Tagged: asparagus

The Irish Times: Cork First 2

Work

The Irish Times: Cork First

Here’s an article that I wrote for an Irish Times supplement called Cork First, that was published on Wednesday 2 July. Enjoy!Eat your heart out With so many cafés and restaurants to choose from, deciding where to eat in Cork can be mind-boggling so we’ve chosen some of the best for you. Words by Caroline Hennessy.BEST BREAKFASTSHardwoodSunday morning, coming down: it’s time for breakfast at the bright, airy Hardwood on Pope’s Quay. Feast on French toast, with real maple syrup and smoked bacon, or be good and go for the healthy option – a colourful fresh fruit plate, with toasted pine nuts and yoghurt.Try: the steak and eggs option, with all the trimmings, for those mornings after the night beforeHardwood, 31 Pope’s Quay, Cork. Tel: 021 4551494 Web: www.hardwood.ieLiberty GrillCome early if you don’t want to have to wait for a table for breakfast at this attractively-designed American-style diner but it’s worth getting up a few minutes earlier for a menu that makes a feature of Posh Toast and offers plenty of sides to add to your dish of choice.Try: The Full American – a full-on feed of juice, scrambled or poached eggs on sourdough bread and an entire pot – oh joy! – of tea or coffee.Liberty Grill, 32 Washington Street, Cork. Tel: 021 4271049 Web: www.libertygrillcork.com

Sunny birth days 0

Do / Eating Out / Travel

Sunny birth days

The perfect birthday? Take a day off work – this is always nicest if done midweek! – and book a night away in Gort na Nain, a vegetarian guesthouse near Nohoval outside Cork city, run by the welcoming Lucy Stewart and Ultan Walsh, vegetable growers and suppliers of vegetables to Café Paradiso, amongst other Cork restaurants. Drive there after work the day before your birthday, picking up the Husband en route, and arrive just in time for your pre-booked three-course dinner. Relax and savour Lucy’s fabulous cooking, using fresh-picked vegetables and fruit grown by Ultan, with the other (very entertaining) couple that happen to be staying there that night. Take a long walk to see the sea before tucking yourself into a large, comfortable bed in an bright and spacious room.

5

Eating Out

Café La Serre, The Village at Lyons

The Village at Lyons Sitting on the N4 on Saturday night, watching the car temperature gage climb dangerously in the not-moving traffic and the clock moving much faster than we were able to, I was glad that I was heading off to dinner at Richard Corrigan‘s Café La Serre rather than continuing on with the crowds to Barbra Streisland’s first Irish concert in Castletown House, near Celbridge. We were taking my American Cousin and her Fiancé for a long-awaited dinner in advance of their August wedding – we didn’t realise that our trip to their Celbridge home was going to coincide with one of the flashiest traffic jams in years. Tickets, after all, were priced from €118.50 to €885!

Ardagh Castle Goat's Cheese 13

Do / Travel

Honeymooning in West Cork

Ardagh Castle cottage - from www.ardaghcastle.comWest Cork is undoubtedly a fantastic place to spend time in even if, as happened to us on last week’s communal honeymoon, it pours for most of the time. We were lucky enough to be staying in a wonderful cottage on Ardagh Castle Goat Farm but, with eight of the Husband’s family nearby in Baltimore and another half-dozen English Engineers staying out on the Sheep’s Head Peninsula, there wasn’t much time to properly appreciate the beautifully restored cottage! We did, however, get a chance to feast on the owner’s crumbly, Wensleydale-style Ardagh Castle Goat’s Cheese. A picnic hamper of Norfolk food specialities from two of the English Engineers yielded up a tube of Letheringsett Watermill Spelt Biscuits which had enough sweetness to marry happily with the cheese. Ardagh Castle Goat’s Cheese is only available locally around Baltimore and at the Saturday farmer’s market in Skibbereen but I’ve managed to export a large chunk of it to North Cork.

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Cook

The easiest Valentine’s Day dinner: Baked Vacherin Mont d’Or

…or perfect for any other time, should the mood take you!First, get your hands on a small round soft cheese called Vacherin Mont d’Or. It is a seasonal French or Swiss cheese, which means that you can only have this kind of meal between mid-September and March – like asparagus, it makes it all the nicer as a result.Baked Vacherin Mont d'Or Preheat your oven to 200°C and take the cheese out of its little wooden box. Remove any waxed paper and sit it snugly back into the box. Tear off a sheet of tinfoil and scrunch the tinfoil around the box to make a nice nest so that nothing can flow out in the oven. Prick the top rind of the cheese with a fork and then, using a spoon, scoop enough of the rind sideways enough so that you can push a small bunch of thyme and a couple of cloves of garlic into the heart of the cheese.

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Do / Eating Out / Return to Ireland

A sunny afternoon at Taste of Dublin

Taste of Dublin logo Friday afternoon was a good time to be at the inaugural Taste of Dublin event as blazing sunshine encouraged a cheerful and good humoured crowd to linger, sample and wander around a Dublin Castle courtyard crowded with stands and stalls. My €35 ticket (I managed to keep the dreaded Ticketmaster booking fees to €2 by buying from the Ticketmaster outlet in Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre) entitled me to €20-worth of florins, the festival currency, but the sky was the limit as soon as you set foot inside the event areas. With sample signature dishes priced from €5 to €8, that €20 didn’t last long and I’ve even read of people spending another €70 on top of that. I was well behaved though – after spending my first €20, I just bought €5 extra – and, although portions were less than generous, I would have been hard pressed to find something I really wanted to spend more on.

Portable food: Chickpea, tomato and spinach curry 0

Food for Friends

Portable food: Chickpea, tomato and spinach curry

Last week we were going to one of the semi-regular dinner parties hosted by our friend the Tax Advisor. The Tax Advisor loves to host – but he doesn’t cook. For years now he has been hosting these dinner parties in his city centre apartment while the other guests come bearing food and dishes and, on several occasions, spare chairs!For the first dinner in his new flat, there were eight guests. This time there was no point in bringing spare chairs as the Tax Advisor doesn’t have a table. Or many plates. Or any serving spoons. Or a sharp knife. So, faced with such a lack of utensils, I decided to cook the dish that I was going to bring for dinner at home the night before. As a couple of the guests are vegetarian, it gave me an opportunity to work on one of my favourite meatless recipes from last year – Chickpea and Tomato Curry.

Goodbye to New Zealand 6

Do / Living in New Zealand

Goodbye to New Zealand

Well, all good things come to an end at some stage. I’ve left New Zealand – with many regrets – to return to my job in Ireland. I will continue writing about food from...