The Kerala Kitchen Indian restaurants in Baggot Street, Dublin 4, and Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, are offering picnics to go, and you get to keep the handy tiffin box they come in. These can be refilled at either branch, and do away with the need to dispose of packaging.
The two-tier stainless steel tiffin tins can be filled with a choice from Kerala Kitchen's most popular curries – chicken Chettinad, vegan chana masala or saag paneer – along with pilau rice, potato and pea samosa, poppadoms and homemade chutney. They cost €40 and are available to pre-order by emailing stoneybatter@keralakitchen.ie or baggotstreet@keralakitchen.ie, with collections from noon.
Tasty, sustainable burgers
The new Bujo burger outlet at Junction 6 on the M50, at Castleknock, created from six repurposed shipping containers, is "where click and collect meets drive-thru", according to owner Michael Sheary.
The menu of burgers made to chef Grainne O'Keefe's recipe (and also including Beyond Meat vegetarian and vegan options), fries and sides, dips and drinks, is available to pre-order online at bujo.ie. Orders are cooked fresh for each time slot for collection and can be picked up at the drive-through hatch, or you can park and collect at a walk-up window.
The same focus on sustainability, which set new standards for an Irish burger restaurant when Bujo opened in Sandymount, has been applied in Castleknock. A third Bujo outlet will open in Terenure later this year.
Bee-inspired gin
Mother and daughter Marie and Sally Anne Cooney have launched Silks Gin, named after Bellewstown racecourse, adjacent to their family owned Boann Distillery in Co Meath. They share an interest in beekeeping, and apple blossom from trees pollinated by the bees they keep at the family home in Co Meath, features among the 14 botanicals used to make the new gin. It costs €39.95 and is available from boanndistillery.ie.
Beth's baking
Beth O’Brien is a name to watch out for in Irish culinary circles. The European Studies graduate followed up her Trinity College degree by doing the Ballymaloe three-month cookery course in 2019. She has since worked at Moro in London, run a micro-bakery from her Dublin home, and completed a work experience stint at the well known Paris bakery, Ten Belles.
She is cooking at the Sea Hare on Cleggan Pier this summer, where her Wednesday doughnut specials will be worth a detour. In September she will undertake a Masters in Food Business and Innovation at UCC and hopes to focus on sustainability in food systems.
Her Instagram account, Bethcooksthings, features regular baking comparison projects, for which she bakes nine different recipes for popular cakes, photographs them, and compares the results.
Compostable trays
The Aldi supermarket chain has introduced compostable trays for its Specially Selected steak range. The packaging is made from sugarcane pulp and the move is part of the brand's plastic reduction programme which will see more than 67 tonnes of plastic removed from its stores this year.
