Sally's blog

We have been going to stay at Ballymaloe House for twenty five years. We first arrived there on our bicycles, having taken the train from Dublin with the bikes in the Guard’s van, then cycled on the old road through Carrigtoohill and Cloyne and on to the house itself. Ballymaloe surprised us back then – Myrtle Allen clearing tables late on a Saturday night! that Milleens cheese like nothing we had ever tasted! the dessert trolley! – and today, after twenty five years, Ballymaloe can still surprise you with the simplest things.

All great political and social movements begin with a Megaphone and a Manifesto. The 2013 Electric Picnic Food Manifestos were delivered by a bunch of passionate artisans and producers with nothing more than a soap box, a megaphone and an idea. As this video shows, the Ranters were political, philosophical and passionate.

Judging the annual Electric Picnic food awards is just about the most fun thing we do all year. It is, however, also the most difficult thing we do all year. How can you decide, for instance, that Totally Tipperary with its incredible Country Choice breakfast rolls, amazing Traas Farm Apple Juice and Alan Andrew’s brilliant Coffee Culture brews is not actually going to get one of the gongs, even though every single detail of the operation is perfect.

Eugene Callaghan was the first winner of the Roux brothers' scholarship, and is one of the most respected chefs in Ireland. His work fuses a classical affinity with subtle improvisations. In Beaches Restaurant at Kelly's Hotel he cooks for extraordinary numbers of people -- the hotel averages 95% occupancy -- seemingly without any tension whatsoever.

www.kellys.ie

Don’t be in any doubt: what Rory Carvill and Oliver Dunne are doing in Cleaver East is important.
Together, they have created a hybrid of cooking and eating that is thrillingly original. Sure, they have borrowed ideas from everywhere, but it’s the fusion of those ideas into something that is brilliantly new and successful that knocks your socks off in CE.
Our jotted-down notes give some idea of how novel their work is. We scribbled this:

This issue's community video comes from Saba, Dublin. Stir Fried Chilli Prawns.

Caroline and Joe Rigney run a Farmhouse B&B in West Limerick, Rigneys of Curraghchase. Prepare to be entranced by this story-book farm, a perfect example of genuine Irish B&B hospitality.

When we eat a piece of meat, we take part in not just one, but three miraculous events.
The first is the miracle of photosynthesis, which converts the sun’s energy into a grass that is food for ruminant animals: sunlight turned to sugars.
The second is the process by which animals can convert grass to muscle and milk and eggs.
The third miracle is when we take that muscle and, by dint of fire, turn it into deliciousness personified: a grilled lamb chop; fried slices of pork fillet; a t-bone for the barbecue; your breakfast boiled egg.

Wholefood shops in Ireland tend to have a design ambiance that suggests worthiness. They shun design almost as a badge of pride, as if good design is a distraction.
Just how wrong these shops are in taking this approach can be seen when you walk into Patsy and Philip Rodger’s In a Nutshell, in the centre of little New Ross.
Nutshell, and it’s companion café at the back of the shop, is pure beautiful. The lighting is dramatic, the foods look sexy, the big blackboard at the rere with the day’s dishes is hip and cool.

Certain places where we go to eat offer what we might call Magic Moments. Idaho Café in Cork, run by Richard and Mairead Jacob, is one of those places.
The room is so petite that you could get away with calling it a tabernacle. Many years ago we warned anyone coming here not to bring their cat. Everyone who comes here eats cheek-by-jowl, and everyone likes that. The building wraps around the corner of Maylor Street and Caroline Street, and the seating wraps around a central counter where Richard Jacob and his team enjoy a wide-screen view of everyone in the place.