Restaurant review: Always a good day at this deli
The Kete Kai Box from Good Day Deli, Nano Nagle Place, Cork
- Good Day Deli
- Nano Nagle Place, Douglas St, Centre, Cork, T12 PXV1
- gooddaydeli.ie
According to research conducted by Charles Spence (experimental psychologist, author of ) and Ferran Adria (then chef-proprietor of the world-renowned Michelin three-starred El Bulli) the visual aspect accounts for up to 20% of the overall multi-sensory perception of anything we eat or drink. In other words, we do 20% of ‘tasting’ with our eyes.
To witness the ecstatic online reaction from elsewhere in the country during peak lockdown last year to Instagram pics of Good Day Deli’s Kete Kai (‘food basket’ in Maori) food hampers, you’d have wondered if that figure should be much higher, as virtual voyeurs, prohibited by travel restrictions from ever actually tasting, were near enough scoffing their digital devices in a culinary version of online titillation to put pornography in the ha’penny place!
First off, the box is as appealing in reality as it is in digital dreamland, a mezze-style bounty of treats for unfettered grazing and we roam like goats over an evening of deliciously unstructured eating. Many elements are deceptively simple: purslane leaves with toasted seeds, grated carrot with sesame.
A boiled egg is rolled in house Dukkah. Almonds are candied, cabbage is pickled, roast carrots are spiced in Baharat (a Middle Eastern spice blend). There is beetroot hummus and parsley pesto, three lovely cheeses (Hegarty’s Cheddar, Cashel Blue and Macroom Ricotta, whipped with lemon), three breads (Arbutus baguette and GDD’s soda bread and crisp lavosh) and hibiscus poached pear and fresh organic grapes.
It is an uncomplicated assemblage, though astutely sourced from finest producers, but the magic occurs when you begin to mix and match elements, dipping a Baharat carrot in whipped ricotta, pairing candied almonds and grapes with Cashel Blue, placing dukkah egg on soda bread topped parsley pesto … you get the picture, and, if you plump for the Hederman’s Smoke Fish optional extra (buttery organic smoked salmon and ethereal smoked mackerel paté), you get the whole gallery.
The included premium natural wine from Le Caveau wine importers, Judith Beck Chardonnay (Austria) is golden-bright and gorgeous, with ripe, rich notes of quince and sweet apple.
If you’re feeling especially smug and heaven-bound after such an exquisite yet healthy repast, then a platter of GDD’s renowned specialty cake slices will damn you once more to most delicious hell, including lemon financier slice, sumptuous vegan chocolate magnum, carrot cake and a ‘Shakey Bridge’. The latter features almond crunch base, coconut meringue, red berry gel and coconut cream but any connection with the iconic Cork city landmark for which it is named escapes me entirely.
- Goldie
- 128 Oliver Plunkett St, Centre, Cork, T12 X5P8
- (021) 239 8720
- goldie.ie
If I dearly miss dining in the wonderfully located GDD (sited in the inner-city oasis of the Nano Nagle Centre walled garden) then I equally long for a return to the funky intimacy of Goldie and more of Aishling Moore’s sparky and sublime seafood cooking.
The Goldie take-home box, Bosca Farraige is nigh impossible to better at just €30 for a cornucopia of piscine treats — even the €5 supplement for lobster in this weekend’s offering still equals excellent value — a cold buffet, with the option of warming certain dishes. If the still wintery weather warrants a hot ‘main course’, do as I did and simply roast a fillet of white fish; then paired with a Goldie dish, the whole shebang easily feeds four.
Prawn cocktail crisps dipped in lush and lively cultured cream make for fine nibbles with our aperitif and we also dredge chunks of cracking little buckwheat and sea salt pretzel buns.
In my original review of Goldie, in 2019, I raved about Moore’s salt fish brandade and won’t be changing my opinion after this latest silken showing, most handsome indeed with house pickles (celery, fennel, cucumber, celeriac) and seaweed crackers.
Roaring Water Bay Mussels are pickled, dressed in spicy Fish Shop XO sauce which we then warm with our own simple buttered, salted and roasted fillet of haddock, a quite delicious dish. Standout of the night is confit of Vindaloo red mullet with kachumber (cucumber, tomato, onion) salad — fresh, clean and so flavoursome.
Dessert is grainy, sumptuous Wisdom Ale (from Elbow Lane micro-brewery, Goldie’s ‘sibling’ across the street) & Achill Island Sea Salt Fudge. Bosca Farraige makes for joyously simple and simply joyous eating, and with Kete Kai, both are glorious reminders of my past dining history and, I hope, a delicious prophecy of its imminent return.
