More This week I was mostly....

This week I was mostly looking forward to the return of that magnificent bastard Malcolm Tucker in the new movie, "In The Loop". Malcolm Tucker, for those of you unaware of this sweary control freak, was the government spin doctor in-chief on Armando Iannucci's The Thick of It. Anyhoo he's back, this time on the big screen with James Gandolfini, Steve Coogan, Gina McKee and Tom Hollander. Peter Capaldi plays the role of Alastair Campbell Malcolm Tucker with absolute relish in the TV show and by the looks of it he is in top form in this big screen outing. I cant fucking wait, as Tucker himself said, "Out of the loop? Fuck you. I am the loop." And my favourite Tucker quote, To the editor of the Daily Mail: "If you break this story then I am going to eviscerate you. Now I'm not as educated as you so I don't exactly know what that means, but I think I'll start by pulling your cock off and then just busk it from there!"

This week I was mostly thinking about the scallops and black pudding I had in the Barking Dog on Belfast's Malone Road. As Clay Davis may have said, "Sheeeeeeeeeit, they were good". As was the smoked haddock with crushed new potatoes topped off with a poached egg and béarnaise sauce that I had after that. The Barking Dog is essentially a gastro pub minus the pub. There are three menus to choose from - a restaurant menu, a bar menu and a set menu. We had the restaurant menu.

Little Miss Manuel had the bread to start and the lamb which was sublime despite being cooked just over medium. But then again that's what she asked for. The restaurant menu is pretty well balanced with three fish options, three meat options but alas only one veggie option which considering it's location may work against them. I am learning to love our meat dodging chums. But it was the sweet juicy plump like little ping pong balls scallops that won me over.

Waiter Chum Number One also assures me that their Belly Pork Bites are the "dogs bollocks". I assume that was here way of telling me they were delectable and not that they are actually the testicles of a castrated pooch. Tremendous stuff, I heartily recommend The Barking Dog, get it done, you'd be barking not to.

Barking? So close, so unbelievably close.

Barking Dog
35 Malone Rd
Belfast, BT9 6RU
028 90661885