Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY

Book of the week

A Month in Marrakesh, by Andy Harris and David Loftus, published by Hardie Grant, £20/€22

When you think about Moroccan food, does a steaming tagine filled with slow-cooked lamb scented with cumin, or chicken fragrant with the tang of preserved lemons, come to mind? Probably. But there is much more than robust stews and roasts to Moroccan cuisine, and where better to explore its subtleties than in Marrakesh? Andy Harris, editor of Jamie magazine, and photographer David Loftus have produced a beautiful homage to the city and its food, that is part travelogue and part recipe collection. Vibrant, cooling salads with mint, pomegranate, oranges, dates, cucumber and fennel perk up the taste buds, and sweet, sticky pastries are an irresistible temptation. For the health-conscious there is a tangy carrot and orange soup (right) and a whole chapter on condiments, with recipes for harissa and preserved lemon as well as more unusual things to sprinkle or drizzle on food such as chermoula, and amlou, a nut butter made with almonds, honey and argan oil.

Webwatch

eatonlyirish.com

Read about, and perhaps take part in, a fascinating social experiment that has grown out of a Twitter conversation. Is it possible to eat only Irish food for a week – no coffee, no rice, no pepper, no olive oil? On the other hand, what would it be like to eat only imported foods for a week? From next Monday, May 9th you can try either option, and join in an online discussion group that promises to be lively and fun, as well as raising some important issues.

Best of Italian

Chef Giancarlo Anselmi has been at the helm of Talavera, the Italian restaurant in the Radisson Blu St Helen’s in Dublin, since the hotel opened, and he has built up a loyal brigade of talented young chefs from his home country.

To showcase their expertise – and perhaps fire up their competitive spirit – the restaurant is putting on a series of Italian regional menus, starting this month and next with Sardinia, and moving on to Puglia for July and August.

Sardinian specialities that will be on the menu include roast suckling piglet; fregola, a hand-rolled pasta, similar to giant couscous, with mussels and clams; and tangy cheese tartlets called seadas. Puglia’s star turns will include burrata (mozzarella with a creamy centre), braciole (a five-hour slow-cooked beef and tomato sauce dish), and zeppole, which are feather-light pastries filled with a sweet cream.

An Italian-style menu, with a starter followed by a pasta dish, main course, dessert and two glasses of wine, will be priced at €45 per person. You can book by telephoning 01-2186032.

Happy birthday Fallon & Byrne

If you're in Dublin city centre today, you are invited to drop into Fallon & Byrne on Exchequer Street to join in its fifth birthday celebrations. Pastry chefs at the food emporium are making a giant croquembouche for the occasion, using
more than 600 eggs, 14kg of flour, 6.5kg of butter and 80kg of sugar to make the 4,000 profiteroles, caramel and creme patissiere that construction of the two-metre-tall creation will require. There will be glasses of bubbly to accompany the birthday cake (between 2pm and 6pm).