Cornucopia

This is one I did earlier in 2008 that somehow escaped posting on forkncork. Anyhow, I was in there last week and nothing’s changed.

Last week I was in Munich. Not to pay my respects to a relative and three friends who died on the runway (although I did hold my own private service of remembrance) but to eat and drink. I spent four days’ pigging in restaurants tricked out as quasi baronial halls; ingesting huge platters borne by lusty, busty Bavarian belles – a sort of Blackadder-meets-Brunhilde vibe.

By Friday the house speciality looked groaningly familiar – two sucking pig chops, three sausages, a pig’s knuckle, a wiener schnitzel and half a duck; supported by red cabbage, sauerkraut, sauté potatoes and dumplings. I pointed at my near empty half litre of Ayinger dunkes weissbier – Munich’s riposte to Newcastle Brown – and said “Same again, please”. “Sorry,” smiled my personal Valkyrie, “We only serve litres after three o’clock.” Drink a litre? I could barely lift the glass. Yet I managed it somehow – and an encore. All of which is why, three days later, I’m out-and-about in Dublin, looking for some vegetarian scoff and maybe a nice cup of chamomile tea.

Vegetarians are scurvily served in conventional carnivore restaurants. Quiche, or any one of half-a-dozen takes on grilled goat cheese, or maybe risotto if they’re lucky, is invariably all they’re offered, a total “take-it-or-leave it.” Were I a full-time ‘carrot cruncher’ I’d be standing outside some of Ireland’s prime eating establishments with a placard. Or maybe smashing their windows in fury.

The best hope of a gourmet vegetarian meal in Dublin is at Heuston Station. Boarding the morning train to Cork gets you a late lunch at Café Paradiso, where Dennis Cotter really knows how to produce veggie nosh that’s both eye and palate candy. Hang on though… ..what about Cornucopia?

Cornucopia was established in its present location in Wicklow Street in 1986 by Neil and Deirdre McCafferty, returning to Ireland after a nine-year stint in the USA. Initially Cornucopia was a health-food shop, with a small café at the back. Neil, giving cheffing a go, brought hummus, tabbouleh, Indonesian rice salad, vegetarian curries and lasagne and fresh-made interesting soups to the attention of the Irish customer. Demand grew and eventually the shop moved to a premises in Drury street to facilitate expansion of the dining facilities.

In my youth, I ate occasionally at a gaff near the university in Manchester that served brown food on brown plates for brown-bearded people (and that was only the women, boom-boom!) wearing brown sandals. The sandals, appropriately garnished, would have been more delicate than anything on the bill of fare!

Cornucopia, I found out, isn’t in that league, although exquisite presentation did come a very bad second to piling up the (white) plate. You stood in a line, school dinner like, to get your grub. The length of the queue at 1.45 gave you a good chance to study the menu which was written up all round the walls. Good to see that ‘vegan’, ‘wheat free’ and ‘contains nuts’ were writ large beside appropriate dishes. I had the dhal (lentils), a non-aggressive curry served over brown rice, of which I’m no great fan. This was perfectly cooked though and the excellent slightly-nutty flavour took my mind off having to filter the husky bits through the teeth. Ruby, my dining companion chose the mushroom pie which was a mushroom pie with attitude; quality home-cooking is as near as I can come to a description. Both dishes came with a choice of two salads. The unusual beetroot-and-pear and the amazing ‘sprouting shoots’ – or was it ‘shooting sprouts’? – were real winners.

I was glad I’d turned down the soup because I had just about enough room for dessert. We shared a slice of what looked like cheesecake but turned out to be a tasty tofu pie, topped with a thin layer of refreshingly tart raspberries on top of something crunchy. It came served with a generous dollop of one of the best yoghurts I have ever tasted.

No doubt about it this is serious food. Good fresh wholesome ingredients turned into satisfying dishes. Staff, of the young, ‘league of nations’ genus, were pleasant, helpful and committed to the cause. Prices were ‘for nothing’; forty-four euro for everything I’ve described, including a glass of wine, a mineral water and two coffees; well worth the minor irritant of having to keep getting up to queue for your next course.

Gripes? Well, it’s fierce uncomfortable, the gourmet’s equivalent of wearing a hair shirt; claustrophobia, numb bum, you wouldn’t want to linger longer than it takes to eat your meal. Staff badly need a lesson in how to make espresso – this will be a recurring theme, I fear. The organic house red is evil, there’s no other word for it. Just like all that glisters is not gold, all that’s organic is not good and I wish not only the folk at Cornucopia but other well-meaning café and restaurant proprietors would take heed.

All that said, I’m still going back tomorrow for the soup.

THE DAMAGE: €44 for 2 mains, 1 dessert, glass of wine, mineral water, 2 coffees.

THE QUALITY ****

THE AMBIENCE *

THE VALUE FOR MONEY *****

Cornucopia, 19 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2 O1 677 7583 Fax: O1 671 9449