Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

I have quite a few real Irish recipes and Irish-American recipes to share with you today so in the interest of space, I’m using links. I’ll include a few yummy photos too, of course!

Irish Cream Cheesecake from Scratch

Irish White Soda Bread

What it’s like to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Cork, Ireland

Luck of the Irish? And an Irish Scone Recipe

Classic Beef Stew

Beef & Irish Stout Stew

I’ll Eat my Way to Finding the Best Irish Scone in Ireland

Luck O‘ The Irish

Ireland for the Foodie Tourist

Cork Food Forum 2011: Event Wrap-up

Celebrating ‘The Country Cooking of Ireland’

Catex 2013 at RDS

Earlier this week, Kate, LB and I went up to Dublin for Catex 2013. It was inspiring and enjoyable, even if it was a whirlwind day in Dublin (longer next time, I promise, Big Smoke friends). Want to read all about it? Here’s a big long post on my main blog about the day.

Sunday Brunch in Cork City at No. 5 Fenn’s Quay Restaurant

Brunch may have been around for decades but Fenn’s Quay Restaurant, located on Sheares Street in Cork City Centre, is bringing it to Sundays on the 9^th, 16^th and 23^rd of December, from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Sundays are a day when there are not many brunch options in Cork City and are most needed during the peak shopping season. A perfect opportunity to fuel up before final Christmas shopping in town or take a moment away from the madness to eat well and take a moment for yourself – and no queues!

Executive Chefess Kate Lawlor created a delectable brunch menu featuring local ingredients in classics, like Eggs Benedict with Rosscarbery Rashers or Boiled Eggs and Soldiers with Marmite, and indulgent favorites, like fluffy Feirm Úr Buttermilk Pancakes with your choice of crème fraîche, homemade jam or maple syrup. For light eaters, there are Croissants, Porridge or Fruit Scones served with Irish butter and Kate’s own house-made jam. With a variety of brunch dishes on the special menu, you’ll be spoilt for choice. Known for its family-friendly menu and staff, even the littlest brunchers will enjoy themselves.

Sunday brunch is the perfect time to treat yourself to a relaxing meal. Make your outing a family affair or gather with friends. Fenn’s Quay will have its own playlist of Jazz favorites playing in the background so you can enjoy a break from holiday music and focus on good food and conversation. I mean, how many times can we listen to ‘All I Want For Christmas’?!

Fenn’s Quay is proudly an Eircom WiFiHub, a service that allows Eircom broadband, eMobile and Meteor customers to connect to the Internet when they are out and about.

About Fenn’s Quay

No. 5 Fenn’s Quay Restaurant offers cosy dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere. The menu offers fresh, simple, and creative dishes from the regions of Ireland with global inspiration. The casual dining room ambiance combines contemporary elegance with rustic traditional. Street parking available in front or in nearby North Main Street public lot. Reservations can be made by calling 021.427.9527. For more information, follow Fenn’s Quay on Twitter @FennsQuay.

Italian Food and Wine Night with da Vinci Wines of Tuscany at Fenn’s Quay

This Autumn, Fenn’s Quay’s head chefess and co-owner Kate Lawlor traveled to Tuscany to visit vineyards and learn about wine and olive oil. The resulting Instagram photos, stories and culinary inspiration were lovely to say the least. But for those of us who wished we could be there too, Chefess Kate is holding an Italian Food and Wine Night on November 29th with Cantine Leonardo da Vinci Wines of Tuscany, an innovative growers’ cooperative comprised of over 200 winegrowers whose grapes soak up the sun on the Tuscan hillsides of Italy.

The Italian Food and Wine Night takes place this Thursday, the 29th of November. Four courses, four different wines from Jacomo to match each course. Amazing food paired with a wine accompaniment to tantalise your taste buds! Only 35 spots are available for this special culinary evening, so move quickly to reserve your place. Perfect opportunity for foodies (and aspiring foodies) to develop knowledge of wine and food. The price is €45 per person. Reservations: 021.427.9527

No. 5 Fenn’s Quay Restaurant offers cosy dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere. The menu offers fresh, simple, and creative dishes from the regions of Ireland with global inspiration. The casual dining room ambiance combines contemporary elegance with rustic traditional. Fenns Quay is located on Shears Street (between Courthouse Street and Anne Street) in Cork City Centre. Street parking available in front or in nearby North Main Street public lot. Reservations: 021.427.9527

Why I’m a Regular at Fenn’s Quay and Electric

After reading Dianne Jacob’s post about food bloggers being pushovers (or not), I want to state clearly that even though I eat at Fenn’s Quay and Electric at least once a week, Tweet/blog about my visits there, am friends with Kate (something that happened after I wrote my TripAdvisor review) and know Ernest and Dennis, I do not receive any freebies or benefits that are not also given to other customers. Every so often, I get a free tea or hot chocolate as a random act of kindness to a group of people or customers, but this is not timed or in association with any action on my part. I have never ever been asked to write a post or review about either place. Below, I am listing what I like about each place.

FENN’S QUAY RESTAURANT

Sheares Street, Cork City (one street north from Washington Street, behind the Courthouse)
Tel: 021.427.9527
Facebook and Twitter
Open Monday to Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to late

Fenn’s Quay (owner: Kate Lawlor), Sheares Street, Cork City Centre

Why the love? 
1) The specials change daily and feature seasonal ingredients so it doesn’t get boring. But popular standards are always on their main menu. All at reasonable prices.
2) It is walking distance from my home, so it’s convenient.
3) The staff are friendly, helpful and knowledgable.
4) The food is delicious, using quality local ingredients.
5) The restaurant is clean with aubergine velvet banquet seating and chairs that feel elegant even though it’s a casual spot.
6) Ever since day one, my baby boy has received a warm welcome there and they make it easy to dine out with a little one. I am a sucker for a kid-friendly restaurant that isn’t geared toward children (ie, no frozen chicken fingers on the menu or plastic cups for everyone to drink from).
7) Free coffee refills.
8) Open from 8:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday. That’s three meals a day, six days a week!
9) Comfortable and warm. A very important attribute in rainy Cork.

 

ELECTRIC BAR

South Mall, Cork City (downstairs)
Tel: 021.422.2990
Facebook and Twitter
Open Monday to Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to late. Open Sundays too!

Electric Bar (owner: Ernest Cantillon), South Mall, Cork City Centre

Why the love? 
1) Simple but creative sandwiches and soups after Noon for reasonable prices.
2) It is walking distance from my home, so it’s convenient.
3) The staff are friendly and welcoming to my baby boy, LB.
4) There is a changing table in the handicapped restroom. Though it took me over six months of motherhood to discover that (I never asked).
5) It is clean with great natural light streaming in the windows.
6) They carry Australian non-alcoholic ginger beer and pitchers of water with different sliced citrus or fresh mint.
7) Welcoming to my knitting group. Knitters are the like the skateboarders of the craft world. We are too busy knitting to order lots of food and drink so not a real money-maker for wherever we meet.
8) Sometimes there is a little taster of biscotti with my hot chocolate and it’s such a treat. Not always there as it is not listed as part of the hot chocolate on the menu, so a nice surprise.

So, there you have the details on why I eat where I do. Now, there’s no need to doubt the sincerity of my posts and enthusiasm for Fenn’s Quay and Electric. I go to these places with regularity and love them without any compensation, freebies, bribery, brown envelopes or begging. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?

Special Jazz Weekend Sunday Brunch at Fenn’s Quay

Brunch may have been around for decades but Fenn’s Quay Restaurant, located on Sheares Street in Cork City Centre, is jazzing it up this Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Executive Chefess Kate Lawlor created a delectable brunch menu featuring local ingredients in classics, like Eggs Benedict with Rosscarbery Rashers, Eggs Florentine (available with Ardsallagh goats cheese) or Boiled Eggs and Soldiers with Marmite, and indulgent favorites, like Feirm Úr Buttermilk Pancakes with your choice of crème fraîche, homemade jam or maple syrup.

For light eaters, there are Croissants, Porridge or Fruit Scones served with Irish butter and Kate’s own house-made jam. With a variety of brunch dishes on the special menu, you’ll be spoilt for choice.

Known for its family-friendly menu and staff, even the littlest brunchers will enjoy themselves. I know my little man, LB, will be having a blast. He’s in love with Kate’s Irish soda bread!

Sunday brunch on a bank holiday weekend is the perfect time to treat yourself to a relaxing meal. Make your outing a family affair or gather with friends. Fenn’s Quay will have its own playlist of Jazz favorites playing in the background so your conversation can be center stage.

Fenn’s Quay is proudly now an Eircom WiFiHub, a service that allows Eircom broadband, eMobile and Meteor customers to connect to the Internet when they are out and about. Each Twitter user receives one free mimosa when you Tweet about your brunch, mentioning @FennsQuay.

No. 5 Fenn’s Quay Restaurant offers cosy dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere. The menu offers fresh, simple, and creative dishes from the regions of Ireland with global inspiration. The casual dining room ambiance combines contemporary elegance with rustic traditional. Street parking available in front or in nearby North Main Street public lot. Reservations can be made by calling 021.427.9527.

Glenisk Celebrates with Pink Pots of Yogurt

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Glenisk is serving up their fine yogurt in pink pots in a partnership with Marie Keating Foundation! And you know from my involvement in the 2010 Pink Auction that supporting those with breast cancer and helping related programmes and research is important to me and we all know I love food so this is a lovely thing to get to share today.

Glenisk, the award-winning organic dairy is celebrating 25 years in business this year. The family-owned dairy is now Ireland’s largest yogurt maker and has experienced very strong growth in recent years, despite the recession, with a doubling of market share and an increase in unit sales of more than 40% year on year. From a small business with just one paid employee in 1987, the company now employs more than 50 people at its base in Killeigh, Co Offaly. Glenisk works with 50 small family farms around the country, sourcing most of the organic milk produced on the island, and paying farmers the highest milk premium in Ireland. 

As part of the 25^th anniversary celebrations, Glenisk has partnered with the Marie Keating Foundation, donating €25,000 to help the charity raise awareness of breast cancer, promote screening and prevention measures, and help those families who have been adversely affected by the illness. Funds raised from Glenisk’s partnership are used to support the Foundation’s Mobile Information Units which visit hundreds of communities around Ireland each year to give free advice and information. Glenisk has created a series of Limited Edition Pink Yogurt packs to highlight the partnership across the company’s Fat Free Organic yogurts, which are available in Natural (500g), Strawberry (4x125g) and Tropical Fruits (4x125g).

In addition, Glenisk has set up a small fund on our Facebook page, inviting visitors to apply for ten community support grants of €250 each. The funds are for events or fundraisers which help to make a difference in local communities around Ireland. Community organisers and charities can apply on Facebook.

Vincent Cleary, MD, Glenisk, comments: “We are delighted to celebrate our 25^th year in business and, especially to support the important work undertaken by the Marie Keating Foundation. This partnership, and our community support fund, reflects our commitment to giving back and hopefully making a difference in communities across the country.”

Further information on all Glenisk products, partnerships and organics is available atwww.glenisk.com, on Facebook and on Twitter 

Best scone in Ireland is actually a Scruffin in Carlow

Goodall’s of Ireland Reveals the National & Regional Winners of the Nation’s Favourite Scone

One of the great culinary debates was laid to rest last week when Goodall’s of Ireland announced the winner of their search for the country’s Best Scone! Carlow’s Café Formenti has been revealed as the winner of a €1,000 prize fund, but more importantly the coveted title of ‘Best Scone of Ireland’!

The competition caught the public imagination with #bestscone becoming one of the top trends talked about on Twitter last week. A shortlist was compiled from public nominations cast on Twitter and Facebook and was then voted for on the http://www.goodalls.ie blog, with almost 10,000 votes being cast from around the country.

Café Formenti’s unusual ‘Scruffin’ a cross between a muffin and a scone, encouraged loyal customers and fans to get behind the Carlow based café, and owner Richie Fenner commented on his delight at the victory for the café, “Cafe Formenti, along with being a working cafe where we cater for all tastes in Carlow town, is also a community, where all walks of life come to interact.”

Speaking on behalf of Goodall’s Gareth Watkins commented, “We wanted to celebrate the best of Irish baking – not the fancy stuff but tasty everyday stuff, that when it’s done well can be fantastic. We all know scones can vary from the mediocre to the truly great and Café Formenti represents the best of modern Irish food”.

But don’t despair, great scones are available in other cities, like Cork, too! Our own Fenn’s Quay and Electric were on the shortlist! You can read Fenn’s Quay’s head chefs Kate Lawlor’s blog post about it. And here is one I wrote. Electric’s (below) and FQ’s (above) scones are the ones pictured in this post.

Any bakers wishing to try their hand at making Ireland’s best scone can have a look at www.Goodalls.ie where Goodalls will publish the café’s top tips on scone making. Or my own family recipe.

You can join in the great scone debate on Facebook.com/GoodallsIreland or follow the conversation on Twitter.com/GoodallsIreland.