Bowe Selectah

Hi again. Since my last pub related post got just as many comments as most of my other posts, I think it's time I wowed the world with more of my pub knowledge.

This time I'm talking about a nice little spot on Fleet Street called Bowe's. Situated beside (and I think owned by) the noisier, messier, horribler and popularer Doyle's, Bowe's is a nice place to have a pint. Which is what you want in a pub really, when you think about it. The staff are quite nice, pretty good music is often played at an accecptable volume (ie very quiet), the Guinness is pretty nice and they have a large selection of tasty malt whiskys. One night I tasted a few of these whiskys and I can confirm that, yes, they do contain alcohol.

So, it's a nice place. The weird thing is, nobody seems to drink there. Except me

Pies and simple

As many of you will know, one of the biggest problems with boozers in Dublin is the lack of decent food, some places don't do food at all, which is fair enough, or limit themselves to toasties, which is even fairer enougher. Generally speaking though, if you want something more substantial with your Carlsberg, seriously lower your standards. Pub food over here is usually disgusting. There are exceptions though. Bull and Castle do pretty good stuff, although it can be quite greasy, they seem fond of the deep frier.

The South William on errr... South William Street is different though. Not for them, the usual carvery, burger, battered catch of the day holy trinity. No, they do pies. Just pies. Delicious pies. For 9 quid. The selection changes a little bit with the seasons, but some have been a constant on the list since it started, such as the fantastic bacon and cabbage pie with parsley sauce. Trust me, this is fucking gorgeous. Another highlight is the lamb mousakka pie. There's always about seven or eight to choose from including two vegetarian options. They all come with a simple, well dressed leafy salad and although not huge, they make a fairly substantial dinner. For 9 quid, which I think is just super.

So what about the pub itself? It's only ok. Because of its location, it's bound to attract a few cunts anyway, but I think the pub actively courts the cunt pound. You know the sort of place, dark trendy, beautiful staff and a bit too noisy. Having said that, I still quite like it. The music is pretty good (nicely boring house and decent reggae mostly) and the staff are pretty nice, even if they're only partly interested in serving drinks. The beer selection tries and fails to be intersting. I mean, there are quite a few available but they all appear to be pale lagers and wheat beers. Unimaginative. I normally order Hoegaarden and hastily intercept the bar man before he throws a lime slice (I mean what the fuck?) into my glass. They do nice cocktails too, but I only order them if I'm trying to fuck my companion.

So, come for the delicious food, stay for the average bar.

Offal Long Way to go

Interesting article here going on about a supermarket in the UK stocking formerly disused cuts of meat. I think it's a great idea.

Graham's beer goggles #1

So a mate in London and I, in Dublin, decided to start this game. Basically he tells me where in London he wants to drink and I, using the power of the world wide internet and my two good beer guides, recommend him a decent boozer in the area. He then drinks in there and comes up with a full report the next day. Since I've got nothing else to talk about, I thought I'd put it in my blog. The first one was about two weeks ago, I sent him to a place called The Harp in Covent Garden.

First up, the beer selection was good. Normal beers there as per usual and a few fancy ones…Timothy Taylor (I drank it & I liked it), Black Sheep (I drank it & liked it but not as much), Witches Brew (I drank it and cant’ remember what I thought of it), a guest Lancaster Ale (I didn’t drink but it looked a bit p!ssy for my tastes) and another one I can’t remember. Des got a cider which was poured from an unmarked bottle stashed below the counter. I was impressed. It was very sharp tasting. A nice palette cleanser I thought but I wouldn’t drink too many of them I thought again.

Second up, the pub. The décor was nice. Wooden stuff mainly with old paintings on the wall. Lots of browns. I remarked that one was a portrait by Bobby Sands of the girl waiting for him on the outside. I said that was romantic. Nobody agreed. Not loads of seating. We stood outside. The street was loudish but that’s London for you.

The toilets were quite cramped but I can deal with that as I subscribe to Wobbler’s theory on the relationship between good pubs and dodgy WCs. It had a nice open front too. The bar area was nice with a good amount of people lingering around it to banter (or to utter nonsenses if you will). Which brings me nicely to the third category…

The staff were excellent in my view. The bar was womanned by three women. None of these women were particularly attractive, and that didn’t bother me.

One of these women I could take or leave, she wasn’t around much anyway which was good and she seemed to be doing more tidying up. The other two ladies were quite big and good for a bit of bar chat. One warned me that the pint I was about to receive was coming in a slightly ovuluar (it appears this isn’t a word but it should be) shaped glass. Just a warning as this could confuse and anger someone unless they were alerted to it. I agreed. She also bantered us out the door with tales about Withnail & I. The service was also prompt.

I recall no music.

RATING: 7 and half. Points lost for lack of seating/attractiveness of staff.

Keeping it in the Farmleigh

Firstly, I know the title pun is a wholesale rip off of Farmleigh's website, "Farmleigh Affair". In my defence, I liked it so I thought I'd change it slightly and steal it.

I'm just back from September Fest, an Irish craft beer festival on this weekend in Farmleigh in the Pheonix Park. Usually in Ireland, "beer fest" just means another excuse for the Porterhouse to put up some flags and play even worse music. I'd a feeling this was going to be different (well obviously it was going to be sort of different, it wasn't in the Porterhouse for a start).

So, after a pint of Galway Hooker with my estranged wife, I took a stroll from Park Gate St to Farmleigh on Saturday afternoon. Since the weather was excellent, I thought a twenty or so minute walk would be a lovely way to work up a bit of a thirst. Unfortunuately, my sense of distance is fucked and the "stroll" was more like an odyessy. I arrived parched and knackered about an hour later. The friends who I was meeting wisely took the Pheonix Park shuttle bus and were there way before me.

Anyway, apart from a really dodgy band playing old favourites (Fields of Athenry, Dirty Old Town....) what I got to was really worth while, a tent full of all the smaller Irish breweries selling their best beers, several on cask. The fact that the sun was beating down also helped. Since there were about 20+ beers to get through, I decided to stick more or less exclusively to cask ales. The two Northern Breweries (Hilden and Whitewater) as well as Porterhouse, Messr Maguires and Carlow all had cask ales available. My favourites were O'Hara's Celebration and Messrs Imperial. It was wonderful to be able to try beers like that on cask. Cask ale in Ireland still sometimes seems like an alien concept. Least favourite? Hilden's Chocolate Stout. It's a style of beer I love, Hilden's offering just tasted fucked up.

I was disapointed that Galway Hooker did offer something special for the festival, either a cask conditioned version of their pale ale or their excellent but rare Irish coffee porter but I suppose for most people it would have been nice to saple the tastiest Irish session beer. I didn't bother though.

My only other gripe (and I admit this is minor) is the glass situation. Beers were served in those flimsy plastic cups, unless you were prepared to spend 2 quid on a sturdier glass. Fair enough, but I would have prefered if the glass you paid for was actually glass rather then just stronger plastic. Why not charge 4 quid and offer a 2 quid refund or something?

Went along again today, it pissed rain but there was still a great turn out. Fair fucks to the organisers and roll on next year.

Wits about you

Right, I know I'm a failure so don't bother pointing it out. The plan with my last post on Belgian beer was to do a triumphant return to the blogging world with an encyclopedic post on Belgian beer. I was going to describe all the major styles with colourful and amusing prose, recommend a few from each style and give some tips on how you can spot interesting bottles. Then I got tired and went to bed. I might have said something about finishing my post the following day. The avid Wobblerites among you will know that I never keep my promises. I'm not even going to apologise anymore, I didn't complete my Belgian beer post, I probably never will, now you fucking deal with it.

Anyway, I picked up a beer called Korenwolf in Supervalu on Aston Quay today. It's a Dutch beer which I was always keen to try since reading about it in a Michael Jackson (not that one, you fucking moron) beer book a few years' back. The beer is a Belgian style wit beer brewed by Gulpner in Limburg in the Netherlands.

Just to fill you in, wit is dutch for wheat and a wit beer is a wheat beer. These are usually very pale in colour, cloudy and usually about 5% alcohol. At their best, they can be wonderful on a hot day, great thirst quenchers, so they are. Hoegaarden is the most famous example. In the French speaking part of Belgium they're called blanche beers. Fascinating.

Anyway, this one is only ok. Nice spicyness to it but a bit thin tasting.

Hell's Bels

Hello. I'm back. Did you miss me? So, it's been a good while since I've posted last, I won't fill you in on the details but the past few months have included some of the best and worst times of my life. Anyway, I'm back living with my parents now so I won't be cooking as much. On the bright side, I've been drinking a lot more so expect mostly beer posts from now on.

I'll start by talking about Belgian beer.

What is Belgian beer?

Belgian beer is beer that has been brewed in Belgium.

Is it any use?
Many people (mainly Belgian) consider it to be the best beer in the world. Once you avoid the lagers, you're likely to find some interesting, unique, tasty beers. Some Belgian beers are incredible.

Which ones?
I'll tell you in a minute. First let me tell you a bit about the beers in general.

Go on then......
Right. Belgium is famous for strong, dark, malty, sweet ales. This doesn't describe all Belgian beer but it describes a lot of it. A few of these beers are brewed by monks, many, many more pretend to be. If a beer has any real monk involvement in its brewing, it will have a little logo which says "Authentic Trappist Product". These beers are all worth trying.

Fuck this.... I'm knackered, I'll finish off tomorrow. Sorry