Author: In Season
Of the many good things September brings, one of the most exciting is the new native oyster season. Very much associated with the west of Ireland, especially Galway, its arrival is celebrated every year by the Galway International Oyster Festival –the 55th festival takes place over 24-27th September 2009. The most eagerly anticipated (and hotly contested) competition is always the Guinness World Oyster Opening Championship, in which contestants race to open 30 oysters and present them correctly.
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Author: Cookbook Reviews
The seasonal rush of books for the Christmas market is only around the corner (one I just can’t wait to see is Carmel Somers’ Eat Good Things Every Day, due to hit the bookshops in October), meanwhile the short lull allows a little time to catch up with some others. For example, anyone thinking of joining one of the many mushroom-hunting and other foraging outings on offer in the coming weeks, such as the annual event at Longueville House, Co Cork, would find the late Jane Grigson’s classic The Mushroom Feast (Grub Street, hardback) a particularly enjoyable read...
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Author: Cookbook Reviews
STOP PRESS! (Or at least it would be stop press in a non-digital world), a lovely big hunk of a book has just landed on my desk and – although it’s something to come back to in more detail another time – I just have to share my initial impressions of Cliff House Hotel, The Cookbook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishers, New York; hardback 238pp, €24.95).
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Author: Marilyn Bright
Marilyn Bright chats to BIM Seafood Circle members and discovers their love for the lesser known species of seafood. From Dean Swift’s Malahide herrings “soft as custard” and Molly Malone’s cockles and mussels, history abounds with the variety of Irish seafood enjoyed over the centuries. Through the years, annual shoals of mackerel and herring were celebrated in song and busy fishmongers’ stalls sold plentiful whiting, cod, haddock and hake as well as the dried ling and good red herrings used to flavour the potatoes down the country.
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Author: Just Ask
The “Just Ask!” Restaurant of the Month winner for August is
Fiacri Country House Restaurant & Cookery School, near Roscrea, Co Tipperary, which has been known for its good food since it was set up by Enda and Ailish Hennessy in 1997 and attracts regular customers from a wide area.
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Author: Georgina Campbell
Ask around to see what’s regarded as the ultimate treat when dining out, and the chances are most people will say lobster – and the good news is that it’s so plentiful this summer that prices have come way, way down. So not only can you enjoy lobster more often in your favourite seafood restaurants, but it’s a real option for cooking at home or in your holiday kitchen too...
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Author: Lucy Madden
Remember the couple who were spotted ‘fornicating’ on a beach in Dubai? They got off lightly, I reckon. Three months in the slammer seems lenient; in other places, it could have been death by stoning or decapitation, or worse. It only goes to show how horribly we Westerners behave as soon as the seat-belt sign is switched off at foreign airports. Then the hordes of overweight, tattooed, inappropriately dressed individuals spill out onto foreign soil. It’s all so embarrassing.
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Author: Special Irish Foods & People Who Make Them
We may not always like the rain but it makes for great grass – the key to Ireland’s well-earned reputation for wonderful dairy produce. For the last few decades, that rich creamy milk has been the foundation for the ever-growing number of superb handmade cheeses that are now so familiar that we almost take them for granted - and, more recently, a surprising number of entrepreneurs looking for a niche product have taken to making artisan ice creams.
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Author: Cookbook Reviews
Two very appealing new cookbooks have hit my desk recently, and both will merit a re-visit later in the year, as there are some delicious recipes well worth sampling.
What To Eat Now - More Please! by Valentine Warner is inspirational for its' use of what are mostly familiar everyday ingredients at the peak of their perfection, while
Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes is full of all sorts of luscious items that should only be seen as special treats.
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Author: Just Ask
The “Just Ask!” Restaurant of the Month winner for July is Rathmullan House, Rathmullan, Co Donegal, a gracious nineteenth century house set in lovely gardens on the shores of Lough Swilly which has been run as a country house hotel by the Wheeler family since 1961, and is currently under the energetic management of William and Mark Wheeler, and their wives Yvonne and Mary.
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