Dublin's Chinatown

The food gets a tad repetitive when staying at the catered residence of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Dinner is great when you come home hungry from campus but the predictable menu (which hasn't been changed for years) is at times depressing, and you realise there is a fairly narrow limit to the different way potatoes can be cooked, despite what you've heard your mother say. A few weeks into Dublin had me craving homecooked Asian food, a food substance the sisters in the residence didn't touch. Not that I was asking for much. I wasn't expecting mum's awesome Korean barbeque or her fantastic soups, I just wanted something that used more than a small pinch of chilli flakes. (Having said that, I'm not good with hot food but I like to kid myself that I am, and make people think I'm a badass with chilli when actually my tongue is beating itself up in agony.) And thus started my hunt for the Asian flavour in Dublin.

(Just to clarify - for "Asian" here I am referring to Far-East Asia. I know Indian food is also Asian but bear with me for now as I talk about Chinese/Korean/Japanese food only for a while.)

The Asian population in Dublin is not as great as Auckland, probably not even a quarter of what Auckland has. But still, where Asians go, they have a habit of establishing a wee habitat of their own - a Chinatown if you will - complete with funny smells, budget signs, vinyl table covers, and displays of suspicious-looking roasted animals. There is a small Chinatown area on Parnell Street and maybe a little bit more on Capel Street where there are Karaoke Booths for both the ecstatic and the broken hearted. There are shops and restaurants selling hot food that do disgrace to your rear end but if you're all into that idea of finding pleasure in painfully menacing dishes then you'll be happy you had it. This blog will tell you where you can find such incredible Asian food in Dublin.

One of the first places I went to was the Asian Market on some street somewhere. Unfortunately I can't remember the street name or where it is relative to other Dublin landmarks, but I can tell you that such a place exists, and it is simply called Asian Market. (Being a dreadful photograher doesn't help - I swear I will work on this and put up pictures for your convenience in the near future.) Perhaps you can let your nose guide you there. When you get quite close you can already smell soy sauce and coriander and curry paste and dried beef jerkies and dried squid jerkies and dried pork jerkies and semi-dried squid jerkies and semi-dried unknown animal meat but tastes real good jerkies and semi-dried is it fish or meat jerkies. This place sells mainly Chinese food though, and a small selection (if any) of other Asian food. There is also a good collection of Chinese newspapers, which is handy for paper mache, paper planes, paper hats, rolling up to kill large spiders, reading, puzzles, and other things for rainy days. Students get a discount of 10% so that's great.

There is also an exclusively Korean market on Great Strand Street called Hanyang, where you can get 10% off (or was it 15%) for Koreans. I've never been there myself but for all your Korean instant ramen needs this is the place to go.

But food is best when it is cooked by professionals and served to you while you lazily sit around and wait for it.There are some terrific Chinese/Korean, Korean/Japanese restaurants in Dublin that will plant a permanent craving into your system after you've experienced what they've got to offer. I had such an experience with lamb skewers. I've never tasted anything like that in my life and I'm not sure if there is a place in Auckland that makes comparable heavenly wonders - goodness knows how I'll live without them now. But those lamb skewers! And so cheap too! (Apparently very expensive compared to China, but I don't know that yet, allow me to be blissfully ignorant.) The best place to find these godsends are at Hilan (Chinese/Korean restaurant on Capel St) and JinGangShan (Chinese) on Parnell Street. Match that with TsingTao beer and ohhhh my goddddd you will grow wings. Each skewer costs around one euro (1.50 for Hilan, but their skewers are a lot chubbier) so it's not too harsh your student wallet. Too bad the skewers are only served after a particular time - 4pm for Hilan and 6pm for JinGangShan. Otherwise I would have spent many a lunchtimes there - alone if I must - savouring the marvels. I went there for dinner alone once and ordered five of them (mine! all mine!) and also received a free pot of green tea and a very large bowl of prawn crackers. They didn't accept card and I didn't have cash so the friendly staff let me go without paying. Best foreveralone dinner ever.

There's a restaurant called M&L in Thomas Lane (just off O'Connell Street) that does amazing spicy dishes (spicy fish, spicy intestine etc). If you're from East Asia they will greet you in Mandarin and give you a menu entirely in Chinese and no amount of "I'm not Chinese, we talked about this yesterday" will make them speak English. However, everything written in the Chinese menu is about two euro cheaper than the English menu so take along a Chinese friend and get them to do all the talking.

Spicy Intestine and Spicy Fish. *Drool*

For Korean food, you must go to Kimchi/Hop House on Parnell Street. The food is great, but the final bill tends brings about a heavy silence to the table at the end of the evening. But for high quality Korean food, it is worth it. Also it is the only place I know of that sells Korean alcohol such as soju or makguli or Hite beer, and it is expensive, but you know you're gonna pay for it anyway.

There is also the ever-popular Yo! Sushi in Dublin, but for the best deals hit the place on Monday when every dish is 3 euro. Like all rotating sushi buffets, the cost of your meal adds up with an uncanny speed, and the tiny Japanese portions leave you wondering whether you ate anything at all. Still, best place that does the trick on them salmon sashimi cravings.

The variety and development of Asian food in Dublin is very impressive, I'm tempted to say it is a lot better than Auckland. Then again I don't think I had the chance to really miss such food in Auckland - luckily Dublin can satisfy those who need the occasional chilli burn in their system.