The Menu: Mouth-watering festivals

Poor Neidín barely gets a chance to wolf down his oats this weather before The Menu has him back in harness and out and about on the high roads for all the autumnal food festivals.

And if The Menu squeezes in visits to the tail-end of the wonderful Waterford Harvest Festival AND the Clarenbridge Oyster Festival, in Galway, both ending this weekend, then the bould Neidín has to be worth an each-way punt at Leopardstown one of these fine days.

But for those of you without a Neidín to hand yet still labouring under an enormous hankering for a celebration of that amatory bi-valve, the oyster, then here’s ample warning of the upcoming Galway Oyster and Seafood Festival (Sept 28-30) with its internationally renowned Oyster Opening competition and a Gala Mardi Gras night which sounds positively splendiferous featuring a masked ball careening through the streets of Galway in search of seafood, sounds and more seafood! www.galwayoysterfestival.com