Last night saw the first of the Beer and Curry Feasts at
O'Brien's Chop House in Lismore, Co. Waterford. The Chop House organised the event, with us providing the beers to accompany the menu created by the
Chop House's chef Eddie along with Arun from
Green Saffron - who were providing the ingredients for the night.
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| The menu was devised by Eddie at the Chop House and Arun from Green Saffron |
Myself, Tom and Claire went to Thursday night's feast, beginning with a basil, lime and black salt bellini in the garden. I gave a brief introduction to ourselves and the products and some guidelines about which beers to try with which courses, but assured everyone that it was about experimentation and they were welcome to try the beers as they saw fit. Richard from the Chop House then talked us through the fantastic menu, and assured us that the bellinis we were drinking had ayurvedic properties and the more we drank of them the more healing we were doing to our bodies.
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| Basil, lime and black salt bellini with spiced nuts |
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Onto the dining room from the garden, where we found beautiful traditional Indian 'tiffin' or lunch boxes, and once we figured out how to open them found excellent cucumber and smoked banana riata inside, along with garam masala cookies in the bottom to eat with our dessert (we'd been told not to look in the bottom section but had to peek...). The dishes were served in large bowls and platters that we could all serve ourselves from, with the hardest part being to leave enough room for the following courses.
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| Tiffin boxes that held the riata along with Green Saffron mango chatni and Helvick Gold. | | |
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I was amazed at how different the dishes looked compared to what I'm used to seeing, like the Korma which was a lot darker and richer looking than any I've seen before and had no almonds sprinkled on top!
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| Lamb Korma with Sambar Podi Masala, Aged Basmati Rice and Naan. |
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Following the Lamb Korma we had Organic Chicken Vadagam. The pork vindaloo was my hit of the night and paired brilliantly with our Copper Coast red ale.
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| Saddleback Pork Vindaloo |
After all that we just about had room for our Vanilla Cardamom ice cream with Garam Masala cookie, washed down with Black Rock, followed by a traditional street chai.
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| Vanilla Cardomom ice cream with Garam Masala cookie |
The Chop House also announced last night that they will be running a monthly beer and curry night on the last Friday of every month where they will guide customers through the curries and suggest beer pairings for each of the dishes.
Looking forward to doing it all again tonight!
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