The finest Irish food and drink: The Menu’s top festive goodies
The sumptuous range of fare from the iconic Lismore Food Company’s ‘Hot Orange and Gold’ hamper looks as good as it tastes
- NATIONWIDE DELIVERY = ND
- LOCAL DELIVERY = LD
- CLICK & COLLECT = C&C
Farmgate Cafe:
The splendid Farmgate Christmas Hamper contains all manner of wonderful Yuletide products crafted in their kitchen, including plum pudding, cranberry sauce, mincemeat, cranberry and pistachio fudge, Jameson whiskey ham glaze, oat biscuits made with Macroom oats, chutneys, pickles, dressing, spiced turkey brine, with champagne and dessert wines also available. ND.
This utterly gorgeous hot orange and gold ‘hamper’ features new additions to TLFC’s always top drawer offering of fine sweet and savoury biscuits, confections, and snacks, now also including teas, coffee, jams, marmalades, and chutneys, cordials, chocolate, hot chocolate, balsamic vinegar, honey and nuts. ND.
https://thelismorefoodcompany.com
A Roots Larder box from chef Rob Krawczyk’s Michelin-starred Restaurant Chestnut will surely ignite culinary fireworks. Includes dried wild fennel pollen, house-made turf-smoked cultured butter, pickled nasturtium seed capers, damson and whiskey preserve, rosemary salt, dill oil, coal oil, and red wine vinegar. ND.
www.restaurantchestnutwestcork.ie
We may have missed the Dingle Food Festival this year but the Blás Box offers finest Irish food and drink from Blás na hÉireann Irish Food Awards prizewinners, including boozy beverages, hot drinks and sweet and savoury treats, with a sibling Little Blás Box as a stocking filler. ND.
The allta box from the Dublin-based restaurant was one of the hits of lockdown so their Christmas provisions hamper (feeding three to four in one sitting or two over several days) should be a smash, includes bites and starters, mains, dessert, and assorted goodies. Wines and champagne also available. ND on December 23/24.
Delicious plum pudding centrepiece, signed copy of JP McMahon’s The Irish Cookbook, Bertha’s Revenge Sloe Gin and more. C&C.
Spanish holidays may be on hold but travelling with your tastebuds will bring you along way. Heart of Spain, a Cork-based family run business in Carrigtwohill, source wines, cheeses and cured meats and jams, turrón and olive oil, from the historic region of Castilla y Leon. C&C/ND.
Bring the Yuletide comforts of northern Italy to your dining table with Italian food and organic natural wines sourced by Cork restaurateur Mirco Fondrini from his home village of Morbegno along with da Mirco Osteria’s in-house treats. Includes olive oils, pasta, sauces, parmagiano, bresaola, olives, chocolate, and Bisciola classica Spini, a traditional Christmas Fruit Cake.
The Chocolate Shop hampers feature the very best of Irish and imported chocolate available in the country, including premium single origin chocolate from around the world, for the true chocolate connoisseur.
Superb craftmanship from supremely talented Dublin-based Belgian chocolatier, Erik Ven der Veken, his Christmas Jewels comprise nine stunning, exquisitely finished hand painted filled Christmas chocolates — distract the mob by scattering the box of Roses on the floor and lock yourself in the bathroom to consume these treasures!
Alison Roberts operates her Clonakilty-based micro-factory with commendable ethical integrity, producing bean-to-bar chocolates that do not compromise on flavour while favouring those with dietary restrictions, including vegan and dairy-free. Craft Chocolate Selection Box contains eight x 25gm bars and tasting card.
Bean and Goose go full Willie Wonka for December with five golden tickets to be discovered in their 70gm bars available around Ireland to win three month subscription to the B&B Tasting Club. Splendid seasonal packages such as Seasons Eating Bundle including 500gm chocolate Sharing Slab with a handcrafted oak hammer to break it up, and six 70gm bars and hot chocolate kit.
Excellent single origin beans from Dublin-based outfit and also available in a a range of Christmas gift boxes and monthly blend & single origin subscriptions.
Irish suppliers of premium loose leaf teas, from Irish breakfast to the very seasonal cinnamon spice and all points in between. They also carry a range of stylish glass teapots.
Ely restaurants have always placed the finest wines at the heart of their offering and their hampers do likewise, albeit supplemented with local produce. Focus on organic and biodynamic wines. ND.
Bradley’s, in Cork, carry one of the best ranges of craft beer in the country, along with premium spirits and wines. The Bradley’s Whiskey Refill Hip Flask is a hugely popular stocking filler. Hampers also carry a cracking offering of Irish specialty food products.
Le Caveau wine importers have become The Menu’s number one choice for natural and organic wines and their superb festive selection is available in duo and trio packs and full mixed cases. ND/C&C from Neighbourfood Markets.
Founders Wakame Cask-Strength Release Single Malt Irish Whiskey:
A huge fan of this year’s debutant Currach Whiskey, news of this special edition was always going to have The Menu panting like a puffed out puppy. Produced by the splendidly innovative Origin Spirits and distilled and casked in West Cork, this limited edition series numbers just 220 hand-filled numbered bottles at cask strength (58.4%). With nothing ore than a drop of water, this silky viscous nectar has something of the high church incense about its first impact until it settles into a delightful salinity underpinning tropical fruit and soft vanilla and the sublime and elegant finish is both savoury and sweet. A truly special Christmas gift.
Freshly born, albeit after an eight year gestation, Highbank Organic Orchard’s new Irish Apple Wine, a fortified dessert liqueur, is crisp, dry, and not overly sweet, perfect as a digestif or an accompaniment to cheese or even chocolate and fruit, yet another worthy addition to the superlative Highbank stable.
O’Maro’, from fledgling independent Dublin distiller Stillgarden, is a cheeky Irish take on the Italian digestif wine, Amaro. Raspberry and orange surf waves of of sweet tonka, traditional astringency softened, making for a delicious coda to any fine meal.
Another great Menu favourite, Killahora Orchards offer a double gift set featuring the twin charms of KO’s Rare Apple Ice Wine and Pom’O, housed in a custom made wooden box, the crowning glory for all manner of Yuletide feasts.
Craft Cocktails handmade by Bar 1661, the reigning Irish Cocktail Bar of the Year, bring the party home by using premium spirits and handmade infusions, shrubs, and cordials yielding a range of six cocktails (two servings each), including a fabulous Raspberry Negroni. ND.
Just about the finest Irish coffee The Menu has put away in many a year comes courtesy of the Teeling Irish coffee kit, featuring fine Teeling Small Batch whiskey, Cloud Picker Coffee, French press, Irish coffee glasses, and the ultimate sweetener, Teeling Stout Syrup. Yep, that will be The Menu up till the crack of dawn but, it must be said, a very happy Menu indeed.
https://teelingdistillery.com/product/teeling-irish-coffee-hamper/
The Menu reckons any whiskey lover will be thrilled to receive a bottle of Dingle Distillery’s Fourth Single Pot Still release, this one matured in bourbon and oloroso casks has gorgeous lush caramel, chocolate, and dark fruit notes, making for a surprisingly fine digestif for the class of meal that never quite finishes, nibbling along with each sip.
This rendition from the renowned Irish ‘Spot’ range of whiskies reimagines one from the archives, last produced in 1964. Excellent Cask strength Blue Spot Single Pot Still is aged in Madeira casks yielding a spicy melange of tropical fruits and toasted nuts, and a nod as well to the understated elegance of its livery.
The Menu adores Wildwood Vinegars but even so was unprepared for the limited edition seasonal gift box of four special edition barrel-aged balsamics (Wild Elderflower and Wild Rose Petal, spring; Wild Mountain Thyme and Wild Fuchsia Blossom, summer; Wild Blackberry, autumn; Wild Elderberry and Star Anise, winter) with endless culinary applications, both savoury and sweet, they are a superb product. Created from locally foraged seasonal ingredients and exquisitely presented, just 365 sets, one for each day of the year, it is the pick of the presents in The Menu’s Christmas Hamper this year. Delivered nationwide.
Craft Cocktails is the first Irish cocktail book, showcasing Irish distilleries with over 50 excellent recipes, all backboned by Irish produced alcoholic beverages. Produced and photographed by Cork-based food photographer Monika Coghlan, it is a stylishly produced tome with lovely photos.
Passage West Creates crafting group offer charming quilted Christmas cutlery holders and Christmas Cracker holders (with recycled Christmas crackers) to unroll as place settings, lovely additions to the Yuletide dinner table.
https://www.facebook.com/neighbourfoodpassage/
A gift for the budding home grower, the GIY GROWbox includes four seasonal growing boxes dispatched throughout the year with all the tools, kit, seeds, and knowledge required for a full 12 months of growing and do consider adding Grow Cook Eat or GIY’s Know-It-Allmanac for children to the package for some green-fingered reading.
The Christmas ‘crisp sandwich’ is an annual inevitability in Chez Menu and the prime ingredient will undoubtedly be coming from the Bucket O’Crisps, a charming little special edition pail containing 18 25gm sandwich sized packs of Keogh’s Farm Crisps in the following flavours: Turkey and Secret Stuffing; Cheese and Red Onion; and Atlantic Sea Salt.
