weekend bites

This week I’ll be eating… halloumi, the cheese that originally comes from Cyprus and which crisps, rather than melts, when it has heat applied to it. Salty and savoury and surprisingly ‘meaty’, I slice it thickly, brush with olive oil and grill it until nicely browned. I like to eat with a salsa made from chopped tomatoes, red onion, chilli, sesame oil, capers and a little mint. Some people don’t like the way it can squeak when bitten, but it doesn’t bother me.

Gremlins meant that one of the dishes I ate at Gertrude was omitted from my review last week – and it was so good it would be a shame not to mention it here. Croquettes – three large ones – of Cooleeney chese, rich, silky and creamy within a delicate crisp coating, came with a smooth, earthy beetroot ketchup. Just as the cabbage and bacon dumplings were an Irish riff on an Asian staple, so too was this on a great Spanish tapa.

Andy McFadden’s Glovers Alley restaurant on St Stephen’s Green will be marking St Patrick’s in suitably impressive fashion. Knowing his meticulous approach to cooking and his use of depth charges of flavour in dishes, we can be quite sure that his take on ‘bacon and cabbage’ will be way out of the ordinary, as will the Irish stew made from Comeragh lamb from Co Waterford. The five course menu costs €80, or €130 with wine pairings. Andy was head chef at London’s Michelin-starred Pied á Terre before opening in Dublin. gloversalley.ie

Two Dublin restaurants are closing, thanks to premises changing hands. Cotto, under the same ownership as Oxmantown, one of the first new wave pizza establishments which opened only in 2016, has been given short notice by new owners that the tenancy will not continue. Chez Max on Baggot Street will remain open for a few more weeks and the original of the species, on Palace Street by Dublin Castle, will carry on.