Sunday, August 28, 2011

FOOD FESTIVAL IN MERRY MITCHELSTOWN

Pics from Mitchelstown Food Festival. Report to follow. Click on image to enlarge.

MITCHELSTOWN FOOD FESTIVAL

Got my Sunday dinner in Mitchelstown yesterday, at the very enjoyable Food Festival. Got a whole lot more besides. Just as well I had a boot load of shopping bags.

That dinner, for two, was very simple. A selection of sushi (€7.00) from award winners Pure Sushi to start with. Then Chicken Korma (€10.00) by Green Saffron. And we followed that by sharing one of a few cookies (€1.50 each) made by the Cookie Jar.

There was a great turnout in the Mitchelstown sun, also a crowd of pesky wasps who obviously know where the good things are. The kids were well catered for with a lively play-area and nice too to see the Bothar goats drawing the attention and hopefully a few bob for their good cause.

Went up and down between the stalls three or four times, purchasing as we went. Items such as Hummus (by O’Callaghan’s Deli), Fruit Compotes by Clotilde, cheeses (including an herbed St Brigid’s ) from the Cailini Cais and a lovely currant cake from one of the many home bake stalls all went into the bags.

Time then for a nice reviving cup of coffee (€1.80) from Drury and a sit down under the marquee. The official opening was called about 1.30pm just as a shower threatened. But the shower, the only one of the day, was mercifully shorter than the speeches which included encouraging words by Minster Simon Coveney and Supervalu chef Kevin Dundon.

Samples galore to taste. Horgan’s had a fine stand of their meats and cheeses. And their star was the award winning Honey Baked Ham on the Bone. Gorgeous, watch out for that coming up to Christmas, also their spiced beef.

Ballyhoura Apples saw a great demand for their lovely juices while newcomers 8 Degrees Brewing were handing out samples of their two ales: Howling Gale and Sunburnt Irish.

Must admit I didn't expect to see a wine stand there and certainly didn't expect to see the Wine of Kings available. The Tokaji 5-puttony Aszu 2000 was staring out at me from a display rack. Couldn’t resist and, after a tasting, bought a 50cl bottle for €22.99.

Listowel’s Wellness-Baking shared the stand with the Vivamus Wine Importer and a pack of their Gluten free, sugar free, low carbohydrate Muffin ready mix (€3.00) also found its way into one of our increasingly heavy bags.

Time to go home and sort out that dinner!

2 comments:

Caroline@Bibliocook said...

Must have just missed you there, Billy. Little Missy's nap took much longer than anticipated so we didn't arrive till after 2pm.

You're right about the wasps - they really loved the Eight Degrees Brewing stall!

Cork Billy said...

We had been there from the start and the bags were full when we left shortly after two. I had asked for you!
The wasps weren't the only group lining up at Eight Degrees. Those beers are a big attraction!
Next festival is Midleton on Sat 10th.