Food File: a trail of good food across Ireland

GOOD FOOD IRELAND BIRTHDAY TREATS

Good Food Ireland is celebrating its 10th anniversary by launching a series of "food and drink experiences, cooking adventures and culinary tours" – both bespoke itineraries and date-specific packages – that can be booked on its website, goodfoodireland.ie.

A three-night trip (May 17th-19th), including two nights at Hayfield Manor in Cork city and one at Ballymaloe House, with dinners at both hotels as well as at Fishy Fishy in Kinsale, a market visit lunch at the Farmgate Cafe, butter museum visit and cooking class at Ballymaloe Cookery School,is on offer at €646pps.

SMOKE CREATES FIRE IN CORK BBQ VENUE

They say the tantalising aromas escaping from Holy Smoke, John Relihan's barbecue restaurant in Cork, have converted more than one vegetarian since the doors opened on Little Hanover Street on Easter Saturday. Irish beef, pork and chicken, with spice and marinades, and cooked low and slow with smoke and fire, for between three and 16 hours, are the attraction.

Kerryman Relihan, who did Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen apprentice programme and became head chef at Oliver’s Barbecoa BBQ restaurant in London, cooks by a mixture of smoking over fruit woods and barbecuing over chemical-free charcoal. Regular butter basting with a herb brush, fashioned from rosemary, thyme and sage branches, is a Relihan trademark. Sides include cornbread, fries, a variety of slaws, salads, pickles and bone marrow mash. Open evenings only, Wednesday to Sunday.

CONTEST SEEKS TIP TOP TIPPERARY FARE

When Pat Whelan won the supreme championship for his beef dripping at last year's Great Taste Awards in London, he invited the organisers to stage a judging session for the 2016 competition in his native Tipperary.

The Tipperary Food Producers group, of which he is chairman, got behind the idea, and a panel of 70 judges will meet for four days of tasting sessions in Clonmel on April 26th-29th. The panel includes Evening Standard food writer and Great British Menu judge Charles Campion; food writer Felicity Cloake; Bruce Langlands, director of food at Harrods; and BBC broadcaster Nigel Barden.

As well as putting Ireland’s top food products through rigorous assessment, the judges will take a tour of Coolmore Stud, sample a Tipperary barbecue, sip locally produced drinks in the shadow of the Rock of Cashel, enjoy a long table dinner at Chez Hans, and meet some of the Tipperary Food Producers at their homes and workplaces.

CULINARY MAP OF SLIGO

Sligo food producers, markets, restaurants, brewers and accommodation providers have banded together to create a Sligo Food Trail. There is a map and information on members at sligofoodtrail.ie. As well as self-guided tours, the initiative offers a variety of “food experiences” from a craft beer tour, a seashore walk, and pizza-making for children