The Menu: Ryes and Shine for Mayfield-based bakery
Ryes and Shine's bloomer loaf
The Menu was quite heartbroken when the wonderful Bread & Roses real bread bakery shut up shop for good, and they were especially missed at the Coal Quay Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings.
But he is delighted to report that the very splendid Angela Nöthling is the latest to set out her stall at one of Cork’s finer such markets, bringing her Ryes & Shine real bread bakery products, made solely from flour, water and salt with absolutely no artificial additions and including whole sourdough focaccia (minimum 16 pieces), fresh cinnamon buns, wheat and dairy-free hazelnut cake, along with her range of superb organic artisan sourdough bread, buns, bloomers, and brownies.
Keen-eyed readers will also recall The Menu mentioning her other stall, so, for the less attentive, that is outside Henchys in St Luke’s, on Wednesdays, from 12pm to 2pm.
Shakers at the ready, budding barkeeps, as Jameson announce the third annual Jameson Black Barrel Bartender Series 2024 competition, which is open for entries (from April 1 to May 15), inviting the bar community to create a unique, regionally-inspired cocktail using Jameson Black Barrel.
The top 25 regional winners will be awarded €500 and win a three-day, all-expenses paid trip to Midleton Distillery, Ireland, to attend the ‘Jameson HOSTS Global Summit’ curated in collaboration with award-winning bartender Remy Savage.
Additionally, the top three global champions will each win €5,000 and access to an innovative Jameson mentoring programme that includes in-person and virtual sessions with industry giants.
Bartenders can enter by submitting a one-minute video of their cocktail creation using Jameson Black Barrel to be judged by leading figures in the industry.
For any chocolate freaks down in the dumps that Easter’s chocolate bonanza only lasts for three days, take comfort in the news that the splendid Metropole Hotel, in Cork city, is dishing out a chocolate afternoon tea for adults and children that is set to run until May 31 (12.30pm-4pm daily, booking advised), with a savoury and sweet menu, including milk chocolate éclairs, chocolate macaroons, and white chocolate blondie with chocolate ganache and hazelnuts.
Pinky extended and his bone china tea cup empty and sorely in need of a refill, The Menu notes another fine afternoon tea offering, this time in the Big Smoke, as the College Green Hotel return with their ever-popular Peculiar Afternoon Tea service, in the Atrium Lounge, serving traditional afternoon tea blends with some very smart and exotic sweet and savoury offerings to chow down on, including Spiced Pineapple & Rum Cake with Candied Pecans, Passionfruit Crunch Pillow on an Allspice Sable Biscuit, Fresh Mango Cheesecake with Salted Popping Candy, and a Chocolate Tart with Pineapple & Lime Jam, along with more traditional baked buttermilk scones with jam and clotted cream.
- To book www.thecollegegreenhotel.com
Though, in The Menu’s mind, it will be forever the Hogan’s local shop of his youth, he admits that he finds far greater culinary succour in the offering from current occupants, Spicetown, which stocks a wide range of staple Indian foodstuffs along with other choice Asian ingredients, a compelling locus for the Indian expat community but also a big draw for canny locals as well.
The Menu visits regularly, purchasing excellent rice and spices in bulk quantities along with certain fresh imports such as splendid seasonal mangoes and other exotic fruits and vegetables.
Any fan of Indian cuisine will know there is no truck held with restraint once it comes to the sweet stuff but The Menu was delighted to discover that the very delicious traditional dessert Gulab jamun on sale in Spicetown, deep-fried dough balls made with milk solids and then soaked in cardamom and rose water syrup, in fact came no further than nearby Curraheen Road, especially made for the store and quite delicious when warmed and served up with Scúp vanilla ice cream.
