ShaneM84

ichigo ichie, a kaiseki restaurant in Cork, Ireland - absolute heavenly food and dining! Took me a while to post these but here are some photos from a meal (menu below) friends and I had back in February 2020, although I forgot to take a photo of dish 7. MENU: Kisaragi 01. Sakizuke/先附 [Amuse-bouche] - (PHOTO 2) Kisetsu no sakana 02. Oshinogi/御凌ぎ [Amuse-bouche] - (PHOTO 3) On soba (Ume plum, wakame, soba, katsuobushi and chive in shiitake dashi) 03. Hassun/八寸 [starters] - (PHOTO 4) A. Pistachio tofu (Pistachio, beetroot miso, apple blossom and gold leaf) B. Uni, yaki shirako wan (Connemara sea urchin, cod milt, wasabi and akazu rice) C. Yo-nashi sansho wine zuke (Pear, sansho in Rosé wine with shiso fluff) D. Awabi jagaimo arare manju gin an (Connemara abalone, Kilbrack organic vitabella potato, roasted rice and gin-an dashi) E. Tori yawata maki (Manor farm chicken, burdock, Kilbrack organic carrot and French bean) 04. Wanmono/椀物 [dashi broth] - (PHOTO 5) Dobin mushi ; unagi and maitake (Lough Neagh eel, maitake, taro potato, sudachi lime and Leamlara Ivan's mitsuba) 05. Mukouzuke/向付 [Selection of sashimi] - (PHOTO 6) Kisetsu no osashimi 06. Nimono/煮物 [stew] - (PHOTO 7) Mekajiki misoni (Sword fish, aubergine, padrón pepper, leek, chilli and yuzu miso) 07. Yakimono/焼き物 [shichirin grill] Kamo aburiyaki yagi cheese (Thornhill duck, St Tola goats cheese, bamboo ash, brassica mustard and sakura smoked hazelnut tuile) 08. Mushimono/蒸物 [steamed] - (PHOTO 8) Chawanmushi (Egg dashi pot, foie gras, plum wine winter black truffle, edamame and apple foam) 09. Sunomono/酢物 [pickled] - (PHOTO 9) Iwashizu (Sardine, spaghetti squash, wakame, pepper dulse and shiso tosazu) 10. Gohanmono/飯物 [rice] - (PHOTO 9) Maguro ikura zuke don (Balfego blue fin tuna, ikura and zuke yolk soy sauce) 11. Tomewan/留椀 [soup] - (PHOTO 9) Akadashi (Red miso, tofu, chive and dashi) 12. Kanmi/甘味 [sweets] - (PHOTO 10) Kuzumochi zenzai (Adzuki beans, kuzu and tea leaves)

𝘿𝙉𝙁 𝘿𝙐𝙀𝙇 - 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘱 𝘒𝘯𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯 𝘒𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 (𝘷𝘴 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳) [ PS5 // Arcade Mode - Normal]

I’d guess I play more fighting games than the average gamer. I'm no master at any one but I really enjoy them (I've at least been able to beat some KOF and Samurai Shodown bosses on normal difficulty, so not too bad!). But the final fight in my first foray into DNF Duel's arcade mode infuriated me, taking nearly 30 minutes worth of retries and almost giving up!

Using Dragon Knight, I eventually realised that Lost Warrior, at least, is not so great at defending against her Knuckle Blaster move. I sure spammed it when it felt right, but it’s not foolproof. So I tried to mix that up with Biting Dragon and tried to trip him up with low attacks. Took a chance with some combo moves too. The first round went well, the next two…well, I got the job done at least!

Granted, I barely touched the tutorial to get a grasp of this fighter's unique systems. Normally I would jump right into - and complete - this mode first in any other fighter. But still, playing on the easiest difficulty (“Normal”), I never thought I'd be in for such a nightmare with some really intense and aggressive CPUs. Also, I felt it while fighting other characters and especially against Lost Warrior here, but the CPU really feels like it's reading your attack inputs due to the sheer amount of successful standing and crouching guarding (and how quickly they swap between the two) they perform. That’s been frustrating.

Having said all that, it doesn’t really spoil the fun either - it’s heaps of fun and feels fresh. And after spending some more time with the tutorials, I feel “somewhat” improved!