The Menu: A wonderful wine and cheese collaboration in west Cork
Fionnuala Harkin, of Wines Direct, and whose Wine Shed West Cork engages in an online cheese and wine collaboration with Dingle's The Little Cheese Shop. Picture: Thady Trá
The Menu is counting down the days to a very splendid online collaboration that has him greatly enthused, a coming together of two of his most favourite things, wine and cheese, courtesy of two of his most favourite people in Irish food and wine.
The Menu well recalls his earliest encounters with Fionnuala Harkin, in her newly opened and very charming little Italianate bistro, Fionnuala’s, in Clonakilty, offering simple, tasty dishes and decent wines, when that class of casual dining was still in its infancy in Ireland, and it became a great favourite of he and a then much younger No 1 Son.
Over the years, Fionnuala drifted from hospitality into the wine world, taking her WSET exams and working as the Southern sales rep with Wines Direct, but the inclination to host others around the table never left and in more recent times, she began the Wine Shed, clearing out her husband’s old tool shed in their West Cork home and inviting friends to join in tasting good very wines, all the while nibbling away at splendid local cheeses and charcuterie. Once lockdown arrived, The Wine Shed migrated online, meaning The Menu has had to postpone a long-held desire to fetch up there in person, but it has continued as an oasis of solace and entertainment.
While The Menu has yet to visit The Wine Shed, he has most certainly been to The Little Cheese Shop, in Dingle; in fact, no visit to Dingle is ever complete without a pilgrimage to one of his most favourite little food emporiums anywhere and owner, chef Mark Murphy, also of Dingle Cookery School, has recently migrated to offering online cheese sales, including a monthly subscription cheese club with nationwide delivery.
The Wine Shed Meets The Little Cheese Shop (February 20, 7pm) is a live tasting on Instagram (@wineshedwestcork) pairing cheeses and wines, with three options available: three kinds of cheese, crackers, chutney and bottle of white Burgundy; three kinds of cheese, crackers, chutney and bottle of red Bordeaux; five kinds of cheese, crackers, chutney, both bottles. All can be ordered in advance for nationwide delivery to your door or, for those lucky enough to live in or around Dingle, for collection from the shop - thelittlecheeseshop.ie. Also available, The Wine Shed Spring Case, including the above bottles: winesdirect.ie or fharkin@winesdirect.ie
Fáilte Ireland has offered an alternative lifeline to the tourism sector, the Tourism Business Continuity Scheme, providing direct financial assistance, specifically for those deemed ineligible for the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) payment or previous Fáilte Ireland continuity grant schemes. With domestic tourism the first to return whenever restrictions are lifted, FI will be investing significantly in a domestic tourism marketing scheme, as well as launching two new funding schemes in collaboration with local authorities to improve the quality of outdoor dining spaces. Full details of the Tourism Business Continuity Scheme and eligibility criteria: failteireland.ie
The Menu has regularly expressed his admiration for the Irish hospitality sector and its continuing efforts to survive in the face of the pandemic but he reserves special praise for those whose businesses are so new, their battle for survival is simply about letting people know of their existence in the first place. One such venture, Naturally Nourished, in Mahon’s City Gate, has just opened a new cafe in the Penrose Dock office quarter and should have been beating off hordes of office workers on a daily basis but, of course, so many are still working from home. Instead, NN has been forced to pivot and, in addition to functioning as a cafe, have also repositioned the Penrose Dock outlet as Eat Street, a smash burger bar, operating Thursday to Saturday evenings and offering splendid burgers (meat, beef and buffalo, from O’Mahony’s, in the English Market) served in buns (from another new Menu favourite, The Grumpy Bakers, in Midleton), along with oven-baked chips and healthy shakes, with all ingredients sourced as locally as possible. Available Thurs to Sun, from 4pm to 8pm. Click&Collect eatstreet.clickandcollection.com
Another making a fine fist of adapting to changed circumstances is chef Cian Hayes, in Westport, Co Mayo, who has adapted his fine dining offering to instead deliver some comfort food classics, along with a healthier vegetarian and vegan menu for those on a health kick for the new year. Cian’s Brunch & Lunch menus are available online as part of the Westport Eats, takeaway system with a new Cians@Home fine dining meal kit in the pipeline. ciansonbridgestreet.com
The Menu has certainly been doing the dog with his chocolate tastings in preparation for Valentine’s Day and but, with the weekend that’s in it, he can surely manage one final sampling, this, a 72% Raspberry bar produced by NearyNógs, in Mourne country, in Co Down, one of Ireland’s original bean-to-bar chocolatiers. NearyNóg’s source single estate cacao beans (trinitario, from the Dominican Republic, a native hybrid of criollo and forastera) which are stone ground and then used to produce in small batches and this particular bar was most fine indeed, well-tempered and with a temperate hand adding unrefined sugar, all making for a gently understated chocolate, smooth, creamy, with smokey, toasted cocoa and caramel notes, and a faint criollo fruitiness echoed by the tart dried raspberry pieces dashed on one side. It is safe to say, The Menu was rather smugly pleased with himself as he allowed each slab to slowly melt in his mouth, in between sips of his morning Cortado. nearynogs.com
