Best Meal of My Life

I had, quite possibly, the  best meal of my life last night. I ventured outside the touristy area and went in for a culinary adventure to L'Ecrivain. I had their tasting menu which happened to be a three hour adventure with loads of complimentary dishes and wine thrown in there. It was also the best service I've ever experienced in my life (they even brought me a bowl of olives with my martini without me asking, and for those of you that know how I like my martini's you can imagine how excited I was to see that.
Pics aren't of the best quality b/c they're from my phone, but you get the idea.

Chilled Gazpacho - basil oil and croutons. It was light and refreshing but overall not very flavorful

Sea bass - pan seared, consumme, avruga caviar. Cooked to literal perfection with a crispy skin on top and light and buttery underneath

Cured Halibut - mackerel rillette, pickled carrot, potato. Not my favorite but cooked really well and the spicy mustard was a really nice touch and the perfect compliment to the mackerel.

Compliments of the chef - tomato taurine (marinated overnight) and veal sweet breads with garlic gnocchi. Still not a huge fan of sweet breads though they were done really well, my favorite were the slightly sweet and creamy gnocchi!

Another compliment of the house - pims cocktail on ice. Was a nice break between dishes and is meant to cleanse the pallet. Very refreshing!

After this I took a 5 minute break and chatted up the manager about the history of the restaurant and his passion for food and excellent service; needless to say I had a huge crush!

Roscommon Lamb - loin, shoulder, leek, confit roasted wet garlic. The lamb is from the northern region of Ireland where they're famous for their meats. The lamb was so juicy and tender, the shoulder was wrapped in polenta which was not very flavourful but a nice combo. The mushrooms were the most amazing shrooms I've ever tasted - hands down. They're some gourmet mushroom from France that I don't know how to spell or pronounce, so I won't try. But they were heavenly.

 

Hereford Beef
tongue, smoked garlic butter, oxtail and celeriac tart. This was the most savory dish of all, and by far my favorite. The meat was extremely tender and practically melted in my mouth. Traditionally a butcher will hang their meat for 20 days, specialty/gourmet shops will hang the meat for about 28 days, but they hang their meat for 32 perfect days! The different cuts of meat and how they were all prepared were phenomenal and I'm frustrated with my lack of vocabulary to properly describe how amazing each bite was.

Pre-Dessert, another compliment on the house. Some sort of seaweed from the chef's home town in Northern Ireland. It was a gooseberry  purre and shortbread on top.

Irish strawberry - consomme, black pepper and strawberry shortbread. Light and refreshing and just perfect. My favorite was the basil (or in an irish accent - bah-zil) and had some sort of crunchy texture to it but melted on my tongue.

The petite fours - The one in the middle was a marshmallow swirled with organic raspberry sauce. The lemon macarron was exquisite and I forget what the others were but all equally delicious in their own right. The espresso was a real gem as well. Lusso espresso is an exclusive way of making espresso and apparently ensures that no one within a 10 mile radius of their restaurant can make it since they own the rights....or something like that.

I spent the day wandering around the city and stumbled upon a gem of a restaurant for lunch - The Church. Which is quite literally an old converted St. Mary's church where the founder of Guinness himself got married! There I ordered a pint, of course, and the best Cod fish n chips I've had in a really long time.
I then found myself in front of the Dublin Castle and snuck my way right in to a tour that was just starting. After the tour I just headed North toward the sound of live music and came upon St. Stephens park which was beautiful and lively. I got lost at one point so found a small little pub and after about 2-3 hours and many friends (most of which I really couldn't understand b/c of their thick irish accents) I found my way back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.

It was quite the day! I'm now in my Hostel in Galway after a 20 minute taxi ride (since the last bus left for the day!)  but it was worth every penny since I got an insiders view on what and what not to see in town. I'm headed to the Cliffs of Mohr day trip tomorrow and if all goes as planned I'm meeting Swed on the way as he'll be coming from Dublin.

More later....I'm famished and saw an adorable pub/restaurant around the corner that's calling my name.