More Lovely Surprises in Carlow - Duckett's Grove Craft Shop

Duckett's Grove

I have often cursed the dreadful state of road signage in Ireland and have two theories about it:

1. It's deliberately bad so you will be forced to stop and speak to a local to get directions, thus having real contact with the natives and getting the wonderfully colourful descriptions of how to get to where you want to go. 'Go for 5 miles down that road till you come to a tree on the left and turn there and go until you see a field with sheep in it and there you are'.

2. It's deliberately bad so you will get lost and discover something you'd never have found had you stayed on the road you were meant to.

I like the latter one better because it's how I came across Duckett's Grove by accident when I moved to Carlow last year and was looking for Brownshill Dolmen.  It was a fortuitous discovery as I have had many a great day there since. 

I will write more about Duckett's Grove and its fascinating history in another post.

This time I will tell you about the new craft shop and studios that have been set up there.

Waney Edge Bunbury Board

Twice a year, up till now, there has been a Craft Fair held at Duckett's Grove, in May and December. At the last fair, some carefully selected craftspeople also opened their studios for the first time. The new craft shop was also opened and features some really beautiful things, like the famous Bunbury Boards, gorgeous felted silk scarves and shawls by Nicola Brown, beautifully turned wooden bowls, delicate pottery in robin's egg blue and cream, divine hand knitted baby booties and much more.  It's a real treat to ogle it all and there are pieces there to fit any budget.

Nicola Brown stole

Yesterday, I bought two Bunbury Boards as gifts.  What I love about the Bunbury Boards is that you get an individual identification number so you can go on their website and see the history of the wood your board is made from and you can learn more about how they take care of their trees and husband them carefully.  They come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, ranging from €25.95 and upwards.

My friend who was with me bought two of Nicola Brown's gorgeous hand felted silk scarves, one in dark cerise for herself and one in lime green, as a birthday gift. At €40 each they are great value for something you can wear and enjoy for many years to come.

We went to see Nicola afterwards in her studio where she not only sells some of her products but also teaches felting classes.  I am so intrigued by the gorgeous things she makes that I have signed up for one of her classes this coming Saturday.  Watch out for a blog post about that too.

Walled Garden at Duckett's Grove

As well as the studios and the shop, there is also a lovely cafe, The Tea Rooms at Duckett's Grove,  serving sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and lovely coffees and teas. It has an outdoor seating area for when the weather permits.  After a nice bit of lunch you can wander through the walled garden, which is filled with gorgeous plants of all types. There is a further walled garden which was used as the kitchen garden for the house in former times.

Once you've seen the crafts area and enjoyed all there is offer there, it is well worth going for a wander around the grounds of the house.

Next time I'll tell you about the strange history of this house and the family that lived there.

Food Heaven & Hell

This is about food. I love writing about food. I suppose I am a 'foodie'. I like cooking it, eating it at home when I've cooked it and eating out, especially when I am abroad. You never know what treasures and new experiences you can come across.

This time it's about eating out in Ridgefield, Connecticut and JFK Airport in New York. 

I've been to Luc's Cafe in Ridgefield a few times. Always with my  cousin, Bill. It was his favourite place to bring people.  This time, I was there with all my other cousins, raising a toast to our beloved Bill who passed away in May. 

Luc's is always busy. It's become so popular that it's packed almost every night. And with good reason. Luc's, specialising in French food, was opened in 2001 by Herve Aussavis, who's from just outside Paris. The service is always good, although sometimes a bit slow when they are really busy. We don't mind that though because it's worth the wait.

A few of our party had the Dover Sole with Sauce Grenobloise. It comes with three choices but we always seem to opt for this one. Sauce Grenobloise is made with capers and white wine and adds a lovely acidity to the pan fried  fish. 

I had steak tartare, something I don't often see on menus. The last time I had it was in Brussels about ten years ago.  I usually prefer to get all the makings for it and mix it myself. You get it with a dip in the middle of the raw filet steak where an egg yolk sits and then you have the chopped capers, shallots, cognac and whatever else the chef deems suitable. In this case, it came ready prepared, which was OK too but I wasn't totally crazy about one of the ingredients, which I think was a sweet pickled gherkin.  Otherwise, it was delicious and came with crispy 'frites', proper French fries, in a little aluminium bucket and a delicious mixed green salad with the perfect French dressing. 

We all agree they should bottle that dressing.

Someone else had the baked salmon and declared it utterly delicious.  Another had the charcuterie plate, with saucisson sec, dried ham and other lovely meats with crunchy sourdough slices. All great quality food, well presented and well prepared.

We also had some lovely wine.  I ordered a Chablis, (sorry, I don't remember what it was!) which was as I said it would be: crisp, green, leafy and fresh.  They laughed about that!

Afterwards, some of us shared a small but divine chocolate mousse made with really good dark chocolate so it was rich and creamy. Heaven.  

Prices for main courses are about $25 and desserts $9.

As I was leaving from JFK to come back to Ireland, I decided to try out a place near the departure gate, called Buffalo Wild Wings. I love Buffalo Chicken Wings, with the tangy, spicy red sauce.  I generally don't like plane food so I thought this might be a good option.  I should have known the minute I went in that it wasn't going to be a great experience when the I noticed the music was so loud I was glad I didn't have anyone to talk to.  Why does it have to be quite so loud? I love music and it was good music for the venue but way, way too loud. Mind numbingly LOUD.

I ordered the chicken wings and the waitress asked me if I wanted them without bones! I thought this might be some novel thing whereby you didn't have to get your fingers covered in the sauce when you ate them but it turned out to be chicken breast meat, which I hate, covered in the kind of crunchy stuff you get at Kentucky Fried Chicken, which I also loathe.  The only good part was the tangy spicy sauce.  She also up-sold me a side salad, which was so awful I took one bite. It was mainly the dressing which was ghastly. Gloopy red sauce that was sweet and tasteless at the same time.  Once it was on the salad it was inedible.  

The only thing I really liked about the whole meal was the celery with blue cheese dip. I ate three pieces of the chicken and one bite of the salad.  I didn't have time to complain as I had to get on the plane so I just left it. 

What made it worse was it cost a lot too. 

$25 for the privilege of not eating horrible food.

If you do decide to ever go to one of these places, make sure you don't get persuaded to have the boneless wings. BIG MISTAKE.