Galway Day 8-9: "Piefi 2016."
I am so full of good food that it astonishes me.
This last week has been a conglomeration of one great meal after another, but
we just keep going and finding more places to enjoy. But now, we have been
introduced to McCambridge’s, and I don’t think we can ever forget this magical
culinary honey hole.
Yesterday was a lazy Sunday for both of us. We
wanted to go out to get food for lunch, but we also wanted to see the market
and browse a bit. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with our
plans—rain and intense winds followed us the entire day. In fact, as we were
walking around trying to find a place to eat, an older Irish man said, “You
girls got the authentic Irish weather today!” Yes, sir, we did sign up for
this. But we are beyond happy to be here, bad weather or not.
The market only had a few stalls open, and many
restaurants were closed because it was 10:30AM on a Sunday. Diana bought two
little pendants from one of the few market stalls open, and then we went to one
of the only restaurants open for brunch: McCambridge’s. This is the place that
two of our professors recommended us on separate occasions. They sell specialty
groceries on the bottom floor and have an amazing restaurant upstairs. This is
where we chose to eat some brunch, since we wanted to sit down out of the cold
for as long as we could before heading back to the hotel. What a good choice
that was! The prices were not too expensive, but the food was top notch. I
ordered a veggie breakfast with two poached eggs, which came with spicy beans,
rocket and feta salad, a roast tomato and portabella, and a delicious
cauliflower hash point. It was so good—I don’t even have words to describe.
Diana ordered an avocado, tomato, and spinach toast dish that was my second
choice and also looked amazing. I got tea and she got a dirty chai for after
the meal, while I nibbled on my chocolate croissant. Everything was so
wonderful: the food, the staff, the atmosphere in the loft space, the shelter
from the horrid weather.
We finally could not stretch out our stay any
longer, so we hit the road back to the hotel. The day was very peaceful after
that. I did some homework, had a lazy workout, and then ate dinner. We watched
a movie to end the weekend, then slept until the morning.
Today, the wind is a little better, but still
cloudy and rainy. I got up at my normal 7AM time, but we did not leave the room
until around noon for lunch. Yesterday, we decided that we wanted to try a shop
called The Pie Maker for lunch, and boy—that was the right choice. This is
probably the smallest restaurant I have ever been in. It is literally just a
narrow slice of building in the Latin Quarter, barely big enough to fit the
tiny wooden booths and the counter where the pies sit in their warmer. All of
the pies are made fresh every day, and the menu has an equal mix of traditional
and modern flavors. Each pie comes with a choice of mashed potatoes, mushy
peas, and red cabbage or a green side salad. Diana and I both got the chorizo,
mozzarella, pesto, and gravy pie with the mashed. Can’t eat a pie in the
British Isles without the mashed! Green salads exist everywhere—mushy peas are
an art only mastered here. I don’t need to say that the entire meal was
delicious. I am a pie fiend to begin with, and a meal stuffed with locally
sourced cheese and meat and served in a ceramic dish just topped it all off. I
left that shop full and happy, which seems to be a pattern in Galway.
After our lunch, we meandered a little more
around the city on our way to Treasure Chest. This involved a quick (not so
quick) stop in at McCambridge’s for some biscuits. Which turned into a hunt for
the coolest liquor bottle. Which turned into a browse around the chocolate
selection. Which led to a look at the pastry selection. Which turned into us
buying not what we came for, but two glorious doughnuts for eating as a snack
later. I think we made the right choice. We will definitely be back for another
meal and probably another look around. That place is dangerous. Very dangerous.
Our final stop of the day was at Treasure Chest,
where Diana bought her blanket and I had a look at some of the Royal Albert
china. There are tea sets, teacups, tea pots, mugs… anything a tea fanatic
would love to own. It is terrible to let me loose in a place like that, but I
loved it. I wanted to take home just about everything I saw, though, so I may
have to be watching my pocketbook—especially because of what we planned after
our shopping trip.
We are headed to London!!! We booked our hotel
(The Z Piccadilly) for three nights, four days in late May. We are going to see
Phantom of the Opera in the West End, which is a one minute walk from our
hotel. We have so many things planned to do, and we are beyond excited to fit
them all in. It will be so expensive, but I really hope it will all be worth
it. I cannot wait to finally get to see the number one city on my bucket list!
And in just a month and a half!
Short review today, since we haven’t really been
doing much. The weekend was rainy and windy and we spent a lot of time indoors
to avoid being blown away, but we did eat a lot of great food and do some cool
shopping. Tomorrow, we are off to the Aran Islands for our overnight stay! I’m
loving Galway, but I am very excited to see some different parts of the west of
Ireland when we leave the mainland.
♥
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