You take the moon and you take the sun...

On our trip into the west we decided would try and eat seafood chowder every day, not for any scientific reason, but simply because we love it and it's not easy to get a good one in Dublin.

Day 1 - Moran's Of The Weir - Superb.
Day 2 - Oliver's, Cleggan - Very Good, more of a stew than a soup but with a great variety of fish.
Day 3 - Pub that doesn't take Credit Cards, Clifden - I liked it but herself pronounced it too salty although it did come with some mini squid/octopus tentacles.

There was also another pub in Clifden that shall remain nameless as they ignored us for 10 minutes (even when I went to the bar), so we walked out. You'd think in this day and age that pubs/restaurants would be crying out for business, alas not.

We ate a huge amount of fish but didn't drink much wine with it, (we drank mostly Guinness), the only bottle of note was a Lawson's Dry Hills Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008 in Mitchell's seafood restaurant (have the crab cakes) which was perfectly fine and a good accompaniment to my hake special and Herself's mussels.

We are throwing a petite bbq'ette for June's brother and her Austrian friend tomorrow. In their honour I picked up a couple of Salomon Groovey Grüner Veltliner 2009 from Oddbins (€11-99). John Wilson in the Irish Times reviewed it a couple of weeks ago he said:

"A crisper style of Grüner with fresh melon and citrus fruits, and a tangy dry finish. This would be good with Asian-style prawns, scallops or sushi."

I'll be BBQing a butterflied leg of lamb, my absolute fave and I have a case of the wedding wine from Lil Sis's wedding to have with it. Its an Olivier Ravoire Cotes Du Rhone 2007 and it went well with the lamb at the wedding so...

Lastly, Superquinn mailed me to tell me about their "Great American Wine Sale", not much of interest for me I think, mostly cheap plonk. The list of wines is here if you want a look.

Lastly, lastly, we are trying a Tesco Finest Touriga Nacional 2008 (€8-99) from Portugal tonight. This grape is considered the finest Portugese grape and I do tend to like wines made from it. I do wish they'd so something about the label though, it's very bland and uninspiring.

**Update** This turned out to be a lovely drop. A bit of a bruiser, inky purple in the glass, lots of dark fruit and heaps of tannins. very nice if you like the full bodied style...