Menu: Boutique cocktails, food and cider weekend and oyster season — so much to celebrate
The Armagh Food & Cider Weekend this September celebrates the superb produce of the Orchard County
The Menu had to unfortunately postpone a recent planned jaunt northwards to Co Armagh, but he looks forward to rescheduling very soon. In particular, I'm looking forward to sampling some of the finest apples and cider to be found in the entire country, where they have been growing the forbidden fruit for some 3,000 years, and covering more than 4,000 acres — hence the highly appropriate soubriquet, The Orchard County.
What’s more, The Menu can think of no finer time to visit for same than during the upcoming Armagh Food & Cider Weekend (September 9-12) with an extensive programme of undercover and outdoor dining experiences, food masterclasses and demos, food trails and foraging, cider tastings and tours in some truly magnificent locations. Also on offer are apple-picking, tours, breakfasts, lunches, afternoon teas.
In particular, The Menu is interested in checking out: Flash Fiction in the Orchard, offering a platform for writers to air their work, and surely a gloine or two of finest Armagh Cider; Ciders and Charcuterie, at the Linen Hall Kitchen & Bar, features finest local cheeses and charcuterie with ciders; several live fire cooking events; and, pick of the bunch, a five-course farm-to-fork dinner at the very wonderful Crannagael House.
In addition, the local hospitality sector, hotels, restaurants and cafes, are all set to row in behind the programme offering their own culinary contributions, ensuring a place at the table for all.
The Twelve Hotel, in Co Galway really adapted to lockdown restrictions with a vibrant mix of innovation and energy, including establishing a monthly cocktail subscription club and an online wine shop. And now, to supplement the latter, it has added a Wine Club: a 12-month wine subscription service, designed to broaden palate and mind with a specially selected bottle delivered monthly complete with tasting notes, the annual subscription also includes two stylish wine glasses from West.
Led by The Twelve’s general manager and sommelier, Fergus O’Halloran, The Twelve Wine Club will be upping the ante each month to allow members to embark on a vinified adventure with Capt Fergus at the helm. For those not quite ready for the full expedition, there are also curated selections available from The Twelve’s wine shop, with free delivery nationwide on all orders over €50.
One of the great wonders of September — one to rank alongside the pleasures of a silent and peaceful household as The Progeny return once more to school — is the advent of oyster season. Although, such is the pristine nature of so much of Ireland’s offshore waters, that there is rarely a month when it is not possible to enjoy truly splendid Irish oysters.
Dublin’s Shelbourne hotel has always made a commendable effort when it comes to celebrating the most bountiful of bivalves and this year is no different with tempting offerings and daily specials, all paired with a selection of finest wines and champagnes and signature cocktails, all available daily throughout September in No 27 The Shelbourne Bar.
With alumni such as Craft Cocktails and The Lismore Food Company, firm favourites of The Menu’s, news that Food Works is looking for another 10 high potential, innovative, export-driven companies to sign up for their accelerator programme should certainly stir the blood of any budding and ambitious young enterprise.
A joint venture, run by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc, Food Works provides a wide variety of supports including workshops with national and international industry experts across such disciplines as strategy, finance, product development, marketing.
Start-ups also receive customised support from business advisors, facilitated peer-to-peer learning and networking opportunities across industry, at home and abroad. On completion of the 10-month programme, each business will have robust investor-ready business plan focussed on international expansion and will also be eligible to apply for feasibility grant funding of up to €35,000 through Enterprise Ireland.
One of the great innovations of lockdown has been the rise of pre-mixed boutique cocktails, usually made with premium spirits and mixers, supplemented with handmade small-batch shrubs, infusions, syrups and other flavour grace notes.
Casktails, from the people behind Cask cocktail bar, on Cork’s MacCurtain St, may be fashionably late to the party but they certainly know how to make an entrance, beginning with their wonderfully liveried bottles and then proceeding to really make a splash with the contents therein.
Having established a reputation for adding foraged ingredients to many of their best creations, it’s no surprise to see them crop up in, for example, Raspberry & Nettle Gimlet (with Dingle Gin, Irish Raspberry Wine, Nettle Cordial) and the Beamish Boulevardier (West Cork Distillers Bog Oak Single Malt Whiskey, Campari, Beamish, Local Honey) also makes for very enjoyable quaffing but the best seat at The Menu’s top table was reserved for the Rhubarb & Sorrel Margarita.
Mrs Menu is a rather more temperate soul than the Menu but she believes a fine Margarita to be one of the great triumphs of humanity and her imprimatur for Cask’s effort is a sterling endorsement that The Menu can only echo — the additional tang of rhubarb and sorrel from Cork Rooftop Farm added to Don Julio Blanco tequila, triple sec and spent lime, only further heightening the pleasures of this truly wonderful sundowner.
