The menu: Dine in the dark, Rhone Wine Week and TouRRoir 16
To be deprived forever of sight would be an extremely bleak prospect but there is great sport to be had from the occasional bout of sightless consumption, most especially the consequent realisation of the important role the eyes play in forming the overall sensation of ‘taste’.
The return of Dine in the Dark Ireland is benefitting a very wonderful organisation, NCBI (National Council for the Blind Ireland) and is an opportunity to try out an entirely novel approach to putting away some very fine nosebag with participating restaurants including Salt, The Cornstore, Feed Your Senses, Glebe Gardens, Jim Edwards and Fenn’s Quay while Dylan McGrath’s Fade Street Social, in Dublin, is just one of the many other establishments around the country putting on the blinkers and strapping on the nosebag to support a very worthy cause. www.dineinthedark.ie
The Menu will be getting his guzzle on in a big way, for Rhone Wine Week (Oct 29-Nov 5), a celebration of the viticulture of one of his most preferred wine regions, France’s Rhone Valley.
The annual highlight is always the Big Rhone Tasting at Dublin’s Ely Bar & Brasserie (Nov 3) from 6-9pm on Thursday November 3 and the Big Rhone Quiz offers a grand prize of a trip to Decouvertes for the winners.
The Menu himself will be in the thick of the action, hosting a public Q&A in Greene’s restaurant, in Cork, with winemakers Bruno Boisson of Domaine Boisson and Simon Tyrrell of Les Deux Cols, and then afterwards sitting down to a specially prepared feast of superbly cooked wondrous local produce courtesy of the very excellent chef, Bryan McCarthy. (www.RhoneWineWeekIreland.com & email info@greenesrestaurant.com)
TouRRoir 16 (Nov 1) is an inaugural forum covering the food, tourism and cultural sectors. Organised by Good Food Ireland, it culminates in the a 10th Anniversary Collaborative Gala Dinner crafted by International and the announcement of the Good Food Ireland Best of the Decade Awards. (www.tourroir.com)
The Menu has found Spúnóg, a new ‘mini-market’ on the South Douglas Road, in Cork city, under the aegis of pastry supremo Christine Girault.
It is a tidy little affair offering Girault’s own beautiful baked comestibles, Arbutus Breads, Adam’s Free Range eggs and fresh fish alongside ready-to-eat fare from several hot food stalls and she is very happy to entertain applications from prospective new stallholders.
One stall in particular grabbed The Menu’s attentions, The Cork Chilli Company, featuring an exquisite range of fresh chillis grown in Cork city by proprietor Gary Barriscale.
Gone are the days when The Menu treated chilli consumption as an extreme adventure sport where the subtler nuances of taste are left to shrivel and burn on the tongue.
These days, he values superior produce used sparingly so was delighted to see this splendid range featuring over 20 different varieties, even an apocalyptic Ghost chilli, the edible equivalent of molten lava.
Barriscale also produces a range of condiments including a Molten Marmalade of chilli, grapefruit and lime but The Menu derived most sport from some of Barriscale’s own home-smoked chipotles (Jalapenos), one of same lending a barely discernable smoky warmth to a hotpot of braised feather blade, a fine reminder that cooking with chillis doesn’t always entail the emergency services being on high alert.
