The Menu: Dingle Food Festival marks the final food festival of the year
Dingle Food Festival marks the final food festival of the year.
Dingle Food Festival
It is that time of year once more, almost the Irish food worldâs equivalent of the hot cup of cocoa before bed, as the Dingle Food Festival/FĂ©ile Bia Dhaingean UĂ ChĂșis (September 29-October 1) signals one of the last hurrahs of the Irish food festival circuit before bedding down for winter â except the Dingle Food Festival provides pretty much the polar opposite effect of the soporific impact of the your hot milk and chocolate powder beverage as it inevitably winds up as the mother of all parties each year, incorporating as it does, the BlĂĄs na hĂireann Irish Food Awards as well, ensuring the beautiful west Kerry seaside town is packed each year with some of the finest food producers from the entire 32 counties of Ireland
Dingleâs own local food producer champion body, Bia Dingle, are behind a series of demos at the festival, including a chocolate one from chef Peter McGrattan and another local legend, Louise Brosnan, of Mex West food truck, producing an Irish-Spanish fusion of Blasket Island Lamb empanadas. Pastry chef superstar Shane Smith hosts a very special event at Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne as the home economics class under the tutelage of teacher, Marie NĂ ArrachtĂĄin, strut their baking stuff. The Menu is especially intrigued by The Dingle Food Festival Farmers Forum which examines the changes in farming on the peninsula over the last 60 years and he will be very keen to frame it in the context of his own experience living as a child for eight months on a small farm west of Dingle town.
This yearâs awards, now in their 16th year, saw the highest amount of entries to date, including many first time entrants. With almost 3,000 entries judged, the winnersâ excitement only serves to drive up energy levels to fever pitch around town. And, of course, the weekend would be nothing without the splendid Taste Trail that snakes its way up and down the towns vertiginous slopes, darting and diving into all manner of little nooks and crannies along the way to serve up some truly splendid fare.
Fish Bar at The Electric
Rare are the epicurean enterprises that seem to last forever and yet it can often prove very poignant when a hospitality enterprise shuts its doors for good. The Menu was just one of many over the years who enjoyed himself in the environs of Ernest Cantillonâs Electric bar and gastro-pub on South Mall and was duly saddened to learn of its closure as the bould Ernest is now choosing to devote his energies elsewhere, to both his growing young family and his business interests in the distilling world. As a form of sayonara, their ever popular Fish Bar at the very top of the fine Art Deco building and sporting excellent views of the city and the River Lee directly below, is re-opening for a âlimited editionâ month-long run as a form of farewell, with bookings taken from the end of September for the following four weeks, serving up a fresh menu of locally caught fish comprising a greatest edible hits from the last 12 years.
Todayâs special
If thereâs one health message that was really rammed home by the covid pandemic, it is of the value of vitamin D to our nutritional wellbeing. Itâs very often an issue for Gaels as we naturally produce it in our bodies upon exposure to sunshine but generally, for that to happen with any great consistency, said Gael needs to take herself or himself off to the nearest airport and clamber on board anaircraft aimed for sunnier climes. As we fall deeper and deeper into autumn and eventually winter, this deficiency of sunlight and, hence, Vitamin D becomes ever more vital to our wellbeing, playing an important role in bone health and healthy functioning of the immune system.
Its importance and, equally, its more usual deficiency in Ireland, especially from September to March, was recently recognised in an Oireactas Joint Committee on Health report on addressing vitamin D deficiency as a public health measure in Ireland â in other words, the Gael needs to be taking the D.
Now, there are multiple brands available when it comes to health supplements which has grown into a global billion-dollar business so The Menu is very happy to take his lead from the good people at Ballyhoura Mushrooms, Dr Lucy Deegan and Mark Cribben, both recovering food scientists who have revolutionised mushroom production and consumption in Ireland and continually add to their range of superb value-added mushroom-based food products.
Now, moving into the biotech sphere, the range includes a new Super D Shiitake capsule providing 15ug of vitamin D, equating to 50% of vitamin D RDA, a natural source of vitamin D produced by the innate ability of Shiitake mushrooms to supercharge vitamin D production one thousand-fold on exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.
Containing only vitamin D enriched Shiitake Mushroom Powder, the capsules are produce in Co Limerick, using their recently installed Automatic Capsule Maker with a capability of producing 5,000 capsules per hour, and says Dr Lucy âmushrooms contain a compound called ergosterol and Shiitake mushrooms contain very high levels of this compound and when exposed to ultraviolet light this is converted to vitamin D2, a vitamin D form highly bioavailable to humans and unlike other sources such as dairy products or fish oils, it is 100% vegetarianâ.
âBy controlling the UV light wavelength ,you can boost the Vitamin D2 level 1,000-fold and have a vegetarian derived stable source of Vitamin D suitable for fortifying food products and taking as a food supplement,â Dr Lucy added. Bring on winter, cries a newly nutritionally enhanced Menu!
