A week ago me and my buddies sat down to discern what the recession meant to us. “Well, in gastronomic terms, it’s pretty bloody unpalatable,” quipped Jocko who had been caught holding too many bank shares. The company divided naturally into two camps. One party vowed to take a “draw the wagons into a ...
Restaurant ReviewsThe fanfare of trumpets that announced the opening of Bentley’s led many people to surmise that this restaurant was the one Dublin deserved, nay needed beyond all. A sort of gastro-oasis where sublime food would go hand-in-hand with fair pricing. Bentley’s is the brainchild of Richard Corrigan whom I first interviewed back in 1999. At ...
Restaurant ReviewsItalian football, of which I’m a fan, can be beautiful or brutal. For every Gianfranco Zola there’s a Mario Materazzi. I’m coming to the conclusion that Italian food, at least as practised by restaurants, is much the same. Il Vignardo is located in the basement of Isaac’s Hotel in Store Street, gateway to a district ...
Restaurant ReviewsMy good friend John McDonnell of Wine Australia is fronting a tasting course in Dublin for six Tuesdays, commencing 12th Feb in conjunction with the Wine Board. I’ve put the full details in the Events Calendar – just click on it and go to February.
Wine & DrinkOne of the most common topics that come up whenever I give a wine tutorial is the subject of ‘additives’. Maybe because disasters, scams and scandals fascinate us – particularly the 1985 ‘antifreeze’ débacle that went a good way towards wiping out German and Austrian wine exports. Yet, of all the processed food and drink ...
Wine & DrinkRegular forkncork forum contributor DonalH who runs the excellent E Kirby 66 in Kinsale has acceeded to my request to include his nan bread recipe in these pages. I’ve tested it and it works a treat. In his own words – “I spent hours making the curry but the Naan bread took all the plaudits. ...
RecipesApart from that Summer holiday nightmare, retsina, Greek wines are a bit of an unknown quantity in Ireland. But that may not be for much longer. If ever a nation could be said to have missed its way in wine, then that nation is Greece. Consider: the ancient Greeks were the guys who gave us the ...
Wine & Drink