Archive for August, 2007

In The Shadow Of The Andes

August 27, 2007 No Comments

“Welcome to Santiago” said Christian, the driver assigned to me by Wines of Chile. For the next six days he and I were to tour vineyards at the rate of three a day, clocking up a sniff/slurp/spit of nigh on 400 individual bottles in a mission to assess the progress made by the country’s winemakers. ...

Tags: , , , , , , , Wine & Drink

Bringing home the bacon

August 27, 2007 No Comments

There’s an old Irish saying that “Nothing goes to waste in a house where a pig is kept”. I used to think it was meant to be taken literally until I realised that my wife was using the epithet to draw attention to my gargantuan appetite and my reputation as the ultimate omnivore. Nevertheless, there ...

Food

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Alexis

American business psychologist Warren G. Bennis, described by Forbes magazine as ‘the king of leadership gurus’  is on record...

‘YOU DON’T NEED A POSH CANON” – blogpix for newbies

I’ve been a photo hobbyist since I got given  my first serious camera as a fourteenth birthday present. A...

YOU’LL NEVER BLOG ALONE – the day I discovered I’m a blogger and other stories

There are now over 400 food bloggers in Ireland. Though www.forkncork.com my food and drink website, Ireland’s first, has...

Natural Wine: Dog’s bollocks or the King’s new clothes?

Natural Wine Tasting at Fallon & Byrne, Dublin  by Le Caveau My first encounter with what has come to...

BLOG – variations on a sweet-and-sour theme

I cooked my first sweet and sour dish in 1984. Pork, of course. The recipe came from Ken Hom’s...

BOOK REVIEW Dunne & Crescenzi – The Menu

“We really cook very simply. Remember that the methods and ingredients have been used for generations and in the...

BLOG – 2 good blends tested but why is most coffee in Ireland shit?

  I’ve just been road testing a brace of quality coffees from a small and relatively new Irish supplier,...

That’s Amarone – Masi & Serego Alighieri tasting

Valpolicella is a viticultural zone of the Italian province of Verona, east of Lake Garda, ranking as the second...

BLOG – of store cupboards and other matters

Yesterday I set out to clean out my store cupboard – well, not exactly ‘clean out’ but at least...

RESTAURANT REVIEW – Lee Kee

My first encounter with Chinese food was in Manchester way back in the last century.  I was doing evening...