The menu: St Patrick’s Day trail
Alice Coyle, of Fab Food Trails ( www.fabfoodtrails.ie ), has collaborated with 20 of Cork’s restaurant, bar and café owners to produce a guide to a Paddy’s Day tasting trail throughout the city. Each venue offers specially created Irish dishes (Nash 19’s corned beef with Longueville cider cream sounds inviting!).
See www.corkstpatricksfestival.ie for map. While the beer may not be green at the Irish Beer & Whiskey Festival (March 13-17), it will be the best of Irish, with excellent food stalls for people who require a little soakage with their supping ( www.irishbeerandwhiskeyfestival.com ).
All funds from a pop-up Patrick’s Day dinner (March 17) in the Ballymaloe Cookery School Garden Café go to East Cork Slow Food Education Project (booking 021-4646785).
Even if he wasn’t a contributing editor to the McKennas’ Irish Food Guides, The Menu would still await the arrival of each new edition with all the anticipatory delight of a child before Christmas.
The guides to the best in Irish food and hospitality are now digital-only, downloadable apps, produced in association with DCU: ‘The 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland 2015’; ‘The 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland 2015’; ‘Where To Eat & Stay on the Wild Atlantic Way’.
Even longtime guide users will be intrigued by an editorial shift in the restaurant smartguide, with less focus on traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ venues among 29 new entries, which include two food carts and a beach ‘shack’, Harry’s Shack, in Portstewart, Co Derry.
New Cork ‘restaurant’ entries include The Black Pig wine bar, in Kinsale, the Lettercolum Kitchen Project, Clonakilty, and Manning’s Food Emporium, alongside more ‘traditional’ operations, such as The Square Table, Blarney, and Monk’s Lane, Timoleague.
‘The 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland’ features 12 new entries, including B&Bs, guesthouses, grand hotels, and country houses. (All apps €2.99 from iTunes and Google Play.) Www.guides.ie.
While The Menu could take or leave the gogglebox most days of the week, he’ll make an exception for Rory O’Connell’s new show, How to Cook Well (March 18, RTÉ One), for the Ballymaloe Cookery School founder is not only a terrific chef, but also one of the finest culinary teachers in the land. He will focus on techniques for the serious domestic chef, and will produce a three-course meal for each episode.
The splendid Clonakilty Chocolate Co offer two new courses in their recently opened factory: ‘Chocolate Making from the Bean’ (March 21) covers the entire process from scratch, while children will be in their element on the ‘Easter Egg Workshop’ (April 4) ( www.clonakiltychocolate.com ).
The ongoing revival of the West Cork Slow Food Convivium continues apace with an excellent pizza course (March 29) at The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability, in West Cork, beginning with the use and construction of clay ovens, before the actual cooking. (Enquiries: Frank, 028-28579/The Hollies, 023-8847001).
Dave Louks’ stunning Shehy More free range chicken, from West Cork have more moisture than a monsoon, and a depth of flavour rarer these days than … hen’s teeth! www.facebook.com/Shehy-More-Free-Range-Farm
