Take Five #1 Finally, Cheap Falafel.

In #rabble1, Print Editionby rabble1 Comment

Finally, Cheap Falafel.

Those over priced super market kits can go fuck themselves as this humble street food comes to dublin at a price we can all finally afford.

Several fine Dublin establishments have served falafel for years now. But face it – they were a rip off. It’s always remained a mystery to any Irish person with experience of the wondrous Mao falafel chain in Amsterdam, with its ‘help yourself’ salad mounted high on pita bread – just how Dublin vendors could even think of legitimising their grasping high prices on such a simple food. The taste was always tainted more by over-pricing than coriander. Dublin falafel always fell short. It could never compete with the simple charm of our city’s own Falafel substitute – the spice burger. Only Celtic Tiger Dublin of all places could turn falafel into a moment of sit-down culinary opulence in an effort to rip you off. A falafel is something you ram into your face, roaming the street, passing cans back and forth with your mates. Now, to the delight of veggies everywhere, we can do just that. Strings of Turkish fastfood shops have started to dot the city centre over the past few months. Our own favorite falafel haunt is Ephesus. It’s just at the corner of Capel St and Mary St, opposite Spar. Stores at that location always seemed a bit cursed, with successive businesses going tits up and no one noticing. Ephesus thrives on value. The Dublin crowd doesn’t look likely to force food trade gombeens to pass on the VAT reduction any time soon, but decent falafel prices are at least step towards healthy, cheap post-boozer food for all. – JR

Dublin – Jump Up Weekends

Dole-queues, 9.00-17.00 jobs, incessant subjection to the latest mainstream chart tunes as you bustle about your daily business and survive the week. All reasons why we thoroughly enjoy our underground dance scene. It’s a small city, but one where heavy basslines, wonky beats and jump-up madness keep your legs kicking all weekend. Clubs where pure entertainment presides over money-making, warehouses where licensing laws don’t limit hedonism; Dublin’s underground culture gives us fun the way we want it, not the way we’re told to have it. Plenty of collectives showcase local and over-seas talent in a variety of venues. If we see a dancefloor hooley that will twist your senses, we’ll share it on our social media. So link us up and catch some DJ sets you won’t hear in up-their-own-hole commercial clubs. – JB

Right on Skins And Their Boutiques

Two new clothes shops have opened in Dublin meaning skinheads and football fans no longer have to rely on the internet for their wardrobe. The first, Casa Rebelde, on Crow Street, offers clobber for the “Discerning Football Fan and Revolutionary”. They are the only distrubuter of Fire and Flames, St. Pauli and Copa gear and as such, has become a hub for LOI fans and European lefties. The second, No Bother, caters for Dublin’s skinhead, ska and Oi! scene. On the face of it, it’s a great little distro offering a wide selection of vintage Fred Perry, Ben Sherman and other skinhead favourites. But No Bother has had much more important implications, namely helping to get a small gaggle of young skinheads away from Romper Stomper esque politics and into the more inclusive, reggae loving, SHARP community. – JC

Moore St Local Bargains

Having resisted numerous attempts to sanitise it, Moore St Market stands testament to all that is good about Dublin – vibrant, unique and contrary. Traditional fruit & veg traders, fish-mongers and small-holders selling foods from across the world wrestle for your attention against rainbow strands of synthetic hair. Outside a low-cost German supermarket the most-ambitious-trader-in-Ireland does daily battle, selling cut-price brand label detergents and bumper packets of gum. Craft butchers sell steaks or pig cheeks while the host of cafés offer snacks and brunches of varying costs and quality. Moving between traders and shops considering prices and quality, haggling on multi-buys, you take your time and consider your purchases. In Moore St. shopping is not a thoughtless act of consumption but a social act, an experience. – PL

WHEATPASTING Over NAMA Land

It’s not that often language schools and dance classes are in the vangaurd of a city’s cultural life, but take a bow chaps; you stuck your heads above the parapet first. One of the most organic responses to Namaland, is the spiralling use of hoardings and closed-down shop fronts as notice boards. The capital’s littering laws are draconian, lamp-post space is limited to political organisations and only on certain streets at that. There’s even reports of the city targetting the political left with penalties. For gig organisers, the law creates heartache with venues when flyers go astray and turn into litter, causing huge fines for the owners. Our litter laws confine us to the promotional echo chamber of our own social networks. We salute all those that have started to wheat paste with out a damn. Posters are part of a beautiful city. – JR

Comments

  1. Fair play to the Turks in Dublin, because you’d never find it on any street in any place in Turkey. It’s an absurdly cheap and delicious street food all over the Middle-East. But not in Turkey.

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