Moon Festival

The wife’s Chinese teammate was kind enough to go into Dublin’s Chinatown and bought us all mooncakes for the recent Moon Festival. This is a harvest festival in China that falls on the autumn equinox and these cakes are shared between family and friends.

So last Wednesday we had this little treat in celebration of the big beautiful moon…



C said they came in a huge variety of flavors, both sweet and savory. She bought us a sweet version and inside was a slightly sweet and very dense mixture of lotus seed paste with a yellow “moon” in the center.

One of the things I love most about being on the road is the myriad of holidays we get exposed to, either from the locals we’re living amongst or from other people on the team. I have every intention of adopting more than a few of these so get ready for some random parties when we move home.

most guilt-ridden meal of 2010?

wow, i have no idea how i forgot to do this post. maybe subconsciously i was trying to hide the fact that we ate one of the world's cutest birds...




it was smoked puffin and if you don't know what puffin is then don't worry about it. i don't want you to think less of us.

i really wanted something authentically icelandic and no way was i eating horse, whale, seared sheep's head, boiled lamb testicles or putrefied shark meat.

see? it really was our only option.

the taste was similar to duck and i thought it was plated perfectly with red onions and a light mustard sauce. jules didn't really care for it and even laid this out on the bed the next morning for me to find after my shower...




oh. the. guilt.

the rest of our meal was really great and far less guilt-ridden since it consisted of some not-so-cute halibut and the actually quite ugly monkfish...

what goes great with dessert?

you guessed it.

although you can't tell from the photo, i have decided after having it twice that banofee pie is just a bit too sweet for my taste.

if you're really into sweet sweets click here for a recipe.

i heart ireland

if i was asked to live off of one food item and one drink item for the rest of my life i'm seriously not kidding when i say it would be potatoes and guinness.

ireland is my food heaven.

steak & guinness pie with my two faves...



god help me, i'm going to need to spend at least a bajillion hours a week in the gym to combat these temptations.