Ireland is forgiven

So Ireland and I made up officially yesterday. I'm no longer holding a grudge against the country. What prompted this act of forgiveness? Well, it was a magical day.

First, the mail came and a gas bill arrived. Yep, that's right, this meant we got our bank account! It will still be 2-3 days until we know the account number and another week until we get our ATM cards, but you can't push Ireland too fast. It also meant I have finally rejoined the land of the living and got a cell phone. Cable and real internet access will surely be just around the corner!

But the real reason I completely forgave Ireland was an amazing discovery. I found the mecca of Irish grocery stores, Fallon & Byrne. It all started when I got a call that there was a birthday at Richard's office this week. I've volunteered to make the birthday desserts for the office and chocolate was requested. I had made my favorite chocolate cake for the last birthday and didn't want to repeat. The decision was made, chocolate mousse tart of course! I headed to the grocery store after our bank account and phone errands and gathered supplies. Dublin has a serious lack of chocolate chip choices, and yesterday I couldn't locate any at all. So I substituted with the only baking chocolate available at the grocery stores (I checked two different stores). At home, disaster struck. The mousse with the substituted chocolate was terrible, just terrible. I spent the next 45 minutes on google, trying to find a better source of chocolate chips. Nothing came up. Earlier at Stock, my favorite source for baking pans in city centre, I had asked this same question. They acted as if semi-sweet chocolate and bittersweet chocolate was something unheard of but mentioned that Fallon & Byrne had specialty spices and cheese. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of their chocolate selection. But it was the only glimmer of hope I had. It was within a mile of Richard's office. So at 8pm, I im-ed Richard, told him I was heading downtown to try out this grocery store on the off chance it had better chocolate, and that I wasn't going to have dinner ready. :) Richard, always ready to explore, walked with me.

We walked in, me in some serious doubt, to heaven in Ireland. Not only did it have my Nestle chocolate chips (at 4 Euro/6 oz.-yikes!) but it also had fresh jalapenos! Last weekend I made salsa with some Thai peppers from the local Asian market, but it just wasn't the same. I was so happy I nearly cried.

So, I forgive you Ireland. Yesterday was a happy day! I cleaned them out of chocolate chips. 8 bags may have been slightly overzealous. Oh and did I mention it is open until 10pm weeknights. Seriously. Heaven.