-high socks.

We were treated to a fabulous night where the champagne, Rose Petal cocktails and Marmite cocktails flowed.

We were treated to a blind-folded test of three new secret blends of Marmite, one of which I believe to be the famed, notorious MXO, the newest and most powerful blend of Marmite known to man.

Most importantly, we were able to bask in the knowledge that we were among friends: we were all there to support and cherish Marmite, forever, and my, what a bond it created.

To complete The Marmarati, the Elders are seeking out another 160 of the TOP Marmite Lovers from around the world.  Now it’s time for you to stake your pledge as a protector of Marmite.

Go forth!  To The Marmarati website!  Where you have but 27 days left to explain to The Inner Sanctum that you are worthy of being part of The Second Circle of The Marmarati.

Should you be successful, not only will you have the honour and pride of being a soldier of Marmite, but you will also receive a jar of MXO – the strongest and most powerful Marmite ever before made.

So….are you in?  Or are you out?

On the right, my precious Marmarati First Circle certificate.

Have a look over here for some more pictures of our Initiation Night at No 5 Cavendish Square.

This post could alternatively be entitled “Why I Should Never Have Asked Jocelyn to Do Come Dine With Me.”

We most certainly had the best dessert of our little competition, and I think all of the other competitors will agree with me.  It was so good that I’ve provided three pics below for you to drool over.

We were greeted on Saturday night at the third and final heat of our Come Dine With Me with a little bowl of olives and delicious little puff pastry pies.  There was a choice of Caramelised Onion tarts or the Gorgonzola and Pear tarts.

The starter was a Seafood Linguine.

The main course was an Italian Hotpot served with Pumpkin Potatoes and roasted veg.

The dessert was the most heavenly Cheesecake I have ever tasted.  Joc is a genius.  I don’t want to say any more about any of the other courses as the marks are still secret at this point.  Once all the marks have been sent in, we’re all going out for dinner and our unbiased, uninvolved score-keeper will announce the winner over grub at The Hop House.  Hurrah!

Now, here’s that dessert.  From three different angles!

I could look at pics of that all day.  Although, obviously, I’d prefer to eat the dessert all day.

We also had a post-dessert dessert.  It was Alan’s birthday and John had made him a special cake.  We sang the song and all.  Then we watched The Yellow Submarine and myself and Alan had another dance-off.  Think there’s a video of it too…

So, tonight is the night when Jocelyn and John pair up to prepare a three course meal for myself, Niall, Alan and Colette.  Their menu looks delicious.

This reminds me that I’ve failed to put up Alan’s recipes from his CDWM but I will do that asap.

We’ll be announcing the winners of our Come Dine With Me sometime in the next two weeks, I suppose, once everyone has sent their marks for Jocelyn and John’s night to our secret and entirely impartial judge.  Exciting!

Tis the season to eat pies, fa la la laaaa la la la la la!

Honestly.  I’ve wanted to eat pie every night this week.  It’s all this cold weather. The wind has been wrapping itself around my face every time I leave the house, like some kind of energy-vampire ill-advised friendship, trying its best to devour any enthusiasm I’d had for the day.

Dash it all, cruel weather, you won’t win! For I have pie to defend myself with!

Of late, I’ve been constantly craving a bit of meat and carbohydrate (with a dollop of cream with every dish) to warm me up and make me feel happy in my tum tum.

I spotted this Chicken Pie of English Mum’s (blogger/foodie/mum/pink lady extraordinaire) ages ago.  It had to be made.  Oh yes, it had to be made.

Head over to her lovely blog for full instructions on the making of the pastry and how to make the filling.

I used ready to roll pastry and followed her instructions pretty much to a T and it were gorgeous.

Go on.  You know you want to.  Make a pie and feck the calorific quantities!  It’s winter!

Tune

As I was cooking  the above pie, I was looking for tracks for my new show on 2xm which is called Right Click Radio.  Below is a link to The Hype Machine, where you’ll be able to listen to one of my favourite tracks of last week’s show, The Generationals When They Fight They Fight.

The Generationals -  When They Fight They Fight – on The Hype Machine

This is definitely my last NYC post, promise.  I just had to share details of our three hour food tour of NYC Chinatown, the most exciting culinary adventure we had stateside.

Foods of New York Tours operate a number of walking tours around specialised foodie areas of the city.  @jenlucy had brought the company to my attention before  our holliers, and on perusal of the website, the Chinatown Tour caught my eye.  Sure, it was the most expensive tour at $65 per person, but it looked like the most fun.  And, if I’m totally honest, it looked like the one with the most grub so…you see where my priorities lie.

Our meeting point was at noon outside Dim Sum Go Go, a Hong Kong Dim Sum house on 5 East Broadway where Broadway meets Chatham Square or Kimlau Square as it’s known locally.  We were ushered upstairs by our guide Rahim and seated at a table with other members of our 17 strong tour group.

Rahim gave us an introduction into Chinatown, as well as a very thorough and insightful history of Dim Sum.

Then came the food.  It was the first time I’ve ever had Dim Sum for breakfast but funnily enough, Rahim explained that Dim Sum for brunch is actually a bit of a thing in NYC, and Dim Sum Go Go is one of the top spots in the city to get it.

As is integral to the tradition of eating Dim Sum, we were served with some delicious Jasmine Flower Oolong Tea, and were talked through our three condiments.

From left to right we had a vinegar based chilli sauce which had a sweetness to it that counteracted the chilli.  Our middle sauce was a meat based concoction with a hint of ginger and sweet chilli.  It was AMAZING.  The third little pot was full of a scallop, shrimp, ginger and scallion based dip, which was delicious.

Soon, it was time for our Dim Sum breakfast.  Each person in the group was presented with a little steam box with five little beauties inside.  It was honestly like opening up a Christmas present.  Off came the lid and there were the five beautifully packaged parcels of yumminess.

Zang!

READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY – OR AT LEAST LOOK AT THE PICS!

I got a little excited and starting munching away at our first clutch-shaped dim sum before remembering to grab a close-up of it.  As we chewed away on our delicious, light, fresh-like-I’ve-never-tasted-before bundles of joy, Rahim talked us through the inside flavours and the methods of making them.

Next was the beautiful Crabmeat Dumpling – the colour green comes from making the dimsum wrapping with spinach.

We were directed towards the Vegetarian Dumpling next.  This was full of asparagus and other lovely veggie stuff.  Ay carumba.

Our last little delicate dim sum was the deliciously pink Organic Chicken Dumpling.  The pink comes from beetroot, don’t ya know.

Last, but most certainly not least, was the surprisingly flavoursome Shrimp and Chive Dumpling.  This one packed such a perfectly balanced flavour combination of the shrimp and chive, each complimenting the other so well without over-powering or fighting for taste-bud time.  Gorgeous.

As if all that wasn’t completely gorgeous enough, we were treated to the most spectacular Pork Buns EVER.  Not that horrible glutinous rubbish that you usually get – these little flour puffs of wonderfulness melted in the mouth and made one swoon with mouth-watering happiness. *sigh….!*

After a bit of a breather enabled us to return back down to earth aided by sweet tea and a loo break, our group moved on to the next joint.

We were headed to Mott Street, taking a little detour down Doyers Street passed the old Chinese Theatre, now a federal post office.  Lots of crazy-opium-fuelled-antics went down at that place before it was closed down I think sometime in the early 1900s.

We arrived at our next destination, The Peking Duck House at 28 Mott Street, renowned for its genuine Peking Duck pancakes.  OMG.

We were sat at a giant table in the downstairs part of the restaurant, and while Rahim gave us the history of Peking Duck in America, as well as the special methods used to prepare it just so, the chef came out with four massive ducks (heads and all – sorry Daffy) and carved up the most delicious, tender,  non-greasy, just-the-right-amount-of-fatty, crispy-skinned duck I’ve ever had the pleasure of popping into my gob.  Lovely.

Here are the pancakes, of which we each had two.

I want to go to there right now!  So good.

After our delicious duck, we popped into the heartily stocked herbalist shop next door – I believe it was called Chung Chou City.  Here are some of the delights we found inside.

I picked up some Bubble Tea to drink along the way.  The little black yokes at the bottom of the drink are these bizarre little toffee thingies – quite hard to describe – which are big enough that you need an especially large straw to drink them through.  A strange little drink, although not entirely unpleasant.

It was a kick hop around the corner, past stalls full of bizarre talking toys, lovely scarfs (of which I bought 6 – only one for myself, mind) and I *heart* NY shirts, to our next tasting destination.

We stopped outside of the Nice Green Bo Restaurant on 66 Bayard Street, which Rahim explained was one the original and best Shanghai restaurant in Chinatown.  The original owner closed it as a protest at all the other Shanghai Pretenders who opened up around him on the same street, taking away a lot of his business.

Soon after, his wife re-opened it, most likely in a wifey fit of “that fecking eejit, sure I’ll just have to go on and do it myself, flippin’ ego on him like Bono”.  That’s what the story made me think of anyway.

We were treated to the most gorgeous scallion egg pancake which we munched on just outside of the restaurant.  Deep fried.  Oily.  Unhealthy.  Unutterably scrumptious.  My mouth is watering just typing about it.

We were all pretty stuffed at this stage, but, like the true food troopers that we were, battled on to face more delicious morsels to stuff into our gobs.

We didn’t have far to walk, as our next snack was in the neighbouring Hsin Wong Restaurant, where we were treated to the most luscious barbequed loin of pork.  Bloody gorgeous.

I was so full I only had one piece.  Delicious.

Dessert was next and Rahim ran into the Hon Cafe Bakery on 70 Mott Street to pick up our box of pre-ordered delights.  We enjoyed these little tiger swiss roll type lovelies.

There was only one thing to do but to have some Iced Plum Tea at the famous Ten Ren’s Tea Shop across the road from The Hon Cafe.

And so ended our fantastic Food Tour of Chinatown.  Absolutely worth every penny, I would strongly urge you to check it our for yourself.

The only downside to it is that you’ll probably never be able to eat in your local Chinese Restaurant again, without feeling msg-fuelled sinking disappointment, as you wistfully think back on the delights you enjoyed on this tour.  Unless, of course, you actually live in China.

Do it.  And check out all the other tours available to see which one catches your eye.

Widely known as The Chelsea Hotel, The Hotel Chelsea, number 222 on West 23rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue, is a part of art, literature, music and pop culture history.

Over the years, it has been home to many a writer and musician.  Brendan Behan stayed there for a bit, as did Mark Twain and Dylan Thomas.  The most well known long-term guests to check in with a guitar were Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell.  All of Andy Warhol’s motley crew stumbled up to the Chelsea address at some point in the late 60s early 70s, no doubt a little worse for wear.

The Hotel Chelsea has been around since 1905 as a hotel.  Joseph Gross, Julius Krauss, and David Bard took ownership of the hotel in 1946 as a three-way partnership management team in 1946.  When Joseph Gross and Julius Krauss passed away, the job of hotel manager was handed to Stanley Bard, the son of David Bard.  Stanley was the manager from the early 1970s, up until 2007, when the board of directors asked Stanley Bard to step down as Hotel Manager.  The descendents of the Krauss and Gross families are now in charge.

Myself and Niall were only short-term guests, when we spent our last two nights in NYC staying at The Chelsea Hotel.  The changes brought about by the new management were evident in a few subtle ways.

Things such as the absence of the legendary elevator man, the lack of leftover spray paint on the walls of our room, and the notable discontent by still present long-term residents, such as our neighbour in the next door room who had a big sign on his window facing the street and over his front door saying “Bring Back The Bards.”  All this seems to signify an on-coming consumerism of the establishment.

No doubt the new management want The Chelsea Hotel to become a hotel for rare individuals as well as a place to stay for some regular punters.  The room that we stayed in was lovely, but free of any individual traits that we might have liked, such as a graffiti message from a past guest for example.

What has remained is the amazingly friendly staff, the visibility of some of the long-term residents and their eccentric ways, and the fantastic art work displayed on every available space in the hotel outside the  rooms.  We had the most wonderful stay in the hotel, taking photos out of our balcony, wandering around the hallways looking at the art, having friends over in our room to drink the cheapest vodka available and generally soaking up the history of the place.

It’s very reasonably priced, situated in a very central location and the room was crisp and clean.  Bascially we had everything we needed, and I’ll definitely be staying there again.  Unless the new management take down the art work.  Which is highly unlikely.

Here are a few choice pics.

Our room in The Chelsea Hotel. Note the lack of graffiti, general chaos, and the massive telly.  Hey, don’t get me wrong, I loved it.  Perfect digs for two nights at a relatively cheap price of $160 a night.

So, stay there.  And let me know what you think.  I thought it was great.

…that didn’t actually involve eating or gigs.

Well.  Okay, I won’t lie.  There was always a pretzel or a donut or, at the very least,  a Vitamin Water close to hand while doing the touristy stuff in NYC after CMJ was over.

And, yes, I do consider expertyly graffitied loos in NYC a tourist attraction.  That loo above on the right was in the deadly Cake Shop bar/venue on Ludlow Street in The East Village.  Great spot.

We did the Top Of  The Rock…

We saw Tina Fey and all I could say was “I want to go to there!” followed by “…and that’s a dealbreaker!”

Shee-ahhh. I wish. We didn’t see her or Kenneth or Jack Donaghy but they were all with us in spirit as we looked over the amazing Manhattan skyline on a beautifully sunny day.

We also went to The Museum of Natural History up at the top of Central Park.  I thought I was going to pass out with overwhelming love for the Universe and all that it’s made up of while in the UNBELIEVABLE Journey to the Stars at the Planetarium.  Holy Cow.  A direct quote from Niall was “Those were the best visuals I’ve ever seen.”  And he would know.

And we saw lions and tigers and bears and dinosaurs, oh my.  Amazing place.

Amazing. I loooove the stuff.

We had a bit of a boo boo on Saturday in NYC.  We were to stay at a friend’s apartment on the Upper West Side while she was out of town.

We hopped up on the subway to the leafy area near Central Park and found the apartment.  It was rainy for the first time on our NY trip and we were suffering from a series of late night-induced fatigue.

We weren’t feeling too hot when we arrived at the apartment to find that the spare keys for our friend’s apartment were not working.  There was no way in. We were on the side of a rainy, although very pretty and leafy, New York City street with a pile of luggage, sore heads, and nowhere to go.

Luckily, the apartment was very close to The Peace Food Cafe on 460 Amsterdam Avenue at 82nd Avenue.  We hauled our gear in there and sat down for some lovely Gingerade and hot tea.  The waiter was the most friendly fresh faced young man I’ve seen in a while.

We were feeling a little stressed and our feet were soaked so the welcome peace and quiet and total calm of this lovely cafe helped raise our happy endorphins while we looked online for a last minute hotel.

I decided I needed a salad.  I chose the Fluffy Quinoa Salad for $9.95.  This was to be the most nutritiously rich meal I had in NYC, as it was packed full of delicious quinoa, beans, baby greens and sprouts, sweet peppers, fresh sweetcorn and onions, all tossed in a creamy lime mustard vinaigrette.  Delicious.

And all things work out in the end.  We ended up staying in The Ace Hotel for the following two nights.  It is, by far, THE coolest hotel I’ve ever stayed in.  It’s on 20 West 29th Street just off 5th Avenue so a perfect location for a visit to NYC.

The front lobby was like a happening bar in the style of an old school library and the room itself was outrageously alt.

Image found on NY Times website

Not only was there a Smeg fridge packed full of vitamin water and champagne, a record player and a choice selection of some great records (including The Ramones – this was NYC after all), there was also a guitar in the corner of the room, just in case one become inspired in the middle of the night and felt the need to write a song.  Awesome!

It was a little on the expensive side but for a special treat, I’d really recommend this hotel if you’re coming to NY.  The staff were great and the a definite plus was the cafe located in the lobby – the best coffee we had in NYC.  Apart from Dizzy’s Diner coffee in Brooklyn, of course.

Turns out this coffee shop was one of the first in NY to offer the famed Portland Stumptown Coffee.  Check out the debate on Stumptown Coffee over here on Cheap Eats.  Intriguing stuff!

Late night munchies at Veselka in The East Village

New York City certainly never sleeps.  And we didn’t do much of that either while there.

We were over in NYC for the CMJ Music Festival, and Music from Ireland put on a showcase of 7 Irish bands in The Bowery Poetry Club last Thursday night.

Needless to say, it turned into a bit of a session, with a late night move to an Irish bar called Dempseys after midnight.

Around 4am we were in need of some serious food and a call for Peirogis was made.

We headed to Veselka on 2nd Avenue, the 24 hours a day home of “Ukranian Soul Food in the heart of the East Village”.

Peirogis are little dumplings that are either boiled or deep-fried and packed with a variety of savoury fillings.

I had the Goat’s Cheese and Arugula (aka rocket) Boiled Peirogis.  A good late night snack – lovely and salty as well, served with apple sauces.

Niall had the selection of Deep Fried Peirogis, which were a mixture of all the available Peirogi types, with cheese and meat based fillings.

Great late night food at a reasonable price.  I’ve been told that the Peirogis are just as tasty to a sober palate, which is good news.

Highlight of our Veselka visit was our friend Norm setting us up with a pretty amazing condiment gif.  Rockit!