Underground Donut Tour Digs Into Cork's History And Diversity. And Doughnuts Of Course!

Underground Donut Tour Digs Into Cork's History And Diversity.

And Doughnuts Of Course!

Donut ranks at Offbeat

Pat, a proud Corkman, was our guide as we marched through the city last week in search of doughnuts, or donuts as the Americans, and now most of the world, spell it! 

Not exactly marching, more like strolling. And not just doughnuts, there were other sweet treats in the mix, including croissants and churros and quite a chunk of local history.

The tour takes about two hours and there are four food stops in total, each chosen because they are local and support local. Dulce Cafe (Oliver Plunkett Street), Cameron Bakery (Parnell Place), Offbeat Donuts (French Church Street) and Golden Bites (Kyrl Street) are the quartet.

Our guide Pat

And all this fits in well with the aims of founder and owner Jeff who started the tour in his native Chicago and guided its spread to over a dozen cities in the US and Canada. Now, Europe has been added to the list with Dublin and London starting just before Cork. 

Jeff: “At each stop you sample donuts, beignets, churros or other local delicacies while learning the history of each shop”.

We linked up with guide Pat outside Dulce, the first stop, and, as he sang the praises of the establishment, we happily tucked into our first donuts, one an Oreo, the other churro-based. Think we two preferred the Churro over the darker Oreo but no doubt chocolate lovers will go for the other one.

Dulce Bun House is centrally perched on the main thoroughfare of Cork City on Oliver Plunkett Street. The family-run café, which already has achieved many awards, opened its doors in 2017 with an ethos to provide deliciously tasting coffee and sweet treats.

A little history now as we strolled up Oliver Plunkett Street. Do you know where Turner's Hotel was? Look on the wall above JJ Walshe’s pub. Speaking of walls, we soon saw the old city wall in the Grand Parade, the onion seller (sculpted by Seamus Murphy) in the park, the Berwick Fountain, the cannon that masquerades as a bollard.

Gone but not forgotten on North Main Street.

Back down the Mall then, past the National Monument and others, past the restaurant Jacobs on the Mall (once the Turkish Baths) and past the famous Imperial Hotel. 

Around the corner into Parnell Place and here we called into Cameron, a French bakery, and they had some sweet (and large) croissants for us, one with chocolate chip, the other with apricot. Here, though both were delicious, a pattern began to emerge as it was the lighter one that got the nod.

Cameron is a traditional French Bakery, now with three locations across Cork City. They offer a large range of French bread, baguettes, sandwiches, pastries,... "all prepared in store under your eyes with seasonal ingredients".

Mary Elmes, hero of WW2

Tanora, the Real Cork donut

Up Merchants Quay after that, Pat uses the river and its two channels to hammer home the point that the city is an island. Two bridges named after two famous Corkonians lay ahead. First, the newish pedestrian bridge named after the heroic Mary Elmes, the second was named after sporting icon Christy Ring.

Into the middle of the island to visit Offbeat Donuts who recently opened their first shop in Cork to add to a string in Dublin. It has an amazing range. No Corkman could turn down the famous Mi Daza (flavoured with a famous local lemonade Tanora).

The second, the Caramel Crumble, is dipped in a smooth luscious caramel, topped with homemade crumble and milk chocolate, and finished with a piece of Twix, which is also very acceptable indeed. So too were the seats upstairs.

St Fin Barres, from Nano Nagle Bridge

After that short rest in what is known as the Huguenot Quarter, not that we were under any pressure, we headed for North Main Street (the original "main" street of the nascent city) and its famous ancient lanes, many of them now closed but even those are recalled with bronze plaques on the footpath. Instead of looking up here, we were looking down!

Dulce

Soon we were turning right into Kyle Street and the Brazilian-owned Golden Bites. They are famous for their mini churros and we enjoyed two versions, with a delicious sauce of Nutella or Caramel (Dulce de Lecce). Freshly deep-fried and covered in sugar and cinnamon, these were sweet! You can guess our favourite.

Golden Bites is well-known in the markets where, as in Kyle Street, they offer Mini Churros, Savoury Snacks and Acai Smoothie Bowls. Of course, they appeal to Brazilians living here. "Are you homesick? Golden Bites is the best place to solve it! Here, you can find the best Brazilian snacks. You'll love it! You can have all these delights in your home too, order them on Deliveroo or Uber Eats."

An unexpected end to the Underground Tour. But nobody will be complaining if all endings are as sweet as this Brazilian touch in an old Cork street.

Cameron's Croissant

The Underground Donut Tour Cork is a great and relaxing way to learn about the city's history and sample some of its delicious food. 

More on the Cork tour here.

Taste of the Week. Cameron Bakery Pastries

Taste of the Week 

Cameron Bakery Pastries

We've got a sweet Taste of the Week for you this week. Just pop into Cameron Bakery (either in Washington Street or the new store at Parnell Place, where I was a few days ago) and pick out any one, or two or three, of their pastries. 

There's such a decadent profusion of sensuous pleasures here that you just can't go wrong! Get a Raspberry Macaron, a Mille Feuille, even an Opera (that sumptious coffee and chocolate melange) and you'll think you're shopping in Paris. 

And it's not just the sweet things. I got a beautiful seeded loaf here that is an absolute knockout - I especially enjoyed it with some of the Carraignamuc cheese (Tomme style) that I got via Neighbourfood. They also do savoury including Croque Monsieur, Le Parisien and O'Flynns Gourmet Sausage Roll.

Cameron at Parnell Place

More info, click Cameron

Autumn Dining in the Crawford Gallery Café's Tents

 Autumn Dining in the Crawford Gallery Café's Tents

Pancake supreme!

There are leaves under my feet as I approach the gallery. We are heading for lunch, dining outside in the two cone-topped tents. Leaves on the path. Leaves gather in little clumps on the roof of the tents. Leaves on the carpet which a staff-member brushes away. But, as one long side of the structure is open, replacements rapidly rustle in.

The other long side - the two tents are joined together - has colourful panels of summer plants, some fauna too, and a row of heaters. They offer to turn one of those in our direction but, warm enough, we decline and enjoy our meal in comfort.

Ventilation!

We are here, in the Crawford Gallery Cafe in Cork city centre, for a slightly late lunch (table reserved) and the autumn sun and light wind, plus the walk downtown, has put a little edge on the appetite. We have the menu immediately and there is a quick decision. Not that the menu is short, far from it, there is quite a choice here.

Toastie

It is an interesting menu, always is, closely reflects the seasons, from breakfast through lunch there’s never a dud dish here. There’s an excellent little wine list too and many appealing pastries but we would have to leave those, leave the Devilled Kidneys, the Roast Marrow Bone, the Leek (autumn!) and Cheddar Cheese Tart. Leave too the Tagliatelle with all’s it tempting flavours, the Hake and Chips, the Shepherd’s Pie.

Colourful panels

We settled on these two below, after a little spat, a full scale war averted with a decision to share and the fact that our mouths were stuffed with some of excellent brown bread they gave us to fill the gap between order and delivery. Indeed it was hardly a gap at all, certainly not a noticeable one.

The exterior where the points of the tents echo that of the gallery itself.

CL had first go at the Crawford Spinach and Mushroom Pancake (with cucumber pickle, Horizon Farm leaves and hollandaise sauce). This was seasonal and rather special and terrific value at 14 euro, the price of a cocktail in many places. She said it was one of the best pancakes around and I agreed that it was half of one of the best. Joking aside, this is Highly Recommended!

And we’d say much the same about the Crawford Toastie, sixteen euro worth of Gubbeen salami, buffalo mozzarella, cheddar, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, with leaves. Actually the leaves, from Horizon Farm, were especially good as was the dressing. And the toastie itself was the star on the plate of course with that robustly delicious salami from West Cork and well judged quantities of cheese and pesto, really well assembled and presented.

Mrs and Mr Rembrandt (from 1636, when he was 30)

Our servers were very pleasant and efficient and we paid indoors where the café itself was very busy as well, even if lunch hour (last Tuesday) was well over for many by now. Under pressure, as our parking disc was close to expiry, we left our visit to the Rembrandt prints in the gallery to tomorrow and made a beeline for Bradleys in North Main Street where I made a dent in the recently received supply of beers from the Brehon Brewery in County Monaghan. Their Ulster Stout was my personal beer of the year last year.

So on the morrow, there’s a trip back to the gallery - where I’ll  give my contact details to the young person at the door again - to see the prints of the 17th century Dutch artist. Later, a short stroll will take me to the 19th century English Market, particularly to the second stall that my friend Margo Ann has opened up under the Roughty Fruity banner. By the way, here’s a Cork (or Kerry) lesson for you: the correction pronunciation is Ruthy not Ruff-ty; the name comes from a river and valley near Kilgarvan, Co.Kerry!

Tools of the trade. One section of the exhibition shows how 
the various types of prints (engraving, etching, etc) are made.

And we did all that on the following day (day before yesterday) plus a stroll around the ramparts at Elizabeth Fort and a little shopping at Roughty Fruity’s additional stall in the English Market and also at the new Cameron Bakery shop in Parnell Place (an addition to their Washington Street store).

Oh, by the way. I like leaves, both when they are on the trees and on the ground as they are these autumn days. Love to hear the rustle as the wind shifts them about. But, while they can block drains and make places slippy and must be moved from such locations, I find it hard to understand when even tiny congregations are immediately met with brush and blower and rapidly shifted out of sight!