Eithna’s By the Sea

I had a very quick lunch and admired the promenade area of the town of Dingle. Much as I wanted to stay here, I needed to go. I spent a good number of days here in county Kerry. I enjoyed the sights a lot, but I was disappointed not to have met up with my good friend. I was a bit anxious to make the drive back up north which would be a good seven hour drive. It was still summer and the days were long. I hoped to take this chance to make sure I get back home while there is still a bit of light left. I dread having to drive in the dark, especially in an unfamiliar road. Despite me having spent most of the day touring the Dingle Peninsula. I didn’t feel tired at all. I hope this was a good sign that I would be able to complete the drive without incident.

The plan is to get back to Tralee then make my way to Limerick and onwards. The roads here weren’t that big so you can’t really drive that fast. It ran into some traffic thirty minutes outside Tralee. It seems that there was something peculiar about the layout of the town that traffic can’t easily pass through. I think there should have been a bypass so people who don’t need to pass through the town don’t have to. It was only when was approaching Limerick that things started to pick up. There was a good stretch of motorway from Limerick to Galway. From there it was only four hours left. I did stop for petrol near Galway just to make sure I have enough juice to get back. I also had another purpose for coming back early.

Outside Sligo, there is a seaside village call Mullaghmore where there seemed to be a few restaurants. One of these restaurants is Eithna’s By the Sea. I have read about this place and my good friend has repeatedly talked about this place and now, it is my job to tell if it is worth the visit. One look at the menu and I knew that this wasn’t going to be cheap. However, it is seafood and if the place is really as good as they say, I would be willing try it. They have a few seafood platters and I went for the shellfish platter. I must say, I never had that much shellfish in one sitting. There were different kinds of shellfish, a seemingly endless supply of crab claws.

The platter came with these prawns which had very tough shells. At the time, I wasn’t sure what the name was but the staff called it prawn. It seems they are call various names, Dublin Bay Prawns, Norwegian lobster and langoustines. Whatever the name was, it was a challenge to eat them. The shells were tough and I couldn’t figure out how to open them without bleeding. It seems that the trick is to open the shell from the softer underside by slowly detaching it from the tough shell. One can feel a sense of accomplishment when successfully eating the the prawns. For some reason, they taste better, I don’t know if it was because of the challenge of they really taste better. Oh yeah, the platter also came with half a lobster, complete with one massive claw.

I had a grand time finishing the platter. It didn’t matter if I was using my hands to peel the prawn. I was going to enjoy eating my seafood. This is probably the best seafood meal I ever had. It was almost like they caught everything from outside their front door. I ended up going back to Eithna’s By the Sea because I left my jacket there. Perhaps that was my subconscious telling me that I should go back. The second time around I was a master of opening the prawn, no more bleeding this time.

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