Espresso Style Recommends: Irish Pub, Constanta, Romania

I recently visited the Irish Pub in Constanta, Romania, my home town. It has long had a reputation for being one of the best places to eat in town. The relative notoriety and high standards are possible to uphold because of two reasons, in my opinion: one is that they are a franchise and therefor have to maintain a good joint and second because the notoriety of the brand is such that they attract a large number of people from out of town (note, the capital city, Bucharest) and, more important, expats and western business people.

That being said, let's get to the food and drink. We were a party of four, located in the non smoking area (not entirely separate, but good enough) for a semi festive lunch.

I arrived first and ordered an espresso.

First gold star they get for the attention of the waitress who asked me if i wanted my espresso normal or stretto (I already asked for a short one). So far, so good. The water was given as asked, not too cold, and served in nice tall glasses.

Then, when everybody was at the table we were served some fresh baked buns with Lupark (premium brand) butter. They were sooo good! We just ate them right away so I didn't have time for photos.

When it was time to eat, we ordered and the food was brought to us in reasonable time. We started with some salmon crostini, served with a generous helping of green salad, onions and tomato, dressed with a yogurt sauce.  It was good, regarding both taste and presentation.

The others had some eggplant dip and a lovely looking pumpkin cream soup with croutons that I never tasted.

For the main course I ordered a leg of duck (comfit) with orange and blood orange sauce. It was good, the meat fell wright off the bone and the little slices of orange were cut professionally and served without the little skins. The sauce a little too sweet, but ... who am I to complain. On the side were gratinated potatoes, cut in thin slices.

The misses had some carbonara, made with penne as a special request (in the menu were spaghetti) which she said was a little salty from all the parmesan cheese, but very tasty otherwise.

 The other couple had a roll of chicken meat with salmon in the middle (oddly tasting, strong fish taste, nice enough) with mashed potatoes and a serving of pasta with sea food and red sauce.

For desert we went for a chocolate and sour cherry roulade. That was good as long as you only had two teaspoons of it, otherwise it got too sweet.

Anyway, the place gets 4 (out of 5) stars for the food quality, and 4 as well for the service and atmosphere. The chairs were comfortable for eating and lounging (that tends to be a problem in some other places), the hall was populated enough not to feel lonely but not jam packed. The bar was well maned and worked fast and good. The waitress and helpers were also fast and polite and knew the menu. Smiles are important and we received them in proper moderation.
Not the least, the music was good (lounge style instrumental) and not too loud. I was told that it shifts towards a higher  bpm and volume in the evening. They have their own DJ. 

I recommend Irish Pub in Constanta with all confidence.

Design Bathroom in Tropical House

Check out this magnificent tropical retreat. The design is great in my opinion, because it blends stylish furniture, paintings and other pieces with the classic feel of the old house creating the optimal balance of studied simplicity. I hope that whole sentence made sense! Anyway, great house. And what about that bathroom!

It's all in the current issue of the Lonny Magazine. 

Light Show

3D Mapping by a team of people working for Orange Telecommunications Company projected on the building of the architecture faculty of the University of Bucharest, Romania.



Via petreanu.ro

Anthony Bourdain Quote 01

The produce is as fresh as the garbage is old! about Coronation Road Market in Kingston, Jamaica.

Esspresso Style Recommends: Bread & Roses, Paris

The Bread & Roses cafe and bakery in Paris is simply excellent! I recommend it with all my heart. On the 62 Rue Madame, 75006 Paris, France, that is right next to the Luxembourg Gardens, you can find on a little corner hidden away this little cafe, resto, bakery and tea place. When I was there with my wife we had  two cups of specialty tea (don't remember the blends), and they gave us the tea pots that allowed up to three consecutive refills and kept the brew hot for half an hour. We also had a nice little rhubarb muffin. The muffin was done just wright, more sweet then bitter, but you could still feel the rhubarb distinct flavor in it.

The space isn't that big, but what does big mean in Paris? 

The service was good, for Paris standards.

Anyway, it's a very good place, true Paris style, good food and drink and chic ambiance. After a long walk through the Luxembourg, it's just the place you would want to encounter.

Espresso Style recommends: "Le Central"

"Le Central", on the boulevard Sebastopol, in Paris, was the location for two lovely and very tasty meals during our stay there. I'll show you only the salads, that were excelent, fresh ingredients, not too raw and not too elaborate. A duck breast salad (that I forgot the name of) and the "Roma" salad, with italian smoked ham or panchetta.
PS: On later edit, the duck breast salad is named "perigordine"!

The wine wasn't at all bad either, and moderately priced. Also, if you ask, they can bring you a bottle of tap water, free of charge, but if you ask for water, it's the expensive Perrier or Evian.

All being said, a very good establishment that I recomend "Le Central".

Espressostyle recommends: Paris - Place des Vosges

When in Paris be sure to go to Place des Vosges. It's a lovely little park or piazza situated within walking distance of the Seine.

It has a perfect square shape and it is lined with sumptuous buildings that are the same on all four sides. In one of the buildings Victor Hugo once lived. At the bottom floor you can find nice restaurants with terraces and even a grocery store with supermarket prices for food and drinks.

On the other corner is a luxury restaurant that I never got into. Looks good, though.

The coolest feature of the Place des Vosges is that people just walk and lay on the grass with nothing holding them back. It's a delight to just lay on the grass and enjoy a moment.

On the adjacent streets you can find lovely little corner boulangeries (french bakeries) where you can buy a nice baguette, pain au chocolat, tarte au citron or jambon sandwich (that you can be shure that it's made fresh in the back).

  For the ones that are interested, there is a good knife and razor shop on one of the corners.

 

Filicori Zecchini

The new Filicori Zecchini espresso bar in town is really good. Nice atmosphere and the brew was just wright. I'll be hanging out there a lot more, I think.

Go Unirea Urziceni (Thailand)

This guy is extraordinary. He is a romanian executive (creative director or PR guy, i'm not shure) from a romanian advertising company and later media trust that put into practice what everyone of us want...but, sadly, don't have the courage to do: he left everything and went to Thailand! To live on a beach...FOR A WHOLE YEAR!

On top of all that, he took all the way in his laguage a flag of the team that beat the crap out of Glasgow Rangers. Is that cool stuff, or what?

Where NOT to eat in Paris

Ah, Paris, with it's street side cafes and romantic bistros. I love it.

And I was there in september, strolling by through Place de la Republique. And, what do you know!? We got hungry. My wife felt like some pizza (well, even in Paris...pizza) and we sat down at a restaurant's table next to the sidewalk. We ordered fast and it came in fairly quickly: a salad for me and a pizza with spiced sausage for her. Water and a small glass of Bordeaux. It was not good, I tell you. Well to be honest, it was average. At least not what you would expect from a very well placed restaurant in Paris.

The pizza was plain, made with ordinary ingredients. The sausage was the low price supermarket (the kind with not much meat in it) and the doe was clearly not baked in an wood burning oven. OK, not every place has an wood burning oven, but even an electric oven makes a better crust.

My salad was simple, no dressing. The day before I ate a wonderfully dressed salad at another restaurant (review coming soon) and I guess i was expecting too much this time. Again the ingredients were plain, cheap, cold and with a feel of leftovers to them. Cold meat, grilled and chopped thin: it felt like it was from hours ago, at least.

And everything at a price pushing tword 40 euros, no thank you, not ever again.

The place is called PIZZA PINO, Place de la Republique, Paris. Don't go there for a feel of Paris. Go only if you're plain hungry....neah, not even so!

Fado Portuguese

Listen to this and catch a little soul of Portugal. I visited Lisbon for a week once and I fell a little in love. This is "fado", the national song style of the portuguese. The portuguese are a proud nation of sea going people. A guy from Lisbon told me over a glass of wine to watch the location of american naval bases in the pacific and all over the world and realize that all the locations were portuguese bases in the old times.

Weekend in the mountanis

 Last weekend we decided to go for a 2 day trip in the mountains of Vrancea. So, we went to Lepsa, a splendid mountain resort that is just developing now in Romania. We got some nice mountain air, delightful walks through the Tisita river gorges, good meals at the only resaturant in the area and long, relaxing reading time on the terrace with a view from our room.

Top picture: the view!

Next: wild growing berry.

Middle: lunch of chicken schnitzel with a drizzle of sesame seeds and a baked potato with skin, topped with cream and bacon, chopped.

Last: you can see the desert that we had there, witch is "papanasi" (pronounced "papanashi"). It is a kind of donut with more egg in the doe, served with cream (this was organic, you could taste the difference immediately) and sour cherry jam. Delish!

Geky birthday

This is a 1 orange + 1 grapefruit (red) fresh that I often like to drink in the evening. This evening is no exception, as I stayed all day in the burning sun of Basarabi. This is a wooded area near Constantza. I was there with a bunch of friends for a barbeque celebrating Geky's birthday. everybody say "Happy birthday, Gekyyyy!" His real name is Ali Geihun (highly unusuall name for Romania, but the guy is ethnik "tatar", muslim related to the turk population).
Ok, ok, I guess that now you wanna see some of the pictures from the bbq party we held in the woods, or as the romanians say:"at the green grass!" Here we are: