Good food or nothing more than calories?
Haven’t had a chance yet to watch the Frontline programme on the issue on RTÉ last night but hope to see it this evening. Meanwhile, here are some more thoughts on the Calories on Menus issue. Continue reading
This rather obscure image is currently heading the No to counting calories facebook page, grabbed at the last minute. But it is relevant: a cap from a bottle of exquisite Glenillen milk. Older readers will instantly recognise the cream on the underside of the cap, recalling an era before homogenisation, you know, when milk actually tasted good.
When I recently learned of plans to bring in legislation requiring restaurants to itemise the calories in each dish on their menus, my initial reaction, rightly or wrongly, was one of absolute disgust at what I perceived to be idiocy in the extreme. Most alarmingly, it seemed this process was being shepherded through with almost zero public debate. I began to tweet about it but Twitter leaves little room for nuance in any debate so I established a facebook page, hoping it would become a forum for debate and a place in which others could add links to other resources of information. Continue reading
Greene’s is now of an age, nearly 20, which might qualify it for institution status in Cork but partly due to its location, a little off the main drag, and partly due to varying fortunes in the kitchen over the years, it seems to have lost some of its lustre. But the current chef, Fred Desormeaux is cooking some very, very fine food making it well worth a reappraisal.
Kevin Aherne, Chef/Proprietor, Sage Restaurant, Midleton
My review of Sage Restaurant in Midleton was published in yesterday’s Irish Examiner but I can always find a few more words to add to anything I have published, being a great man altogether for the guff. When it comes to Sage, I’d have no trouble at all filling a newspaper – I am a big fan of the restaurant.
Many thanks to all who sent lovely messages saying how greatly you were missing updates from The Swashbuachaill. I can only assume they were genuine as Dear Old Sainted Mother Swashbuachaill is currently barred from the local internet cafe after burning out three hard drives ‘liking’ my last post. So, I believe some sort of explanation for The Swashbuachaill’s absence is in order.
There’s an awful lot of stuff to be found in The Swashbuachaill’s head. What some may call weird, others call wonderful (that would be Dear Old Sainted Mother Swashbuachaill leading the charge on the latter) but all agree the biggest thing in The Swashbuachaill noggin is the Sweet Tooth.
After a week of nocturnal childherding a sickening Daddy’s Little Girl, I handed her over to Mrs Swashbuachaill at 8 of the A.M. and repaired to the boudoir for a couple of hours shuteye. Which meant I reached Douglas Farmer’s Mkt, where the bulk of my weekly shopping is done, well after 12pm to a market that closes at 2pm on the last weekend before Christmas. Bedlam in the shopping centre and car park around the market but, within, a little haven for me to practice coffee drinking and yapping on an industrial scale. There are a lot more fabulous stalls than those featured but I had to do a little shopping as well including securing the bones of my Christmas Dinner so more pics will have to follow at a later date. 
There’s one more market on next Saturday, Christmas Eve, and many of the same stallholders are also in Mahon Mkt on Thursdays. Bear with me on the technical front – it’s the first time I’ve tried to do any class of moving image thingamajig. Anyhoo, click back and have a look and do, please, let me know what you think including advice on how to make it better! Happy Christmas!
I had passed the morning in the office, feigning work but, in reality, exchanging recipe ideas and generally hymning the praises of chorizo with Aoife @icanhascook and Kristin @edibleireland. At one point, I even confessed to being Half Man/Half Chorizo.
My heart's desire - The Green Cabbage
I adore cabbage in all its myriad forms, but love most especially that solid bowling ball, layers, thick as leather, turning their backs on the elements and clinging onto each other for dear life — the green cabbage.
That statement in itself is quite a wonder for deep within I bear many cabbage-drawn scars. Dear Old Sainted Mother (DOSM) Swashbuachaill thankfully never really strayed into Bacon and Cabbage territory (overly complex for her culinary abilities) any time she got lost and accidentally wound up in the kitchen. No, boarding school is where the real damage was inflicted. Continue reading
Fresh chanterelles from Ballyhoura Mountain Mushrooms
A few weeks ago, as I was leaving Mahon Farmer’s Market with little Isabel under my arm, racing off to collect Hector from playschool and already 15 minutes late, I spotted a tiny stall selling mushrooms. Lucy Deegan and Mark Cribbin are the owner/operators of Ballyhoura Mountain Mushrooms and this – on the community stall, a class of guest spot each week at Mahon – was one of their first real forays into the market world. Continue reading
