FOODFILE:The Campo Viejo Tapas Trail, visiting five Dublin restaurants that specialise in the traditional Spanish way of eating, sounds like a fun way to spend a Wednesday evening or a Saturday afternoon during the month of June.
Starting on Wednesday, June 1st, the twice-weekly event will take in Bar Pintxo in Temple Bar, the Port House on South William Street, Salamanca on Andrew’s Street and Dame Street, and Havana Tapas Bar on George’s Street, with participants sampling a tapa and some wine in each of the five venues, for an all-in fee of €20. The restaurants will also be providing entertainment, including flamenco dancing, Spanish guitar recitals and talks from the chefs on the tapas they are serving.
Up to 100 people will be participating in the trail during each session, split up into five groups of 20, with each group starting off in a different participating restaurant. Those taking part will be assigned their starting restaurant and route in advance. Bookings can only be made at facebook.com/campoviejoireland. The trails kick off at 7pm on Wednesdays and 2pm on Saturdays.
Been disappointed by a restaurant recently? Have your say when restaurateurs Joe Macken (JoBurger and Crackbird), Paul Cadden (Saba), chef Enda McEvoy (Gregan’s Castle), and Bridgestone Guide Dublin editor Caroline Byrne join journalist Aoife Carrigy for the second For Food’s Sake night of discussion and food tasting at The Sugar Club, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, next Thursday, May 26th (7pm; admission €5, at the door). “Are Irish restaurants up the swanny?” is the evening’s topic for debate.
Half-price organic burgers
Businesses that are surviving difficult trading conditions really do have something to celebrate. Gourmet Burger Bistro in Cork, which takes pride in using only organic lamb and beef and free-range chicken, will mark its second year in business on Tuesday, May 31st, and from noon to 10pm that day the entire food menu will be sold at half the regular price. In Dublin’s Sandyford Industrial Estate, the Munchies Central Park coffee shop, run by Noel O’Mahony, will be one year in business on May 25th, and Murphy will be offering free coffee and cake to customers on the day.
WEBWATCH localmarkets.ie
A reader recommends this website, which provides a nationwide distribution service to artisan food producers in the Cork area. So, if you’re hankering after more of that delicious chutney that you picked up on a visit to Mahon Point farmers’ market, or you’d like to get hold of some of those O’Flynn’s sausages Domini Kemp recommended for her recent sausage casserole recipe, but you’re hundreds of miles from Cork’s English Market, log on and go shopping. Deliveries are made in temperature-regulated boxes and the cost is only €5, to anywhere in Ireland, with a minimum €30 spend.
Irish Food Festival
All roads will lead to Carnaross, Co Meath next Sunday when food producers from every corner of the country converge on the headquarters of Sheridans Cheesemongers at Virginia Road Station for the second annual Irish Food Festival. Last year's inaugural event attracted a crowd of 3,000 food lovers with money in their pockets to spend on speciality food products, and an appetite for information shared at the free workshops, which will be hosted this year by Ella McSweeney of RTÉ's Ear to the Groundprogramme. Boxty Making, Irish Wild Foods, Black Puddings, Raw Milk, Butter and Cheese, Cooking with Irish Lamb, and Dexter Beef are the topics up for discussion on Sunday, May 29th in the workshop tent, from 11.30am. Participation is free, and the full programme can be seen at sheridanscheesemongers.com, but places must be reserved in advance with Elisabeth Ryan, tel: 046-9245110, or email eryan@sheridanscheesemongers.com.
