megabites

• Help!

  May 31, 2009 @ 11:10 pm | by Tom

  The time has come to ask for help. I am planning a round-up of places throughout Ireland, north and south, where it is, quite simply, good to eat. From fancy pants, would-be Michelin-starred establishments to cafes and lunch spots. There may even be the odd filling station where the food is exceptional.

  What I’m looking for is real food, ideally sourced locally as far as possible, and cooked with enthusiasm and passion. However we might like to pretend otherwise, we are not a nation of food lovers but there are scattered outbreaks of excellence that can hold their own with what you find in the more civilised parts of Europe.

  Will you please let me know about such places? Don’t just say that X or Y is great. Tell me why and where it is and when it’s open. And if there’s somewhere that is widely lauded (even by me) and you think it’s less than wonderful, let me know too.

  Please feel free to add a comment here or email privately at tdoorley@irishtimes.com. I’ll treat such comments in confidence and will be most grateful. Let’s try, together, to create an invaluable guide to culinary excellence in Ireland - from scones and homemade jam to…oh, you know… John Dory with smoked radish puree and seakale shavings…

  I have a fairly hefty short-list already, thanks to a battery of established informants around the country but if you can ensure that I don’t miss anything, please let me know.

  Comments (6)

• Could you use €70m?

  May 24, 2009 @ 10:35 pm | by Tom

  The Government is giving €70m to the meat processing industry. This is my money and your money. Surely the way “forward” as Mr Cowen likes to say, is producing meat that people want to buy? Which, for a start, would be GM-free.

  Comments (16)

• The new farmers

  May 23, 2009 @ 11:57 pm | by Tom

  Food is a political issue. These young people, in a country determined to force GM crops on the rest of the world, are showing us the way.

  Comments (5)

• Growing (and cooking)

  @ 11:48 pm | by Tom

  In Dublin the other day, I took the Dart into town and noticed something rather telling. The back gardens in the region of Shelbourne Road and environs are sprouting vegetable plots. Being Dublin 4, many of them are in raised beds which are dead fashionable at the moment.

  But, you know what? Nothing bad will happen to you if your veg beds are level with the rest of the garden (or weed plantation). You will simply end up with an edible crop, which is what it’s all about.

  Johann and I published Grow and Cook in late 2007, before this credit crunch arrived. Lousy timing. But - deep breath and naked self-promotion - it’s still available and I think it’s a pretty good read. But I would say that…

  Comments (2)

• Travels with my back

  May 22, 2009 @ 11:58 pm | by Tom

  Just returned from a brief visit to the Nuremore Hotel in Carrickmacross where last night I joined chef Raymond McArdle and 86 diners for a wine and food evening which was terrific fun. Raymond is a remarkable chef and this is a very lovely hotel the gardens of which are now starting to mature. Even the mandatory golf course, overlooking the lake, looks very attractive in the mixed May weather.

  Unfortunately a bulging disc is pressing on a nerve at the moment and my right leg feels like it is being torn off by a particularly tenacious troll. I am being quite religious about my physio exercises but am devastated at not being able to do anything strenuous in the garden at a time when I should be spending every spare hour there.

  Thank heaven for the Waterford-Dublin train which, at its best, makes the journey in two-and-a-half hours in great comfort (the new rolling stock have seats that are good for back sufferers). Mind you, it’s possible drive from Waterford to Dublin in two hours which gives one pause for thought.

  I missed much of the coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show this week but according to Alan Titchmarsh the place is packed with Irish people this year which just goes to show that (a) gardening is no longer widely regarded as a “foreign game” and, well, things must not be too bad, economically, in the Ould Sod. Mr T mentioned that most of the Irish visitors told him that they had come “all the way from Ireland” - as distinct from stopping half-way in, say Liverpool, as he pointed out in his practical Yorkshire way.

  One of the highlights, for me, of the BBC2 coverage was a feature on David Austin’s remarkable repeat-flowering roses based on the old shrub varieties which have such great colour and scent but which give you just one burst of blossom. David Austin is one great horticultural hero and I think it’s wonderful that he introduced the lovely yellow rose called Graham Thomas, named in honour of the man who was for decades garden advisor to the UK National Trust and the saviour of so many old shrub roses.

  Garden designer Paul Martin, a Chelsea medallist, was at the Nuremore bash last night and spoke very highly of David Austin’s passion for roses and willingness to help those who are creating gardens for the show.

  Comments (0)

• Is this water corked?

  May 18, 2009 @ 10:27 pm | by Tom

  A comment elsewhere on this blog has prompted me to ask the question: Are we mad to buy bottled water? Well, in my own case, the answer would be yes because we have our own well and the water is pretty pure according to the last analysis. It doesn’t taste terrific (no, not all water tastes the same) but I drink an awful lot of it, sometimes with the addition of about a teaspoon of lime cordial to the half litre.

  But in Dublin, I drink bottled water. In fact, I bring well water from home for making tea and coffee. This is because the stuff that comes out of the tap in our city home tastes so foul. It smells and tastes like a swimming pool, because it’s heavily chlorinated. But it tastes worse than that. In winespeak terms, it’s “corked”.

  Stop sniggering! And concentrate on a bit of science. Bad corks, the ones that make wine taste “musty” do so because they started life containing mould. Corks are treated with bleach and steam can which react with mould to produce a substance called TCA - minute quantities of which create a mouldy, musty taste.

  The same thing can happen in waterworks, hence much tap water tastes “musty” and therefore much less pleasant than Ballygowan, Tipperary, Evian and what have you.

  So people who buy bottled water are not all mad. Here’s a scientific paper which may be of interest.

  Are you happy to drink your tap water straight from the tap? In a glass, obviously, otherwise you have to contort yourself in a way not advised by physiotherapists. Or have you found a filter that makes it taste…well, pretty okay, especially if it’s chilled, with lots of ice and lemon?

  And can local authorities let us know how much TCA and its related compounds are in drinking water? I know it’s not nearly as worrying as E Coli and the like but, if you have functioning tastebuds, it’s not very nice…

  Comments (25)

• Back again

  May 17, 2009 @ 11:13 pm | by Tom

  Please forgive the paucity of posts. I have been in extremis with back trouble and am hoping to get through an MRI scan tomorrow without sedation. I have claustrophobic tendencies and am not at all happy at having to spend half an hour in a very narrow tube. More importantly, I am not allowed to dig for a while and am trying to cultivate the veg garden as best I can.

  In Lidl today, I see that they have tomato plants that are in fine fettle, so if you have the scope to grow these under cover, I would suggest that you leap at the opportunity. They also have aubergines and cucumbers.

  Visited the Corrigan’s City Farm allotments in Cork today. Most impressive. There will be a grand harvest over the summer. And the honey tastes quite wonderful (city honey is more complex than its country cousin).

  Back again… As soon as I can…

  Comments (2)

• Multiple doubts

  May 15, 2009 @ 6:06 pm | by Tom

  BBC Radio 4’s soap opera, The Archers, an “everyday story of rural life” is about as authentically rural as Graham Norton (that’s what you get for growing up in a town like Bandon). Nevertheless, I am somewhat addicted to it and while I am not nearly in the same league as my wife, Johann, I can quote from episodes broadcast years ago.Fellow enthusiasts may recall young Tom Archer having his organic pork business destroyed by dealing with a supermarket group. It was complicated by the fact that he had had an affair of the heart with the buyer, a strand of the story that destroyed its overall credibility because, as everybody knows, supermarket buyers don’t have hearts. And if you’ve been listening lately you will know that Tom is still firmly against the notion of dealing with supermarkets.I was reminded of this when I got a press statement from the organic producers’ organisation IOGFA this afternoon. According to IOFGA, “the multiples” are demanding a drop of 40% in prices from organic producers. This is bizarre, because everybody knows that the producers don’t make that kind of profit in the first place.If it’s true - and IOFGA just refer to “multiples” - that’s the end of Irish organic produce in Irish supermarkets. Now, I am unusual in that I don’t believe that supermarkets are always the spawn of the devil. In some ways some of them have made the country a happier place. But there are those who will argue that organic producers should never deal with supermarkets in the first place and sell, instead, at farmers’ markets. There is also an argument that supermarkets should host farmers’ markets in their car parks - like Sainsbury’s do in certain locations in Britain. It would be good for business in the broadest sense.I do hope that IOFGA clarify their statement. Who are these multiples who want blood from a stone? All of them?And while I’m at it: why is Irish organic produce so limited? Flahavan’s have had to import 75% of their organic oats. That’s just mad.

  Comments (5)

• Bord Bia again…

  May 12, 2009 @ 9:30 am | by Tom

  Just a quick comment…  I have just heard a radio commercial for Bord Bia Quality Assured chicken. It claims that such chicken is produced “to the highest standards”. Intensively reared chickens may be perfectly safe to eat but they are not produced to the highest standards. If these are the highest standards, where does that leave free-range and organic?

  That commercial is misleading. And, anyway, how many people believe that a €4.99 chicken could possibly be produced to the “highest standards” and make a profit for producer and retailer?

  Comments (19)

• EU to allow Barbie wines

  May 10, 2009 @ 9:39 pm | by Tom

  It seems that the EU is going to allow pink wines to be made by blending red and white wines and the French are not happy. This may seem strange when you consider how many awful roses are still made there (just think of the average sickly Cabernet d’Anjou). And the fact that Bollinger make their delicious pink version by such blending (which is, perversely, allowed in Champagne). The traditional way is to ferment on the skins for a brief period until the right colour is achieved.

  It wouldn’t matter much if it were not for the rosy renaissance that is making pink wines fashionable once more. Perhaps the French have a point. Barbie blends could nip the rosy revolution in the, er, bud. Not that the EU has ever been particularly concerned about quality in matters of agricultural produce - and that’s what all wine is, from Blue Nun to Corton-Charlemagne. I think we need to remind ourselves about that every now and then.

  Comments (3)

• Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan Mouton?…

  @ 12:57 pm | by Tom

  …..The end of the cellar is nigh. Actually, it’s not quite that bad but, marking my fiftieth birthday last night we drank the last bottle of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1985. I was convinced that there was a second one lurking somewhere but I must have been mistaken. This is not the kind of the stuff that you can mislay easily.

  As to how it was… Well, pretty close to perfect even though it has not been stored in ideal conditions over the past fifteen our so years that I’ve been sitting on it. Beautifully fragrant, complex nose, delicate on the palate, maybe just a smidgin shorter on the finish than you might expect from a first growth in a fine vintage. Maybe if you have a particularly jaded palate this might be considered a fault but, to be honest, by comparison to the stuff that I normally get to drink, this was sheer bliss. Shame about that mythical second bottle…

  And then we finished with another gem: Croft Vintage Port 1955 which was quite simply superb, fully mature, smooth, intense, long, still packed with wholesome sweet fruit at almost 54 years old. To be honest, it’s in better shape than I am! Certainly sweeter anyway.

  We started with a lovely Champagne that was new to me: Champagne de Gall NV which has that lovely Pinot-ish character that always reminds me faintly of digestive biscuits. Bone dry, very stylish and, I think, €44 from Marks & Spencer (it was a present, otherwise I could check) - which for Champagne at this level is a very keen price. If it were under a more famous label it would be a different story altogether.

  I don’t buy wine for “laying down” any more, not that I now have school fees to pay. I never could afford to buy much anyway but I have enough vintage port, mainly 1977 and 1985, to keep me going for a fair while. Of course, the thing about vintage port is that you don’t open a bottle lightly, so to speak. But when you do…magic! And incidentally, I don’t think the 1977s are even remotely near their peak yet; they need another decade, I reckon. I’ve still got some 1963 Cockburn’s, 1970 Dow’s and a couple of the majestic Croft 1955 to keep me going in the meantime.

  And the food: we started with our own asparagus with melted butter and a squeeze of lemon, then slow-roasted free-range belly pork with roast spuds, peppers and wild garlic braised with cream and nutmeg, finishing with Irish strawberries and organic Stilton.

  Breakfast was pretty late this morning…

  Comments (1)

• Beyond Corrigan and Bord Bia

  May 9, 2009 @ 12:11 am | by Tom

  Following Richard Corrigan’s call for a review of its role in promoting Irish food in the home market, I see that Bord Bia has said that no product carrying its Quality Assured symbol has ever been produced outside of the island of Ireland. This is good news but it doesn’t detract from Corrigan’s point that non-Irish produce could carry the symbol.

  However, what I find compelling about this great chef’s argument concerns the standards that Bord Bia’s QA scheme endorses. Having scanned the details, it strikes me that they are, at best, marginally above the EU minimum. Which doesn’t, frankly, do a lot to put Irish food the the forefront of quality.

  Much of what Corrigan has to say about Irish food standards was lost today. I was at the press conference and heard a lot of things that give me cause for concern. For example, as many EU countries move away from GM produce and meat that is fed GM feed, Ireland seems determined to embrace the GM ideology. This means that Irish meat is competing, in the EU, in a declining market. Non-GM feed is very expensive in Ireland because the animal feed industry is not prepared to invest in the plant that is required to keep GM and non-GM products completely separate at the point of import.

  This is quite bafflingly shortsighted. I don’t blame the animal feed industry but the Government which appears to have no vision whatsoever for the future of Irish food. As Richard Corrigan said today, Ireland is blithely sailing in one direction on this issue while the rest of Europe heads off in the opposite one.

  Presumably, Bord Bia takes its orders from the Government on this issue. And the Government, as in so many areas, doesn’t appear to have a clue. The message today from Corrigan, and which got lost, is that the future of Irish food exports are in real danger. We in Ireland are so out of touch with the sentiments of our neighbours about the GM issue that we are going to sleepwalk into disaster.

  Taking a quick look at the blogosphere on this news story, I am astonished at the number of lazy, ill-informed hotheads who claim that Corrigan’s press conference today was a publicity stunt for his Dublin restaurant (which, as it happens, is conspicuously successful). If you want a taste of this nonsense, have a look here.

  This is an issue that is much bigger than Richard Corrigan. And it exemplifies, once again, how government in Ireland is on a wing and a prayer. I will happily declare that Richard Corrigan is a good friend of mine. But, if he had got it wrong, I would be equally happy to say so. These are issues that transcend friendship, because they are too important for our future.

  Comments (13)

• A ramble

  May 5, 2009 @ 11:41 pm | by Tom

  One of the true joys of blogging is the licence to ramble. This is a much clearer reflection of how the mind works than anything that appears in print, mediated as it must be by an editor with understandably strict criteria as to what is fit for the page. And so to ramble… Two issues are exercising what passes for the Doorley brain at the moment. The first is the spreading monoculture of Irish farming. Wherever I look I seem to find old pasture ploughed up or sprayed with Roundup and then re-seeded with high-sugar grasses. They spread as far as the eye can see, with their broad, glossy shoots and only an occasional and accidental dock plant for variation. By contrast, the two big fields which I’ve kept from any artificial fertiliser for the past four seasons are dropping in fertility and the aggressive grasses are giving way to wild flowers, the seeds of which have been lying dormant for years. It may not make for great hay but it allows our land to return to something like it would have been before the EU started to pay farmers for producing food that nobody wants to buy. And it certainly looks good. Of course, I realise that I have the luxury of being able to do this. Our few acres have no real agricultural value in the current scheme of things and what hay we manage to harvest goes to feeding a couple of local horses…I should explain here that, due a disagreement between my Mac and WordPress, I can’t do paragraphs. Try as I will, everything gets run together when it reaches the website. Any advice from Macheads would be most welcome, but I digress… The other issue that has been exercising me is a comment from a friend of mine, a Londoner with a considerable interest in food who happens to be in exile in Dublin at present. “By and large,” he told me the other day, “I don’t really rate Irish restaurants.” I don’t think he would rate, say Birmingham or Leeds restaurants either. And I know what he means. The simple fact is that London has a population of almost 10m people and a lot of them are well-heeled and well-travelled. A reasonably high proportion of London restaurants (and New York ones and so on) can afford to do what they want to do. In Dublin, we simply don’t have the critical mass. Countless chefs have told me about what they want to serve but add that the conservatism of the average consumer dictates quite a different menu. One of the very few chefs in Dublin who is determined to plough his own furrow is Kevin Thornton. And you need to be as confident - arrogant perhaps? - as Kevin to do that. I am currently thanking Divine Providence that he is still with us and has not headed off to London where, no doubt, he would do much better financially. Spare a moment to consider his menus.

  Comments (6)