Food and Drink Spotting

Food and Drink Spotting

Curious Crush

Just been working my way through the Spring edition of First Crush, the Curious Wine Club Magazine. The cover makes it plain that the Kinsale Road outfit are not taking the budget increases lying down and they have come out fighting, taking the gloves off for sure with 20 per cent reductions on their wines from Italy, New Zealand and Bordeaux!

Once upon a time, it was difficult to get a good white wine from Spain but times have changed. Verdejo and Albarino are now popular white wine grapes and Curious have an excellent example of the first one in Real Castel Rueda Verdejo (11.99), so popular among their customers that it made their Top Ten Whites for 2012.

I attended a Curious Wines dinner in the Cornstore last year and one of the most popular wines on the night was the Gavin Quinney made Château Bauduc Les Trois Hectares Semillon  (reduced to 14.39). Unusual to see Semillon (80%) carrying a European wine but this is a gem, aromatic, long and complex.

There is a rather nice Italian section in the magazine, featuring the Dievole estate and the Sangiovese grape. That got my attention, along with the 20 per cent off of course. Curious have a short list of five to try and the two that caught my eye were the Dievole Dievolino Sangiovese IGT 2009  (down from 13.99 to 11.19) and the Gregorina Sangiovese Superiore (reduced to 11.59).

And then there is Bordeaux, again with twenty per cent off. Back to Gavin Quinney again for one of my red picks here, the Chateau Bauduc Close de Quinze 2010 , another of the stars of that dinner at the Cornstore and even more attractive now that the price is cut from 17.99 to 14.39.

With all those savings, might be time to spash out. Must admit I know very little about the Chateau Cardinal-Villemaurine Sainte Emilion Gran Cru 2008  (20.00) but there is a fiver off and it is stamped as a best buy.


Wagamama Cook-off

Mighty Munster players line-out against the Mallow youngsters for the great Wagamama cook-off! This takes place on Tuesday February 26th (9.00am) and the venue is Wagamama, 4/5 South Main Street, Cork. Read more here.

Hamburger Macaron?

Beef patty is a hazelnut sponge cake covered in a dark chocolate ganache, the cheese is actually a thick slice of caramel chocolate, and the buns are two huge caramel macarons, all stuck together with more chocolate caramel. Not only that, its actual size is that of a small hamburger. This is sweet tooth heaven!! I love bubo!!!! See the pic here.

All the way from Turin, we have Romanian cuisine.

Galway Food Festival

28 March - 01 April 2013

The Galway Food Festival - even bigger and better in its second year and featuring an extended five day programme of fantastic food and free, family-friendly events in Galway on the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend. Read more about this and other food festivals here.