The menu: Food news with Joe McNamee
The Menu will be taking an extremely well-travelled road out to Blarney to help launch the second annual Old Butter Roads Food Trails Festival in The Church of the Resurrection, at 3pm on May 5, a producer- and supplier-led initiative that he is only too delighted to support.
The month-long festival recalls days of yore when these roads were regularly used to transport butter from North Cork to Europe’s largest butter market, in Cork city and the region today remains as vibrant as ever when it comes to delivering some of the finest produce and hospitality to be found in the North Cork region, specifically, in Muskerry, Duhallow and Blackwater Avondhu.
The family-friendly programme also covers the local food history (Remembering the Old Butter Roads, May 7, Whitechurch Community Centre, with historians, food writers and producers) and includes meals built around local producers’ fare in The Square Table and the Old Post Office, in Blarney, and Blair’s Inn, in Cloghroe, before the focus moves from the Blarney area on to Macroom (week 2), Millstreet/Kanturk/Mallow (week 3) and finishes in Mitchelstown (week 4).Full programme & events booking: www.oldbutterroads.ie
Canny diners will have to be quick off the mark in purchasing tickets for Cork city’s very popular Long Table Dinner (June 24), street dining at its finest, as some of Cork’s best restaurants to serve up a feast on the street, with the first tranche of tickets available on May 2 and the second batch on May 14, all via the Cork Midsummer Festival booking office. www.corkmidsummer.com
The Menu is planning on taking Neidín out for the long haul up to Dublin one of these fine days to participate in one of Kevin Thornton’s culinary masterclasses but in the meantime others wishing to available of tuition from one of Ireland’s finest ever cooks might well consider upcoming classes: Pastry Party (May 4); Seasonal Dinner Party (May 5); with a hands-on bread baking course and Magic of the Sea, offering skills and techniques, all arriving later in the month. www.kevinthorntonkooks.com
While Neidín is a doughty ould soul, he does struggle with The Menu’s great heft so anything to lighten the load is much appreciated which is why The Menu will be trying out a few of Mitchelstown’s Eight Degrees Brewing newly launched craft beers in a can this summer, allowing him to transport a supply of old favourites and one or two newbies including a Neon Velvet FPA, a kiwi and lime-infused pale ale, without entirely breaking his faithful steed’s back. The Menu predicts these will also be a massive hit on the summer festival camping circuit. (www.eightdegrees.ie)
Recently perambulating along his much-loved North Main St, The Menu and No 2 Son popped into the very splendid Priory Coffee Co when he encountered an old friend, Monika Prankunaite, now working in said establishment. After serving up a very tasty toastie from a very decent little menu along with a most pleasant macchiato made with Badger & Dodo coffee, she also proffered several Coconut Balls, her very own in-house creations made from coconut flesh, coconut sugar and coconut flour which are then dipped in dark chocolate.
The Menu and No 2 Son were greatly taken with both taste and texture, most especially a very restrained hand in the sweetening department, making, all in all, for a most excellent and near-guilt free pleasure. www.priorycoffee.com
Beer of the week
Aldi Stores nationwide
Aldi recently introduced five new craft beers all brewed under contract in Ireland and priced under €2 with just a few pence more for this Double IPA. This is the best of the bunch — fruit and malt aromas, balanced on the palate with understated hop use and a decent dry hop kick on the finish.
Elsewhere in the range there is a Gluten-Free Lager and a regular O’Sheas Lager which are grand (they taste like Lager) plus an O’Shea’s IPA which has some decent pineapple and tropical touches but was a little sweet for me.
My second favourite is the Brown Bear ‘India Pale Lager’ — a rather unusual hoppy kiwi and key-lime tinged lager that somehow works even though it has no right to.
