Raglan Road

After spending the entire day at Universal's Islands of Adventure, we went back to our hotel to rest briefly and then headed out to what was then Downtown Disney (and is now Disney Springs) for a (very) late dinner. Since it was so late, options were a bit more limited, but luckily the place we wanted to go, the Irish pub, Raglan Road, stayed open late. When we got there, it was filled with people eating, drinking, listening to music, and generally having a good time.

Since our visit was five years ago, we don't remember a ton about the food itself, but the experience has stuck with us. We started out with some drinks, a cider for me, and a beer for A, but we couldn't tell you anything more about what they were specifically. It was nice sitting at our table, relaxing, watching the entertainment, and having a drink after a long but fun day.

We started out with an appetizer called Calamari City, described as "salt and pepper calamari and mixed tempura vegetables with a spicy remoulade." This was a little more unique than most fried calamari dishes because of the inclusion of the vegetables. The vegetables were very welcome because, outside of onions, they were pretty much the only vegetables we had all night.

We got two main dishes for dinner, and at this point, I couldn't tell you whether we split them or ordered separately, and if we ordered separately, who ordered which one. The first was the beer-battered fish and chips served with tartar sauce.

We also got something called "bangers and booz," Guinness and onion bangers on mash, topped with caramelized onions and beef stew. Basically, a really heavy but tasty version of bangers and mash.

Raglan Road was fun and a great escape. We liked that they set out to provide a fun Irish experience, complete with entertainment and a building that itself was apparently shipped from Ireland. We wish we remembered more about the details of the food, but it has been over five years now so it has faded a bit. We do remember that we thought the food was solid, a bit heavy and filling, but good. Part of that was because of what we ordered - all fried food plus bangers and mash - which was just a continuation of a really unhealthy eating day that started at Universal with more fish and chips, chicken fingers, and Cornish pasties. After our more balanced and vegetable heavy meal the night before at Boma, we had spent the entire day for the most part eating fried food. That said, we would return to Raglan Road again and maybe just make some different (less heavy) choices.

We ate so much at dinner that we needed to take a stroll around Downtown Disney before returning to our hotel, where we took a really late night swim in the pool for further digestion and relaxation before sleeping. It was a pretty late night and we were exhausted from spending the entire day at the theme park, but it was a lot of fun. The next day would finally begin our adventure at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival which we've already completely written about (our favorites list is here and links to all the reviews are in this post), which means our recaps for this Florida trip are almost done!

Week 12 - Hangover Cures

I'm no expert on hangovers, but for Week 12 of the challenge, during which we were supposed to cook some hangover cures, I had some idea of what to make. Something heavy, greasy, and starchy. With St. Patrick's Day falling during the challenge week and Trader Joe's advertising their special limited edition Irish bangers, it seemed like the perfect time to do bangers and colcannon (basically the Irish version of sausage and mashed potatoes).

The Trader Joe's Irish bangers are a "seasonal" item (I guess they are only around during March) and are made with a special pork sausage recipe. In addition to the spices/seasoning (the package listed salt, white pepper, mace, ginger, and sage), they also contain 5% rusk, which TJ's describes as "a sort of twice-baked crouton that adds texture to the meat." I wasn't sure if we had even eaten traditional Irish bangers before, so I was excited to try them for our St. Patrick's Day dinner.

For this meal, I used:

- 1 lb package of TJ's Irish bangers ($4.49)

- 2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into large blocks ($0.98)

- 10 oz bag of shaved Brussels sprouts ($2.79)

- 1/2 bunch of scallions, chopped ($0.65)

- 2 tbsp butter ($0.40)

- 1/2 cup of milk ($0.14)

- salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste ($0.10)

- 1 yellow onion ($0.55)

The total for all those ingredients came out to about $10.10, with the majority, of course, being the Irish bangers. Although we had no leftovers, we had a pretty filling and complete meal, absolutely worth the price.

Making the bangers was pretty easy. Just stick them in a skillet until they are fully cooked and brown, moving them around a bit. They smelled pretty good while they were cooking.

To make the colcannon, it's basically just like making any other kind of mashed potatoes in which you mix vegetables (remember stoemp?). Peel and chop the potatoes into chunks, put potatoes in pot of salted water, bring to boil, boil until potatoes are tender and then drain. In the same pot, melt some butter and then add the vegetables (here it's the shaved Brussels sprouts and the chopped green onions).

Once those are all cooked and a bit softened, add the potatoes, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher (something I've loved to do since I was a child). Mix it all together well, adjusting seasonings and ingredients as needed. Simple! I love mashed potatoes and I love them even more with vegetables mixed in. 

While the mashed potatoes were cooking, I decided to make an onion "gravy." Not a conventional gravy with a lot of liquid, but just something tasty and flavorful to put on top of the potatoes. I thought it would be fun to add some crumbled sausage in this gravy, so I set aside 2 of the bangers for that purpose. The first thing I did was place the sliced onions (with no oil) in the same skillet that the bangers had been cooking in, and cooked them until they were softened. Once they started getting softer, I added in the bangers (without their casings) and broke them down into small pieces with a spoon. I let it all cook together (mmm, pork fat onions) and then when they looked pretty done, added some water to deglaze the pan. Once all the water was burned off and everything looked like it was starting to get caramelized, the gravy was done. I personally prefer caramelizing onions a little more, but it was really late so a "quick gravy" would have to do.

The entire dish together was quite good. The bangers were tasty, although A thought they could have been browned for longer. I found them a little different from regular sausages, a little softer and juicier. The colcannon was great and it was perfect with the gravy. Our favorite part was the sausage and caramelized onion gravy. The sausage there imparted so much flavor to the onions, and it was a good match for the colcannon. Perhaps next time using the bangers I would crumble all of it and use it that way instead of as actual bangers. It was really good that way and for some reason much easier to crumble than sausages like that usually are.

By the way, if you're getting a sense of deja vu when you're reading this post about bangers and colcannon, I did too. I couldn't figure out why at first. I knew I had made colcannon before. I knew I had made a quick caramelized onion gravy before too and I had this gnawing feeling that I'd written about it before. So once we started eating dinner, I set off to figure out why I had that feeling and I came across my post from Week 40 of last year's challenge about screw-ups revisited. What did I revisit? Bubble and squeak, which I made with some Italian sausages (and remarked that bangers would be better) and some quick caramelized onions for gravy. I usually try not to do the same challenge dish again, but it didn't even occur to me how similar this was until after the fact. They're not exactly the same (potatoes made differently, a twist on the other "gravy"), but they were close enough to give me that eerie deja vu feeling. I guess I just really like sausage with potatoes and onion gravy. And this should be, without a doubt, a hangover cure, so that works for me.

Irish Fries Are Smiling

To celebrate the holiday, Shake Shack was running a St. Patrick's Day special this weekend (available until Tuesday) called When Irish Fries Are Smiling ($4.50). They took their usual crinkle cut fries and topped them with horseradish cream, scallions, and crispy applewood smoked bacon.

We generally like Shake Shack's fries (with and without cheese sauce), but these Irish fries are just playing at another level altogether. Combining rich and salty bacon, light and crisp scallions, and a cool and zingy horseradish cream, those toppings were a perfect combo to put on top of fries. We wish we could get these year-round because they are truly fantastic. We liked them so much that we went up for a second order as soon as we finished our lunch. A little over a day left - go get the Irish fries!

Luck of the Irish

Finally up to the second day of our festival visit! Our first stop for lunch was the Ireland kiosk, the first kiosk you encounter if you walk the world showcase starting with the United Kingdom. We had heard great things about the food here and really looked forward to trying it.


The menu had a nice variety of snacks for us to try:


The first thing we tried was the Kerrygold cheese selection with apple chutney and brown bread ($3.50):


The cheese selection came with 3 different Kerrygold cheeses - the Dubliner, the reserve cheddar and the Ivernia, described in the tasting notes by those more knowledgeable than we are about cheese:


M's take - I liked the cheese selection. Could I easily tell them apart? No, but we have already established that I am cheese-dumb. I liked the firmness of the cheeses and the flavor was very good. I couldn't pick a favorite one, since I can't remember the differences in taste, but my memory tells me they were all pretty good. The chutney was sweet and the bread was a nice pairing for the cheese.

A's take - I have to preface this entire day's worth of reviews as I spent the entire morning at the doctor's office being diagnosed with some form of illness that congested the heck out of me. As such, I'm sure my tastebuds were adversely affected. The cheeses were good, but I know I missed a lot of the subtle nuances that were there. In the end I really don't remember much about the flavor of the cheeses or even the chutney as my mind was in a bit of a fog. It's disappointing, and it's a disappointment I'm sure I'll mention many more times.

After the cheese, we moved on to the lobster and scallop fisherman's pie ($5.75):


The mobile site (which, if you haven't noticed, we're looking at in detail now that we're home...) calls this the "seafarer's version of shepherd's pie." A loves shepherd's pie, and we have had it at quite a few places. But this was our first time trying a seafood version. This pie consisted of lobster, scallops and Irish root vegetables, topped with potatoes (just like shepherd's pie).

M's take - The pie was delicious. But it was extremely hot in temperature, which made it a little more difficult to enjoy. The thick potato layer kept the dish hot, even though we let it sit for awhile before eating it. Once the potato mixed with the seafood, vegetables and sauce underneath, it was like eating a rich chowder. The dish was hearty and filling, and would be great in the weather we're having right now in NYC (better than the 80+ degree Florida sun!).

A's take - As mentioned, I love shepherd's pie. I figured this would be similar in that it was a seafood stew topped with mashed potatoes and baked. Yup, that's exactly what it was. The problem was that, again, I couldn't taste much of the stew. I could tell there was seasoning there, but I couldn't tell you what it was or even an overall flavor profile. It had a richness to it, but that's about all I can tell you. It's frustrating because M always says I have a great palate, but I lost it after our first day.

Last up was dessert - warm chocolate lava cake with Baileys ganache ($3):


The mobile site describes chocolate lava cake as a moist and decadent mix between chocolate cake and chocolate souffle. The lava cake is topped with "a special Irish touch - a ganache topping of chocolate and Bailey's Irish cream."

M's take - This was like a molten chocolate cake with a little bit of a liquor-ish touch. If you like chocolate cake, you will like this dessert. I liked it, but am not that into rich chocolate cake (especially when it's hot), so I didn't feel the need to get this again. But it was good.

A's take - This was a rich molten chocolate cake. I couldn't taste much this day, but I could sure taste sweet. This had it in spades. The chocolate-Bailey's sauce tasted much less like Bailey's and much more like caramel. Not that I'm complaining as I do like caramel and chocolate sauce, but if you're going to advertise Bailey's, make it taste like Bailey's. Of course, this could all still be due to my fog...

Overall, the food at the Ireland kiosk was pretty good. We also had a bit of Irish luck as a nice couple offered us their fastpasses to Soarin' while we were there eating our snacks. We had gotten a late start that day since poor A was sick and had to go to the doctor, so this was definitely lucky. Very happy with our Irish stop.

Favorite dishes at the Ireland kiosk:
A: Chocolate cake (more by default because I could actually taste it)
M: Fisherman's pie (followed closely behind by the cheese)