Something’s cooking in Carlow
Leinster and Irish rugby star Seán O’Brien gets out the Maguire and Pattersons on Saturday evening, firing up a Fulacht Fiadh, the medieval Irish equivalent of the Aga, while Sunday is open day for the general public as the unmissable Grandmother’s Day Forgotten Skills event features a farmer’s market, cooking demos/talks, butter and cheese making, bee and hen keeping, wild game, a cafe and loads of other activities for all ages. (Day pass €10) includes free entry for kids with an adult, free car parking. www.slowfoodireland.com
Time to fasten your seatbelts
It’s one of those weeks when the wires light up with food news, so, fasten the seatbelts as The Menu takes you on another whirlwind round-up, beginning with an exhortation from the culinary queen of Irish social media, Lorraine @ItalianFoodie and her husband Bruno of the multi-award-winning La Cucina restaurant, in Limerick, to immediately race out to Superquinn and purchase from their newly-launched range of 100% preservative-free fresh Italian sauces (www.realitalianfoodies.com). Martin Dwyer, formerly of Waterford’s Dwyer’s Restaurant and great great grandson of this august organ’s original founder, John Francis Maguire, is offering an unbeatable four-course dinner/drinks package for just 30 bucks a head — Martin and wife Síle are a fair hike from Waterford these days, though, in their charming French B&B, Le Presbytère near Carcasonne but with excellent accommodation prices, you’d do well to get in a booking before The Menu relocates for the entire summer (www.lepresbytere.net). A quick tip of the hat for The Department of Tourism & Hospitality at the CIT on being awarded the prestigious Green Hospitality Gold Award for the fourth year in-a-row, the only Irish-developed environmental certification standard for the hospitality sector. The Weir Bistro at The River Lee Hotel are doing a decent job of supporting quality local Cork produce with their new menu for The Gathering (www.doylecollection.com/cork) and, finally, if you make it to the West Waterford Festival of Food Farmer’s Market in Dungarvan Town Square tomorrow, do say hello to The Menu who will be stall-hopping, most often to be found at Clare O’Brien’s Gan Gluten or ‘Local-Boy-Made-Good’ Flynn’s Kitchen alongside. (www.waterfordfestivaloffood.com)
Today’s special
There was a chunk of Hegarty’s Mature Cheddar, a few oatcakes and The Menu — especially ‘distant’ after a most strenuous weekend — all waiting for the other to make the first move when in sashayed a curvaceous jar of Tastefully Yours’ Apple and Chilli Chutney. Delightfully light on her feet thanks to lashings of sweetly spiced apple and tomato but with a mule-like chilli kick, she soon had The Menu back up dancing. http://artisanchutney.wordpress.com
