Joe McNamee: Local food is at the heart of Dingle Food Festival
Feargal Ó Cinnéide, Ciarán Williams, Martin Bealin, Niamh O'Kennedy, and Darach Ó Murchú at the launch of the Dingle Food Festival which takes place in and around the Co Kerry town from October 3 to 5. Picture: Don MacMonagle
What on Earth did we ever do on the Oul’ Sod before festivals, seemingly one to be found in every corner of the country at any hour of the day or night? It wasn’t always thus.
In my youth, festivals equated to the Cork Film Festival — around since God was in her nappies, and celebrating its 70th birthday next year — and the city’s other great autumnal cultural jamboree, the legendary Cork Jazz Festival.
But of food festivals, there were apparently none, or that I knew of as a teen, when the world was my oyster but an oyster had yet to grace my gullet, even though the Galway Oyster Festival had been running since 1954.
That began to change in 2004 with the late, lamented Taste of West Cork Food Festival.
In 2008, the Waterford Food Festival arrived — since becoming my own personal “first swallow”, figuratively and literally, of the Irish food festival calendar.
Then there is the Dingle Food Festival, which began in 2007, and invariably draws a close to my year of culinary carousing.
Each year, I throw a few children into the boot and head west for Corca Dhuibhne and we have never had anything less than a truly splendid time.
We dine in fine local restaurants; we eat on the hoof, throughout the town. We encounter old friends, and make many new ones.
We spin around Slea Head, calling into Ventry Post Office/Deli to pick up tasty titbits and natural wines.
I meet an old comrade for our annual pint amidst the chainsaws and wellingtons in MT Moriarty’s.
We have Murphy’s ice cream and fish and chips, sometimes in that order.
When the street market winds up on the Sunday, we head home to hibernate through winter.
The festival (October 3-5) takes over almost the entirety of Dingle with pop-up dining opportunities along the taste trail in all sorts of random and off-beat locations.
The giant food producer market sees stalls lining every street. Combine that with the Blas na hÉireann Awards and Dingle pretty much becomes the epicentre of Irish food for the weekend.
The Blas na hÉireann Awards began as part of the original Dingle Food Festival, but it gradually diverged into an independent organisation, now a behemoth of the Irish food world, with award winners coming from all 32 counties in Ireland.
Spreadsheets might be my idea of a slow death, but half an hour with a list of prizewinners at Blas brings its own curious eloquence in charting the 21st century evolution of Irish food, detailing undulating trends and tastes in the Irish palate, winners who prospered and former champions who later fell away, a reminder of how difficult it is to survive, especially for small producers.
If Blas is a macro-focus on Irish food, the Dingle Food Festival has, if anything, refined its micro-focus on the peninsula’s sublime produce, this year celebrating local food as the festival “hero”, to nurture the local food system.
Sustainability is at the heart of their aim to become Ireland’s first “zero-waste to landfill” food festival, after years of cleaning up mountains of disposable plates and cutlery, with attendees encouraged to bring their own cutlery and ware or to “rent” stainless steel bowls or purchase bamboo bowl/cutlery sets, with wash-stations all around town.
Bia Dingle Marketplace in the town centre offers a taste of the peninsula, while Ceiliúradh Bídh Chorca Dhuibhne is a harvest celebration of that produce and the food traditions of Corca Dhuibhne.
Certainly, the food stars will be on show.
Takashi Miyazaki’s soba noodle demo is the pick of the workshops and masterclasses, in an ever-packed programme of ancillary events, but I am as equally fascinated by how the festival has aided Dingle’s evolution as a food destination, while never losing sight of its core aim that local food is at the heart of any real community.
Eat Spain Drink Spain, the annual Irish celebration of Spanish gastronomy is currently ongoing in restaurants, wine bars, and shops around the country until October 18, with choice events including:
- Fallon & Byrne Iberian Ham Experience, showcasing 100% pure-breed Jamón Ibérico de Bellota
- The Ultimate Eat Spain Drink Spain Quiz at Urban Brewing, hosted by wine and food experts Sinéad Smyth and Blanca Valencia, with Spanish beer, wine, cheeses, and cured meats
- An Evening with Sharon Noonan and our own Leslie Williams at The Mustard Seed in Limerick, pairing Spanish wines with a bespoke menu by Chef Angel Pirev
See the Upcoming Event section at foodswinesfromspain.com
Clare and Rob Deegan moved West to just outside Ballydehob a couple of years ago in search of the Good Life and have just opened a very sweet little ‘honesty box’ food trailer, The Coop, selling Rob’s sourdough breads, Clare’s baked treats, including delicious cinnamon buns, and their own eggs and produce from their garden.
Tucked away up a little side road, DM them on Instagram and they’ll send the Eircode to find the secret location where you can pay for produce with either Revolut or cash.
- Instagram: TheCoopBallydehob
Any grá for fizzy soft drinks ended with my childhood but I am more than delighted to write about the overnight and rapidly growing success in Ireland of the Palestine Drinks phenomenon, a range of beverages produced in Malmo, Sweden, by two Palestinian brothers with 100% of profits going to charities in Palestine.
It’s importation into Ireland is currently varied and random, with several independent initiatives in this space, but as it gains traction around the country, I shall provide further information in these pages.
Currently, it can be purchased in Izz Café, in Cork, Shaku Maku, in Dublin, and Garry and Loretta Harper (Instagram: @Gaz8374), in Co Down, are a major importer up North.
And, guess what, they are quite delicious as well, in particular the clean and refreshing flavour profile of the Palestine Cola.
