The Bridgestone Irish Food Guide

Whoops! It’s that time of year again! Reviewing John and Sally’s Irish Food Guide for the umpteenth time is like trying to reinvent the wheel. Oh well, here goes. Overall, it’s much as before – a fizzy, frothy shandy of exuberant passion over essential hard information and a pretty comprehensive ‘who’s who’ take on the Irish food and drink scene. Much of the fun consists of scanning the list of contributors and trying to discern who wrote what. One or two surprising exclusions and a few debatable inclusions provide fuel for dinner party discussion. The Bridgestone’s dilemma is that it’s not quite so indispensable as in John and Sally’s jihad days when cheese meant Calvita and you couldn’t get an espresso a mile from Stephen’s Green. But it’s still a great read and, as always, they’ve unearthed some artisans whose existence even we at F&W weren’t aware of. In this lies the real merit of the book and we’d hate to be without it.

The Bridgestone Irish Food Guide by John & Sally McKenna. Estragon Press e15 Stg£10