The Menu: Lunar New Year celebrations and the first Irish branded liquid whey

Tullahay Farm in Tipperary have released the first Irish branded whey in liquid form

(Left) Asia Market has launched a special 2023 Lunar New Year Celebration Cocktail Kit, featuring recipes specially created for the store by Food Writers and cocktail aficionados, the Gastro Gays. Picture: Kirsty Lyons

New year celebrations

The Lunar New Year is celebrated in many other parts of Asia besides China, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Mongolia, Tibet and the Philipines, and Irish based celebrations of this new year of the rabbit see multi-cultural Dublin again as the party’s epicentre, with iconic city centre buildings going ‘red’ for the week (Jan 21-29).

The award-winning Spice Bags (Mei Chin, Dee Laffan and Blanca Valencia) have done a podcast about Korean New Year and food with Soonie Delap and Gunmoo Kim of Jaru, and there will be a Taiwan tea demonstration (Jan 25) with the Taiwan Centre for Mandarin Learning in Ireland, Tales of Tâi-uân tê. Dublin’s splendid Asia Market has launched a special 2023 Lunar New Year Celebration Cocktail Kit, featuring recipes specially created for the store by The GastroGays and Bahay’s Filipino chef Richie Castillo will collaborate with Chimac’s Owner & Head Chef Garret Fitzgerald (Feb 2).

On January 29, Asia Market hosts a family friendly celebrations including a 10m-long Chinese dragon dancing through the city centre and a street market selling traditional Asian arts and crafts, with tuk tuk stalls handing out samples for passersby, including Japanese Chicken & Vegetable Gyoza and Pork & Chinese Chive Dumplings, Steamed Bunny Bao Buns and a variety of Mochi Monkey Bubble Teas, along with in-store free kids entertainment such as face painting, balloon artists, origami workshops, and more.

Upstairs, children can enjoy a Mad Hatter’s Chinese Tea Party Experience (€20 per child, max 10 children per 40 minute session, including Asia Market goodie bag. Booking: Eventbrite.com).

And for those wanting to join in at home, Asia Market offer a Lunar New Year Taste The Trends Bites Box, consisting of sweet and savoury snacks and drinks introducing some of the most unique flavours and textures to come out of South East Asia in recent times, including the likes of Salted Egg Popcorn, Crispy Korean-style Seaweed with Almonds, and Hot Chilli Chicken Ramen.

• www.asiamarket.ie nationwide delivery until February 28.

Help is at hand

For those in hospitality enduring the trauma of the last few years has been harrowing indeed so an online webinar/workshop may provide some welcome advice.

At The Pass (Jan 23 & 30) features leading Irish academics and industry experts from the fields of Career Development, Finance, HR, Law, PR, Psychotherapy, and more. Spearheaded by Dr. Orla Byrne, Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship at UCD, it is a pair of low-cost online webinars and interactive workshops offering professional guidance for hospitality business owners countrywide facing upcoming decisions in an an uncertain future.

Managing Change & Big Decisions (Jan 23) and an interactive Wrapping Up A Business & Moving On workshop (Jan 30) deal with concerns surrounding pre-, post-, and threatened experiences of closure.

• Cost €5, www.atthepass.ie

Autumn cheese sale

Lost Valley have a 20% discount on their remaining autumn cheese. 

Regular readers will know The Menu is very partial to The Lost Valley Dairy and he is happy to share news of a 20% discount on their remaining autumn cheese before they begin making fresh cheese in the coming months as the cows come into calf. In addition, they have a selection of free range heritage pigs and sustainably raised beef cattle going to the butcher and available for sale.

• www.thelostvalleydairy.com/contact

TODAY’S SPECIAL

Rosemary O’Shea and husband Jim own and operate Tullahay Farm, a fifth generation farm and farm business in Slievenamon valley, in Co Tipperary, where they make cheeses using milk from their own Friesian cows. The cheese itself is very pleasant, soft, spreadable and with a fresh, creamy, lactic tang just crying out for a spot of experimentation. The Menu made a very fine cheesecake, whipping up the cheese with Glenilen natural yoghurt and flavouring with homemade raspberry jam. Two additional flavour-added versions, Tomato Basil & Garlic and Honey & Chilli, both proved popular with a posse of young nieces and nephews abandoned to The Menu’s care, served on oven crisped herb toasts with crunchy raw vegetables.

But it was the Tullahey Farm whey drinks that most intrigued The Menu. Around the turn of the century, an old comrade of The Menu’s was involved in the Irish dairy industry’s very early development of whey as a nutritional product for human consumption. A byproduct of dairy production of cheese and yoghurt, it had previously been seen as no more than a byproduct that was becoming increasingly costly to dispose of.

Tullahay Farm whey drinks are refreshing and tasty. 

But whey is a protein source with a high degree of bioavailability for humans. Said comrade and his peers were initially regarded as snake oil salesmen but the sector has grown to become hugely profitable worldwide, turning Irish dairy companies into world players, with Glanbia at the very top of the global sports nutrition sector. Last year the global whey protein market was close to $9.4bn.

Rosemary has drunk whey since childhood to help with digestion and Tullahay Farm have released the first Irish branded whey in liquid form, again derived entirely from their herd. Coming in two flavours, Mango & Passionfruit and Irish Apple Juice —which The Menu much preferred, the juice coming from Con Trass’s Apple Farm, in Cahir — they are both refreshing and tasty beverages but the real bonus comes with the nutritional impact, improving gut bacteria and containing all the essential amino acids, calcium and easily digested protein, aiding digestion and a terrific replenishment after strenuous exercise.

• www.tullahayfarm.ie