THERE are only two difficulties involved" I when visiting Cork city.
First, it is hell trying to make up your mind just where you should eat. Second, there are so many good things to buy in the shops and markets of the city that you will spend a ton of money.
So, let's deal with the folding stuff first. What should you bring home from the shop? Start in the Covered Market and head for squid ink tagliatelle in the lago stall perfect with prawns. Look out also Orla sheep's cheese, and of course grab a quick espresso.
Now, get your prawns step back five paces and you are at O'Connell's fish stall. Here you will meet fish of unimpeachable freshness and, in the person of Pat O'Connell, a man perfectly gifted to sell it to you.
Head around the corner to the Pig's Back, and get some sausage, some terrines, and some authentic Puy lentils from Isobel. Do try, some buttered eggs, if you haven't already done so and then over we go to get some of the splendiferous Maucnaclea cheeses if Martin and Anne Marie have made some Munster, make sure to get an enormous traache. Before you leave, don't forget the olives and the very best sun dried tomatoes from the Real Olive Co.
On Marlborough Street, Simon and John O'Flynn will account for some more of your salary with such infectious charm that you won't feel a thing. Bring home some pork and pineapple bangers for the kids.
Of course you can't leave Cork without a Famous Cherry Bun, from Natural Foods on Paul Street, and every trip must involve a visit to see what delightful veggies are for sale in the Quay Co-Op shop, just over the river.
That is the easy bit. The hard bit is deciding where to eat. You could have one of the famous sandwiches made by the ladies in white coats in The Long Valley pub, the perfect partner for a pint of Murphys, or grab a mega concoction from lago in the market, or one of the tried and trusted rolls in The Gingerbread House.
The elegant rooms that house the Crawford Gallery Cafe, Isaac's Brasserie and Jacque's are endlessly alluring, and so is the cooking. The vegetarian cookery of Cafe Paradiso, on the Western Road, is dazzling, and there is fine vegetarian food also in The Quay Co-op. A relative newcomer such as Proby's Bistro is currently a great hit, and while the Ryan family's Arbutus Lodge may be the grand dame of Cork cooking, it steadfastly maintains an impish youthfulness which makes for lovely, lazy lunches.
For culinary bedazzlement, Clifford's Restaurant and The Ivory Tower are showcases for two of Irish cooking's most creative talents. No one else cooks the way Michael Clifford and Seamus O'Connell do, and while their styles, and their settings, are wildly different, both produce food which can be unforgettable.