Prawn shenanigans afoot
While the quality of sessions in the celestial snug increased a thousand-fold with the recent passing of Dubliner Barney McKenna, you just know the maritime-loving former resident will be especially missed come the Dublin Bay Prawn Festival (Apr 27-29) in Howth next weekend.
There’s all manner of prawn-related shenanigans afoot, including the wildly popular food village, daily cooking demos and festival menus available every evening in pubs and restaurants. But what most catches The Menu’s twinkling pair of blues is a Mystery Dine Around tour of the restaurants.
Festival programme: www.fingaldublin.ie
While conceding the recent Meryl Streep film Julie and Julia brought legendary American culinary doyenne, Julia Child, to a whole new audience, The Menu still prefers to curl up of an evening with her classic tome, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
In 1986, with Ballymaloe Cookery School a mere three-year-old fledgling, Darina Allen made her first ever trip to the US for a food conference. On arrival, she fell into conversation with a tall American woman, proudly brandishing photos of the Ballymaloe vegetable garden, chickens and cookery school. Imagine Darina’s astonishment when guest of honour, Julia Child — for it was she — opened the conference by talking about a little Irish cooking school called Ballymaloe.
Though Julia took Darina under her wing, she sadly never fulfilled her dream of visiting Ballymaloe but Darina, along with brother Rory O’Connell, is to teach A Homage to Julia Child — Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a course for beginners and experienced chefs alike. Apr 25-27 with lunch on Thurs/Fri. Booking: 021-4646785 or www.cookingisfun.ie
Gimme The Recipe author Sheila Kiely gives a demo in Bandon Books (Howard Court, Weir St, Bandon) at 12 noon on Apr 28.
The Menu has an eye for the pie, specifically, a potato pie. Elsie’s Traditional Fish and Chips, Ballyvolane, Cork, are selling their new ‘Molly Hayden traditional recipe’ pie for €1 for the rest of the month.
If The Menu furnished a local apple, an Elstar, say, from James Scannell, Ovens, Co Cork, with a snapping crunch like a branch breaking, sharp-sweet juice so enervating it would raise the dead, I’d fancy Snow White would have your arm off at the elbow and the Seven Dwarves would be in the market for a new au pair.
Scannell retailing at farmers markets (Clonakilty, Douglas and the Coal Quay), also sells Bramley cookers, tart apple cider vinegar and a nice crisp apple juice, all local, no imports. And best of all, the cost – €2 for ten apples! How bad, says you?
