The Menu: Tremendous Tubers
A Taste of West Cork food festival are hoping to set a record for the greatest amount of varieties gathered and baked in one venue (The Harvest Food & Craft Market on Sept 16) and are encouraging prátaí people from all over to post two potatoes (one for baking, one for display), especially unusual or rare varieties to A Taste of West Cork Box Office, Bridge St, Skibbereen, Co Cork.
For Skibbereen, with its tragic famine past, the ‘humble spud’ will always come freighted with the weight of history so no better place to host a celebration of the national vegetable as part of one of the country’s premier food festivals.
An evening of discussion and debate featuring RTE’s Éanna Ní Lamhna, food historian Regina Sexton, ‘seed saviour’ Madeline McKeever, plant scientist Eoin Lettice and potato farmer Ned English convenes in the salubrious surrounds of Liss Ard at 6pm on Sept 10.
Alongside this ‘drawing-room discussion’ will be a performance of four dramatic monologues by American writer Brian Petti, beginning with the story of a West Cork famine survivor and ending with one of his descendants, a New York Fireman at 9/11. www.atasteofwestcork.com
Gallivanting around the country, The Menu notes an abundance of summer dining deals including: The Tiffin Platter (two savoury dishes, one sweet), an Indian-inspired variation on the tapa, in Killarney’s Malton Hotel for €15; Dublin’s Brasserie 66 knocking out a whole roast lobster tail with tempura claw, homemade fries, salad and a glass of prosecco for a commendable €22; and while The Menu finds American football to be an awful lot of noise and very little sport, he can always make time for a good burger, so Dublin’s Morrison Hotel’s special offer for the Notre Dame v Navy clash at Lansdowne Road Stadium is not without appeal, Homemade Morrison Burger with pancetta, smoked cheese, chunky chips and a beer/wine for €15.
Over the course of the recent Liss Ard music festival in the ‘rocking-est’ tent on the grounds, The Theatre of Food, The Menu indulged in a spot of excessive rose-petal strewing, specifically at the feet of the venerable Sally Barnes, of internationally renowned Woodcock Smokery, who, as she says herself, has been ‘smoking for over 40 years, fags and fish!’
Having wolfed down some of her scrumptious smoked albacore tuna, The Menu’s eyes then alighted on a tub of wild smoked salmon butter, an exquisitely balanced blend of sublimely smoked, genuinely wild Irish salmon and unsalted butter.
The Menu could eat it, spread on a slice of freshly toasted Arbutus sourdough bread, for breakfast, dinner and tea but the tub never survived past breakfast —and a solitary breakfast, at that!
Contact Joe McNamee at themenu@examiner.ie
The commendable Bavarian Schneider Weisse Original (Tap 7) is widely available, but better beer shops will have a further four or five of the 405-year-old brewery’s range: it can be great fun trying their various wheat beers side-by-side. The Tap 4, their organic summer brew, is beautifully detailed — freshness, spice and herby bitterness in a lovely thick, creamy consistency. While it’s a myth that beer cools hot curries (only milk-based sides such as raita or yoghurt can help with this) the beer will go terrifically well with a whole range of creamy, spicy curries.
Blake Creedon
