Manning's and The Stuffed Olive make Bantry a food destination
mannings
The next stop on our culinary crusade around the county is Bantry, two expeditions within 24 hours illustrating the whimsical capriciousness of West Cork weather. Glorious blue skies as an azure Bantry Bay glitters in late afternoon sun en route to Manning’s Food Emporium, in Ballylickey; mist-shrouded Bantry town, land and harbour merging as boats share a cloud with buildings, early morning streets eerily empty until I encounter the very socially distanced queue at The Stuffed Olive (TSO).
Perhaps it is that constant, underlying low hum of anxiety that accompanies each expedition to the ‘outside’ that increasingly has me feeling like a hunter-gatherer returned safely from the perils of the hunt, unloading my pickings back home with clan peering over my shoulder, marauding young paws, darting hither and thither.
