Eating, Watching & Travelling | April 2024

Another edition of our free monthly digest, jam-packed with deliciously satisfying suggestions for all subscribers

Hey pals, welcome to another edition of Chip Paper’s FREE monthly digest for all subscribers which spotlights some of the best things we’ve eaten, cooked, listened to, explored, watched/streamed or read recently which we hope will inspire you. A monthly highlights reel, packed full of suggestions, exclusively for our Substack readers.

Travelling: Dublin, Galway, Belfast, Stockholm

In the last two months we’ve had five different friends from London stay with us so we’ve dutifully taken each on a whirlwind tour ‘round our favourite spots. In Dublin we took ‘em to the Jameson Distillery experience and had lavish, long lunches at the likes of Note and Mamo in Howth, plus pints at Grogan’s and The Long Hall –– a pair of our favourite pubs in the city.

On another occasion we all hightailed it to Galway for a weekend away, whisking our friend Gemma to her county of heritage and ate Sunday lunch at Lignum, stooped our heads into Linnane’s for Guinness, oysters and chips, grabbed coffee at Siar and of course couldn’t miss lunch at Kai.

Two weeks ago we scooted up to Belfast and stopped into Mike’s Fancy Cheese shop, spent ages browsing the stalls at St Georges Market (hello Irish potato bread fries w/ garlic butter at Chowder Up!) and darkened the door of both The Duke of York and The Sunflower. The rain dampened plans to eat our way around Trademarket.. Next time…

We took a long overdue trip back to Stockholm last month, too, which we’re writing up for the next instalment of our ‘Everywhere We Ate In:…’ series (ICYMI, previous ones include: Krakow 🇵🇱 and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue 🇫🇷)

Eating

• THIS deer skewer at Bar Agrikultur in Stockholm, the taste of which has stuck with us for weeks since. Unbelievably delicious. Ditto this korv.

• As much wild garlic as we can get – it’s a short szn, go forth and forage!

• Yeeros, haven’t had it in a while and it was SO good, as ever.

• Did you know you can find Korean fried chicken bowls at Asia Market’s Ballymount HQ? We ventured there last Friday after work!

• A couple of our own dishes at home of late: a stunning slow-cooked leg of lamb with boulangère potatoes, a Hungarian-style beef gulyás, plus a stack of protein pancakes lavished in yoghurt and stewed cherries!

• For our Sunday Times Ireland reviews, we’ve taken you to Biddy’s O’Barnes in Donegal, Vietnamese-Korean street food spot Viko Viko in Limerick, two Michelin-starred Dede at The Customs House in Baltimore and - at the total other end of the spectrum - Boeuf & Frites in Temple Bar (eek).

Listening: 8 Podcast Episodes We’ve Loved

• Why we love dumplings on The Food Chain, a podcast we have recommended many times before with another great episode recently

• Offstage: Inside the X Factor, Chi Chi Izundu’s six-part series delving into the highs and lows of the reality show phenomenon that had us all gripped

• Ren Behan
  on Polish baking (the subject of her new cookbook) chatting to Janine Ratcliffe on the Olive podcast. Ren was also on the brilliant Monocle podcast, but we’ve saved that to listen to later this week.

• Queen of Ireland’s music scene CMAT stopped by Off Menu to chat dream dining and all things food and restaurants [TW: diet culture discussion]

• The Sidebar, Richard Arnold’s Daily Mail podcast about all things entertainment with episodes every Monday

• One we missed from 2022 it seems but still a wonderful listen, Andi Oliver on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail [TW: discusses eating disorders and racism]

• How often have we recommended Cherry Bombe? OFTEN, but it’s such a brilliant, female-focused, presented, produced podcast and we were giddy to tune in to Jess Murphy of Kai chatting to host Kerry Diamond in NYC

• And finally, Nick Grimshaw and Annie MacManus’ Sidetracked podcast all about music and culture (packed with their stories, gossip and hot takes)

Watching: GBM, Deadwind, Girls5Eva, Irish Wish, Iron Reign

• Yes we did stream Irish Wish [Netflix]. Yes, it’s awful. Yes, you must watch it.

• We’ve been late to the party but have been streaming Girls5Eva [Netflix] and absolutely hooked. It’s filling the place in our brains 30 Rock occupies.

• One of our forever favourites: Great British Menu [BBC iPlayer], adore it every year –– and Andi Oliver is always the main star. What an absolute queen.

• If you’re a fan of Scandi Noirs (we personally can’t get enough) we just finished Deadwind [Netflix] which has three seasons. It’s very in the vein of The Killing and The Bridge. Super gripping!

• Speaking of crime/noirs, Iron Reign [Netflix] is a Spanish drug drama that’s a snappy 8-part limited series with Jaime Lorente in one of the lead roles. He played Denver in La Casa de Papel/Money Heist, one of our favourite shows *ever* which broke so many records in Spanish language streaming. We don’t have a word of Spanish in our heads but it is a MUST. Iron Reign isn’t quite as gripping and concludes with a lot of loose ends (there must be a second series in the works) but it is a good watch all the same!

Reading: One Zine, One Book

• Issue two of

  Guzzle
  Jane Gleeson’s brilliant zine on Irish food and culture, follow Guzzle here on Substack too for snippets

• Chef Wise: Life Lessons from Leading Chefs Around The World by Shari Bayer (Antonia’s Bookstore in Co. Meath has it at a very competitive price)

Reading: Here on Substack

• ‘The Michelin Guide’s Problem with Women’ by Lindsey Tramuta of

  The New Paris Dispatch

• ‘Restaurant Wrongdoings’ on

  Make it Funky
  Already want to read more of Caitlin Ruth’s list of crimes against food but a good start is this cheese spread story from her first restaurant job

• ‘An Inspiring Work Trip’ by Ciara O’Hartghaile of

  GORSE
  recounting a dreamy itinerary visiting various artisan bakeries around Ireland, what an inspiring blueprint for other business owners to prioritise regular R&D trips

• ‘What I’ve Learned From Two Years on Substack’ by Fiona Beckett

  Eat This, Drink That, Live Well

Thanks for reading!

Chip Paper is brought to you by Patrick Hanlon and Russell Alford, also known collectively under our brand name: GastroGays. Food and travel writers, Sunday Times Ireland restaurant critics, broadcasters and content creators, based in Ireland. This is our home of food long-reads, deep-dives and guides. You can find us elsewhere on Instagram, TikTok and our website GastroGays.com.