The Menu: This week's news from the world of food
Food news with
BREAD OF LIFE
Despite the best efforts and deep pockets of the industrial bread sector, more and more Irish people are coming to realise bread, the staff of life, is tastiest and most nutritionally sound when produced in more traditional, ‘slower’ ways, using top quality ingredients without hidden additives.
To discover more about these ‘slow’ traditions, The Menu highly recommends an open day (August 18) taking place as part of National Heritage Week at Martry Mill, near Kells, Co Meath, in which miller James Tallon details the mill’s history and relationship with the River Blackwater, before guiding a tour of this working watermill, owned and operated by his family since 1859, and still supplying bakeries, shops and supermarkets around the county.
(www.martrymill.ie and www.facebook.com/martrymill)
TERRIFIC TOMATOES
As food festivals go, The Menu loves everything about The Totally Terrific Tomato Festival at the National Botanic Gardens (August, 18-19) from the name, to the magnificent fruit being celebrated at the zenith of its growing season.
Along with an exhibition of tomato cultivars and ‘cousins’ — tobacco, potatoes, chillies, petunias and deadly nightshade — other events and talks include The Cool Food School’s children’s hands-on workshops for younger (August 19) and older children (August 25) alike. (www.botanicgardens.ie and www.thecoolfoodschool.ie)
A WELCOME ADDITION
The Menu is generally loath to make mention of any establishment without first visiting but knowing full well the calibre of the team (Brian O’Caoimh and Kevin Powell) behind Loose Canon Cheese & Wine, on Dublin’s Drury Street, he is content to break his own rules, reckoning this will turn out to be a much treasured keeper.
In addition, LC will retail toasted cheese sandwiches at lunchtime, one of the cornerstones of any right thinking Gael’s weekly edible intake.
Cheeseboards and Irish charcuterie will be available six evenings a week as well as the opportunity to enjoy a bottle (mostly from Le Caveau’s range of natural, organic or low intervention wines) from the shelves. www.facebook.com/Loose Canon Cheese and Wine
DINE OUT FOR A YEAR
Taste of Kildare food (August 19) festival organisers, County Kildare Tourism, are offering a lucky person the chance to dine out for a year, enjoying a once-monthly visit to each of 12 of the county’s best restaurants, with all purchasing tickets to the one-day event in with a chance of securing the plum prize.
Taking place in the Walled Garden, at the K Club, Straffan, star chefs on the day include Ross Lewis and Martin Shanahan as well as a plethora of food stands from local restaurants, producers and suppliers as well as craft beer, wine tasting, children’s entertainment and a turn from singer-songwriter Paddy Casey.
www.tasteofkildare.ie
TODAY’S SPECIAL
The Menu, this week, makes no mention of a specific product, but rather a most unusual ‘emporium’ for fine, local seasonal Irish food.
Siopa Gan Ainm Farm Shop & Café, on Cork’s Coal Quay, has a rough-hewn visage echoed by the rustic simplicity within and on the very down-to-earth menu, from which The Menu and clan enjoyed a fiery vegetable soup with chilli that had both atin’ and drinkin’ in it.
Most importantly, the shop serves as a de facto HQ for the truly wonderful Coal Quay Farmers’ Market, every Saturday, and throughout the week, continues to carry a range of fine local, seasonal fruit, veg, eggs, honeys, apple juice and more, much of it from proprietor Colin Wolfe’s own organic farm, west of the city.
www.facebook.com/Siopa Gan Ainm Farm Shop & Café
