Lemon Jelly

Quick note about Lemon Jelly in the Latin Quartier/Blooms Quartier off the quays. It's real trendy and hip and has these awesome light-hangings and uber-hip chairs and tables. But a few weeks ago I got a tuna panini with pineapple and not only was it awful, they put like 2 pieces of pineapple in it.

When I decided to take a peek inside the sandwich to see why there was no taste of tropical pineapple-ness in my tuna-pineapple panini, I was horrified to find a chunk of ham wedged delightfully in between the ciabatta bread, snug as a bug. To put in perspective, for a Muslim kid finding ham in their food, is like finding a piece of dog in your burger (unless your Korean ofcourse, in that case whatever floats your boat). But the worse, worse thing of all was the attitude of the waiters and the managers there. They looked at me like I had just asked for a pound of their flesh. All I did was smile and point out the un-asked for ham in the fateful sandwich and they acted like it was my fault the pig flew in there.

Not only did they not apologise profusely they even charged me for the half I already ate, with god knows how many porky-pigs already in my belly.

My advice - skip this sub-standard, overpriced cafe with average food (they do smoothies, crepes, paninis, of which you can find better versions elsewhere) and head to the Epicurean, next street down.

The best Tuna-Pineapple panini ever can be found at Cafe Java in Donnybrook and Sandyford. It's like a hula party in your mouth!

Chocolate soup...?

I happened to chance across a futuristic-looking* little cafe on Debenham's second floor on Henry Street the other day, called Chocolate Soup. What an odd name for a cafe I thought, soup and cholocate, weird combo or what?

One glance at the menu and I found out Chocolate soup is actually a dessert that this place specialised in. It's made of chocolate, cream and milk with different flavourings. But I tend to like my soups savoury (and less calorific) so I decided to forego the weird concoction (don't worry I'll be trying it tomorrow or one day) for one of the numerous other sweet delights they had on offer.

Usually cafes in Dublin offer tonnes of French pastries and scones with some stale, defrosted chocolate cake slices or below par cheescakes. But this place is not your ordinary cafe. Among the usual fare, they had, wait for it...chocolate fondue! (shrieks of Oh-my-god) , they had this brownie sandwich which is stuffed with ice-cream and sauce in the middle and they had french toast!

No ordinary French Toast, let me tell you. This French Toast was chock full of yummy-sweet goodness, with ice-cream and bananas and what not. Not only that, they seem to be one of the few places that actually do proper pancakes. And I mean pancakes not crepes. (Note to all European eateries, those flimsy, crispy things are not pancakes (And where's the maple syrup godammit?!)

So there I was standing in the middle of the queue my mind reeling with the various possibilitiesI had to send my taste buds into space, when a creamy demure looking piece of cake caught my eye. It sat next to the humdrum, ubiquitous chocolate cake (Borrrrinnng) and looked like it needed someone to believe in it. And you know what? I went for it. It was called Pear and Cookie cake. Really soft and fluffy, with fresh cream and juicy pears. There was no sign of cookie though. Which is just as well, as biscuits and cake should never meet as far as I'm concerned. Biscuit is cake's poor cousin and they should remain separate. Forever. (Unless it's biscuit and ice-cream or ice-cream and cake, and it's maybe OK for cheesecake but then again cheesecake ain't really cake is it now?)

That's probably one of the best cakes I've had in Dublin in a long time.

*And what's really chic and original about Chocolate Soup (apart from their left-of-field dessert menu) is their seating area: It's a long, narrow corridor slightly jutting out of the second-floor building that looks like it belongs in some trendy part of Tokyo or something.