Tin Top

09/07/2024

For this who may be interested, here is a little story about our 1971 VW and what little history I know of it. I will keep it updated if I learn more.

On Monday 16th August 1971 our Chianti Red Volkswagen Kombi was built in Germany for export to Portland in the USA. The van was optioned with a middle bench seat and interior trim (this was a lower option than the full “bus” which had a more luxurious rear interior). It also came with vent wings...

29/06/2024

Our new name Tin Top is inspired by rain on a caravan roof or monsoon rain on a tin hut beach bar. It is also the name for a camper van that does not have a raising roof, just like our old VW bus. It evokes getting out there, but in a slow and curious way. Tin Top closes the circle to what we originally wanted Great Northern Larder to be. The name was a reference to the amazing food of the top half of Ireland – the half covered by the network of the Great Northern Railway in our home of Dundalk. We wanted the brand to be about discovering the riches of our locality. Tin Top is us throwing off the shackles of commerce and expectations of building a profitable brand. It will be whatever it is, but it will be an adventure.

23/02/2024

I cooked a USDA brisket this week, but haven't been arsed doing a post on it yet. So instead here is a photo of me after finishing off a bottle of Honorable (honestly the best wine on earth) I am now starting into a bottle of Spanish "Scotch" from (as recommended by .arrieta).

I already know it is good as we did the distillery tour, but will it be as good playing an away game in the home of whiskey?

29/01/2024

Locally hunted venison cooked at speed on the Weber kettle. It was perfect. Venison burgers with homemade by BBQ sauce and mole sauce, barbequed white cabbage, spice red cabbage with Nollaig spices, and homemade game fries.

Great night in Ballymena hey.

29/01/2024

The main course tonight is organic Irish venison. It's the hardest meat to cook on a barbeque. Has to be cooked perfectly rare from one end to the other. The perfect barbeque for it is a barrel or an offset, both of which we own. So I am doing it on a kettle. Of course I am.

29/01/2024

We are doing an event with in Ballymena tonight. For once we have the BBQs on and everything is set up on time. That grill needs a good scrub when it gets up to temp, but in the meantime I went to and got some Ballymena beef sausages for the chef's lunch. We love a good Nordy beef sausage.

24/01/2024

We consider ourselves to be proper young and trendy foodies. We might even admit to being a bit hipster if we were pushed. So yesterday we decided to jump on the bandwagon and head to East Belfast where we queued for 4 hours to get a slice of pizza from a pizzeria that is only open for 17 minutes on the second Wednesday of every month with an "r" in the name.

Did we f**k.

No, we went to where we shared 4 small plates, a Delmonico rib eye, and a beautiful Rioja.

The small plates included Korean Pork Belly that we both thought was the most melt in the mouth pork we have ever eaten. It was really soft and unctuous with lots of sticky Korean sauce and crunchy veg.

We also had boneless chicken wings with scallops. Now if you are thinking about KFC forget about it. The scallop and the chicken were both pan fried to perfection and served with chicken butter sauce and thinly sliced mushrooms.

Next up was St. Tola goats cheese with poached plum, candied and pickled walnuts, and quinoa salad. For a restaurant called Meat Locker this was one of the best vegetarian small plates we have ever eaten.

The last of the small plates was a venison carpaccio with beetroot, horse radish, and roquette. I don't have the writing skills to describe this one, it was just unbelievably good. That will have to do you.

The salt aged Delmonico steak, which was from Carnbrooke was tender, bursting with flavour, and perfectly cooked to our preferred medium under the watchful eye of Michael Deane himself. The steak was smoky and salty in all the right proportions and came with a very fresh peppery sauce and the crunchiest beef dripping chips we have ever eaten.

We finished the night with a hazelnut coffee chocolate cheesecake and a banana parfait covered in chocolate popcorn. Ruairi loves a banana dessert and Laura loves a chocolate dessert, but strangely we swapped last night as we both preferred the other choice!

After we finished the night we finished it again with two amazing and really strong cocktails. A dark and stormy for me and a margarita finished with smoked salt for her. That really finished us.

12/01/2024

It has been a long time (over a decade) since we were customers of Pit Bros on George's Street. We popped in for a taster plate and a really nice chat with - possibly the nicest man in barbeque! John really whetted our appetite for some barbeque events in 2024, maybe even a collab - watch this space!

Nice to bump into as well - he claims to have the best burger in Dublin and John agreed. Let's test that bold claim some time :-)

We really enjoyed the food in Pitt Bros and we are now on the train back to Dundalk in a nice little food fog with the smell of smoke and sweet sticky sauce upon us. Happiness is barbeque, but you already know that!

25/12/2023

Christmas dinner from the fire. Smoked turkey with our own seasoning, pulled pork, smoked leg of lamb, and all the trimmings. If you have never involved your barbeque in your Christmas dinner then 2024 would be a good year to start :-)

P.S. Maris piper potatoes for the win. If I see any of ye using roosters there will be beatings. You may as well chew on yesterday's newspaper.

Happy Christmas ⛄🎁

03/12/2023

Bit of a belated update on last Friday's barbeque experience in . Unfortunately just as we were leaving for the market we had news that Laura's mummy was unwell so she had to scoot away. The amazing .conscious.ceili from bailed us out and manned the stall. Thanks Ceili!

Rob and I (Ruairi ) arrived a little late and started smoking out the other stall holders with our barbeques. We eventually started turning out amaaaaaaazing smoked turkey and sliced ham sandwiches with Rob's homemade stuffing and cranberry chutney. Dessert was Rob's mince pie empanadas with an injection (not an infusion!) of custard that was made with our own Nollaig spices.

The market was packed and who organised it should take a huge bow. Also a shout out to in for sourcing amazing meat as always, and for the best apple juice ever for making mulled cider.

Great day, and Laura's mummy is on the mend and in good form so all's good.