Food and Drink Spotting

Food and Drink Spotting

Buy Irish Biscuits
Christmas shopping will be starting soon and you’ll be tempted by large displays of imported shortbread biscuits. I saw some yesterday while waiting in line at TKMaxx! But think before you buy. Why not buy Irish this year and pick up a few packs of Seymour’s. They are top notch, a cut above most of the tinned imports, and made in Bandon!

One of the highlights of visiting local food festivals is meeting up with the producers and that certainly proved the case at last month’s Midleton Food Festival.

One of the “new" people I met was Philip O’Connor of Seymour Fine Foods  who are based in West Cork and are quite well known for their fabulous biscuits. I had sampled the biscuits previously at Irish Foodie in Blackpool.

But they are widely available around the country and you may see the full list of stockists here. And, it is not just Ireland, as Seymours are available in 42 stores in France! Check out their online shop as well.

More and more cheese, most of it local and Irish, is appearing on the Irish table and Seymours have a range of biscuits to match. They have quite a range overall and there are still a few that I am looking forward to trying, including Cranberry and Almond and also their Raspberry bites.

‎Midleton Farmers Market‎
“October Bank Holiday Weekend is fast approaching. Very excited to announce micro brewers and local cheese producers to attend Midleton Farmers Market again this year for free beer and cheese tasting event. It was a huge success last year. So put 27th October @ Midleton Farmers Market in your diary to kick off the Jazz weekend. See you there.”

Art and Food
Many of you spend time in Museums and Galleries nowadays, whether on holidays or here at home. You usually need some sustenance and we have a great example close to us in Cork where Fresco Bistro can fill that gap when you call to the Glucksman. Not just fill that gap, mind you. Fresco, run by Brian and Chef Kash, serves up interesting food of a very high standard.

 But it didn’t make a World Top Ten list recently published in the London Evening Standard (online version, at least).

A tiny garden café attached to the little known Garden Museum in London did make it. Just room for one in the kitchen apparently, two if you count the person doing the washing up. It is the only London museum restaurant on the list which also includes at number two, Nerua, the one star Michelin restaurant at the Guggenheim in Bilbao that I visited this year. Don’t know who drew up the list but, if anyone does, let them know about Fresco!

The Dingle Food Festival is this weekend’s big event and you may see the full  programme here.

Wine
Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wines has been in touch: “We are delighted to announce that we are finally holding our first wine course. It will be a 5 week course commencing Thursday October 11th and will cost €75 person. It will run from 7.30pm to 9pm every Thursday for 5 weeks and take place in the warehouse unless numbers demand a bigger venue. More details here.

More Autumn Wine Events

Shorts

Lots of autumnal beef recipes via Bord Bia 

The making of Toons Bridge Mozzarella, a Dan Linehan video on You tube

Market Lane Christmas menu

Recipe for Kinvara Smoked Salmon and Crab Parcel