Firehouse
Well, to be precise, the short ferry-trip to lovely Heir Island, in West Cork for what promises to be an extraordinarily rewarding one-day bread-making course at The Firehouse Bakery with chef/baker, Patrick Ryan, co-author of Bread Revolution and star of BBC2’s Big Bread Experiment.
Ryan welcomes all baking colours and creeds: from those still wedded to the cursed sliced pan to the more experienced, those who know their brioche from their baguette and even their bocadillo. Expect to be all ‘floured-up’ shortly after arrival as he runs through soda, yeast and sourdough breads and a host of artisan breadmaking tricks and tips utilising his specially built wood-fired oven. With return ferry, lunch with wine and an artisan baker’s goodie bag all for €110pp, it seems ridiculously cheap! www.firehouse.ie
The Olde Bakery, in a covered market with wine license and a smorgasbord of hot food options on Wellington Rd, Cork, is pitching itself as an oasis for the poor downtrodden wage slave in need of a Friday pick-me-up. Open all weekend, there is also a farmer’s market on Saturdays, live entertainment and a vintage market on Sundays. Tel: 085-8585852
The Menu is most reluctant to draw attention to a prize of a year’s supply of free coffee, loath to widen the competition beyond his own good coffee-lovin’ self, but recognising it is near impossible to keep discerning punters away from Bandon’s splendid Urru Culinary Store, instead bows to the inevitable and announces a series of free tastings of Clive McCabe Coffee New Bean Blends beginning today from 11am-12pm running through each Saturday until Aug 25. Customers’ rating cards will then be entered for the free draw. www.urru.ie
While The Menu is always utterly appalled by the sight of a body reaching for salt before ever first tasting food, he is near equally appalled by the ill-informed movement to cast salt —as essential to human survival as it is to fine cuisine —as a major public health enemy,
So, it gladdens The Menu’s heart greatly to see Simplee Salts offering necessary ingredients for human survival and a damn fine meal, via a delightful range of completely naturally flavoured salts and condiments, contained in a swish little grinder. The initial Herb Salt arose from a glut in owner Edel Cooney’s East Cork herb garden, but it is the Sweet and Smoky Sea Salt, crunching organic sea salt with a smidgeon of sugar to draw out the sweet smoked paprika, that has truly snagged The Menu, he only just stopping short of sprinkling it on his arm and having it off at the elbow in one humungous bite.
