Food File: Pimp my chocolate, wild Wicklow way and Coolattin cheese

PIMP MY CHOCOLATE BAR

Coco Bó is Ireland’s first Made By Me customised chocolate counter, where you can have a bar made to your exact specifications, choosing from 21 ingredients such as fudge, nuts, fruit, popping candy and marshmallows, to add to either milk, plain or white chocolate.

The bar is mixed, poured and ready to go in 25 minutes and comes with a recipe, recording your unique composition, so you can recreate it.

Martin Ryan first saw the concept in Berlin, and eight weeks ago opened his business, which also incorporates a cafe and ice-cream parlour, at 65 O'Connell Street in Dublin. Chocolate is supplied by Lir; ice-cream by Featherbed Farm.

A 100g bar with three ingredients added costs €3.95, with a special offer of three bars for a tenner. A chocolate museum and tasting rooms are coming soon to Coco Bó, which is in the former National Irish Bank premises. See cocobo.ie

WILD WICKLOW WAY

BrookLodge hosts its 20th annual wild foods dinner on Saturday, November 21st, when Evan Doyle and his chefs will present a banquet composed of the wonderful ingredients foraged and gathered for Macreddin Village's Wild Food Pantry over the past 10 months, plus a selection of Wicklow wild game.

The event opens with a wild foods “Dinner Dissected” masterclass, followed by a wild cocktail reception, where cocktails expert Oisín Davis will create aperitifs using wild berries, from strawberries, to bilberries and sloes.

Dinner will be cooked by Doyle and the Strawberry Tree brigade. The €160pps ticket includes one night B&B at BrookLodge (late check out), masterclass, cocktails and dinner with wine. See brooklodge.com

COOLATTIN CHEESE REIGNS SUPREME

Mount Leinster Clothbound, a new release from Coolattin Cheddar maker Tom Burgess, took the supreme championship at the Irish Cheese Awards, beating 144 entries in 12 classes, judged by a panel of experts.

Mount Leinster Clothbound is made during the summer months using raw milk from Burgess’s own cows milked that morning. It is then matured for a minimum of one year. The 15kg wheels are wrapped in strong cotton bandage.

It is available in Tesco, Temple Bar food market, On The Pig’s Back in Cork, McCambridge’s in Galway and Fallon & Byrne, Exchequer Street, Dublin.

[ irishtimes.com/food ]