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A Visit to Westport

December 21, 2011 in Food, Travel by traveleatlove | 9 comments

Westport, Ireland, that is. When we are staying with our family in Galway, visiting Westport is one of my favorite day or overnight trips. Just about an hour away, Westport, home to the pub owned by Matt Molloy of The Chieftain’s fame, is a great place for traditional Irish music as well as a fun place for eating and going out on the town.

On yet another rainy, dark day, we left Galway for Westport, hoping for a change of scenery and maybe some better weather? We got the former at least. . .

Signposts like these can be found all over Ireland. It’s a well-marked country, and with a pretty simple road system, it’s easy to get places. Example, the Dublin Road. . . guess where it goes?

Our drive to Westport included a stop at Ross Errilly Friary, a structure said to be built around the year 1460. In the 1600’s Ross Errilly’s 140 Catholic monks fled just before Cromwellian forces arrived, ransacked the property, and even defiled graves.

Throughout the years, there was a coming and going of clergy, and one thing is clear: this place has not been inhabited in quite some time!

The wind through the bare windows made a loud howling noise that actually had me running away from the friary while my husband explored. I wasn’t afraid of ghosts but more the fact that the structure, so old, could deposit a stone on my head at any moment. Upon leaving the friary, I received a tweet from my brother-in-law’s friend that they used to visit the friary in the middle of the night when they were younger. A dark, windy day was scary enough for me, thank you very much!

After our stop at Ross Errilly, we headed straight for Westport. This girl needs to be fed pretty often, and I was hungry!

After a quick walk around Westport town, we made our way to the waterfront where we found Fishworks Café. Two pints of Guinness quenched our thirst.

And I satisfied my need for local seafood with some mussels in a cream sauce with lots of veggies in it. A few slices of brown bread for dunking, and I was all set, gobbling up this bowl fairly easily. I love mussels, but I feel like they never really fill me up!

We decided to take the coastal road home, through the mountains of Connemara, which ended up not being the best move! There are no street lights, very few houses, and lots of sheep in the narrow, winding roads. The wind whipped the car around the whole way home. It was scary, but it was so very quintessential rugged West of Ireland that it was kind of worth it. At least for the passenger.

I am gearing up for a flight home tomorrow. I am not taking any time off for Christmas or New Year’s, but I am lucky that I can work from NJ and hang out with my family when things slow down a bit.

Do you have any travel plans for the holiday season?

Tags: Food, Guinness, Ireland, mussels, Travel, Westport

Feast your Senses

March 23, 2011 in events, Restaurants by traveleatlove | 10 comments

The International Boston Seafood Show brought with it a multitude of seafood purveyors from around the globe which resulted in some pretty great events around the city. I started my week with the Scottish salmon event at the Moakley Courthouse and followed that yesterday afternoon with an event called Feast your Senses on Canada’s Sustainable Lobster & Mussels at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Cambridge.

The event was held in Le Cordon Bleu’s Technique Restaurant, a place where culinary students and chefs work side-by-side. What a neat space!

I received a very friendly welcome at the restaurant entrance, where I also stopped to check out this beautiful, bright wall decorated with photos and quotes about food. This would be a GREAT place for a blogger event.

The room was set up with rows of chairs with several reserved rows in the front, in addition to a demo table stacked high with lobster and mussels.

The kitchens were massive, truly amazing, and for more than a brief second I was totally jealous of the students in culinary school.

The event was hosted by the Consulate of Canada, and they could not have been more welcoming. This is a broad generalization, I realize, but I don’t think I have ever met an unfriendly Canadian person. Our neighbors to the North are just so nice and happy. I have been to various places in Canada including Montreal, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island (to stalk Anne of Green Gables, I kid you not), and I have always found the people to be so helpful and friendly. I love Canada!

Speakers at the event included Linda Duncan, Executive Director of the Mussel Council of Canada and Ian Wentzell, Chair of the Lobster Council of Canada. Did you know that Canada has the most miles of shoreline in the world? Over 150,000 miles, to be exact! A large portion of the seafood we eat right here in Boston comes from Atlantic Canada, and I was excited to get started eating.

The chef performing the demo was Chef Alain Bossé, also known as the kilted chef. Chef Bossé has an enviable and impressive resume in the culinary and hospitality world, but he was incredibly fun and down-to-earth. I also got a friendly hello from him. And he was indeed, true to his name, in a kilt!

First up were the mussels. I absolutely love making mussels at home and usually put them in some sort of coconut or tomato broth. I actually bought “the perfect shellfish wine” in California and will have that on the blog, with mussels next week. While Chef Bossé cooked, we learned about the mussel farming practices in Canada from Linda Duncan. Both mussel and lobster products from Canada still come from family farmers who have made great strides in making these products sustainable. To make things even better, sustainably-farmed mussels are also more consistent in size and quality, making them an easy dish for restaurants and home cooks alike.

Our first dish:

Atlantic Canada Mussel on the Half Shell with Blueberry Maple Vinaigrette Served on Local Greens

I didn’t know how blueberries and mussels would be, but this dish was incredible. The mussels were cooked perfectly, and the sweetness of the vinaigrette was a nice little burst with the briny and sweet mussels.

The second mussel dish:

Thai Sweet Chili Atlantic Canada Mussels

I was grateful that Chef Bossé encouraged us to pick up our bowls to drink the broth that these mussels were in. It offered up some of my favorite ingredients, chili and cilantro, again, with perfectly cooked mussels.

After the mussels course, we learned a little bit about the Canadian lobster industry. Chef Bossé showed us how to put a lobster to sleep, how to tell if it is done (pull on the tentacle, if it comes off, it’s ready), how to dismantle a lobster hygienically, and even how lobsters mate. Embarrassed smile He was hilarious.

Then we ate lobster, and lots of it.

Atlantic Canada Lobster Fresh Roll with Maple Ginger Sauce

Again, some of my favorite flavors were used here, ginger, daikon, maple, chilis, and of course, sweet, tender lobster meat.

Atlantic Canada Lobster Cakes with Dill and Caper Remoulade

These cakes were so savory, and there were no fillers here. It was all lobster, some veggies, and a nice, tangy remoulade.

I was pretty amazed and pleased at the size of the sample portions; it was enough for lunch for me! The culinary students in the audience were absolutely adorable, and it seemed like everyone had a really great time. I definitely learned a lot about Canadian seafood, and it made me want to try my hand at using seafood in different recipes as Chef Bossé did here. Everyone involved in the event did a fantastic job and should be commended for the success of the event.

Are you a fan of lobster and mussels? Do you have a favorite way of eating them?

Tags: Alain Bosse, Canada, cookin demo, Le Cordon Bleu, lobster, mussels, seafood

the girl + the fig

March 14, 2011 in Food, Travel, wine by traveleatlove | 16 comments

One of the biggest highlights of last week’s visit to Sonoma was undeniably getting to see my friend Robin again. I have referred to Robin in past posts, like the time we met at Bistro du Midi and had dinner at Towne, but she is probably most famous for the Venge wine dinner she hosted in September. Robin is a ton of fun, an amazing chef and blogger, and overall just one of those people who you just have to have a good time with!

On a very warm and sunny day (last Tuesday), Eric and I went to Robin’s house where we reunited with her adorable dogs and very sweet mom. I also finally got to meet Cynthia Cosco, the winemaker at Passaggio Wines and someone I have been tweeting with for some time. Luckily, she kindly brought me a bottle of her highly-acclaimed Unoaked Chardonnay. I can not wait until it arrives in Boston (via NJ, stupid MA wine laws!) with the wine we shipped from California.

We also got a sneak preview of Cynthia’s first rosé, which has yet to be released. It was absolutely beautiful.

Robin had made lunch reservations at the girl + the fig, a restaurant I was eager to try since we cancelled reservations last March, due to our being on East Coast time and staying pretty far away.

the girl + the fig is located on Sonoma Plaza, and on this particular day, the weather was perfection. The restaurant touts country food with a French passion, and both the outside and inside are wrapped in cozy French country meets Sonoma warmth.

Once we were situated at a big round table near the back, we let the winemaker among us order the wine, a dry rosé, Maison Bouachon from Tavel France, an area known for its dry rosés. Did I mention the weather was perfect? Rosé was a perfect choice, and after we returned the first bottle, which was corked, we were all happy with the wine.

To start, we shared pastis-scented steamed mussels and frites.

Served with grilled bread and a tarragon aioli, the mussels were fragrant and perfectly-cooked, and the frites were nice and crispy, perfect for dipping.

The table also shared the grass-fed steak tartare which Robin somehow convinced me to try. It was good, but while eating raw tuna doesn’t bother me, I couldn’t get over the raw beef factor.

It was back to veggies for me. I ordered the arugula and fig salad; I figured I must have figs at the girl + the fig. Lightly dressed with a port vinaigrette, the arugula was spicy, the goat cheese creamy and fresh, and the figs like sweet candy.

Robin had the wild flounder meuniere.

And Eric had the beet salad with pretty pink beets.

We were all too full from dessert, but I am hoping a return trip to the girl + the fig is in our very near future. Who knows when we will be in Sonoma again?