Caturday Tigers

Taken at Dublin Zoo, December 2007.

A Grand Day Out at Dublin Zoo

When we lived in Dublin, Dublin Zoo was always one of our favourite places to go. Membership is pretty good value and you don’t have to go many times to make it financially worthwhile, not to mention the fact that the money is going to a good cause. Being members also makes a trip to the zoo more enjoyable, I feel: it takes away the pressure to see everything in one trip and encourages more visits. It was therefore great to visit the zoo this week during our trip to Ireland.

This time, we went with my niece and nephew (aged four and two), so the animal priority list was shifted slightly and we headed to the Family Farm first. Like a lot of the zoo, this has changed since our last visit (2007, maybe?) and features fewer guinea pigs and bunnies in favour of more real pigs and other farm animals - including some rather cute piglets (right).

Next up (on my priority list) was my perennial favourite, the Red Pandas. Whilst they eat bamboo and come from China, Red Pandas are actually more closely related to racoons that the Giant Panda, which is a bear. (Their lineage diverged from Giant Pandas somewhere in the order of 40 million years ago, versus 30-35 mya with raccoons and skunks.) Red pandas are a bit less fussy about what they eat than their fellow Carnivora namesakes and, unlike Giant Pandas, do also eat meat (birds, mammals and eggs) although they always look far to laid back to actually hunt for anything, so I am guessing this is primarily by scavenging. Like cats, they are very cute snoozers.

Some excited noises alerted us to the sealions being fed and after watching them chow down for a while, we headed to the ever-charming Meerkat Restaurant for some nosh of our own. This is great for the kids because, in addition to child-friendly food, one wall of the restaurant is a large viewing window in the meerkat enclosure, providing entertainment too. Currently, this entertainment includes three little meerkat cubs (below). I was also impressed by the food itself, which was pretty good for a zoo - freshly cooked real burgers!

After lunch it was time to check out the new African Savanna section of the African Plains area of the zoo. This has been heavily reworked since we were last there and now features an elevated walkway around the giraffe, zebra and rhino enclosures, giving great views and potential close-ups of the giraffes.

Another new development (since our last visit) was the nearby Gorilla Rainforest island (sponsored by Freddy Fyffe’s bananas!) It was great to see the Gorillas have more space to roam and they looked relaxed in their new habitat. I didn’t see the big guy (Harry) but we did see most of the rest of the troop. (The priority spot was little Kituba, who was born a couple of days apart from my nephew, who brought his own gorilla named Kituba to the zoo.)

I didn’t get any pictures of the gorillas but I did get a good one of Sibu, the big male Orang utan, who was seemed to be happily chilling out and possibly pondering the mysteries of life like a Zen master.

Gull chicks for company at Dublin Marks & Spencer Rooftop Restaurant

Anyone who watched BBC Springwatch this year will know that gulls are increasingly nesting on the roofs of city buildings, which are safe from predators and provide lots of nice, flat nesting spots. Last week, we met a friend for brunch in the Marks & Spencer Rooftop Restaurant on Grafton Street in Dublin. The restaurant features an outside section overlooking Grafton Street and good for enjoying the rare bit of Dublin summer sun. At present, it also features a pair of cute little gull chicks, being reared on the flat roof section just beyond the barrier. The pictures below are a bit rubbish and out of focus but you get the idea.

What do a Lurcher called Zak and a cheetah have in common?

Actually, these animals have lots in common - they are both mammals, carnivores etc. - but I'm thinking of something a bit more esoteric: both have had their locomotive performance measured by a special collar designed by Alan Wilson and the Structure & Motion Laboratory at the Royal Vetinary College in London. (The same technology was also used for the collars that tracked 50 cats from Surrey in the recent BBC Horizon, “The Secret Life of the Cat” programme, which is well worth a watch!)

The team have used the collars to study cheetah hunting behaviour, which was recently published in Nature and featured in the June 13th Nature podcast. The study itself is interesting and demonstrates how raw speed - the big thing the cheetah is famed for - is actually secondary to agility and power (i.e. acceleration and deceleration) when it comes to hunting success. Even so, the wild cheetahs still chalk up bursts of up to 59 mph (93kph) whilst hunting, which is not too far off the 65mph (105kph) top speed recorded in zoos.

The bit that really appealed to me, however, was how the collars were tested prior to being deployed in the field, which I find pleasingly elegant and effective. Prof Wilson’s pet lurcher, Zak, was given a run about on the beach whilst wearing a collar. (Two actually, as the new collar was being compared to older technology as well.) The data from the collar was then used to reconstruct Zak’s movements, which could be compared to the footprints left in the sand!

(The handsome chap in the photo above is not actually Zak but Dexter, my sister-in-law’s lurcher, on Dollymount Strand with a nice view of Howth in the background.)

Find more details of the study in Nature news, the podcast and, of course, the paper itself:

Wilson et al. (2013). Locomotion dynamics of hunting in wild cheetahs. Nature 498, 185–189.

There’s also some coverage on Why Evolution is True that appeared whilst this post was sitting in drafts.

Chic and cheerful at Urbun cafe, Cabinteely village

Continuing the good coffee theme, earlier this week we had lunch at Urbun cafe in Cabinteely, south Dublin. As befitting a cafe that started life as a market stall, the interior is simple but comfortable and, for want of a better word, wholesome. The knives and forks, for example, were brought to the table in a reused jam jar. (I think the decor might "urban chic" but I'm not really sure - I won't let that uncertainty interfere with a blog post title, though!)

The food was very good. I had the special - a tasty sweet potato and bacon frittata - and also got to sample some of my wife's club sandwich. The frittata was good but the sandwiches at Urbun are pretty special, served on thick slices of lovely fresh bread - highly recommended.

After lunch we had a coffee and that was also excellent. Their barista, Vini, had won third prize in the Irish Barista Championship and did not disappoint. Good stuff!

Irish Ferries coffee disaster!

We recently made a trip from Holyhead to Dublin on the Irish Ferries Dublin Swift. We had a couple of breaks on the drive from Southampton but were feeling in need of a good coffee pick-me-up by the time we had embarked. Having settled down in seats near the onboard "Cafe Lafayette", I unthinkingly assumed that (a) all the places serving hot drinks on board would essentially serve the same, and (b) if anywhere had more/better hot drinks, it would be the cafe. Big mistake on both counts!

If you travel on the Jonathan Swift and like your coffee, avoid Cafe Lafayette at all costs. The coffee tasted like burnt dirt. (It actually reminded me a of the odd occasion at work when I have made myself a cup of Senseo coffee and forgotten to put in a new pod!) Not good.

To rub salt into the wound, when disembarking the ferry we noticed that the "Temple Bar" on board was serving Costa coffee. Duly noted for future trips!

Diep Noodle - worth getting to the airport early for

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Dublin Airport: Dublin Terminal 2 food court - great for food but poor for hot drinks. Well, this week I was travelling through the airport again and, though travelling from T1, was there early enough to get some dinner there. Having only had a coffee there the previous time, I am happy to report that my earlier assessment was both right and wrong: it is great for food but is not necessarily poor for hot drinks!

When I lived in Dublin, Diep Noodle in Ranelagh (now takeaway/delivery only it seems) was one of my favourite restaurants (although I only went a handful of times), so I was keen to have my dinner at the Diep Noodle Bar.
The Menu is quite simple (and a bit more expensive than the current one on the web shows) but it's still hard to choose when everything is so nice. I remembered the yellow curry with particular fondness - it is still the one to which I compare all Thai yellow curries (and usually find them wanting) so I opted for the beef variant of:

Gaeng Karee
Yellow Curry with Potato, Onion & Crispy Shallots.

It was so delicious that I forgot to put my iPhone to its proper use of taking food pictures. Every bit as good as I remember. If you are travelling through Dublin Airport around time for dinner (or lunch) then I recommend planning your inward/onward journey around leaving time for a visit to Diep Noodle Bar in Terminal 2. (The meal arrived really quickly, so you probably don't need to leave too much time!)

One of dinner companions had a cappuccino and reported that it was very nice - made behind the counter at Diep rather than just coming from an automated machine. It might have been less than €3 too. This begs the question as to why they make the coffee machine so prominent but perhaps my poor awareness last time was more to blame than the setup.

Dublin Terminal 2 food court - great for food but poor for hot drinks

Blogging (and writing) might be a bit thin on the ground over the next few days, as we're over in Ireland for Christmas Part II. Then again, there always seem to be lots of things to blog about when you go for a trip.

Flights from Southampton fly in to Dublin Terminal 1 - the old one - but our flight arrival time conveniently coincided with the period that a friend (and old lab buddy) of my wife was passing through Terminal 2 on the way back to Paris, so we went there for a drink.

I have long admired Terminal 2 from the outside - sadly, it opened after I had left Dublin and was no longer making regular trips - but aside from a brief walkthrough, this was the first time I had had the opportunity to have a good look.

The Terminal itself, although open for a couple of years now, is still very pretty new-looking. The Food Court was pretty good too and I was impressed to see a Diep Noodle bar and Gourmet Burger Company among the offerings. (Until the lovely meal at my in-laws this evening, I felt slightly sad not to be staying for dinner!) I was not so impressed by the small mug of hot chocolate from a machine for €3, though. €3! And that was despite there being adverts for O'Brien's - I think it was just the sandwich part of the outfit. (The coffee was from a machine too.) Hmmm.
Oh well. At least on the way back through Terminal 1 we can visit Butlers for a proper hot chocolate - and it has a Starbucks too if we need caffeination!

Still life with lobster by John Nolan

Ten days or so ago, we found ourselves having coffee in Wrights of Howth and were taken with some artwork on the wall by John Nolan.

The picture we particularly liked was "Still life with lobster" (thumbnail left) but there is loads of other good stuff on his website, so I encourage you to check it out! Time to start saving, I think...

(We also had lunch in the Oar House in Howth, which is still fantastic! Mmmmm... buffalo prawns and crab claws...)

The Oar House revisited: still fantastic

One of the good things about having relatives in Dublin is that I get to go back from time to time for visits. As my in-laws live there, this includes Christmas - approx. every other Christmas, as it happens. (Not through planning, as such, but it just seems to work out this way.)

Christmas away from home seems to feature even more tasty food and drink than Christmas at home. This year, we rounded things off with a lunchtime visit to The Oar House in Howth on the way to the airport. I've posted about The Oar House before, four years ago. It was one of my favourites then and it still is.

The only problem with The Oar House is choosing what to have, as everything is so good! Fortunately, they have a solution for this too: a delicious and versatile tapas menu that can be ordered as a starter, scaled up for a main course or, as we did, shared among a few of us.

In addition to the must-haves - smokies and prawns of some variety (we had Prawns Pil Pil) - we had the calamari and a trio of dishes from the specials menu. Two of these had a decidedly Mexican theme - grilled prawn nachos and salmon tostadas. Tasty! The third was something that I would not normally order but was very glad that we did: crab claws. These were the biggest and most delicious crab claws that I have ever tasted, in yummy garlicky goodness. Amazing stuff.

Perhaps most exciting of all, whilst visiting The Oar House website for images, I discovered that they have a recipes section. Yummy! Watch this space for more on that. (When I feel brave enough to cook fish.)

The Oar House

On Thursday we went to The Oar House in Howth, for the second time (www.oarhouse.ie). This is a fantastic (primarily) seafood restaurant on the West Pier of Howth, Co. Dublin. (Ireland.) This restaurant is great! It is definitely on my list of things to do when visiting Dublin. (If I still lived there, it would be on my list of things to do with visitors to Dublin but, sadly, I only discovered it a week or so before I moved back to England!) If the weather is good, then have a lovely day wandering around Howth and the headland, or visiting Ireland's Eye, before retiring for some top nosh. (Ring ahead though to book a table!)

The fish and chips (pictured) are exactly how fish and chips should be. The only problem with them - and I say this having grown up in a British seaside holiday town - is that they might make all future fish and chips from other places rather disappointing! The Buffalo prawns (a bit like buffalo wings only in prawn form) are an absolute must-have. If you are alone, get them as a starter. If you are with someone else, as I was, I suggest getting a main course portion of buffalo prawns and a main course portion of something else (we had the always excellent Smokies) and share them between you. This way you get a couple of great sides too - the Sweet Potato Mash and Home Cut Chips work well with the Buffalo Prawn/Smokies combo.