Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY

Book your bed now . . . for the Inishfood Festival on May 18th-20th, a food blogger event initiated last year that snowballed into a massively popular weekend of demonstrations, talks, storytelling, singling, and eating, of course, on the Inishowen peninsula in Co Donegal. Further details will be posted on irishfoodbloggers.com

Web watch

fruitcity.co.uk

This is a fascinating interactive map of fruit trees in public spaces across the UK. Did you know, for instance, that there is a Chinese plum tree right outside the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge? Not sure what would happen if you picked one, though. “Fruit City is not just a map of trees, but an initiative to wake people up to the nature on their doorstep,” the site says.

Top food tweets . . . the buzz

Ernie Whalley @forkncork: Great typo on menu at A. Caviston. Included in list of suppliers is Ed Hick, pork bitcher. S up, Ed?

Cafe Paradiso @paradisocork: Position coming up in Paradiso for a chef with skill, experience and real desire to join the team

Pandora Bell @pandorabell: News just in ... Pandora Bell's Real Eggshells are going to be featured in the Easter edition of Vogue

Nigella Lawson @Nigella_Lawson: “@Mariobatali Chef when are u opening Eataly in London?” “Next year”

Jay Rayner @jayrayner1: Advice pls: how to deal with tweet like this? @pregcitygirl:@jayrayner1 Ive never liked u 4 some reason but thx for a balanced review

Eat like a queen

You can eat like a queen, Queen Elizabeth II to be exact, when Ross Lewis recreates the menu he served at the State banquet last May for a fundraising lunch in aid of Barretstown, the children's charity, on Monday, January 30th. The venue is Chapter One restaurant in Dublin 1, and the restaurant is donating the food and wine for the event (plus, Lewis and his team will be on duty on their day off). The menu will include cured salmon, rib of beef, carrageen set cream with rhubarb and an Irish cheese plate. Further details of the elaborate menu, which will be only marginally adjusted to reflect seasonality, can been seen at chapteronerestaurant.com/statedinner. Reservations are limited to 80 diners, and the cost is €100 per person. You can book with the restaurant on 01-8732266.

Bewley’s is declaring an amnesty for instant coffee next weekend. Bring a jar to Grafton Street in Dublin next Friday to Sunday and trade it for a ziplock pack of Bewley’s best, if you want. The first 1,000 coffee drinkers to avail of the amnesty will also receive a pack with five varieties of ground coffee and a one-cup cafetiere

Chinese New Year festivities

The Asia Market oriental food store on Drury Street in Dublin 2 celebrates the arrival of the year of the dragon tomorrow with a New Year Carnival in Meeting House Square in Temple Bar (noon to 6pm). There will be Chinese food and craft stalls, tai chi and martial arts displays, traditional and contemporary dance and music performances, and a blessing of the dragon by a Shaolin monk and an Irish druid. The dragon in question was specially made for the celebrations at a Shaolin temple in Hong Kong. The dragon's dance performance will be at 4pm (midnight in China, New Year's Eve). It sounds like lots of fun and admission is free. The event is part of Dublin's Chinese New Year Festival (January 20th-February 3rd), full details of which can been seen at cny.ie.

Seriously good chocolate

The new Róisín’s Seriously Scrumptious chocolate bars, part of the Specially Selected premium offering at Aldi, are exceptionally good, if you like your chocolate sweet and milky. The packaging is similar to Butler’s, and the name is suggestive of the Áine brand, made in Cavan by Ann Rudden, but Aldi declined to confirm who makes it for them, although it is produced in Ireland. There are four bars in the range – butterscotch, honeycomb crisp, caramel and orange. The orange variety has a truffle centre infused with Brazilian orange oil and is particularly good. €1.29 for a 75g bar.

If you enjoyed Ken Hom's contribution to True Characters, you can see him cooking at Tesco in Cabra, Dublin
(2pm-3pm) and Tesco Extra in Naas (4pm-5pm) on Monday, January 23rd