Roll out the barrels: Spanish wine week comes to Ireland

A good glass of wine in Spain rarely comes without something small and delicious to eat served alongside, so it is excellent to see so many food-related things happening during the second Spanish Wine Week, which runs from April 23rd to 30th.

Irish Times wine writer John Wilson leads two tasting dinners, matching wines with Sunil Ghai's Indian street food at Pickle restaurant on Camden Street, as well as a wine dinner at La Touche Wines on his home turf in Greystones, Co Wicklow. There will be tremendous interest in how he squares up to the challenge of finding four wines to marry with four courses of Indian food, and this dinner on Tuesday, April 25th, gets under way at 6.30pm and will cost €50. The Greystones dinner takes place on Thursday, April 27th.

Other eye-catching events worth booking in advance are a Rioja dinner at Brioche in Ranelagh with wine writer Liam Campbell (Wednesday, April 26th, €45); a Spanish Spring Roast at Ely wine bar in Dublin 2 (Thursday, April 27th, €50); and an evening of Flamenco, Sherry and Iberian Ham at the Instituto Cervantes (Wednesday, April 26th, €5).

Wine shops around the country will also be offering discounts of up to 20 per cent on Spanish wines. For the full programme, see spanishwineweek.ie

Vegan treats

A "wonderful array of food, full of flavour, texture, nutrition and colour" – that just happens to be vegan – is what Garrett Fitzgerald's Brother Hubbard promises for its next long table supper club. The five-course feast on Tuesday, April 11th, begins at 7.30pm and will cost €34.95, with bookings in advance to reservations@brotherhubbard.ie

BBQ app

Barbecued food that looks perfectly charred but is not cooked sufficiently on the inside is an annoyance most of us have had to deal with from time to time. But there is a solution. The iGrill 3 Bluetooth thermometer is an accessory that works with Weber barbecues and sends a message via phone app when food is cooked and ready to eat.

It costs €119, but customers who buy a Weber Genesis II gas barbecue (prices start from €799) from Weber World at The Orchard in Celbridge, or from the newly opened Weber World at Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven in Carlow, will receive one free of charge until April 17th.

Galway feasting

Food and Community is the theme of the Galway Food Festival, which takes place during the Easter bank holiday weekend (April 13th-17th). The city is also gearing up to take on the mantle of European Region of Gastronomy 2018, and later this year hosts the second Food on the Edge symposium (October 9th and 10th).

A special feature of the food festival is a collaboration with Slow Food Galway on a project called My Granny’s Recipes, which invited young people to talk to family members about their food memories. The best 10 entries will be on show, and the dishes presented, at The Kitchen restaurant in Galway City Museum on Friday, April 14th. The festival is also launching a The 5-Day Week challenge, which asks families to eat at least five meals together each week.

More than 70,000 attended last year’s festival. The programme of events for this year is online at galwayfoodfestival.com