Severe Jam Damage

Or the exact opposite of ‘Free Dublin.’ Yes, as I mentioned in the previous post it is very easy when you are not working to find ways to spend money. Buying a new laptop for instance, like the very one I am currently tapping away on. I picked it up on Friday and have been messing about on it for the weekend. Now all I need to do is get broadband in and I’ll be laughing (more money.)
Other ways to spend money are to go to the cinema, and at a tenner a pop (plus ‘corn) the coinage in your wallet soon disappears. I went to the cinema a couple of times this week, catching matinees of ‘You, Me and Dupree’ and ‘A Scanner Darkly.’ I wasn’t asked for a student card so obviously my wrinkles are getting worse.
Food is also a way to spend more money than you may have wanted. On Wednesday night I met Priscilla for a bit of food and ended up in La Taverna di Bacco in the new ‘Italian Quarter’ on the north side of the Millennium bridge. I would have been happy with a platter of meat, bread and cheese but somehow we found ourselves ushered upstairs to the proper ‘restaurant’. The menu was one page, containing 4 or 5 starters, 4 or 5 pastas and 4 or 5 meat courses. I ordered a soft cheese strudel with onion marmalade and Priscilla ordered the Smoked Goose to start. The strudel was nice although it was a good 50 minutes before our orders came through. We were drinking a bottle of wine and had been chatting away so it was only when the table beside us received a basket of bread that I realized we’d been sitting with no food for so long. Eventually the waitress returned with a basket of bread for us, but it was another 20 minutes or so before our starters came out. The strudel was quite nice, and I tried some of the smoked goose, which came thinly sliced and to my palate tasted fairly bland. There was another interminable wait for our main courses and the waitress apologized that there was a problem in the kitchen. At this stage there were only 4 tables of people, so a ‘problem in the kitchen’ meant it didn’t look good for anyone coming in for food for the rest of the evening. Anyway eventually our mains came, I had ordered sea bass which was served topped with some rather watery ‘sauteed’ potatoes, what appeared to be half a bushel of dill and a handful of pine nuts. I scraped the toppings off to find the fish was only half cooked. One side was done perfectly, it flaked away from the skin. The other side was translucent and slimy.
‘If I’d wanted sushi I’d have gone to Aya’ I muttered. By comparison Priscilla’s beef was cooked to perfection. Overall the meal, with the delays and the half cooked fish was not worth the money we paid. I’ve been to a few of the other places down in that area and they are much better both service and foodwise. Overpriced… definitely. If you are in the area I suggest you try one of the other places.