Letters Page: Dear John and Sally

Dear John and Sally

Ref: Michael in Ashford and Vodka.
Help is at hand in Belfast. We list a large selection of Vodkas from around the world including Stolichnya, Wyborowa and Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka as well as Grey Goose, Van Hoo, Ketel One, Skyy, Rain etc etc etc Give us a call on 0828 90791197 or email us at: info@compendiumwines.com

Kind Regards, Neil Groom

*Thanks Neil, and anyone checking out the vodka at Compendium should take a close look at those wine shelves also; this is an ace shop.

Dear John and Sally

A couple of weeks ago, three of us went for a celebratory meal in Aqua Restaurant in Howth.  We have absolutely no complaints about the food - it was excellent.  But this wonderful food was really let down by the ladies loo (we can't speak for the gents one!).  The music was awful.  I think it was meant to sound as if you were by the sea but instead, to us (maybe we'd had too much wine!), it felt like we were under the sea and about to drown. To cap it all, the flowers in the loo were not fresh ones.  Given the prices charged in this restaurant, I really feel the least they could do is to use fresh flowers.  A week later, I was in Tribeca in Ranelagh for Sunday brunch (which, incidently now starts at 12.30, not 12 noon as mentioned in your book), and, there, in the ladies loo was a huge vase of fresh flowers - this is the way it should be done.

*Thanks for that! So, restauranteurs, how are your loos sorted for sounds and flowers? It all matters, you know!

Dear John and Sally

Unfortunately one of my favourite restaurants in Dublin, Moe's on Baggot Street, has recently closed down. A new restaurant, L'aubergine, has opened at the same address. I've passed it a couple of times over the last three or four weeks and they still have Moe's old Bridgestone awards hanging outside.. Given that if I'm in a new town or city in Ireland and I want to find somewhere to eat, I tend to be guided by the presence of a Bridgestone or other award, I thought I should bring it to your attention. I'm hoping that it's merely an oversight on their part, as I think it would be rather disingenuous for them to be attempting to attract custom on the basis of the success of Moe's.

Regards, Roisin Cronin

*One of our perennial problems, Roisin. The only way around it is to check that the restaurant has a plaque for the current year: the 2003 Bridgestone Plaques will be offered shortly to the restaurants and accommodation that feature in our latest Bridgestone guides. In the meantime. we have received reports that Mark Usher's cooking in L'aubergine is very promising indeed: we'll be checking it for the 2003 Guides soon.

Dear John and Sally

Hello John and Sally, I just would like to say that we find your guide books very informative and we have been using your 100 Best Places to Stay for the past few years. Hospitality plays a major part in the places you have listed in your guide and I wonder if there is a publication where you can pick up tips in this area.  We are aware that hospitality is an innate part of one's being but some guidance would be very much appreciated.  We are hoping to open up a guest accommodation in Andulasia in the next year/18 months and any advice on a book/publication between guest and manager/owner would be much appreciated.

A. Donnellan/A.Quinn B.

*Hospitality is the key ingredient of success, but it's not just innate: you can learn it and learn how to improve it. John McKenna plans a book of succeeding in hospitality sometime in 2003, whenever he gets his head around it!

Dear John and Sally

I am doing a project on the food scene in Belfast in terms of eating out, retail outlets and food markets. Could you recommend any guide books or even websites or other sources of information where I could begin my research.

*Look no further than the brand new Bridgestone Food Lovers Guide to Northern Ireland, authored by Caroline Workman and John McKenna, and available via bridgestoneguides.com: see the review by Seth Londer in this Megabytes.

Dear John and Sally

I greatly enjoy your excellent newsletter. I am interested in your views on a restaurant phenomenon which seems to be occurring increasingly in Dublin: when a service change is included, the credit card slip is left open inviting a further tip - I find this more than annoying, and it sours my view of the particular restaurants!

*We agree, and where there is a s/c, we don't tip also, and we do regard it as a bad practice on the part of the restaurant.

Dear John and Sally

Thanks for publishing a vegetarian guide.  In the past I have had chefs in a pub carvery offer to put gravy (meat-based!) on my veg and have given me veg in a carbonara sauce containing ham.  I hope those kind of places are excluded from your guide.

*They certainly are, and we regard that sort of crass behaviour and lack of understanding of vegetarians' needs to be unforgivable. Have some of these people ever spent so much as 5 minutes considering a proper vegetarian offer? Probably not.

Dear John and  Sally

What criteria are used to be in the "Bridgestone best of Ireland" for restaurants? Do you have an "undercover spy" who visits the premises or is it a more simple method.

Mike

*Our editors check out the places, and re-check featured entries, Mike, and tell us which ones deserve to be included. Our critera are simple; we want creative, signature cooking from great people in great rooms at great value.. Isn't that what everyone wants?

Dear John and Sally

I am the photographer and web-author of the Northern Ireland Mural Directory ( http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/mccormick) and I am writing to see if you would consider adding the website URL to your section on Northern Ireland when the book is revised. It will be particularly interesting for visitors to get a tour of Northern Ireland's murals and history and allow them to plan their visits to see the murals up-close. The Directory was established as part of the University of Ulster at Magee's CAIN project (Conflict Archive on the Internet) and currently details 1500 murals across the North, primarily as an impartial web-based educational resource for students of Irish studies, history, politics, art etc, but it has also been viewed by visitors and natives to the North, the British Army, and the paramilitaries. There are over 220 images which can be viewed on-line. The Directory has attracted up to 2000 visits a month worldwide.   

I hope you see this as an opportunity to promote an undeniable part of the Irish culture, and include a useful resource for your readers.

Yours sincerely, Jonathan McCormick

Dear John and Sally

Hi, Sally/John, Just a quick line to keep you up to date on a few developments, in this neck of the woods. ! Glendalough Farmers Market , up & running 2nd Sun of month......Dublin Docklands Food & Producers Mkt ..open before Christmas(?).. Dun Laoghaire Food & Producers Mkt...open mid 2003. Exciting times!!! I'll talk to you soon.

Ed.

*A word from the ultra-busy and brilliant Ed Hick of Sallynoggin. This market thing is getting out of hand, and it's all Toby Simmonds fault, of course.

Dear John and Sally

Delighted to see the publication of a guide to vegetarian food in Ireland. Used your Travellers Guide this summer when at home in Ireland, it was wonderful. Will be travelling to New Zealand at Christmas and was wondering if you could recommend anywhere good to eat on the South Island. Eilis Murphy, Hong Kong

*We never managed to make it to NZ a couple of years back, despite a kind invitation to address the NZ guild  of food writers, so we're not up to speed on the South island. Look out for the excellent NZ food magazines for information on happening restaurants; like their Aussie counterparts, they are ace, and especially handsome.

Dear John and Sally

Hello, My husband and I were just in Ireland on holiday and loved the brown bread they served with soup in the different pubs. Is there any way we could get a recipe for this bread? Thank you.

Charlene McKenna

*Check out future step-by-step cooking on Megabytes, where we will feature a classic brown bread

Dear John & Sally

Can you recommend anywhere in Nth County Dublin or Louth for a romantic night away for two gourmands?  A restaurant with rooms or a B&B close to a good seafood restaurant would be in our budget range. 

Many thanks, Esther

*Ghan House in pretty Carlingford is the lovers' destination of choice, Esther. And don't overlook Terry McCoy's cosy rooms in The Red Bank, in Skerries, which has super seafood cookery.

Dear John & Sally

Hi, We are a family of 5 with 3 children aged 4, 7 and 10. I would be very grateful if you could recommend a Farmhouse where we could stay, where the kids could learn about life on the farm and maybe get a bit involved. Any information appreciated.

*Our tribe love the farm aspect of Annagh Lodge, near Nenagh, in County Tipperary. Check out www.annaghlodge.com

Dear John and Sally

I am trying to locate a recipe by Peg Bracken which was a hamburger stroganoff which was served on the crispy, canned Chinese noodles. I have had no luck. Do you know of such a recipe?

Sincerely, Peggy Wilson

*Can anyone help Peggy with this intriguing enquiry, please?