Shoptalk: niche food outlets

If the “super” in supermarket refers to the range of foods available in a single cavernous space, does it deserve the epithet? Isn’t there something equally super to loving a food so much that you will go out of your way to acquire it?

My trips to Dublin invariably involve a stop off at the Artisan Parlour and Grocery, tucked in behind the Library in Ringsend. Their carefully curated collection of goods includes Wildwood Vinegars from Co Mayo. This range of wild fruit, herb, berry and blossom-infused vinegars capture an essence of the coastal patch near Killala, where they are made. The samphire with dill vinegar has a touch of the sea air to it, and the blackberry balsamic actually has a salty tang from the sea salt crystals falling on the shore-side berries.

The range is always expanding, with mountain heather and wild rose petal now available. Some of them can be a bit too heavily honeyed, but most are delicious.

From Ringsend, I head straight west to Donnybrook, where the Black Pig delicatessen imports its own charcuterie and cheeses from the Iberian Peninsula. It's their range of tinned seafood that I'm after. Los Pereretes is considered one of the best canneries in Galicia, and to open a tin of percebes (gooseneck barnacles) or spider crabs is to be transported directly to the Spanish Atlantic coast. There are clams as well, and baby sardines and white tuna, all hand-prepared and packaged.

Black Pig has begun distributing its smoked Iberian pork products to a handful of wine shops that specialise in organic/biodynamic wines by wineries that make an effort not to pollute the soil with pesticides or to imbue their products with hangover-inducing sulphites.

I first noticed the charcuterie in Clontarf Wines on Clontarf Road, and have since seen them in 64 Wine in Glasthule and Quintessential Wines in Drogheda, Co Louth. The jamon, lomo, chorizo and salchichon are all from 100 per cent pure-bred black Iberian pigs, fed on acorns in the evergreen oak forests of Extramadura.

A final stop before retreating back to the wondrous midlands is the Sorrento chipper on Arbour Hill in Stoneybatter, which produces hands-down the best gelato in Ireland. With flavours such as Valrhona chocolate, bourbon & Amarena cherry, and mascarpone, acacia honey and rose water, and Dulce de Leche made with Madagascar vanilla and Himalayan pink salt, I confidently crown this nondescript chip shop as home of the best gelateria in the country.

Don’t believe me? Head over to the Temple Bar Food Market, where this ice cream is also available.