Amuse Bouche

I often accompanied my mother when she went shopping....

Levis’s in Castle Street for general groceries where Jimmy Levis or one of the assistants would be sure to invite me to choose a biscuit from the glass-fronted biscuit tins...

Then to Griffin’s in the English Market for meat and from his stall to that of Miss Hurley for butter – Black Swan or Queen of the West.

Fish we ate only on Fridays and then my mother went weither to Russell’s in Prince’s Street or the Baltimore Stores in McCurtain Street.

..... In North Main Street alone there were half a dozen different bakers – D’Arcy, Curran, Simcox, Hosford, O’Shea and at the Castle Street corner Larry McCarthy....most offered pans, ducks, baskets, castles, cottage loaves and plain loaves.

From Six O’Clock All Over Cork by Tom McElligott