Class, Cooking Class, Riverdance July 26-29

This was a pretty ordinary week, Tuesday began our week. I kept wondering what I could do that was cheap-ish, not a bar, and fun in Dublin for a weekday. So nothing too long or far. I remembered seeing a place for cooking classes and started doing a search. I finally decided on a "Summer Entertaining" class at Lynda Booth's Dublin Cookery School for Tuesday night, and "All About Fish" for Wednesday.

Tuesday cooking class was absolutely great! The menu is below along with some photos of what we made. It's really cool to see the differences in ingredients. For example, spring onions over here, green onions in the states. After class it was quite interesting to get home. First off, the class was done around 9:45, we ate (it was paired with a pretty nice wine which was super nice, too!), and were leaving the place around 10:!5 which meant it was pretty dark. I went to the bus stop area where I was dropped off hoping to catch the bus headed in the opposite direction. I waited a few minutes, walked to a shopping center praying for wifi, was told to get on another bus to catch an additional bus.. Quite a sucky ordeal.

It gets worse.

I was on the first bus after passing up the opportunity to flag down a few cabs, started feeling bad from the food (I just have a sensitive stomach, it tasted amazing!), ran off the bus ASAP, ran to a gas station to find the bathroom was out of order, ran to a sketchy bar and finally found a bathroom.. Needless to say it SUCKED. Primarily because my plan to get home wasn't exactly complete. I went from plan A to plan D E and F pretty quick.. Always have a better plan. LOL. Anyway I made it home after finally hailing a cab from the sketchy bar, called my mom to gush about our days and went to bed around midnight - with a 9am class. UGH.

Wednesday was sucky getting awake, but I made it. Class was pretty average, nothing worth mentioning. Went to the dorm/apartment, took a small nap and headed off to my cooking class for some fun with fish! We even cooked mussels, clams and oysters!! Super excited about those! This time I made sure I had a plan to take a cab home and asked them to call one for me before I left the school.

Thursday we had a management test, and class - pretty average. Afterwards I did laundry and attempted to mail Josh's whiskey gifts to him. I don't think, even though most people say you just don't declare it, that I could make it in to the US with the whisky. I'd prefer to spend the 30 euro and make sure it gets home safely - not confiscated by TSA or customs.

BUT, Ireland post won't mail alcohol (no liquids since 2010). DHL won't mail alcohol and nor will FedEx because the US won't allow it. So much for a nice expensive bottle for a gift...

After class and all that I took Thursday night to have a nice dinner to myself. I was looking at the Greenhouse (about 70euro for a 3 course meal), but they were booked. The Farm was down Dawson St a block or so, and they had a 3 course meal for about 30euro and it looked good! The soup of the day was cauliflower, then I ordered a salmon dish, then a rhubarb crumble with custard. I can't even begin to explain how good it was. Cauliflower soup sounded super weird - but it was delicious. The salmon had the crispiest skin I've ever seen, beautiful parma ham slices for a slight saltiness, and a pool of butter in the bottom of the plate. YUM. The rhubarb crumble was sweet and perfect - in the bottom I think they put pieces of rhubarb, but they were too bitter for me, so I didn't eat that. It paired perfectly with the vanilla custard. Highly recommend.

Friday was class as usual and then RIVERDANCE. I was totally excited, expected it to be a 30 minute long thing and then it was over. NOPE. Two hours of a storyline and plot, beautiful sequences of lights and background, and amazing dancing. Plus the theatre was drop-dead-gorgeous! Definitely didn't expect that!