The Menu: Royal treatment and sweet treats for Mother's Day
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On Mother’s Day (March 10) Dear Old Sainted Mother Menu expects a turbo-charged version of her regular year-round royal treatment, generally involving an excess of pampering, such as the Mother’s Day Lunch at the Europe Hotel & Resort with its panoramic views over Loch Léin, the largest of the gorgeous Killarney Lakes.
The luxury hotel has all the essential bells and whistles, including a mightily impressive spa, and 180 bedrooms for a weekend away and the special buffet lunch, heavy on local produce, including roast striploin of Seán Moriarty’s farmed Angus beef, roast local lamb, and grilled seabass, as well as a selection of desserts, starters etc, and also caters to vegetarians and vegans. Subject to availability, booking advised.
Max Jones’ Up There The Last’s Spring schedule of food events with a difference kicks off with a ‘Foods From The Foreshore’ foraging workshop (March 16), beginning with breakfast and coffee on the beach before passing a morning foraging along the coastline for razor clams, cockles, mussels, brown shrimp, prawns, shore crabs, and wild greens from the pristine waters of West Cork, before then cleaning and prepping them for cooking over the fire.
The afternoon is given over to traditional preservation methods of excess cockles and mussels, drawing on traditional Irish, Welsh, Cornish, English and Spanish methods, including the use of olive oil, beef dripping, fermented wild garlic and vinegar, with jars of goodies to take home.
Supervised children also welcome. Book online.
Dublin’s Asia Market honours the Lunar New Year with a new ‘year of the dragon’ development programme that will provide funding and mentorship support to an up-and-coming Irish food and drink business throughout 2024.
Submissions for the ‘Bring It To Market’ fast track initiative are open and Asia Market is inviting budding business owners, chefs, and entrepreneurs around Ireland to create a unique new Asian-inspired product to apply, with funding and support valued at €15,000 including invaluable commercial and retail mentorship expertise on offer, to bring a product idea from conception to production, with the product then stocked in the Asia Market’s retail outlets, and distributed nationwide.
When The Menu is asked by natural wine novices for a recommendation to ease their entry into this entirely new world of quaffing, the wonderful wines of Judith Beck are very often the first to which he gives the nod so a pair of Judith Beck Public Wine Dinners (The Fumbally Café, Dublin, March 20, booking Tel. 01-529 8732/L’Atitude 51, Cork, March 21, booking info@latitude51.ie) cannot be recommended highly enough for a chance to meet the great winemaker herself, eat some fine food and sip on some truly splendid vinos.
If a weekend away is a stretch too far to celebrate Mother’s Day, then a trip to the English Market yields some very fine fare for celebrations closer to home with fine chocolates from The Chocolate Shop, deli treats from On The Pig’s Back, bubbles and wines from Bubble Brothers and flowers from The Roughty Trader’s sister ship stall along with a host of other tasty treats, along with very splendid meat and fish to conjure up the mother of all meals, pun fully intended.