That was the year that was! Rewind 2019

That was the year that was!

Rewind 2019

When you go over the hill, you go faster. And certainly this year, 2019, went faster!

Cask "toasting". Wine, Whiskey and Beer evening  at the Franciscan Well

It was a good one though, some terrific visits to producers of all kinds, delicious meals, excellent stays at everything from B&Bs to five star hotels and friendly festivals as well.

And great to be able to confirm that friendliness is still a huge and engaging factor in the Irish hospitality sector. There were warm welcomes, above and beyond, in many places and our front of house laurels go to:

Luca in Ali’s Kitchen, Cork; 

Julie in Finns’ Table, Kinsale;

and to the entire team at Wicklow Heather in Laragh. 

With Mary T (right) at Castle Grove

On the Gastro Pub scene, you’ll find it hard to beat the Victor led front of house at O’Mahony’s of Watergrasshill. And in accommodation, the nod goes to Mary T and the Sweeney family at Castle Grove House in Donegal. Always a terrific welcome too at both the Trident in Kinsale and the Celtic Ross in Rosscarbery. Top guesthouses: Perryville (Kinsale) and Sheedy’s (Doolin).

Breakfast is a key part of accommodation of course and we came across some gems this year. Aldridge Lodge  in Wexford is absolutely outstanding while Sheedy’s of Doolin is another excellent place. I don't do breakfasts in restaurants often but ORSO in Cork gets an honourable mention! The most impressive breakfast room we came across is the beautiful conservatory in the Quay House  in Clifden and the breakfast is good too as it is in Kinsale’s Perryville.

Fish breakfast at Aldridge Lodge

O’Mahony’s of Watergrasshill is an outstanding venue for pub grub while Gallagher’s in MacCurtain Street Cork impressed on a pre-theatre visit.

Goldie

The fish offering is also improving all the time and we came across two quite innovative places this year: Fisk in Downings in Donegal and Goldie in Cork City. Kudos too to the Wild Strands Café (Malin, Donegal) for their use of seaweed and fish. Superb fish dinner as always in the Bayview Ballycotton, the village is also well served in that regard by Pier 26, and there was an excellent fish lunch at the Mountain House in Ardfield, West Cork. In Cork City and in a few Kerry towns, you'll find, as we did, the ever-reliable Quinlan's.

Great variety in the restaurant scene nowadays, including the famed vegetarian (and wine!) offering at Cafe Paradiso, also on Leeside. Crab claws were superb at Pier 26 (Ballycotton) and Naughton's (Kilkee) while the best steak was served at Liberty Grill (Cork). Hard to beat Nash 19 Cork for pork and the Market Lane group for lamb (especially when the Blasket Lamb is available). When it comes to variety on the menu, Cork’s Dockland is the place to be.

Liberty Grill steak

Enjoyed the Palestinian fare at Izz in Cork though the ethnic highlight was the Pickle Pop-up with Sunil Ghai  in Sage Midleton. Another good one was Richy's Curry Series with his excellent Indian chef Meeran Gani.

Pearse Lyons Distillery

Lunch is an important time if you're on the road. The Woollen Mills Café in Foxford , St Francis Provisions (Kinsale), TIA in Louisburgh are all worth noting - great salads and more. In Cork city, put the Farmgate (celebrating 25 years) and Crawford Gallery Cafe on your list, not forgetting Vikki's in Sunday's Well, O'Callaghan's (Mitchelstown) and Seasalt in Cobh. Something more substantial? Then put Tramore’s Copper Hen in your diary. And go for the lunch tasting menu at Greene’s Cork if you are looking for something really special. Off for an afternoon? Why not the extra special Afternoon Tea in the River Lee Hotel?

Ichigo Ichie. "Every moment we change"

We enjoyed a few special dinners. The Sake dinner at Ichigo Ichie was outstanding. Great company, wine and food at the Rizzardi Wine dinner in Courtmacsherry’s Lifeboat Inn. And fantastic wine and fish at a FEAST event in the Bayview. And another excellent night was the Barnabrow Gourmet Evening with ENO Wines.

Paradiso Cork

Indeed, FEAST was our top festival this year. It has made huge strides in recent years. The Pickle Pop-up here was a good one and another very enjoyable meal was the Picado Mexican Pop-up during the West Waterford Festival. 

Quay House, Clifden

Oh, I nearly forgot dessert. Indeed, I’ve been known to skip it sometimes. But two that I remember with pleasure are the Mocha Choca Yumma at the Ballymaloe Cookery School Garden Café Truck and the Apple and Berry Crumble at the Copper Hen (Tramore).

Dessert at Ballymaloe CS truck

Both Eight Degrees and Kinnegar breweries, two of the best around, took time out to show us their breweries. Another very enjoyable event was the Wine, Whiskey and Beer evening  at the Franciscan Well. Other producers visited included Clonakilty Black Pudding, Seymour Biscuits (Bandon), St Tola Cheese (Clare), Hegarty's Cheese (Whitechurch).

On the wine side, there was a very impressive Spit 2019 day in the River Lee. Best wine bar we visited was the Gallery in Westport. More and more non-alcoholic drinks, good ones, are coming on the market and our favourite this year is the Highbank Orchards Organic Drivers Cider.

A couple of excellent distillery visits too including to Clonakilty and Powerscourt (both new). Perhaps the most memorable was the lovely Pearse Lyons distillery  in Dublin’s Liberties, big thanks there to our guides Bernard and James.

Speaking of guides, we had the lovely Karen Coakley include us on her excellent Kenmare Food Tour, lots of good food and variety in this small Kerry town. Kenmare is excellent but our top town of 2019 for good drink, excellent food and off-the-scale craic is Clonakilty. My highlight in Clon is the annual Street Carnival. In the city, we enjoyed the Long Table Walk in June and the Gourmet Trail (part of the Oyster Fest) in September. And in mid-summer, we thoroughly enjoyed a West Cork Farm Tour where another three top class guides - the O'Donovan family - showed us around..

Downings

Can’t go without mentioning pizza. I know there are many good ones around nowadays but my nod goes to newcomer Curley Stu  (check his Facebook here for venues) and the well established Pompeii (regulars at the Franciscan Well and in Waterville for the summer).

Lunch at Greene's

Great to see so many places now putting the emphasis on local and Blarney’s Square Table, champions of local, have been doing exactly that since they started. The Europe has, we think, the best five star hotel lounge/bar while Powerscourt has the best pub. 

For comfort and ticking all the other restaurant boxes as well, it has to be the Cornstore in Cork. Always a good atmosphere here. This year though the best buzz we came across was at Tapas de Lola (Dublin) and The Bullman (Kinsale).

Always get around to the farmers markets and it usually pays off! And it paid off on the double when we called to Killavullen before Christmas as it was here that we found the best ever Mince Pies (Noirin) and the best ever Sausage Rolls (Ciaran).

Bray Head walk

Some Random Bits

Top walks for auld fellas: Knockadoon, Ballycotton Cliff Walk, Nire Valley Gap, Bray Head (Valentia)  and Carrigfadda (West Cork).

Film: Satan and Adam (Netflix)

Books: Beautiful Affair (Mike Hanrahan), Suzy Suzy (William Wall), Rewind (Catherine Ryan Howard), all different but each with a strong East Cork connection.

Museum: Little Museum of Dublin.

So that was 2019, or at least a summary. If you have any suggestions for 2020, you know where to find me! 

Sunil Ghai at SAGE

Sunil Ghai, Master of PICKLE, at SAGE

Take A Break! Halfway through, we were invited to try

 the cucumber with three salts: black (mildest), lemon and chilli.

Sunil Ghai, of Pickle Dublin and one of Ireland's top chefs, was guest chef at Midleton's SAGE Restaurant last Saturday as part of the fantastic FEAST Cork festival, bringing together the best of produce from the area and featuring local and visiting chefs and a whole lot more besides.

Sunil, relaxed in the kitchen and dining room, went down a treat as did his food. It was an unmissable  opportunity to enjoy a feast by one of the foremost Indian chefs in Ireland, to sample his bold, contemporary cooking style. And we enjoyed an array of dishes inspired by his hometown of Gwalior in central India.

Sunil in Sage kitchen. Pic courtesy of Sage.

Kevin Aherne, chef patron st Sage, introduced Sunil and welcomed him, saying that the focus of FEAST 2019 was very much on the multiculturalism of food. Indeed there was a very successful 13 nation get-together in Midleton on the following day and, in my own case, I had attended a Polish dinner in Surf and Turf (Midleton) on Thursday night, an Argentinian BBQ at Barnabrow on Friday before heading back to Midleton on Saturday.

Kevin explained that both Sunil and he are members of Eurotoques. He said Sunil had surprised the chefs in the Sage kitchen with the variety of amazing aromas and flavours of his food and he would surprise us too. There was a surprise for Sunil himself. He told us he could hardly believe the way the local farmers brought their produce direct to the back door of the Midleton restaurant. "I don't know when this will happen in Dublin."

The Gupshup Gwalior Platter was our starter. On the left is the Semolina Puff with chickpea, pomegranate and tamarind chutney; in the middle, the Crispy fried kale leaf in carom infused gram flour batter with chilled yogurt and mint chutney; and finally the Grilled Artichoke marinated in PICKLE spice mix & smoky chilli yogurt. The kale was outstanding but each was delicious.

The Fish Course. But first we were invited to bite into the dark piece on top: a pickled lemon. Just bite in and you get an amazing explosion, like a concentrated lemon drink but with none of the sourness. Sunil told us that this Amritsari Fried Fish (cod in this case) is a very traditional Punjabi dish and he served it in Sage with a warm raita and charred asparagus.
Looked inviting and tasted even better.

The Gwalior Goat Keema Pao is the signature dish at Pickle. It is a Special goat preparation from Sunil's hometown: goat mince, diced and marinated liver, marinated for 24 hours in reshampatti (Rajasthani chillies) then slow cooked with shallots and yogurt. Served with Maska Pao (buttered Pao). Maska also means to "butter someone up, to flatter them".

Our dessert was Gulab Jamun: fried milk doughnut poached in saffron and cardamom flavour sugar syrup. Yumil!

Also at Feast

Patryk Serves A Feast of Poland At FEAST Dinner In Surf & Turf

Lobster & Sushi at Granary a Highlight of Midleton Sunday Stroll

Asado at Barnabrow House. FEAST’s Argentinian BBQ

Ingenuity & the Bounty - the Seafood & Wine Dinner at Ballycotton’s Bayview Hotel.