General Chat Thread II

Perhaps M&S for tarragon?

This is a good shout. I find my local polish shop is great for fresh herbs, big bunches.

You can get even cheaper food than that in Paris, ate in this place during the summer. The menu is from the 1980s as are the prices and the dining room dates back to the 1890's, all staffed by old French waiters in dickie bows. Its quite the bizarre experience

I think the high prices we pay to eat out here ultimately comes down to the very high commercial rents in Ireland. Recently I was moaning about having paid 8.95 for a spice bag in the local Chinese takeaway which is pretty pricey for a bag of chips, a few bits of chicken and some spices. I just wanted to try it out and while it was decent it wasnt worth almost 9 euro.

But then by coincidence the building it is in came up for sale last week with the tenants in situ. I had a look at the lease and the Chinese takeaway is 60sqm total (so about the size of a very small Irish 2 bed apartment) and the rent is 52,000 a year, thats on 20 year lease signed in 2005 so a Celtic Tiger era valuation. I was pretty shocked because when Monday comes every week they have to sell at least 2,000 euro worth of food just to pay that weekly rent bill of 1,000. Add in massive energy costs and labour etc and thats how you end up with a 8.95 spice bag, they have no choice. I reckon during the recession they were probably working 70% of the week just to pay the rent. The unit next door to it is a tiny laundrette of 20sqm and the rent on that is 500 a week. After 12 years in business she just announced she is closing down due to the price of electricity, the business is no longer viable. It probably would be if the landlord would reduce the rent which must be like a rock hanging from her neck. And this is all in a small provincal town, commercial rents for restaurants in Dublin are even higher again.

When you hear things like units on Grafton Street achieving similar rents to Fifth Avenue in New York you know something is seriously wrong and ultimately it is us the customer who pays the price of that. We are very quick to blame the restaurants but it is often them who are struggling with the commercial landlords being the ones who are really coining it.

The other thing I like about France is that service is explicitly included and tips aren't really expected. It's very much optional.

At the place I'm so enamoured with, when splitting the bill, I first paid €85 and my pal intended her to take €85 also but she only took for the balance of the bill. Instead we left €10 cash but she tried to waive it as unnecessary and excessive.

Ha, ha, it's not all brilliant in Paris.

Had a really awful dining experience last night. Terrible food and terrible staff!

Quote function is all over the shop for me these days so couldn't finish that post.

A small bit of oil/fat at this point just to help the seasoning adhere, but most of it will be done on the day. Heat it in a roasting tin as you always would and fire the potatoes straight in from the freezer.