Olives, Cafe Culture and Tapas

Buceph

To start with, I've been getting into olives lately. After walking past the impressive olive stall in the English Market and grabbing some off the freeby plates, I decided I'd give them a go and buy myself a mixture. Since then I've had them with a few drinks at home and think they go really well with booze.

Now, remember that farce that was the cafe culture ramblings of whatever deluded politician it was that mouthed off on this crap. Thinking that Irish people would be happy to have a coffee at one in the morning instead of a pint. And how this was the big solution to the drinking culture we have. We all saw the massive flaws with that, and no matter how appealing the idea of sophisticated, intellectuals battling ideas and philosophies late into the night we all know it to be a complete stretch for our beloved nation. (Especially as these intellectuals wouldn't be able to smoke in the cafe.)

But what about tapas bars? Me getting into nibbling on olives with my booze reminded me of Spain and how they'd often ship out a few olives with your drinks, and how you could get a bowl of them for a few Euro. Then this lead to them having loads of small munchies available, again for only two or three Euro a piece, that you could happily order with every second pint or glass of wine and spend a night drinking and munching.

The food in the Spanish tapas bars is fantastic. Olives, meatballs, Patatas Allioli (garlic'ed new spuds), calamari, deep fried prawns in garlic or chili, loads of stuff. Then there's the Basque regions Pintxo, which were explained to me as being sandwich fillers, but on a bit of a baguette cut so the bread is in rings. And all for only a couple of Euros.

Instead we get fcuking yuppy tapas bars. Scheisters who saw these bars in Spain and realised it'd be a great way to rip off Irish punters. Charge €25 for a bottle of wine and €8+ for the equivalent of a starter, totally missing the point. I'm not going for a full meal (although it's quite likely I could end up stuffing myself in a proper tapas bar.) I just want bloody nibbles with my booze. And while a packet of Tayto and dry roasted peanuts are a cultural institution, surely there must be some people, like me, who'd happily spend €15 of their boozing money to get five or six small tasty bits over the course of their massive spend on booze.

Someone make this happen. Cafe culture was a joke of a completely out of touch TD, tapas bars are something I think people would like, because it's combining booze and eating in a way more chilled out session than a restaurant.

Danbo!

https://www.blogger.com/start

mike65

The OP is mistaking me for someone who gives a damn.

Buceph

:rolleyes:


Ok, for those who seem challenged in understanding that I was inviting people to discuss the idea.

Would you use a proper Spanish tapas bar if there was one near you?
Do you think they'd work in Ireland?

arybvtcw0eolkf

I couldn't get past 'olives', damn I love olives!.

I'm having a glass (or two) of vodka and dammit I'd love some olives right now.

Olives, Mmmmm I gonna go back to Israel

Gran Hermano

And I was led to believe only Popeye got an Olive induced hard-on.

ogriofa

Hiya, I defo would!
After a few beers all you can get is Kebabs or McDs/BK. I get a sandwich if Im in town and theres a shop with a deli.
Im in my 30s now, and I like to eat good food when I can. The hangover can be bad enough without that MUCK in my belly.

If this is something you are thinking about doing yourself, I'd happily answer any questions about pissed peoples eating habits

mike65

Buceph, this is AH not the Guardian blogs. You shudda started out with a proper AH style rant full of sweeping generalisations, rank innacuracy and a moan about prices/the British.

super_furry

Yeah but they're not going to get it to work like that here. You're never going to get the affordable experience you get in Spain mostly because of the price of living here, the higher minimum wage, the much higher taxes and the stupidly expensive excise duty.

Dudess

Tapas bars seem to be doing well in Cork.

Buceph

super_furry wrote: »

Yeah but they're not going to get it to work like that here. You're never going to get the affordable experience you get in Spain mostly because of the price of living here, the higher minimum wage, the much higher taxes and the stupidly expensive excise duty.

That's why I was mentioning the café culture deal. From what I can remember there were some TDs were tossing around the idea incentives for running that type of place. So it'd need some government incentives, be they tax breaks or a tapas license that lets you stay open as long as a late bar but without the cost of applying for the license every day. I know there's a lot of barriers to it.

Really, I'm just interested in whether people would be amenable to the idea if it was possible.

Dudess wrote: »

Tapas bars seem to be doing well in Cork.

From what I know of the place, it's quite expensive. And it's not tapas as such, they offer food in portions a little bigger than a starter. A Basque friend of mine explained to me that Pintxo and tapas are actually a lot smaller than what Irish and British people think.

Dudess

Here's a recent post of mine re a tapas bar in Cork. Thought the overall charge wasn't the worst.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=64402215&postcount=7

El Weirdo

Buceph wrote: »

:rolleyes:


Ok, for those who seem challenged in understanding that I was inviting people to discuss the idea.

Would you use a proper Spanish tapas bar if there was one near you?
Do you think they'd work in Ireland?

Well, you should have just asked that in the OP, then spread the rest of the shite information over the rest of the thread and increased your post count in the process.;)

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Feckin stuck up b*stards

I do posh food old school style, Brie on a water biscuit with some good ole fashioned Chivers jam

Seriously, try it

Bonito

Gran Hermano wrote: »

And I was led to believe only Popeye got an Olive induced hard-on.

She aint that great in the bedroom I tells ya. :cool: