MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBYtells us all about food
Cabra treat
The recession needn’t be a reason to put your dreams on hold – it can be a catalyst to spur you into action – as Lindley Jones and Sally-Anne Bennett discovered last year when redundancy from Jones’s job as a construction company accountant allowed him to follow his dream and go into the food business.
The couple had been living in Phibsboro for nine years, and they found the perfect premises in which to open Treat, a delicatessen and gourmet gift shop. Bennett, who is an interior designer, sourced vintage shop fittings and striped away carpet to reveal an original mosaic floor in the former fish and poultry shop. Jones spent more than a year sourcing artisan produce from Ireland and beyond for the deli.
Free-range Kanturk ham sits alongside Parma ham and smoked pancetta from Italy, and Knockdrinna goats’ cheese holds its own against its Continental cousins. On the Pigs Back chicken liver pâté, and Blue Haven Food Company smoked salmon pâté give Cork producers a look-in, and you can have any of these ingredients made into a sandwich using Le Levain sourdough and Boulangerie des Gourmets breads. Cakes are baked daily on the premises and include old-fashioned favourites such as bakewell tart, carrot cake and porter cake. The gift shop is Bennett’s domain, and she has put together a tempting array of stylish and practical things, including Wilton bakeware from the US, jewel-coloured picnicware, and a quirky range of colourful, reuseable cupcake cases from Australia.
Treat, at 3 Imaal Mart, Imaal Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, is open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday
Takeaway diet
If the idea of having all your meals cooked for you and delivered to your door appeals, the added bonus that you could lose stones in weight while eating said meals could be enough to persuade you to part with the €100 cost of a six-day supply of the Taylor Made Diet.
The diet, which is based on low-glycemic-load recipes, has been devised by chef Ken Taylor (right), who previously ran restaurants in Raheny with his wife Paula O’Brien.
“Paula lost 2.5 stone, my sister lost three stone and I lost two stone in eight weeks, just keeping to the diet and exercising regularly,” says Taylor.
It’s not a punishing regime, by any standards, with dishes such as pear and walnut salad, chicken tikka masala, Cajun spiced salmon with herbed bulgar wheat and roasted vegetables, and beef chilli with brown basmati rice on the menu. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks are provided for each of the first six days of the week, and on the seventh you can eat whatever you want.
The meals, which are prepared in a commercial kitchen, are delivered three times a week in the greater Dublin area, with a menu telling you what to eat and when. See taylormadediet.com.
