The Book Shelf...

Thu, Feb 28, 2013

Having just completed her 10th cookery book, food writer and stylist Michele Cranston turns her attention to her time at Marie Claire magazine – she was food editor there for five years – celebrating the last decade at that famous institution and monthly women's magazine that was first published in France, although it has obviously been published in a number of different languages throughout the world.

Forest Catering — the home of the roast

Thu, Feb 21, 2013

Forest Catering was created in 2003 by Paul Madden. It is based between Athenry and Oranmore. The company started small with the creativity to produce delicious, wholesome, food, and value for money, and grew to be a leading catering company in the west of Ireland.

Forest Catering’s name is built on party planning, a private elegant dinner, a large outdoor event, or a lavish wedding. Its reputation has grown by word-of-mouth not only as a superb outside caterer and for the delicious food it serves, but also for the style and consistent high quality service it provides.

Poppy Seed Cafe, Clarinbridge

Thu, Feb 21, 2013

Poppy Seed coffee house and restaurant opened in the heart of Clarinbridge in 2007. This cafe is a modern and spacious, light filled space along the banks of the Clarin river, set back from the hum of the very busy main road and with ample parking. It seems the sun can find its way into this room on even the dullest of days. With one wall opened into a Meadows & Byrne store, Poppy Seed provides a welcome break from the hard work of homemaking with its excellent homebaking, just the ticket to break up a busy day. Open seven days a week and with freshly baked breads and other treats every morning, Poppy Seed offers a good menu for breakfast including an array of its speciality handmade pastries and premium coffee. Lunch choices are both healthy and hearty with chicken pâté with brioche and plum compote, Galway Bay seafood crumble with salad and brown bread, gourmet sandwiches and salads, quiches, and quesadillas all on offer. In addition to all this fine fare, the retail space offers wines, handmade Irish chocolates and biscuits, plus an array of preserves, chutneys, and savoury treats. If you need a gift or a hamper Poppy Seed will make it up for you and wrap it prettily to boot.

Homemade treats at Le Petit Delice for sweet toothed Valentines

Thu, Jan 31, 2013

If you cannot decide what route to take for buying your loved one an ideal Valentine’s gift then why not go for simplicity at Le Petit Delice.

Salthill Traditional Fish and Chips opens second store in Galway

Thu, Jan 31, 2013

Salthill Traditional Fish and Chips has done it again, this time in Galway city. Its new store in Forster Street, close to the tourist office, has all the traditional fish and chip offerings people have come to love in Salthill.

As well as a selection of fresh fish, such as fresh cod, scampi, smoked fish, and fresh fish of the day, with real cut chips, the menu includes a range of succulent burgers, baguettes, and much more. And this week Forster Street Traditional Fish and Chips adds southern fried chicken and a range of delicious pizzas to the menu.

New Sunday service at The Skeff

Thu, Jan 31, 2013

Sundays at The Skeff Bar and Kitchen are changing. The Skeff has recently introduced a whole new Sunday food menu that will run all day on Sunday. The menu is made up of all the top selling dishes from all its menus broken down into Small Bites, Big Bites, Sandwich Bites, and Sweet Bites, so no matter what you are looking for The Skeff Bar and Kitchen has you covered.

A taste of the west at the g Hotel

Thu, Jan 31, 2013

The five-star g Hotel has launched a new menu in the award-winning Restaurant gigi’s, inspired by and using the best produce from the west of Ireland. A five course tasting menu, A Taste of gigi’s, will include fresh and seasonal ingredients from producers including Stefan Gannett fishmonger and Burke’s Fruit and Veg Galway. Prepared by head chef Pauline Reilly and her team, the menu is exclusively available until the end of February, at a cost of €40 per person.

The five-course tasting menu uses the best ingredients to create innovative seasonal and traditional dishes bursting with flavour. Enjoy a delicious mouthwatering five-course meal followed by petit fours and tea or coffee. Guests can also choose to upgrade to a wine pairing menu for an additional €20 per person.

the Galway Appetiser

Thu, Jan 31, 2013

New research from Bord Bia has revealed that supporting local businesses is a key consideration for members of the public when eating out, which may go part of the way to explaining why there is nearly always something of a queue up the stairs for a coveted seat in this small, but perfectly formed, cafe on Spencer Street in Castlebar. With the same research showing that over two thirds of the population rated the use of Irish and local produce as important when eating out for a meal, if you venture over the border to Mayo, Rua's impeccable pedigree of the origin of all elements on the plates delivers. And then some.

Lunch is for sharing at Lunares

Thu, Jan 03, 2013

It was the end of December with but one day to go till the start of the new year. The house had been hit by a veritable hurricane of small, pink, clothing. The combined forces of Santa and a little girl's December birthday had filled the house with tons of plastic. A previously unknown horror had entered my life, the truly vile invention that is Moon Sand, a force so insidious and evil that I could see no way to defeat it. The children had begun to make the relatively short word 'Mum' into a five to six syllable long whine that was slowly working on my already questionable sanity. And there was another week of this to go before the holidays were over.

I was hungry, but the aprés Christmas food fatigue had set in and I could think of more things that I definitely didn't want to eat than anything I did want. One thing was sure, I was not making anything myself. I packed up the family and we headed of to Lunares. Myself and the children were deposited at the foot of the colourfully-painted stairs next to Barr an Caladh in Woodquay, while my current husband went off to park the car in lashing rain that could only be described as biblical.

Win a Christmas turkey and ham with Eat Galway

Thu, Dec 13, 2012

To celebrate the run-up to Christmas we have a fantastic prize of an Irish turkey and ham for one lucky reader.

Taxing times, mistletoe and wine...

Thu, Dec 13, 2012

I think it is fair to say that the developing Irish wine market has hit something of a snag. Thanks to the unbalanced and, quite frankly, bizarre new tax on wine, all of our small retailers will have to increase the cost of wine in their shops at various stages between now and the New Year as their duty-paid stock runs out. This means that their customers will see various price increases per bottle, as many of the big supermarkets may very well hold their price, either by losing margin or by negotiating better deals with the big wholesalers. That some wine shops will close is certain, as the difference between what they can offer their customers and the below-cost selling of the supermarkets widens even further.

It is this below cost selling by the multiples that has been blamed as the cause of many of the social problems associated with alcohol. They unfairly use alcohol as a loss leader to build market share in the grocery sector. Yet the loophole still exists that when alcohol is sold below cost price, the retailer is entitled to a refund of the VAT differential, meaning in effect that the Government and taxpayers (that's you and me, folks) are subsidising any large retailers who can afford to sell alcohol below cost price. This is not by any means a fair or level playing field. In the absence of any coherent, balanced, national retail strategy, it is up to us as local people to buy from local businesses who wish to make an honest living by selling quality products to us.

Connemara Coast Hotel, Furbo announces new bilingual menu

Thu, Dec 13, 2012

An bhfuil ocras ort? Fancy something tasty for lunch like steig chaoldroma, or perhaps a trinsuir de bhia mara, fresh from Galway Bay?

On the Wine Shelf...

Thu, Dec 06, 2012

Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (Independents €14.99)

On the Cookery Book Shelf …

Thu, Dec 06, 2012

Over the last number of years, Paula Wolfert has made a name for herself as an author with a penchant for Mediterranean cuisine and this publication will only enhance that growing reputation.

Clearly written with a modicum of fuss, The Food of Morocco (Bloomsbury, €35) is a lavish overview of a cuisine that’s becoming increasingly popular with lots of insightful tips and personal anecdotes. From the start Wolfert sets out her take on Morocco with the help of a map illustrating the essentials of Moroccan cooking before going on to lay out her views on tagines, preserved lemons, olives, argan oil and amlou, spices, herbs and aromatics, honey and fragrant waters and ten tips for preparing Moroccan food, among other basics. The other chapters are divided into those on salads, breads and pastries; eggs, butter, buttermilk and cheese; soups; couscous; fish; poultry; meats; bean and vegetable dishes; desserts; and drinks. The best of the recipes include those for fresh tomato and caper salad; orange and grated radish salad with orange-flower water; aubergine zaalouk; Marrakech flat bread stuffed with meat; bastila with seafood, spinach and noodles; Tangier street bread; goats’ cheese with honey filling; couscous with lamb, pumpkins; carrots chickpeas and raisins; tagra of fresh sardines with pepper oil charmoula; sautéed prawns casa pepe; chicken with caramelised quinces and toasted walnuts; lamb tagine with baby spinach with lemon and olives; tangia; potato pancakes; dessert couscous with pomegranates; and ‘the snake’ (M’Hanncha). Overall, this is a beautifully photographed big blockbuster of a cookery book with lots of ideas for entertaining anyone interested in North African cuisine in the run-up to Christmas, or as an antidote to turkey and ham in the weeks after the festivities.

Christmassy lunch

Thu, Dec 06, 2012

If you are looking for somewhere to have a Christmassy lunch with family or colleagues, there is a little place in Galway that I can recommend to you, Blazers Bar & Bistro. It is set apart from the hustle and bustle of the city, part of The Ardilaun hotel and yet but a stroll from either Salthill or the city centre. This tranquil setting, with beautifully landscaped gardens is a little a gem.

The Ardilaun is, understandably, renowned for great service which is probably a side effect of being a popular wedding choice. It is uniquely placed as a quiet, leafy, 'old fashioned' country hotel, but still no journey at all from the city. I lived on Taylors Hill for many years, before I moved to my present country pile, and had been in the Ardilaun for many functions but still had only a two minute walk back home. So, while I cannot tell you what the rooms are like, or the breakfast, or the leisure centre, I can tell you about lunch in the bistro.

On the Wine Shelf...

Thu, Nov 08, 2012

Hugel Gewurztraminer 2010 (Independents, €15.99)

on The Book Shelf...

Thu, Nov 08, 2012

Eat Like an Italian
Recipes for the Good Life

Celebrate Irish seafood and Spanish cava this month

Thu, Nov 08, 2012

Cava Spanish Restaurant on Dominick Street is among 10 restaurants around the country taking part in a nationwide initiative by the Spanish Embassy to promote November as the month for enjoying Irish seafood and Spanish cava.

A 'happy meal' in gorgeous Gort

Thu, Nov 08, 2012

Have you ever really thought about what goes into the plate of food that is brought to your table in a restaurant? If you think about it, a large proportion of it comes down to the chef. It all starts at the back door of the restaurant, where products are unloaded every morning. Depending on the time of the year, chefs experiment, create, and make menus that are fresh, exciting, and appealing to customers all year round. Strawberries and fresh salad greens have come and gone, game and autumnal fruits are featuring now. If you do not have a good chef, then you do not have a good restaurant.

On the Wine Shelf...

Thu, Nov 01, 2012

Tim Adams Shiraz Clare Valley 2009 (Tesco, €16.95)

E-paper

Read this weeks E-paper. Past editions also available from within this weeks digital copy.