Cork city was heaving with GAA fans in both red and green jerseys as we walked down Oliver Plunkett Street. The sun was shining and the matchgoers were making the most of it before setting off on the walk down to The Park. I’ll stick with calling it The Park thank you very much, the new name SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it?
As it turned out, Cork beat Limerick in a thrilling match that us Corkonians will be talking about for a few generations to come. We’ve had a bit of a drought of late. In years to come, people will talk about being there in the same way that many talk of having seen Nirvana support Sonic Youth in Sir Henry’s.
In my case, hurling is great, but a good dinner is even better and my expectations were high at Aishling Moore’s Goldie. Goldie opened in late 2019 just a few months before the you-know-what, and thankfully it’s going full throttle 5 years later. Bookings are in high demand, so if you’re planning to visit, book early.
Goldie is all about fish, purchased daily from local day boats, and creatively cooked so as to make maximum use of the entire fish. It’s named after the iconic golden fish that sits atop the wind vane of St Anne’s Church in Shandon, and is becoming a Cork icon in its own right.
In order to try as much as possible, we order a plethora of the small plates, starting with a little bowl of Taiwanese fried fish nuggets (€5 for 5) which are coated in fragrant and ever so slightly sweet spices. They’re fabulous. Licking our fingers, we pick up some glorious Rossmore oysters anointed with blood orange granita and fennel oil (€11 for 4). These beauties are grown in Cork harbour by the Hugh-Jones family and I marvel at the gloriously bright pearly interior.
Hake trimmings are cooked pibil style, piled into crispy tostada-style cases, topped with spiced pickled onion (€10.50 for 2) and they are the unexpected star of the meal. Cured turbot in the contrasting colours of beetroot ponzu and chive oil is firm yet sweet, but could have benefited from a greater kick of the pickled ginger (€10.50). But it’s the crispy hake tail schnitzel that wins the social media award, with a soy-cured cured egg yolk that lazily and richly oozes out when pierced (€11.50).
At this stage, everything is going swimmingly well (pun intended), and we’re thoroughly enjoying our wines, a Steininger Grüner Veltliner for him (€16 for a 250ml pichet) and a Mar do Inferno Arinto for me (€14.60 for 250ml). In fact, the entire wine list is very tempting and decent value, and many of the wines are available by the glass, pichet and bottle. I like this kind of thinking very much.
Due to the gluttony of small plates, we share a main course. Of the 5 options available, 3 were fish with one chicken and one vegetarian. The allure of a chicken and miso butter sauce was too much to resist. Aishling could probably serve a sock in this sauce and it would sell, but in our case, it came with pristinely cooked turbot (€34.50). The side of sea salt shoestring fries (€4.40) were unceremoniously and joyously tipped into the sauce to ensure we got every last bit.
What’s astounding to me is how much Aishling has achieved already in her career. Not even 30 years old yet, she is running a top-class restaurant, which had about 8-9 people working that evening. She constantly engages with local fishermen and producers, speaks at events about sustainability and fish, and has even managed to squeeze out a wee cookbook in the form of Whole Catch, published by Blasta Books. I’m still not quite sure what I achieved in my 20s.
Goldie may operate on the humble and sensible principle of using as much of the fish as possible, but the merging of flavours from right across the world with Cork ingredients is both classically elegant, yet very modern. With the original Goldie watching over the city from Shandon, and a Goldie motif watching you from the menu, this restaurant is pure Cork.
Thank you so much Joanne 🧡