Shit I ate in Dublin, an Aussie reviews

I was over in Europe last month and popped over to Dublin for a weekend. I promise to give you guys the time of day in the future with a proper visit,, but it was somewhat squeezed in trip.

Anyway, I’ve long subscribed to this sub because its an interesting insight into the musings of a country that is very culturally similar, and of course I became fascinated with the popular food stuffs this sub likes to meme, such as the chicken fillet roll.

A coaster enthusiast mate of mine has been bugging me to do the cheap Ryanair thing and pop over to visit Taytomerald Park, and yeah they’ve gone and opened that Tir Na Egg-nOg precinct, and that new Finna Fail suspended coaster has been getting good reviews, so of course thar makes the place a priority…..and no joke its legitimately one of the worlds best roller coasters, and not only that, it’s easy to ride it like 10 times because the staff are sending a train like every minute, so you queue like 15-20 mins max. 10/10 would visit again.

But of course I gave myself a day for sightseeing/dining, unfortunately for me there was that American college football thing on that weekend, so the city was crawling with seppos walking on the wrong side of the footpath, and not only that, a lot of popular attractions were well and truly booked out, but I still managed to go in and see the book of Kells (presumably that’s toooooo cultural), that portal thing, the spire, college green + The adjacent 80s looking shopping centre that’s that this sub has an attachment to, halpenny bridge, yada yada wherever my feet would take me.

But through a bit of planning, I was able to try a few local delicacies.

⚫Chicken Fillet Roll

Went to a Centra.
Ok, I couldn’t recall what the overall ideal order is meant to be, I got spicy, when she asked if I wanted butter or Mayo I said both and she looked at me funny so I quickly corrected and said just butter.
Yeah overall its not bad, I wouldn’t so much call it spicy more that it just tastes like a large amount of pepper has been used, the crusty roll is definitely what makes it.
7/10

⚫ Ham Jambon (not pictured)
Ooooh, almost forgot about these! But the same Centra had these in the warmer.
Mmm these were good. They can be very dangerous, because much like the cheeseburger, it’s a quick little hit of grease and umami you can grab on the way.
They would be a great way to put on weight.
Nice flaky pastry, cheese was creamy, bits of ham give a little bit of flavour.
9/10 start exporting.

⚫ Supermacs
Obviously I couldn’t gorge myself, so I had a piece of their chicken plus their "regular burger" reasoning their basics simple item must be their staple.
Yeah the chicken was fine but not really any better than KFC. The burger was bit leathery and tasted quite processeed, bun was dry, relies a bit on the burger sauce and onion flags too. Cover up those two shortcomings.
4/10

⚫ Chips and Curry at Emerald Park (not pictured)
Wait so I always under the impression it was just curry sauce on chips, but legit, is it the done thing? You can actuall have a full on chicken curry with veg, served over chips instead of rice? This is revolutionary.
Works pretty well, the curry was spicy enough to put to rest any fears of blandness.
8/10

⚫Leo Burdock fish and chips
So when I was walking near Dublin Castle I could see people with what was quite obviously a branded tray of fish and chips, I figured it might have been a tourist trap or something, so I did not investigate further.
Anyway, fast forward to late the following afternoon, we had a look at Howth because I wanted to see some iconic Irish cliff coastline, and my mate tells me that the place i was describing had a branch in Howth and was actually pretty good.
Obviously not overly commercialise because you still have to wait for them to cook it up fresh which makes it quite nice. Yeah this was excellent, The batter was quite Three-Dimensional really nice and airy, not oily at all. Chips are a bit softer than what I’m accustomed to but still fine, probably only needed half the amount they gave me so you can’t really complain about value.
8/10

⚫Spice Bag
I did end up walking through Temple Bar later in the evening, and thought I’d just grab a spice bag thing since it would only be small, and you gotta try the "so bad its good" utter bastardisation (here in Oz you can get kebab meat served over chips with garlic sauce and chili sauce called a HSP)
Anyway, I should have predicted from the price, but it’s not so much a spice bag rather a spice sack, waaayyyy to much to finish so i fucked off half of it by the time I had reached middle abbey st.

Yeah it’s decent but holy shit. The salt level is off the charts and it dries your mouth out due to the lack of sauce. Fried chicken was much better than what supermacs had given me, crunchy tender morsels of chicken that would make Conel Sanders weep with joy. The little bits of fried spring onion/shallot really set it off. The stray bits of carrot add crunch.
I thought it was supposed to come with fried capsicum traditionally but mine didn’t so I don’t know if I was actually getting a proper one. (Tell me from the photos ?)
In the same way that onion goes with sausages, spring onion and chicken work so well.
7/10

⚫ Cadbury Milk
Actual gods nectar, why can’t they sell this in Aus??
10/10

( I bought a couple more bottles and necked them for "breakfast" at the airport in lieu of a coffee.)

Overall, an enjoyable place Id like to spend more time exploring, awful summer "weather" notwithstanding.
I know there’s a stereotype but shit I wasn’t expecting to hear so much random joking and banter everywhere you go, and that was -without- having set foot in a bar.

When you go to America, there’s always that sense that someone may pull a gun at any moment.
When you go to Ireland, there’s a sense that someone may crack a joke at any moment.