The Menu: Gourmet experiences at Castlemartyr Resort and Ballymaloe
Terre restaurant at Castlemartyr Resort
With the schoolbags stowed and The Progeny stabled for the summer, it is very much time for The Menu to saddle up NeidÃn and get on the high roads and byroads of Ireland, the better to put on the nosebag and experience the finest of Irish hospitality.
West Cork may have been hoovering up the plaudits — and Michelin stars — in recent times but what makes Cork such an extraordinary food county is that it also has East Cork and its hospitality and food offering, which alone would be more than enough for most other counties in the country to be getting on with.
Two of the shining lights of East Cork hospitality, the venerable old Ballymaloe House and the more comparatively recent Castlemartyr Resort have teamed up to offer a very special package, The Gourmet Experience at Castlemartyr Resort, with two nights of five-star luxury bed and breakfast, with one Michelin-starred 12-course dinner in chef-patron Vincent Crepel’s Terre restaurant, in Castlemartyr Resort, and one dinner in Ballymaloe, the birthplace of modern Irish cuisine, where chef Dervilla O’Flynn serves up her own fine take on Myrtle Allen’s culinary legacy in the Yeats Dining Room.Â
Guests stay in a deluxe room at Castlemartyr, with access to the resort and all its amenities.Â
- Tel. 021 421 9000/Email: reservations@castlemartyrresort.ie
- castlemartyrresort.ie
The English Market and Cork City Council are seeking new tenants for four stalls, a unique opportunity for a fledgling food business to start trading in one of Ireland’s most iconic food retail locations, alongside the very splendid existing traders, many of them operating in the hallowed halls for several generations.
With vacancies as rare as a hen’s dentist, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain a foothold in any one of four prime locations, which will be available to the candidates who best suit the bill, all proposals considered by a specialist panel, with a particular emphasis on applicants who can demonstrate a commitment to innovation and sustainable food practices, including low ‘food miles’/carbon footprint and compostable packaging.
Waterford Harvest Festival is seeking stallholders of a more peripatetic inclination, ie, they are seeking applications from stallholders wishing to set up for the duration of the festival (Sept 8-10) to trade temporarily over the course of what is becoming one of the better food festivals in the country, not least since Mick Kelly and his GIY team took over curating the sustainability focus of the programme.
The Harvest Festival Market will span Waterford’s beautiful squares and interconnecting streets, and organisers aim to deliver a food and drinks market with a focus on local and Irish, sustainability and premium quality.
- Applications are now open and available at harvest.giy.ie
With NeidÃn having built up a head of steam, the next destination will be Co Meath for the Boyne Valley Food Series, ongoing over the whole summer.
The Story of Honey (July 23) is a one-off special event taking place at Bee Wise, telling the tale of one of nature’s most fascinating creatures, its crucial role as a pollinator, and the liquid gold it produces in the form of honey.
This family-friendly event offers a close-up look at the entire honey-producing process in a large working observation hive along with tastings of multiple diverse honeys, and all taking place at the award-winning Bee Wise Nature Trail, an educational trail suited to all ages and abilities open all year round for groups, clubs and schools, as well as families and individuals, located in the heart of the historic Boyne Valley, 10 minutes drive from the heritage town of Trim, and the Hill of Tara.
Over the course of recent sunny days, having passed hours toiling on his great estate, and despite consuming a small ocean of water, The Menu has regularly been left with the class of thirst that requires a special something to truly slake — and for The Menu, few things work better in such circumstances than a cold, crisp, bitter-sweet shandy.
The Irish Craft Soda Company’s Lemonade was created by sister company Dead Centre Brewing, in Athlone, in an attempt to provide a suitable partner for the classic German Radler, a classic 50-50 shandy of lemonade and, usually, lager.
On its own, the CSC Lemonade is quite fine indeed, fizzing on the palate like a party, flavoursome, refreshing, with a crisp citric kick, and, entirely free of the usual suspects, sulphites, preservatives, and flavour or colour enhancers, it contains only carbonated water, lemon juice, citric acid and sugar — and comparatively little of the latter compared to most other carbonated soft drinks on the market, making it a good choice when giving it to children for an occasional treat.
The Menu has never really cared much for lager so instead he paired the lemonade with a Happy Days pale ale, from Rascal’s Brewing Company, in Dublin, a very pleasant session beer with sweet, tropical fruit notes, and, as he kicked back in the deckchair to take his ease, the entirely Irish ‘Radler’ combo added up to a thirst quencher for the ages.
Later that evening Mrs Menu suggested it would make for a fine vodka gimlet, which is exactly what she proceeded to produce and, indeed, that was only the start of it, for the CSC Lemonade is an exceedingly fine weapon to have to add in the cocktail armoury when it comes to creating all manner of fine libations.
The Menu greatly looks forward to trying the planned three other core flavours set to be unveiled in the coming months.
- Email: craftsoda@deadcentrebrewing.com
- deadcentrebrewing.com
