The A-Z guide to Irish summer dining in 2024 — from asparagus to Zingibeer
Of Faves For Joe Mcnamee's Z The Food Some A Summer
Asparagus but not the imported stuff — wait until the Irish crop comes into summer season, pick of the bunch, quite literally, from Gort na Nain farm (suppliers to Paradiso restaurant).
A is also for Al Fresco which is how we hope to do the bulk of our dining over the coming months.
Barbecues and blackas (blackberries) sums up an Irish food summer as well as anything but Buena Comida Social Club, a fab pop up from maestro of culinary cool, Ciarán ‘Dox’ Meade, in Levi’s in Ballydehob this summer (July 24-28; July 31-Aug 3), offers superb menus of classic world dishes using local, seasonal produce from nearby Glensallagh Gardens along with seriously cracking tunes.
Crab, the entire creature, not just the claws.
With many elements already in place, someday Clonakilty while join all the dots and realise its potential to become one of Ireland’s greatest of all food towns but meanwhile C is for Clonakilty Street Carnival (June 15) ( https://www.facebook.com/clonakiltystreetcarnival) serves thousands at long tables on the streets.
Driftwood Surf Café, gorgeous venue, good food, exquisite location in St Finian’s Bay, overlooking Skellig Michael; Dingle Cookery School, offering a great selection of short courses throughout the summer; and, dang it all, D is for Dingle itself, one of the finest places in the land for both atin’ and drinkin’.
Eatyard’s Crisp Festival (August 15-18) and we shouldn’t have to say much more than that but it does include a crisp tasting menu, blind crisp tasting contests, DIY crisp sambo making competition; Jonnie Onion Ring challenge, bottomless crunch; crisp & pint deals, crispy quiz and DJs, bands and entertainers.
Fish and chips, the ultimate seaside feast, and we are increasingly blessed with fine maritime venues in which to indulge.
Here are just a handful: The Fish Basket, on Long Strand; AndChips, in Dungarvan; The Fish Box, Dingle; Trawler Boyz, Ballycotton; Rosscarbery Traditional Fish & Chips, Owenahincha; Vaughan’s on the Prom, Lahinch, Co Clare.
Galway, one of Ireland’s finest food destinations and one of the best ways to properly ‘taste’ the city is on a walking tour.
Galway Food Tours, introduces you to local neighbourhoods to experience coffee, beers, performance, theatre, street art, burgers, pizza, oysters, fish and chips, dessert and more.
Heatwave and also hubris, a natural outcome of predicting sunshine as monsoons rain down so we plump for Hot Dogs.
July is US national hot dog month and while we adore them barbecued every summer, we prefer more familiar Irish sausages to the Frankfurter so check out Cork’s Sabor Braziil, after 9pm at weekends when they pivot to knocking out an authentic Brazilian take on US-style dogs.
Inish Beg, West Cork’s hidden treasure, on the road from Skibbereen to Baltimore, a truly delightful wedding/private party/self accommodation venue where the talented Ophelia Keane masterminds the Carpa dining space.
Touching the Landscape (July 19) is a guided foraging walk around Inish Beg and shoreline at dusk to find ingredients used in a super seasonal, shoreline and seafood menu complemented with produce from Inish Beg’s gardens.
Julia’s Lobster Truck, where Julia Hemingway cooks sublimely sourced fish and shellfish as impeccable renditions of iconic seafood dishes in the beautiful surroundings of the Burren — should you find yourself there this summer, yes, there is a strong possibility you have died and gone to heaven.
Killary Fjord where all manner of magical maritime mastication is to be found.
Killary Fjord Shellfish offer splendid tours of their farm along with plentiful mussels, oysters and a four course seafood lunch.
Killary Fjord Boat Tours allow eyes to feast on the bay’s stunning scenery while the belly delights in a fine locally sourced seafood lunch with a full cafe and licensed bar serving up Irish coffees.
Little Catch, in Tramore, and also Louth’s Scenic Seafood Trail but for anyone in West Cork this summer it is most definitely Levi’s, in Ballydehob, one of the finest pubs in the world, always featuring splendid summer pop-ups, this year seeing the return of Michelin-starred chefs Rob Krawczyk and Takashi Miyazaki (Aug 5/6) and Caitlin Ruth’s Food Truck (Aug 14-31)
Margaritas, brought to a fine art in Baltimore’s Algiers Inn.
It is also for Mulranny Park Hotel’s Gourmet Greenway Food Trail and Macroom Buffalo Tours, down where the West Cork buffalo roam yielding the milk that becomes fine Macroom Buffalo mozzarella.
Most of all, M is for Misunderstood Heron, one of Ireland’s finest food trucks, operating in the Wild West of Connemara.
New Potatoes, one of the staples of early Irish summer dining, the arrival of which now appears dangerously imperilled by the impact of extreme weather patterns on agriculture, so fingers crossed that at some stage we get to steam a bowl in their skins and eat one of the most divine summer foodstuffs of all lathered in too much butter, parsley and maybe a little fried chorizo.
Oysters, oysters and more oysters, whether natives or Pacifics, from fine Irish producers around the country, in particular, Rossmore Oysters, in Cork, Harty’s in Dungarvan, Flaggy Shore Oysters, in Clare, and Carlingford Oysters, in Co Louth, or simply head to Galway for the Clarenbridge Oyster Festival (Sept 6-8) or the Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival (Sept 27-29).
Picnics, even if they often take place in sheltered spots, the best ones are sourced from farmers’ markets around the country or two of the country’s finest covered markets, The Milk Market in Limerick, and the English Market, in Cork.
P is also for pizza, a slice from Frankie’s and a glass of wine on Cork city’s Grand Parade/South Mall boardwalk on a sunny day being a quintessential Leeside al fresco summer dining experience.
Quiche and all those other classic summer dishes and salads which can be prepared easily and in advance affording the ‘chef’ all the time in the world to sit down with their guests and put the world to rights while sipping something long, cool and immensely healing — and, yes, real men not only eat quiche, they usually ask for seconds.
Rockfishing, one of the greatest of all Irish summer food traditions, most especially fishing for mackerel, an iconic Irish taste experience.
Worryingly, in recent years, where once they used to near hurl themselves into the pan, mackerel have declined drastically near our shores but gorgeous wrasse, pollack and ray are still out there and also taste delicious: best spots include much of the south-west, especially the Beara, Iveragh and Dingle peninsulas, Valentia Island and Co Clare.
Superb Scúp Ice Cream is former hurler Willie Devereaux’s Wexford based business making ‘scúps’ available around the country.
Spooney’s, in Lahinch, where the Vaughan family serve up gorgeous and extremely chill creations using milk from their own farm, and, yes, their signature soft serve is available as a 99.
Two Green Shoots, a sublime back to nature hospitality experience in the ancient rainforests of West Cork where Glengarriff’s micro-climate does magical things to the natural world and Two Green Shoots supplement that with superb food experiences, including Forage, Feast and Paddle (throughout summer), with a guided forage through the Caha mountains, two course campfire feast and guided kayaking tour of the bay.
Also look out for pop-ups this summer from Caitlin Ruth, Terra Ignis and Sally Barnes.
Up There The Last, in West Cork, where traditional foods conservationist Max Jones offers unique summer dining and food experiences.
Feast: Immersive Sea Traditions Dinner (June 29; July 13; and Aug 31) is a long table dinner on the sand around a traditional barrel fire where diners engage in producing West Cork Smokeys, a new-old technique for hot-smoking local fish, served up with sea boiled potatoes, traditionally fermented ‘Booley’ butter, and foraged wild greens.
Max also hosts workshops throughout the summer.
Valentia Vermouth summer cocktails for a taste of sunshine in the glass and while we like it with mint and orange zest over a little ice, the ultimate summer aperitif surely has to be a classic negroni, made with VV and any of the multitude of very fine Irish boutique distillery gins.
Wexford Strawberries, and when those roadside stalls pop up around the highways and byways of Ireland, you can safely say we are calling whatever weather prevails outside, summer.
Yes, Wexford produces some of the finest strawberries in the world but this writer can’t really look beyond Bushby’s strawberries — and even better raspberries! — from Rosscarbery, in West Cork.
‘X-aminer’, as in the Irish Examiner, might not be the most accurate spelling but we were hard pressed to come up with another edible X.
However, throughout the summer months, the Irish Examiner’s unrivalled food coverage will lead you to the finest wining, dining and food sourcing to be found in all of Ireland.
Yeast Meets West (Aug 30/31, Sept 1), a celebration of superb Irish craft beer in Ballina as part of Food Fleadh Ballina with great beers (including Mescan, Reel Deel, Ballykilcalvan Brewery, Bridewell Brewery, Lough Gill and more) along with fine food pairings and live entertainment with a punky vibe.
Zingibeer, a super new addition to the Irish beverage offering in recent years, a delicious all natural alcoholic ginger beer produced in Dublin that, served solo and well chilled, is one of the most refreshing summer drinks out there, but the minute you take out the shaker, all bets are off, for it is an absolutely superb base for exquisite summer cocktails.