Posted on Mar 28, 2011 in Eating Out, Life | 4 comments

An antidote to packing? O’Brien Chop House

An antidote to packing? O’Brien Chop House
Moving? I’m over it. Even it if is just out of the cottage for three-and-a-half months while our long, long-awaited extension is being built. Have you any idea how many cookbooks I have to pack up? In that picture is just two of the nine (and still counting) boxes that I’ve filled up so far. The...
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Posted on Mar 24, 2011 in Cookery Books, Read | 8 comments

James Beard’s American Cookery and Claire’s Tea Rooms, Clarinbridge

James Beard’s American Cookery and Claire’s Tea Rooms, Clarinbridge
Sometimes when you see a cookbook you know you have to have it. That was the case on a recent trip to Galway to stay with the Schoolfriend. The Husband, Little Missy and I stopped off for a Very Nice Lunch at Claire’s Tearooms in Clarinbridge, which is also beloved by Gillian at Chocolate Here for its...
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Posted on Mar 18, 2011 in Radio, Work | 0 comments

Lyric fm: The Sacred Harp and Dinner-on-the-Grounds

Lyric fm: The Sacred Harp and Dinner-on-the-Grounds
Somehow I can manage to get food into most reports that I do for Lyric fm‘s Culture File! Ireland’s first Sacred Harp Convention took place in University College Cork over the first weekend in March. I was there, recording and enjoying the singing – but also asking people...
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Posted on Mar 16, 2011 in Do, Print, Work | 0 comments

Irish Coffee past in The Irish Times and present in L Mulligan Grocer

Irish Coffee past in The Irish Times and present in L Mulligan Grocer
On the eve of St Patrick’s Day, one’s thoughts turn – quite naturally – to Irish Coffee, especially if you’ve been at all following L Mulligan Grocer‘s search for the best of the best of Irish Coffee. During the Eighties I worked in a hotel restaurant (which shall remain...
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Posted on Mar 15, 2011 in Eating Out, Food Events, IFBA | 6 comments

The best of Inishowen, Irish food – and the IFBA

The best of Inishowen, Irish food – and the IFBA
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. A simple idea – organising an Irish Food Blogger Association dinner at Harry’s Bar and Restaurant – got out of hand very quickly, in the best possible way. When Kristin got in contact with Donal Doherty in Harry’s to get the ball...
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Posted on Mar 10, 2011 in Cook | 2 comments

Steak for supper: wagyu from James Whelan Butchers

Steak for supper: wagyu from James Whelan Butchers
Steak is always a very special treat at the cottage but, when Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers sends a couple of wagyu beef steaks, that’s into another stratosphere entirely. They arrived in a brown paper parcel, all tied up with string, neatly labelled and sealed with red wax – if I hadn’t...
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Posted on Mar 9, 2011 in Bake, Print, Work | 0 comments

The Press, Christchurch: No-fuss comfort food

The Press, Christchurch: No-fuss comfort food
With all that’s happening in my former home of Christchurch, New Zealand at the moment – victims of the earthquake still being named, constant aftershocks some up to 4.1 in magnitude, work continuing on restoring electricity, drinking water and sanitation systems, damaged buildings having to be...
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Posted on Mar 1, 2011 in Do, Eating Out | 10 comments

Underground dining: Crackbird, Dublin

Underground dining: Crackbird, Dublin
You wait for something to happen on the underground dining scene in Ireland for years – and then they all come along at once. Two weeks ago I wrote about Clonakilty by Candlelight, last week my feature on that plus Lilly Higgins’s Loaves and Fishes Supper Club was broadcast on Lyric fm. Then, on...
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