The month of April has been a sprint from start to finish for me, and I want to explain. It’s not that I haven’t had the time to update the blog. I’ve actually sat down and started typing most days. It’s just that there is something major going on in the background that I can’t talk about quite yet. This time next month it will all be in the open and you will probably understand why I’ve been sitting on my hands.  Continue reading »

TASTY 2017 is an innovative pilot Irish Food & Tourism Project, which has been recently launched in Donegal Town. It could be described as a mix of Master Chef meets The Apprentice!

Local chefs from seven of Donegal Town’s leading Hotels and Restaurants have teamed-up with Transition Year (TY) Students from the local Abbey Vocational School (AVS) and together they are competing and creating new TASTY 2017 food products that feature locally sourced ingredients.  Continue reading »

..Capa literally went to town with his expense account.. He took old friends like Pamela Churchill out for lavish lunches…. And dined several models..including Bettina Graziani, a bewitching Breton.. He introduced her to his favourite restaurant in Paris: a tiny bistro called Chez Anna, run by the eponymous proprietor, who cooked exquisite rustic French dishes.  Continue reading »

My blog is 12 years old today. I’m using the opportunity to catch up with a local brewer whose beers I’ve been gathering notes on for months and am overdue actually doing a post about. The brewer is DOT, a Dublin-based outfit. I last met its proprietor Shane at an event in Teeling’s Distillery back before Christmas. I tasted a few of his then-new releases, and bought a few more to take home and intend to drink for ages but not get around to.  Continue reading »

A.  Continue reading »

The Water in your Whiskey

The Dungourney River

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}

Time and time again, during our recent two day “immersion” at the Irish Whiskey Academy in Midleton, a few drops of water worked its magic at various tastings. Even when we were privileged to taste a 26-year old from a Bourbon cask in one of the warehouses.  Continue reading »

Three Wines. And a few beers!

Valdivia Dorius Amontillado seco sherry, Jerez (DO), 18%, €17.85 (50cls) Karwig Wines.

This dry amontillado is the perfect match for meat dishes and mature cheese and vanished very quickly here, where it was used as an aperitif – so quickly, I didn’t have time to take any notes. 

To get the best from its generous aromas and flavours, serve it at between 12 and 14 degrees.  Continue reading »

Sweet favourite of the Romans. Still Going Strong! 

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 17.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #091d0c; -webkit-text-stroke: #091d0c; background-color: #ffffff} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
Masi Angelorum Recioto della Valpolicella Classico (DOC) 2012, 14%, €24.95 (35cl) Bradley’s

This is something special, once a favourite of the ancient Romans. 

According to Hugh Johnson, it “is the most historic of all Italian wines….  Continue reading »

For over a year now The Fine Ale Countdown podcast has been assessing the relative merits of the world’s beers, one at a time. Each beer gets a numerical score, resulting in a league table, and attention tends to be paid more to the upper end of it, especially the hallowed top five.  Continue reading »

Kinsale Bay Food Company
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
Big Range of Gluten Free Products

Kinsale Bay

I visited the Kinsale Bay Food Company’s premises last week. With a name that includes Kinsale, you’d expect some fish products. And you won’t be disappointed.  Continue reading »

media release
Sligo Food Trail celebrates the Wild Atlantic WayLaunch of new video ‘Taste the Sea’
“Success breeds success” according to the old adage, and that certainly seems to be true for Sligo Food Trail who are shining a bright light on quality food in the county. The latest venture by this proactive group is a video entitled ‘Taste the Sea’ highlighting their many members along the Wild Atlantic Way and celebrating their food connections with the sea itself.  Continue reading »

I thought I had it right. I was pretty sure that I couldn’t do any better. When I got my hands on some (rare breed, grass fed) Belted Galloway, coarse ground beef and made burgers with three ingredients, I knew that I had created burger patty perfection. That was another one ticked off the bucket list. I had eaten the perfect burger. Or, at least I thought I had.
We had been chatting about restaurant trends.  Continue reading »

Two Tipp Top Cafés
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
Stef Hans & French Quarter

Mezze

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 16.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
After seeing the venerable buildings, including Hayes Hotel, in the square at Thurles, the Source Arts Centre around the corner is something of a pleasant surprise and even more pleasant when you find yourself in the cheery bright room where Stef Hans serve up delicious food.  Continue reading »

All going well I should be just back from Belgium when this gets posted. It’ll take a while to process through what I found to drink there so while I’m stringing those words together I thought I’d clear the Belgian beers that had been hanging around the house before I left. I’d built up quite a backlog of them, thanks to the good offices of my other half.
I started with Sheldebrouwerij’s Hop Ruiter. It’s a few years since I last had anything from them.  Continue reading »

Breda is a city in the south of the Netherlands, that’s probably not very well known to us tourists. It’s also the home city of young gun chefs Freek van Noortwijk and Guillaume de Beer and sommelier Johanneke van Iwaarden.  Continue reading »

Black’s and Man Friday Highlights of Kinsale Day
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
Munster Wine & Dine On Tour

The sun came too as the Munster Wine and Dine members headed for Kinsale last Friday.  Continue reading »

..they were eating breakfast. There were two big sandwiches of meat and goat cheese apiece, and Robert Jordan had cut thick slices of onion with his clasp knife and put them on each side of the meat and cheese between the chunks of bread.
‘You will have a breath that will carry through the forest to the fascists,’ Augustín said, his own mouth full.
‘Give me the wineskin and I will rinse the mouth,’ Robert Jordan said, his mouth full of meat, cheese, onion and chewed bread.  Continue reading »

After a year’s absence, I returned to Cork for the Easter Beer Festival at Franciscan Well last Saturday. I got an early bus down so had time to pop by Rising Sons to see if there was anything new on the taps. Of course there was; it’s an essential part of the deal with brewpubs.
I began on Dark Matter, which must be about the sixth beer I’ve encountered using that name, and the second Irish one in 2017 alone.  Continue reading »

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
Fenn’s Quay’s Special

Cod

From breakfast ’til late at night Fenn’s Quay will feed you, and feed you well. Lots of menus here, including a set lunch and an Early Bird. That Early Bird is, unusually, available on Saturdays up to 6.30.  Continue reading »

Whiskey.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 18.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
What’s Wood Got To Do With It?  Continue reading »