Megabytes by John & Sally McKenna May 2001
Happy Summer!
Power, wealth and health
Good news from Skibbereen, in West Cork. The first Skibbereen Farmers' Market will open on the morning of Saturday 5th May, on the town's Fair Field. The new market, kicking off at 10am, revives an ancient tradition, for Skibbereen has always been a market town, with the first market patent being granted to William Sprigg and Samuel Hall in 1688 with a second to Richard Townsend in 1778. A weekly cattle mart was held in the Fair Field until last year, and a pony fair is held there every summer. Read on.
Your Shout.
The Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge has a reputation for being expensive,
and, yes, if you want to stay there, then the prices are pretty wild.
But, don't let the fear of winding up doing the dishes put you off trying
their restaurant, for not only are prices in the Seasons restaurant pretty
decent and on a par with other smart city restaurants, but executive chef
Terry White and his team do a good job in producing cooking which is restrained
and yet thoroughly enjoyable. Read on.
Menu of the Month: Tetsuya Wakuda
What does that mean to you? A new Japanese software system? A cold water fish the Japanese treasure? The nickname of a particular type of sushi? Find out.
News from the Front
'We've got mountains, the Lough, good restaurants, a Medieval town, and a real adventure playground with sea fishing, yachting, water skiing, windsurfing and archery'. This is Carlingford, and we're talking to Paul Carroll of Ghan House. Carlingford is also on the Cooley Peninsula, centre of the republic's only Food & Mouth incident. So what's it like operating in the people business on the Cooley Peninsula?
Cucina Toscana
In the second of her delightful series of a Restaurateur's Report from France and Italy, Baltimore's Custom House chef Susan Holland writes about three very different restaurants, including one where authentic cucina Toscana is cooked by an English woman. This winter we spent some time in Tuscany and found three very different restaurants. Find out more.
Looks nice.
Mike O'Toole will need no introduction to Irish food lovers, for his inspired photographic work has been amongst the most visible in many mediums over the last several years. Find out more.
Commons Cookery Classes
If you twisted our arm (ouch! Hey, we were being metaphorical) and asked who is the hottest emerging cooking talent in Dublin right now, we might just have to say that Aiden Byrne of The Commons Restaurant on St Stephen's Green fits the bill. His food is powerfully flavoured and shows a mesmerising technique. Find out more.
Recipe of the Month
"New Vegetarian" is one of those titles that makes you wince, because it's such an infernal, lazy cliché and such a meaningless phrase. But, though Celia Brooks Brown's first book, "New Vegetarian" may have an awful title, it has seriously good and accessible food right throughout its bright and well-designed pages. Find out more
Pub Lunch Awards
Congratulations to Padraic Frawley of Aubars in Thomas Street, Limerick, who has just become the first ever overall winner of the Club Orange/Licensing World Pub Lunch Awards. Read on.
The Competition!
Congratulations to Adrian Baartels of Kenmare in Co Kerry who has won last month's competiton, and a cracking prize of a gorgeous and super-efficient Rösle food mill. And this month, another rollickingly desireable prize.Read on..
Noticeboard - West Cork Idyll
Otto and Hilda Kunze of Otto's Creative Cuisine, in Butlerstown, West Cork, are offering for sale a traditional thatched roof residence adjacent to their restaurant-cum-cookery-school in this unspoilt, elemental part of west Cork. Find out more.
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Til next month's Megabytes!
Thank you to Cool Mountain Baskets for the thought-provoking basket imagery.
