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| Triskel: Christchurch venue |
Cork’s Fab Food Trail
A wee stroll.
A little history.
Lots of Food!
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| Nash 19 |
Even for one who has done more than his fair share of walking (and eating) around the city of Cork, Saturday’s Fab Food Trail proved to be something of an eye opener. Alice, from Galway, was our excellent guide and the other walkers were, surprisingly enough, all from Munster.
The eye opener for me came in the shape of the owners of the food venues, all very professional and absolutely friendly, and all willing to explain how they operated and all rightly proud of their operations and the local input.
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| O'Conaill's |
Met up at the English Market gate and headed first for the Gulpd Cafe at the Triskel whose policy is to buy local.
Enjoyed a macchiato here and that was made from a single estate bean, roasted locally by the Golden Bean in Ballymaloe. Gulpd's butcher is Eoin O’Mahony in the English Market and he could well feature in the menu when they realise their plans to do Sunday lunch.
Alice took us on a little tour of the restored Christchurch, a Triskel venue for theatre and music. Must go back again soon for the full tour which they do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
More history now, Alice explaining briefly about location of the old city as we walked down to the end of South Main Street. The Co-op Cafe in Sullivan’s Quay is a regular stop for this tour but not on this occasion. Crossed back over the river again and headed to Nash 19, no better place!
Head Chef Pam Kelly took time out to explain their philosophy of supporting local producers. And that philosophy was tastily illustrated when we each received a mini-taster that included Jack McCarthy’s famous Black Pudding and the soon to be famous Lordan's sausages that are regulars on the menus here.
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| At the Roundy! |
Across the road then for some hot chocolate and some nice samples at O’Conaill’s. Great friendly staff there as well and they sent us off with a little gift pack that didn’t last too long!
Wouldn’t be a fab food trail in Cork without a visit to the English Market. The big stop here was at O’Connell’s Fish Stall where we were treated to oysters, mussels and quite a few other samples.
Had a brief chat with Eoin O’Mahony at his butcher’s stall before we were taken up the Parade and across to the Roundy, where Alice pointed out the city’s development on maps inlaid on seven tables in the bar. Soon though our eyes were on the Irish Whiskeys that were laid before us by owner Frank Bradley and one of the party was delighted to have found a natural venue to watch Munster’s Heineken Cup game late in the afternoon.
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| Cornstore cheese plate |
A few steps later, we landed in the Cornstore and another warm welcome. Mike Kelly then joined us and told us something of the history of the street, including the fact that the building once housed a potato market before becoming a corn market. Local food then and local food now! Mike told us they source locally, getting quite a lot of their meat from, you’ve guessed it, O’Mahony’s.
Fortified by a delicious cheese plate, we headed out into the sunshine and a short stroll down to the Saturday Coal Quay street market. And more food. Here, they had a table laid out with samples from virtually every stall holder.
Really enjoyed those and, then suddenly, that was it. The two and a half hours had flown by and it was time to say goodbye. Very enjoyable morning in Cork that confirmed for me that we have a good thing going on here and what better way to show it to visitors than via the Fab Food Trail. They also run one in Dublin. Check it out!
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| Rocket Man's salads in the Coal Quay Market |
