The Menu: A food truck serving dumplíní and a vermouth distilled in Valentia
Caomhán De Bri and his Salt Project travelling food truck, currently trading in Limerick’s Wickham Way market but set to greatly expand it’s reach in the future
Féach! A food truck serving dumplíní — agus a whole lot more
Oh dear, says you, yet another food truck. Where will we even park them all?
First things first, Caomhán de Bri’s very charmingly liveried Salt Project has found a current base in the very becoming Wickham Way Market (facebook.com/WickhamWay), in Limerick city — a new space for food stalls, pop-up shop and other artistic and community events that is a great addition to the local Limerick food scene.
Locals have taken from the off to De Bri’s eclectic and innovative Bláisíní (small bites) menu, the highly experienced De Bri’s impressive CV including a year cooking Gordon Ramsey’s Michelin-starred Maze, in London, and more recently working alongside TV chef Kwanghi Chan, to launch Chan’s own renowned food truck.
Using superb Irish produce, both cultivated and foraged, De Bri cooks it in a woodfired oven and over a hibachi charcoal grill, dishes including: Dumplíní, steamed dumplings of Irish free-range roast chicken and spuds; Gubbeen chorizo croquettes and truffle mayonnaise; Wild seafood dishes; and down and dirty fried potato slices with garlic and herb Atlantic Sea Salt and a Burren Gold cheese dip.
In addition, De Bri plans to take the nomadic Salt Project on the road and will be releasing news in coming weeks of other weekly venues around the country, including counties Sligo and Roscommon. But what most floats The Menu’s 50-cabin deluxe superyacht is the fact this handsome little trailer is merely an advance emissary for infinitely more ambitious plans for The Salt Project, including a series of one-off monthly Supper Clubs, for small groups of 15 to 20 diners, details to be announced in the New Year. And then, more exciting again, the unveiling in the middle of next year of The Salt Project’s permanent bricks-and-mortar home, a rural base in Co Sligo, which will serve as a restaurant, creative food space, and yoga retreat, amongst other things, and promises to add something truly special to an already vibrant culinary scene in that most wonderful part of the West of Ireland. The Menu will of course provide further details as they become available.
thesaltproject.ie
Any readers seeking to occupy children with epicurean inclinations over midterm might well consider online cookery class options.
The highly talented Killian Crowley, delivers a course as part of the Chef Supper Club series, broken down into five episodes (beginning Oct 25) of between 25-45 minutes. Cooking from scratch, there are two options: full course, non-perishable/dried ingredients and signed copy of Killian’s cookbook, (with most profits of book sales going to UNICEF), all delivered to your door for €145; or the streamlined version (€45), requiring users to do their own shopping using supplied list (to feed four) and assemble a list of utensils required for each session before logging on for unlimited access over two months to the five recorded classes.
thechefsupperclub.com
JP McMahon’s 8-week virtual cookery course for children on Oct 30, targets children and teenagers (9 to 16), with a curriculum of dishes and techniques, including breads, meatballs, ratatouille and beef ragu, along with more adventurous fare and sweet stuff including profiteroles and chocolate fudge cake. Parental supervision required for U12s.
aniarrestaurant.ie
Parilla is a new pop-up restaurant from Baste & The Big Grill featuring a feasting menu inspired by Argentinian Asado barbecue cooking, running until Oct 31 at Lock 6 Cafe along the Grand Canal, serving dinners and weekend lunches, Wednesday to Sunday, including a guest appearance from Argentinean Asador Rama Basilio. Booking essential via bastebbq.com
Cork International Hotel has a Halloween-themed sweet and savoury Afternoon Tea (Oct 26-31), adults, €25, and children, €12.50, pre-booking essential (Tel. 021 454 9800)
With so many splendid Irish gins now to be found in the national drinks cabinet, it was only a matter of before some right-minded individuals would respond with an Irish take on one of gin’s most natural liquid companions. And so Anna and Orla Snook O’Carroll have given us Valentia Island Ór, a vermouth distilled in Valentia, in Co Kerry, where they live. They use many locally foraged plants and herbs for their menu of 21 botanicals that are blended with a Spanish white Rueda Verdejo wine and a golden caramel to give it that lovely golden hue.
But even before pairing it with gin in some of the classic combinations, such as the Negroni or the Boulevardier, Ór vermouth simply demands to be sampled solo for it is a most splendid concoction. On the palate, it presents as sumptuous, silky and voluminous, sublimely balanced, its initial notes of oranges and sweet spices eventually resolve in a tart exclamation point of wormwood bitterness and served over ice with a slice of fresh orange, makes for a very splendid aperitif.
However, when presented with such an elixir, Mad Scientist Menu finds it impossible to resist extended epicurean experimentation and last weekend’s stint in the lab resulted in a cocktail he christened The Orange DisOrder, a blend of equal parts Valentia Island Vermouth, Ornabrak gin, Dacha Orange and Basil Syrup and freshly squeezed orange juice, shaken with egg white, a potion deemed most palatable indeed by all who imbibed. The Menu fancies there are more creations where that one came from with Valentia Island Vermouth very much at the heart of them.
facebook.com/ValentiaIslandVermouth
valentiaislandvermouth.ie
