We had a most delicious meal in Boqueria, Bridge St. Cork this evening. It’s a tapas, wine and cocktail bar that serves delicious food and I’m sure the alcohol tastes nice too but I only had a sip of my wife’s white wine. Staff are super friendly too and even though they squash people in there you should try it out. Recommended!
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I was lucky enough to have lunch in Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud a few weeks back. €48 a pop for a three course lunch with the usual teas and coffees and Petits Fours included too. Speaking of which:
The food was stunning, as it would be from a two star Michelin restaurant. What really marks it out for me is the service. The service in restaurants that know they’re special is non-intrusive, warm and not at all pretentious. I’ve been to restaurants where the staff think they and their workplace are special and have a snotty attitude towards everyone. Normally this gives them validation to have sloppy service, serving up variations of chicken currys. They’re the “it” place for a blip in time and love the attention of the fickle public. Guilbaud’s,...
After the pork recall debacle, you’d thing the FSAI would get a bit of cop-on but obviously they need to keep inventing make-work to keep themselves in jobs. Their latest wheeze is to try and ban Raw Milk. Not bleach-cleaned chicken nuggets or mechanically recovered meat burgers or sausages with 53% “meat”. No, they want to ban a product that some people actively seek out and choose to drink.
I’m really really getting sick and tired of this bullshit. It’s a miracle that you can still buy unpasteurised cheese in this country with these drones in charge. If I want to drink raw milk I damn well will and I won’t have some paper-shuffler using “safety” as a code-word for control, telling me otherwise.
The last time I had raw milk I was...
Just got a mail from Ruth in Urru, Bandon. They have come up with a great idea called bonanza days. It kicks off with all kitchenware half price on Fri 29th/Sat 30th! I’ll definitely be popping in for that.
Future bonanzas will include €1 coffee days, Free Urru Cotton Shopping Bags , Massive Savings on Wines, Cookery Books, Farmhouse Cheeses, Easter Eggs, Lucky Dips and more.
Mmmm, latte.
I love seeing Urru making a mockery of the long-held belief that you can’t do gourmet in Bandon. Now we just need a few more really good restaurants....
EatMagazine launches today. There will be 20,000 free print copies per month in Dublin initially. It is also available free online.
I’m pretty stunned that the first issue was all put together by one guy, Mikey Maguire. It’s a really impressive piece of work and makes a mockery of much of the so-called professional rubbish you see on newsagents shelves.
Well worth a read.
Open publication – Free publishing – More ba...
There’s a new restaurant in the location Bullys used to be on Paul Street. It’s Ketchup and we’ve just had delicious burgers there. Yum!Related PostsNo related...
Breheny’s Bellish
I like it, a lot. Needs a little bit more oomph to stand up to fish tho.
Rated 4/5 on Nov 13 2010
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LouderVoice review tags: ketchup, relish, sauce, tomato sauce, lv:group=fooddrink, tomatoes galore, breheny’s bellish...
Mediabox have booked me to do a “social media” seminar in Donegal on Thursday. And it’ll be with a castle in the backdrop. Glenveagh National Park’s Visitor Centre is where it takes places. Well done to Joanne and crew for putting together the seminar and charging people sfa for it too. Seminar and lunch is €65 and a tour of the castle.
And of course I’ll have to try the food at Harry’s....
The Country Cooking of Ireland
I was given this heavy tome by the publishers to review and months later I’m finally getting my thoughts down. Whilst it is a fantastic collection of recipes and information that all Irish cooks should own, I fear that along with Darina’s Forgotten Skills of Cooking, we are looking at our past.
The author Colman Andrews is a very well known food-writer and co-founder of the famed Saveur magazine in the US. This may look like a coffee-table staple but it is genuinely jammed with lots of recipes that could easily have been lost forever.
It’s clear reading the book that Colman is not claiming to be an expert in Irish food since he defers to many of the Irish greats like Darina and profiles some of our Irish food heroes like Anthony down...
Heart attack on a plate. Worth it. So we decided to make an Irish Pork Bacon Explosion last weekend. My friend Jonathan did all the work while I took photos.
Streaky bacon weaved together
Sausage meat plastered on top
Barbecue sauce put on that
Cooked bacon bits sprinkled on top
Rolled and then weaved...
Organised by Donal Skehan and facilitated by Bord Bia, the Irish Food Bloggers event last Thursday was great. It was great to be there, even if toast is the best thing I can er cook.
It was fantastic too to meet so many of the food bloggers I’ve been reading for years. More blogs too to add to FoodFight.ie I was going to call Caroline the grand dame of Irish food bloggers but she’s far far too young for that. She has a great summary of the day, a good deal of which comprised of Irish Pork. I think it would be good to have regular foodie blogger get togethers and get such creative talent (both in the kitchen and on their blogs) to network more.
Lorraine Fitzmaurice of Blazing Salads kicked off the practical demos and showed how to make spelt bread and miso pesto.
Then came...
Martin’s Mad About Fish
With a single episode, the greatest TV show RTE have made about food in at least 25 years. Martin Shanahan jumps out of the screen, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and demands that you watch him and start loving fish.
After decades of dreary formulaic yawn inducing food programmes on Irish TV or worse, the “crayzzzzze kooky” shows, someone in RTE finally saw an episode of Jamie Oliver and realised what was missing – personality.
Where has Martin been hiding all this time? In the kitchens of the rightly legendary Fishy Fishy in Kinsale? He’s a force of nature. He is everything that made Darina a legend – knowledge,passion, humour. But he goes far beyond that, he’s an absolute TV natural. He belongs in front of the...
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The Cookware Company,
Bridge Street,
Bantry,
Co Cork,
Ireland
We recently discovered this shop as it seems to be the only one in a few hundred miles of Bandon that sells Sodastream gas refills. Catherine popped down a few weeks ago to get two refills and raved about the place. I drove down yesterday to have a look and get some of the Sodastream flavours.
They are just at the top of town on the main street, impossible to miss. I went in with 4 of our monsters so couldn’t spend as much time as I’d like. Suffice to say, if you like cookware or kitchenware, you’ll adore this shop. It is jammed with tons and tons of everything you could possibly need in a kitchen. In just a few minutes I got my Sodastream flavours (highly recommend that you start using this 1970s...
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Fastnet Live Irish Mussels
I popped into the fish shop in Bantry today and spotted these. A fully sealed pack of live local mussels. I have long lamented the lack of fresh shellfish in shops in Cork and now they have no excuse. All you need is a cooler cabinet with no need for special shellfish expertise or having to deal with smells or things going off. These could literally be sold in every garage and convenience shop in the country.
Not only is it easier for shops but mussels are the ultimate fast food. All I did this evening was open the pack, rinse them, throw out the ones that were still open and cook them. Cooking consisted of chopping some garlic and onion, cooking that for a sec, lobbing in a ton of wine, one more minute, lob in the mussels, 4 minutes, add some cream,...
A demon in my coffee, taken on Friday last:...
More like a gushing of being bowled over by amazing food combinations. Yesterday I visited Chapter One restaurant for the first time and certainly not the last time. They deserve their Michelin Star. A big warm welcome, a big warm goodbye, genuine interest in making sure we enjoyed every second of the meal. From shaking our hands as we came in, to being asked was it our first time in the place by Martin (one of the owners) and interest in who we were, to telling us how the mousse was made (Soda streams have a home still!) to offering to call us a taxi, the experience was amazing. I thought beforehand which such a great reputation and high profile clientele that it might be intimidating but it was the complete opposite. It felt like we were family.
If you’re a bit obsessed with food...
Neven Maguire: Home Chef
I’ve always been a huge fan of Neven. Anyone who can run a successful restaurant in the middle of nowhere in rural Cavan gets my vote. His energy is always fantastic too. This new show is ok but nothing amazing.
I’m surprised to see cookery programmes still being made that refer to “dinner parties”. Does anyone still have those?
His three dishes in the opening episode were asparagus and smoked salmon tartlet, confit duck and a tiramsu variant.
Whilst I loved the look of the first dish, it seems a bit ridiculous to have an asparagus recipe in January. Or a salad with Nasturtium flowers whilst we’re on the subject. Have the producers of the programme missed every single Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall espisode ever made? Where did...
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So I’m in Galway and I’m staying in Flannery’s hotel. 40 quid a night at the moment and a fairly decent WiFi connection. Given I’m here on business, I have a daily budget for accommodation and food. With the money saved on the hotel I’m spending it on food. Once again I went to Cava tonight and for 30 quid got some tapas which comprised of:
Gazpacho soup:
Salted cod cakes with lemon mayonnaise:
Lamb’s heart with pork and chorizo:
oh and pistachio ice cream:
and Flannery’s has been refurbished the past few years so comfortable spacious rooms aplenty. After forking over €150 for rooms in some dodgy London hotels, this is a steal. And I won’t apologise for the constant foodporn people see on my Facebook....
Some facts from the Business Post today:
Ireland’s chocolate market is the 12th biggest in Europe and is Britain’s biggest confectionery export market.
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk has been Ireland’s favourite chocolate for more than 75 years, bought by more than 60% of the population and is Ireland’s number one confectionery brand.
The Mars Bar is the number one filled bar.
Maltesers is the number one cinema brand.
Tayto holds a 28.4 per cent share of the crisps market.
King Crisps holds an 11.6 per cent share of the crisps market and is the number one crisp by pack sales in the capital.
Hunky Dorys is the number one crinkle cut crisp, with a 13.4 per cent share of the market.
Harvest Fare is Ireland’s leading nut range.
Doritos and Sensations are number one...
Good Wine Show
We spent this evening in the Clarion Hotel in Cork attending the fantastic inaugural Good Wine Show, held by Curious Wines, Bubble Brothers and Karwig Wines.
I’m not going to say much, I’ll let all the videos I took do the talking. Suffice to say that €15 to sample over 100 fantastic wines plus cheese from On The Pigs Back, bread from Arbutus and amazing smoked Duck, Salmon and Chicken from Ummera is an absolute steal. So get on over to the Clarion tomorrow from 11am and have an absolute blast. We did!
Mike Kane and Joyce on the Curious Wines Stand:
And 13 more videos here.
A few badly taken pics here:
Rated 5/5 on Nov 14 2009
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If you haven’t heard about it already, you’ll want to know about the Good Wine Show happening this Friday 13th and Saturday 14th of November. It’s a joint effort between the three best independent wine retailers in the country: Curious Wines, Bubble Brothers and Karwig Wines.
It’s on in the Clarion Hotel in Cork from 3pm – 8pm on Friday and 11am – 4pm on Saturday and only costs €15. For that you’ll have over 100 international wines to taste and buy, delicious foods and gourmet treats on offer and prize draws for wine cases and food hampers.
This isn’t a show for wine gurus at all. If you like a nice glass of NZ Sauvignon Blanc every once in a while, you’ll enjoy it just as much as those who know the difference between a 1947 and...
Some of the delicious cakes in Heavens Cakes in the English Market. Deeeellliicious!
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The Good Things Cafe Fish Orgy Course,
Ahakista Road,
Durrus,
Cork,
Ireland
Two days of fantastic fish recipes by a wonderful teacher in a perfect setting. Not much more to say than that. But I will.
Three years ago I did a cookery course down in Good Things Cafe with Carmel Somers. It was honestly two of the best food days I’ve ever had. The relentless pressure of start-up business life meant I didn’t get to return until this month. Now I can’t wait to go again.
Durrus is a gorgeous little village just at the start of the Sheep’s Head Peninsula. Good Things is just out a bit on the Ahakista Road looking out over the bay and the mussel farms. It is a cafe during the summer and a cookery school for the rest of the year.
A collection of maybe 10 of us there...
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I haven’t tried their meat yet but the thought of locally-reared organic pork has me salivating. They sell directly to the consumer and are based in Teadies near Enniskean. The pigs are a mix of Old Spots Gloucester & Saddleback. Give Liam a call on 086 604 1208 if you want to order. More details on their web-site.
Rough location here:
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Wednesday the 21st of October, Dubray Books on Grafton St., Dublin.
Donal Skehan from The Good Mood Food blog is launching his fantastic book on healthy eating/cooking next week. If you’re about pop in and say hello to him.
Mercier Press invite nicked from Donal’s blog:...
Manila Rhythm – I’ll be there
Manila Rhythm – Bohemian Rhapsody...
CX Oriental Cash and Carry,
Units 11-13 Nyhan Business Park, Tramore Road,
Cork,
Ireland
The recent review of CX Oriental by Messy Chef was the final push I needed to check this place out today after months of saying I must. It’s just fantastic. If you have ever raved about Asia Market in Dublin, this is 10x better.
If you have driven past Kinsale Road Roundabout in the past few months you can’t have missed the huge signs for CX Oriental Cash and Carry. Whilst Cork has had the brilliant Mr Bell’s in The English Market for years, it suffers from lack of space and the awkwardness of getting to it so this morning I finally made the trip to the Cash and Carry.
It’s pretty easy to find. Head past Harvey Normans off the Kinsale Road Roundabout, take the left at...
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Malt House Granary,
30 Ashe Street,
Clonakilty,
Co Cork,
Ireland
We were recently taken out to dinner by my parents and decided to try the Malt House Granary in Clonakilty. We had only been once before, 5 years ago, and had not liked the heavy food. But a recent review which highlighted the new ownership made us want to try again. And oh boy were we glad we did.
We like eating very early and sat down at 7.30 to a totally empty restaurant which had me worried. I needn’t have. By 9pm they were turning people away at the door.
The menu is a great mix of local produce with a strong focus on fish and shellfish. Finally a restaurant in West Cork that offers something other than 5 different types of white fish!
As with other great meals I have had recently (like in Fenn’s...
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