WE SOMETIMES end up in the strangest and most unexpected places for the silliest, unthinking, asleep-at-the-wheel blunders. 

Whatever you want, somehow, it will just appear before your eyes in a countryside haven of rest.

WE PACKED our bags recently and headed for the US ready to launch the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine in New York. 

So what new trends did I see in the US this time? Well as ever there’s lots going on and New Yorkers are always on the lookout for the new ‘big thing’.

Fishy Fishy, Crowley’s Quay, Kinsale, Co Cork; tel: 021-4700415; www.fishyfishy.ie

The Olde Post Inn, Cloverhill, Co Cavan; tel: 047-55555; theoldepostinn.com

If by any chance you have a few book tokens left over from Christmas presents, I’ve got some brilliant suggestions for worthwhile cookbooks to track down. For the growing number of cake-makers, Annie Bells Baking Bible published by Kyle books is a real gem. Recipes are triple tested so really work which can’t be said for every book.

Partridge’s, 93/94 Main Street, Gorey, Co Wexford, 053-9484040; partridges.ie

Marie Toft says coastal resort Parknasilla has water sports, fine dining and lovely views.

Duck Soup Soho, 41 Dean Street, London; +44 (0)20 7287 4599; ducksoupsoho.co.uk

IT may not have been Dylan Thomas’ “mussel pooled and the heron Priested shore” but the view from the windows at Deasy’s Seafood Bar in Ring, outside Clonakilty, Co Cork, is as captivating as I imagine the shoreline that shaped the Welshman’s sublime Poem in October must have been.

TWENTY YEARS ago, anyone who was anyone in food went to France.

EATING out is usually best done as a couple or in a goodly-sized group; intimate or varied and boisterous are best.

TRAIPSING through a sea of organic and eye-catching produce untainted by genetic modification, John Gormley yesterday visited what could be seen as the spiritual home of the Greens.

A divine way to cook a fresh John Dory.

TWO eight-year-old girls have discovered what is believed to be the first fish of its kind ever spotted in Irish waters.