The Menu: Food news with Joe McNamee
International Symposium
TouRRoir (April 23/24) is this year hosted by Good Food Ireland and the Galway-based event, a cross-sector global forum on Food Tourism & Culture, will coincide with Galway’s designation as European Region of Gastronomy.
This international symposium brings together heavy hitters from the three sectors to explore the possibilities for growing the connections that enable involved businesses and communities to evolve a more successful and sustainable economic future.
Business operators, food producers, farmers, tourism and hospitality operators and cultural programmers in Ireland will have the opportunity to meet key and highly influential international food experts, leading cultural figures and worldwide travel industry specialists over the two-day global forum at NUI Galway.
The programme for touRRoir18 includes a Hall of Fame Collaborative Gala Dinner (April 23) recognising individuals, teams or destinations whose vision, creativity and drive has had a positive and significant impact on the cross sector development of food, tourism and culture, around the world while a Networking Showcase Dinner will highlight local food and beverages (www.tourroir.com)
Times Tasting
Burgundy on the Beach (April 18) is a wine-tasting dinner with Maison Louis Jadot, at Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa in glorious West Corkwith a very splendid package offering the five-courser with wines along with a B&B, all for €129pps (www.inchydoneyisland.com).
An intriguing night is in prospect at an exclusive Loving Salads vegetarian tasting dinner (April 20) in their Academy Street HQ,in Cork city with organic wines and a feast of locally sourced produce served up in front of guests from the open kitchen, with vegan, fish and game nights to follow later in the year. (Bookings: jason@lovingsalads.com)
Basket Bread
Declan Ryan’s Arbutus Bread offer an Introduction to Sourdoughs (April 21) one-day course in their Mayfield bakery (bookings: 021 450 58200) while the one of Ireland’s finest ever chefs, Kevin Thornton offers another of his masterclasses, this time Bread (Hands On) (April 14) at his exclusive Dublin cookery school (www.kevinthorntonskooks.com).
Shannonside food and wine lovers will welcome the new Alex Findlater & Co Food & Wine Hall, an 18,000sq ft emporium, on O’Connell Street, offering an Oyster & Seafood Bar, a Bollinger Jazz & Supper Club, a coffee house, a premium food retail market and a wine “theatre” showcasing over 300 wines. (www.alexfindlaterandco.ie)
Special Today’s
The Menu is always recalling an old fisherman’s adage, that a fish has 24 charms and loses one every hour after it is caught, for it takes an exceptional fishmonger at the end of a top-class supply chain to deliver anything to the contrary and there are plenty of areas in the country where a good fishmonger is as rare as fresh fish.
Galway-based Stefane Griesbach is one such exceptional fishmonger, a good thing, for he has decided to take the process one step further again with a nationwide mail order service.
Indeed, a rather skeptical Menu actually wondered if this might be a step too far but all doubts were cast aside on receipt of a most exquisite consignment, all perfectly boxed away, wonderfully fresh and even accompanied by handy recipe sheets.
Griesbach is renowned for his commitment to sustainable fishing with locally sourced Irish fish and seafood making up 95% of his retail output and his new service starts out at a minimum order of €15 (but no transport fees) with fish delivered once or twice weekly directly to the door.
Having feasted on delicious poached Pollock and prawns sauteed in lemon and garlic butter, and with a batch of his own home-pickled herrings to be devoured in the coming weeks, The Menu reckons even those deprived of a good local fishmonger can now regularly enjoy a whole lot more of Irish seafood, the finest to be found anywhere in the world. (www.eatmorefish.ie)
Of Week Beer The
The Walsh family have been farming at Ballykilcavan at Stradbally, Co Laois, since 1639 and farmer David Walsh- Kemmis felt it was time to diversify.
A brewery is planned for the old grainstore and millhouse on the farm — in the meantime the beers are brewed in the Lock 13 brewery in Sallins.
As with all their beers this is 100% Ballykilcavan barley (malted in Minch Malt in Athy) plus Amarillo and Azacca hops — hazy gold colour with fruity tropical aromas, a clean hop focused dry palate with toasty malt coming through on the finish along with crisp bitter hops.