Sally's blog

You have to trust a place that displays cookery books. In Belfast’s Bistro Este they have masses of them, tucked into wine boxes with a little raised table amongst them, presumably for browsing.
It's a clubbable space with big windows onto the street, a huge atrium roof throwing loads of light onto simply laid tables with large goblet wine glasses at each setting, a bar that serves classic cocktails and craft beers, and a hatch to a relatively open kitchen.

Theresa Storey is a great cook. Anyone who has ever bought one of her jars of jams and chutneys, sold from her Green Apron market stall, will know that already. Here is a cook whose instinct, and accuracy, with flavours is unerring. Ms Storey seems to always know the right moment: when to pick the fruit; when to stop the cooking; when to seize the day and the flavours of the day. Her book runs from marmalade to prune tarts, via mojito marmalade and Batley cake and Finnish blueberry pie.

Kakoro, the sushi and bento bar outfit who originated on Lower Liffey Street, have just opened The Ramen Bar at the back of their tiny city centre premises on South William street. It’s cool and super fun. You sit amongst the punters arriving for their takeaway sushi and bento boxes and try not to slurp noodle broth all over your clothes, grateful that most of the high tables are facing the wall. Each place setting is prepared with a paper menu, a covetable wooden soup spoon and a pair of chopsticks.

Mark Best is smart. If you heard him speak at last year’s Food on the Edge in Galway, you will be in no doubt about that. His speech skewered culinary gods who use their celebrity status to make pots of money, and he spared no one: even saintly Jamie Oliver got the dirk in the throat from Mr Best.

“I’m still deciding if I want to live in Longford”
“It’s very far from Dublin”
“Five choices are a lot to have on a menu”

Just some of the recent quotes from a 21 year old average Pastry Chef on trial in VM.

I’ve been very lucky. I had the same kitchen staff for 7 years, up until a year ago. Bar adding to the team, and the odd promotion from within which I’m a big fan of, I pretty much had the same crew since opening in 2008.

Tension, and release. That's how Danni Barry masters her cooking in Eipic, the upmarket, glam room of Michael Deanes con-joined trio of restaurants in the centre of Belfast.
A little starter of Wye Valley asparagus in a tiny pastry filo with a bacon cream is so poised, so tense with delicate flavours, that it's high-wire cooking, right from the off. Then comes a linseed cracker with fresh cheese, a dice of new vegetables, and a micro-dice of fines herbs, and Ms Barry once again has us on the edge of our seats, so tense and nuanced is the balance of the ingredients.

The conversation had turned to “things which annoy people the most.”

Everyone around the table in Featherblade chimed in with the usual human shortcomings: bad grammar; slow drivers in the fast lane, selfies...

What about you? someone asked me across the table.

I explained how It gets my back up when people call themselves carnivores. Human beings are not carnivores, humans are omnivores, lions are carnivores. If a human tried to be a carnivore it wouldn’t end well.

Today sees the release of our annual guides to the 100 best restaurants in Ireland, and the 100 best places to stay in Ireland, EAT2016 and STAY2016.
The guides first appeared way, way back in 1992, when they were part of a trilogy that included the 100 best places to eat in Dublin.

It is no small feat to maintain an artisan food company through three generations and an entire century of production. But these are factors that make the Ashe family's pudding truly special. The methods they use today are essentially the same as when the business was established in 1916. And the flavours are as pristine and satisfying as ever. If you are headed anywhere near to Dingle, make sure to make the detour into the family shop in Annascaul, where they also sell their sausages, white pudding, bacon and sausage rolls with their distinctive yellow label.

The great thing about Johnny Burke’s pub, at the Armada Hotel in Spanish Point in West Clare, is that you don’t have to think.
You just pull up a stool, or sit yourself down in the Rebel Snug, and ask Darren, the barman: “What’s good to eat and drink?’
Chances are Darren will steer you towards the The Galleon, their triple tier tasting of seafood, and a glass of Back Beat Witbeer from the Western Herd Brewery, made by Michael and Adam just a few miles up the road in Kilmalley.