More WhinoRhino goes eating: Daft Eddie's - Sketrick Island

I must be getting old (ok, there has been recent actual calendar proof of that as well) because my nice little blog about drinking is slowly turning into a blog about eating – mind you there was abundant drinking too, don’t worry about me just yet!

Sunday was a loverly sunny day, the type of which we only get about 3 of in Northern Ireland so we were definitely going to do SOMETHING...besides sit around the house narking at each other. That’s why we have crazy Kerry... Kerry will tell us what to do! So we went to get Kerry and sure enough she told us about this great little restaurant on an island in Strangford Lough near Killinchy so off we went to Daft Eddie’s.

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26568506@N05/2494725572/ )

This place has everything one could want on a summer’s day (and by summer I mean it must have topped about 15 degrees Celsius – break out the bikinis!), a nice big deck overlooking the harbour full of sail boats, a friendly bar fully stocked, and a menu comprised of battered fried things. There was even some nice ruins of an old castle on the island to look at and you know I love a good Irish ruin! I didn’t have my camera but thanks to flickr here is someone else’s shot of where we were sitting.

I had the scampi (fried) and criss-cuts (quite fried). Also on the table we had the fish of the day (fried), chicken gougons (fried), chips (obviously fried) and garlic chips (well duh). Oh and a side salad...something to cleanse the palate between fries.

It was here that I was introduced to the gin and tonic’s flirty sister - the pink gin. Loverly to meet her! All you do is add enough bitters to make the drink look slightly pink – colourful and you don’t get sick of the tonic taste like you can after a few too many regular G&T’s. Perfect summer cocktail. The gorgeous view did tend to put us in a rather dreamy mood though (or was it the gin?) and by the end of lunch we had plans to buy a 30 ft sailboat and possibly a nearby cottage. I think we might have to scale that back to renting a sun fish or two one afternoon.

Afterwards we took a trip up the coast to Donaghadee for what we are told is the best ice cream around at the Cabin (vanilla only – but very good indeed!) and the oldest bar in Ireland, Grace Neills (est. 1611). I thought I had already been to the oldest bar in Ireland when I was in Cork – what was that called? EE back me up here...something about a potato?*

So an ice cream, a walk on the beach, a sing song with the locals and one guy from Amsterdam in the pub, and several pink gins later it was time to go back to boring 'ole Belfast with a slight sun burn and the calories for the entire week ahead already consumed. Swell day out.

Epilogue: I was tired; I went home and sat on the couch. Crazy Kerry (her official title), born in the same year as I was, made plans to go out drinking some more that night because Monday was a bank holiday and she is a true whinorhino and thus obligated to get one more night's partying in – I might have to change the name of this blog, I am falling down on the job.

*Update: I have chatted with EE and yes we did go to a pub in Cork that claimed to be really old but Grace Neills definitely wins. I was thinking of An Spailpín Fánach in Cork (which means The Potato Picker - see I knew it involved potatoes) but that is a just a newbie in Irish pub terms - est. 1779. I also recall The Gateway Bar est. 1698, but still we have a winner in Grace Neills.