The Menu: Our favourite pub in the world and an introduction to Romanian cuisine

Win a super product pack and a copy of Trisha’s Transformation to celebrate the launch of Mr Bell’s online shopping portal

When credit is being doled out for the revival of the English Market, beginning the modern restoration that has made it the jewel in Cork’s culinary crown, special praise is usually reserved for the 1990s arrival of Isabelle Sheridan’s On the Pig’s Back, The Real Olive Company and Iago cheese and delicatessen. 

But in the early 1980s, The Menu recalls the initial arrival into the market of Moroccan chef Driss Belmajdoub and the subsequent beginnings of his Mr Bell’s Global Food Emporium, retailing a global range of ethnic spices, herbs and condiments that roamed far beyond the usual range of suspects from India and China.