JACK MCCARTHY'S BLACK GOLD

Celebrations in Kanturk this evening as local butcher Jack McCarthy was honoured by La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte Boudin.  


KANTURK EN FETE

JACK MCCARTHY'S GOLD   

Kanturk was en fete last evening as La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte Boudin arrived in the Duhallow town to present Jack McCarthy with a Gold Medal for the quality of his famous Black Pudding.

Main Street, where McCarthy’s Butcher Shop, established in 1892, stands was jammed with locals and visitors, all keen to congratulate Jack and son Timmy on the success. Jack was in top form, detailing the artistic and sporting prowess of Duhallow, slipping with ease from English to Irish and vice versa and throwing in the odd French focal as well before rounding it all off with a song.

The French group had marched up Strand Street, led by a bunch of pipers, and were cheered into Main Street where the informal ceremony took place with short speeches by Jack and representatives of Good Food Ireland and La Confrérie (with Isabelle Sheridan of On the Pigs Back acting as translator).

Quite a few stalls had set up in the packed street, including On the Pigs Back, the Secret Garden and Sheridan’s Cheesemakers. Great to meet supporters of Irish food such as Caroline of Bibliocook and the girls from Nash 19.

And that Boudin Noir? Well McCarthy’s were giving it away last night and it is fantastic, really really good and well worth the Gold Medal. They have also come up with a black pudding bread and that too was very tasty.

And to crown it all, the Gold Medal butchers had roasted a wild boar. I had a few chunks of that. Different class. After all that, badly needed a drink and here the kind folks of Kanturk Dairies were on hand with cool milk and fruit juices. Well done to Jack and to all in Kanturk last night.

Click on image to enlarge.   See below for full details

Bitesize in Midleton

BITESIZE


Took the opportunity recently to sample the sweet cakes of Midleton’s Bitesize and quiet nice they were too.

But this local company, which uses only the best local produce, is much more than a cake maker and is into catering in a big way, both for private and corporate events. Canapés, cold meats, salads, sandwiches, casserole dishes, quiches and all those sweet bites are available along with a kids menu.
You may collect at the Knockgriffin kitchens or they’ll deliver to your party.
www.bitesize.ie
021 4634100
Unit 6, Community Enterprise Centre, Knockgriffin, Midleton

Check out my review of Bitesize - I am cork - on Qype

BARRY’S NURSERIES

BARRY’S NURSERIES in Killeagh 

Come grow with us! That’s was the invitation from Barry’s Nurseries at the recent Midleton Food Market. It is their new education venture. “Modules are held throughout the year at our own model organic fruit and veg garden...on a range of gardening topics.” Everything from No Dig gardening (I might like that), fruit and b vegetables to Bee Keeping is covered.

Aside from this unusual help, Barry’s have the complete range of plants and materials needed for the modern garden: bedding plants, herbs, seeds, tree stakes, windbreaks and much much more. And if the display on their Midleton stall is anything to go by then the place is well worth visit.

www.barrysgardencenter.ie

086 8141133

Inch, Killeagh, Co. Cork

Check out my review of Barry's Nurseries - I am cork - on Qype

ROJO MOJO ON THE DOUBLE

Paul Sharkey, winner of recent wine
competition - see bottom

SPANISH REDS

A couple of new-to-Ireland Spanish Reds have just hit the market, thanks to Wine Alliance and it is worth watching out for the Shiraz and Tempranillo in the distinctive Mojo Rojo labels of  Lozano’s Cellars in La Mancha, Spain’s biggest wine region.

The 2009 Shiraz, with an ABV of 13.5%, is a deep red colour, currant and spice on the nose, berries also on the palate and moderately spicy (close to the Rhone Syrah, unsurprisingly). It is well balanced, full bodied, easy to drink with good length on the finish and good value at €8.99.

While I was finishing off this bottle, I happened to be reading Dining with Al Qaeda by Hugh Pope and Shiraz, a city in Iran, featured, mainly because of a very famous 14^th century poet called Hafez who, like many of his fellow citizens at the time, was into his wine.

On a 2001 visit by Pope, a billboard type sign on the Shiraz ring road, highlighted a couple of lines:

“You’re late, O drunken-headed lover.

I won't let your skirt slip easily from my embrace”

BLACK PUDDING KINGS

Left to right: Martin Shanrahan, Isabel Sheridan, Tim McCarthy and Avril Allshire

La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte Boudin - one of the world’s greatest authorities on black pudding – are in Ireland this week. Over three days from today (September 20),  thirty  Knights of the fraternity will visit McCarthy’s of Kanturk, Caherbeg Free Range Pork Rosscarbery and Mayo’s Seán Kelly to award gold, silver and bronze medals.  Street festivities are planned and this promises to be a great  three day celebration of all that is exciting and special about Irish black pudding and telling that story to an international market.

European Pudding Champions

Three Irish Butchers to be Knighted

TOP NOTCH NAUTILUS

NAUTILUS 

There is a French Food Fest coming up next weekend but I stole a march by making second trip of the summer to Nautilus in Ballycotton last evening and once again hit the jackpot at this little French run restaurant by the harbour.

Telling it like it is...

No hiding place as guest blogger Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wines gets down to the nitty gritty.....

THE TRUTH – YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH

So, here is the truth, or at least my truth. I’ve wanted to write this down for a long time. I am going to tell you exactly how the cost of a bottle of wine breaks down. 

I will break it down into 3 price points. A wine that retails under €10 works out like this. Let’s assume I am buying the wine ex-cellar ( which means at the cellar door free of VAT ). If the price is €2, then I need to transport that wine to Ireland which can range in cost depending on how many pallets are moving and from which part of France etc. A good average is 75 cents / bottle. 

We are now up to €2.75 and we need to add on the cost of putting the wine into a bonded warehouse. This works out at about 50 cents a bottle. We add on excise duty which is €1.96 / bottle for still wine ( sparkling is double ) and we come to €5.21. 

At this point we haven’t put on a margin and if you are an importer you need to add on a decent margin to counter against the cost of holding the wine for a sustained period of time. If you are buying by the case, you can take less margin, but you have to hold large stocks if you are selling it into trade. We will take an average margin of 35% which brings you up to €8 a bottle. When this wine is sold into restaurants this margin would be drastically cut. 

Even though you paid the revenue the excise duty of €1.96 they are not satisfied and you must now pay VAT at 21% on top of the €8 bringing your bottle of wine to a shelf price of €9.70. It should be noted that the VAT was on top of the excise duty so in effect the tax you paid was also taxed. So, a bottle of wine that cost €2 at the vineyard door now comes in at €9.70. 

That’s a fair price for the wine but it should be noted, if you buy a €12 bottle of wine, you end up paying your vineyard owner €3.24 and I can tell you there is a huge difference in quality for that €1.24. The duty is the same, but you are getting a lot more wine for your price. 

If you buy a €17 bottle of wine, the vineyard is getting nearly €6 and you are getting a wine that is 3 times better ( in theory ) but costing you €12 euros less €9.70 euros / bottle x 3 = €29.10 euros.

With a merchant you can trust, the more you spend on a bottle the better value you should receive. That is why my current 15% and 20% sale is the very best I can offer. I am making no money on that and am just trying to clear stock ahead of the new wines coming in. 

If you put on proper margins, you should not be able to offer 50% sales. You need to ask how much the original price is for the wine, and is that a fair price for the quality. In saying that, I do think there is a ceiling here and I do not think wines that cost €200 / bottle are 10 times better than a €20 bottle of wine. Once again, it comes back to trust.

On a slightly different note, here is an interesting fact for you. At the recent Tipperary Food Producers Long Table dinner a member of the group spoke of a startling statistic. For every €10 spent with a local merchant, €34 goes back into the local economy, while for every €10 spent in a supermarket, that figure is only €14.

Don’t forget to log onto the blog at www.rednosewine.com/blog or follow the ranting on Twitter – www.twitter.com/rednosewine

For anyone who would like more information and can’t make it into the shop, please feel free to contact me at info@rednosewine.com

“Life is much too short to drink bad wine”

FOOD COAST HARVEST FEAST

A guest post by Rick LeVert of the Food Coast...

Four Bridgestone-Recommended Restaurants
One Communal Harvest Feast


On 26 September 2010, four Bridgestone recommended restaurants  Rathmullan
House, Harry¹s Restaurant, An Bonnán Buí, and The Beach House  will be
joining forces to serve 300 guests a sociable harvest feast against the
backdrop of Lough Swilly and Rathmullan¹s historic Battery. What¹s on the
menu? Donegal¹s best local ingredients turned into a four-course, communal
lunch by Donegal¹s best chefs.

THE WEEKEND CATCH

A bumper Weekend Catch, fresh from the Net.

THE WEEKEND CATCH

Restaurant & Bar Scene in Cork

via Twitter & Facebook

French Food and Wine fest coming up – see blake Creedon’s blog http://blakecreedon.wordpress.com/

Cafe Gusto The evening menu which we serve late on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Washington Street has become very popular. This month we introduced Cicchetti, Venetian tapas which have gone down a storm. On a recent visit to London we were amazed to see that this type of informal cafe food is all the rage. So call in, no booking needed, as we..

Irish Foodies Cookalongs 

CURIOUS WINES OPENING NIGHT

CURIOUS WINES

Curious Wines officially opened their doors at Kinsale Road last evening and no expense was spared as dozens of guests were entertained, wined and dined. Thanks a million, Mike and Matt.

Just inside the door, plates of very tasty nibbles were the centre of attraction before we slowly moved upstairs where a classical trio entertained and where bottle laden tables awaited.

Sparklers first and I sampled some Prosecco, one fizzy, the other sparkling; preferred the first but the second was also gorgeous. We would come back to that table as herself liked the Italian (not so much the wines but the tanned guy dishing them out). Popped over to France and some Chablis la Colombe.

The Apple Company in Cahir

THE CHAMPAGNE OF APPLE JUICES

This is my favourite apple drink: The Apple Farm of Tipperary Sparkling Apple Juice. I have previously called this the champagne of apple juices and see no reason whatsoever to change my mind after my most recent tasting which came at the weekend when I bought a couple of bottles (€2.50 for a small bottle but well worth it) of this premium apple juice from The Pantry Stand in the Midleton Food Market. The Pantry obviously has good taste as this is available in their Midleton restaurant.

How is it made?

RED ALL OVER

WINE ALLIANCE COMPETITION  

ENTRIES CLOSE 8.00am MONDAY 2oth!!!!

It’ll be Red all over on September 19^th and to celebrate Cork’s success in reaching the All-Ireland football final we have a cracking prize for you: 6 bottles of classy Spanish red wine, perfect for the celebrations.

The Rojo Mojo Tempranillo (2009) and the Rojo Mojo Shiraz (2009) are new to Ireland and are being imported exclusively by Wine Alliance

The Question: Did Cork wear red or white jerseys in the 1973 All-Ireland final when, helped by two goals (and a point) from Jimmy Barry-Murphy, they defeated Galway? This is a slightly tricky one – you don’t expect us to give the wine away too easily. 

If you need a hint, go here and scroll down to (or search for) Blast from the Past. Video clue here.

Send your answer to: b1946l@gmail.com

ORGANIC MARKET

Ollie Moore has been in touch to tell us all about Ireland's first organic market opening in Clonmel. read more

Photo: produce by Siobhain la Touche.