Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.
English sparkling wine; a joke no longer, especially if you taste the fruits of Dermot Sugrue’s labours at Wiston Estate Winery. These elegant and poised wines come from the chalk slopes of the South Downs in...
Sunday, 11.30am. Seven IPAs. ABV: from 5% to 9%. 60 minutes. Two presenters. Hops & Glory, an IPA tasting, was what kicked Sunday morning at the Ballymaloe Litfest into a very chilled afternoon. (Or...
First published on Irish Country Living. At the cottage we are surrounded by elder. The ditches on three sides of our half acre plot are spotted at irregular intervals with the gnarled trees. Ignored for...
First published on Irish Country Living. The first time I visited Belfast was back in 2002. I took the Enterprise from Dublin’s Connolly Station on a wintery Friday night to meet my new Kiwi boyfriend; we...
A cider tasting at 9.30am? Five Irish ciders, four producers, three presenters? Just kicking off another day at the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Litfest. That was last Saturday morning. The beginning of a day that included...
Culture File on RTÉ Lyric FM / Radio / Work
by Caroline · Published May 16, 2016 · Last modified October 3, 2016
A well-used wooden table, set for four in the middle of a farm yard, with mismatched plates, battered crockery and crumpled, earth-toned linens. Food gathered at the English Market – a whole smoked mackerel, sweet Toonsbridge buffalo ricotta, Tom...
Black pudding: how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I loved you when I had to chase you down for breakfast in New Zealand, a country not generally known for ignoring...
First published on Irish Country Living. I grew up in a house of scones. Scones – my mother’s large, golden, sultana-flecked scones – were, and are, the warm and butter-soaked answer to everything, even those...
