Bibliocook - All About Food

Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.

Tagged: Dublin

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Eating Out / Lovely Lunches / Return to Ireland

Ladies who lunch @ Café Paradiso, Cork

Fabulously enjoyable and imaginative food at a reasonable price After my appetite had been well whetted by Denis Cotter’s A Paradiso Year: Autumn and Winter Cooking, I decided that it was time to return to Café Paradiso itself and last weekend I went down to Cork. All my nights were tied up but Saturday lunchtime was designated Paradiso-time and who better to share it than my Sister, who lives in Cork, and the Canadian friend that I met in New Zealand. Both the girls are waitresses – one in the nearby Liberty Grill, the other in Cork’s famous Jacobs on the Mall – so Café Paradiso wasn’t getting the most uncritical audience.

Winter Food on radio 2

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Winter Food on radio

Back at work in Ireland, I have access to a much faster internet connection than I was used to – meaning lots more scope for radio listening! I’m still tuning in regularly to Eat Feed but it is particularly nice to discovered an Irish radio show called Winter Food. It’s presented by Slow Food activist – and editor of the very useful Slow Food Ireland Guide to Producers – Clodagh McKenna and I’m listening to her fascinating Irish farmhouse cheese episode, including a pasteurised versus un-pasteurised debate, at the moment. The whole series is archived online and it’s well worth a listen. You’ll also find an article by Clodagh McKenna on Farmer’s Markets here.

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Cookery Books / Read

Zarbo Zest by Mark McDonough

Intriguing combinations of flavours and techniques New Zealand cafés do fantastic salads and whenever my tastebuds need a kick and I’m looking for an unusual salad recipe, I turn to former café owner (now cookbook writer) Julie Le Clerc or one of Mark McDonough’s Zarbo books. Zarbo is the name of a popular Auckland-based delicatessen, fresh food store and café but its name is familiar throughout New Zealand from being emblazoned on its own range of dressings, marinades, rubs and chutneys. The shop also stocks an exceptional range of imported food products, meaning – if you’re in Auckand, of course – that you’ll never be stuck for any of the ingredients mentioned in Zarbo Zest.

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Do / Return to Ireland

Rachel Allen on RTÉ

The lovely Ms Allen herself After all the debate about Rachel Allen, I felt that I just had to watch her show! Last night I was home alone at my lovely friends’ house (being a bag lady makes you realise how good your friends are) and I decided I was going to take the plunge and actually turn on the television for myself.

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Do / Return to Ireland

Chocolate from Limerick

Chocolate bars from Cocoa Bean While I was meandering around the Galway branch of Sheridans on my recent trip to the capital of the West, I came across some beautifully packaged chocolate from a Limerick company called Cocoa Bean. The blocks first caught my eye as I thought they looked more like gorgeous notebooks than chocolate bars. And then I looked at the flavourings…oh, they were truly mouthwatering! From spice, rose and pistachio to star anise and earl grey tea, they just sounded like my kind of (dark) chocolate. But, what with the chocolates not having any prices on them (always a bad move, when you’ve to actually ask the price of the product) and having to purchase food for dinner, I forgetfully managed to leave without grabbing a few bars to test drive.

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More chocolate testing

Green & Black's Maya Gold A couple of days after I arrived back in Ireland my foodie cousin called round with a thoughtful bag of kitchen basics for me. Pasta, rice – my favourite basmati – olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a bottle of wine and, piling luxury upon practicality, two bars of Green & Black’s organic Fair Trade chocolate.

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Cookery Books / Read / Return to Ireland

A Paradiso Year: Autumn and Winter Cooking by Denis Cotter

Inspiring flavour combinations To my sorrow I must admit that I have only once eaten in Denis Cotter’s award-winning Café Paradiso restaurant in Cork. But that one time, nearly ten years ago now, was mostly memorable for my first taste of polenta. My sociologist student friend felt it was deeply ironic that I should be writing my thesis on the Irish Famine at the time and eating what was known in 1840s Ireland as “Peel’s Brimstone” – the Indian meal imported by British Prime Minister Robert Peel to help the starving Irish. All irony aside, that day I fell in love with Denis Cotter’s cooking and a return trip is long on the cards.

A trip to Galway 0

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A trip to Galway

Last weekend I was in Galway to visit my school friend and her husband and, almost as importantly, to see their new kitchen! They had moved into their house some time before I went to New Zealand but the kitchen remained to be sorted out. I heard that this had been completed while I was away and last weekend was my first opportunity to see it for myself. It is gorgeous – all granite work surfaces and light painted woods with dual ovens and a large five-burner gas hob – and I got a chance to take it for a test drive when the school friend and myself cooked dinner for nine on Saturday night.