The Square Table - Great Addition to Blarney

The Square Table - Great Addition to Blarney

The menu at The Square Table, the recently opened restaurant in the centre of Blarney, is a source of immediate encouragement. Trusted producers such as Ballyhoura Mushrooms, Tom Durcan Meats and Ardsallagh Cheese are among those listed. Anyone using that kind of produce knows what they are about, I thought to myself, and soon enough I have delightful confirmation on my table, a square one!

Indeed, they are all square and by quarter-past one last Friday they were all full, not that that was the case earlier in the week. But, as the season starts in earnest, you might well want to book ahead for either dinner or lunch in this highly recommended spot, just opposite the village butcher Osborne.

We start with a Mushroom Soup (€4.75). But a mushroom soup with a difference: mushroom and wild garlic. This is a terrific combination, with the garlic adding a lovely flavour without overwhelming that of the mushrooms. We were off to a great start and quite a substantial one

There are a few tempting sandwiches on the menu, including Ardsallagh Goats Cheese with olive and sundried tomato chutney (€7.00), and I pick the Tom Durcan Spiced Beef with Coolea Aged Cheese and Beetroot. I am well fed for €7.50, happily crunching my way through a well balanced mix of textures and flavours.

Other tempting items on the menu included: Crispy egg, bacon, and Ballyhoura Mushrooms with bearnaise (€7.50) and a Ham Hock Pie with Spring Cabbage (€11.95). CL’s choice is Pan-fried Hake with Pea Puree and Smoked Bacon (€13.00), another delightful dish, well cooked and well presented.

Service is prompt and friendly here and prices are quite good. Our two course lunch cost a total of 30 euro. A great addition to Blarney and we wish Tricia and Martina all the best on their new venture at 5 The Square.

Nash 19. The Twenty Fourteen Renaissance.

Nash 19. The Twenty Fourteen Renaissance

Frittata

Cheers!
Domaine Montmarrin (Fr.)
 Sauvignon Blanc 2012

Sometimes it is the big things. All this beautiful produce. Where does it come from? The answer is it’s local. How it is handled, cooked, presented? Brilliantly. And in the mix too are small things. Like those fresh-as-the-morning-dew salads. And that gorgeous creamy custard that comes with your fruit tart. Add them all together with a classy friendly service and you have Nash 19. Now add a remake from the sodden tatters of the floods and you have a new comfortable space in which all this happens. Bright and white, it is the Nash 19 Twenty Fourteen Renaissance!

After this display of determination, some things have changed but some remain the same. The must-try Producers’ Plate, a Taste of the Region, still tops the lunch menu, a menu that changes daily. Other favourites, like Ardsallagh Cheese and Jack McCarthy, get their share of the spotlight, all adding up to a terrific choice.

On Friday, McCarthy’s black pudding made an unusual appearance, as part of a Frittata with  caramelised apple and Brie. I did get a taster of this and it is lovely, highly recommended.

Delighted to also recommend my main course, the Mexican Chicken Warm Salad with Guacamole, tomato salsa and Horizon leaves. The Horizon Farm leaves also featured on our other mains: the Crab Cakes Warm Salad, another one to recommended.

And that smashing custard, a reminder of times past, featured in CL’s dessert, a beautifully done Mixer Berry and Apple Tart. My dessert, their famous Mille Feuille, may well have been misspelled on the menu but on the plate it was as delightful as ever. Glad that some things remain the same but glad too of the new bright surroundings, including that new ceiling window, in which the well loved Nash 19 operates. A bright future to all involved.

Mid-week Magic by M. Petit. Oyster's English Market Menu.

Mid-week Magic by M. Petit

Oyster's English Market Menu

Every Tuesday Alex Petit, Head Chef at Oysters, takes a walk through the English Market on the lookout for ingredients that he’ll then transform into a magicial meal for their Mid Week Market Menu, four courses every Wednesday evening for just twenty five euro. The Frenchman turns out amazing food, indeed amazing value. Well worth a try and Very Highly Recommended.

The Menu has been running for a few weeks now and, last Wednesday (19th March) we, along with a group of suppliers and media, were in for the official launch. We were soon checking the menu, a set menu.

Let us start  at the start: Tuna - Avocado, Radish and local leaves. This was cool, in more ways than one! It was delicious, the Tuna tartare and the accompaniments giving us a terrific mix of flavours and textures.

The main course was another delight: Carrigaline Lamb - young Turnips, Beetroot, Potato and Buttermilk. That description is a little understated. And not just because there were some tempting rustic potatoes supplied. The lamb was done two ways as you can see from the picture and it was the slow cooked portions that had people talking. Superb produce, superb cooking and superb presentation and that is what the Mid Week Market Menu is all about.

In these parts, we are used to the cheese course being a cool one. But not on this occasion. The Mature Ardsallagh Cheese Souffle was a warm delicacy, all the flavour coming up to meet you and then spreading a gorgeous sensation across the palate. It was served with Apricot, Walnut and Onion Chutney.

Desserts can often be the weak link in many menus but not here. Pineapple - Jasmine, Pomegranate. That was the simple description. Simple yes but superbly so, a refreshing light experience, a delight for the eye and the palate and easily accommodated by the stomach. If all four course meals were like this! If all cost twenty five euro!

Oysters is an independently operated restaurant in the Clarion Hotel (Cork)

Oysters Restaurant

Lapps Quay

Co. Cork.

Ireland.

Phone: 021 427 3777

Oysters opens its doors to everyone every Tuesday to Saturday evening between 17:30 and 22:00.

Always Busy at the Bramley Lodge Café

Always Busy at the Bramley Lodge Café

 I think Bramley Lodge Café has been perpetually busy since Gillian Kearney opened the café in 2009. It is situated just off the N25 (main Cork-Waterford-Rosslare road) at Cobh Cross. Parking has been improved here, it has long opening hours and so it is a very convenient stop. And  a highly recommended one.

My latest visit came this weekend. The welcome is informal but warm, reflecting the friendliness of the staff. By the way, informal doesn't mean inefficient service, far from it. We were immediately directed to a table and soon had the menu and the list of specials and, as it turned out, we ordered mainly from the latter.

Had seen their Cajun style Salmon with a Mango Salsa and Rustic potatoes and seasonal veg (13.95) on their Facebook page earlier and went for that as my mains. It was terrific, cooked and assembled with a light touch, and thoroughly satisfying; it looked well and tasted well.

CL too was very happy with another nicely presented special: Roast Loin of sugar baked Pork with an Apple and Raisin Chutney, served with seasonal vegetables and potato (12.95). An excellent piece of meat and enhanced no end by that beautiful chutney!

 My Halloumi affair continued with my starter, this from the regular menu: Grilled Halloumi with organic leaves, char grilled melon, rustic potatoes and honey and citrus dressing (7.95). That dressing was superb and I totally enjoyed the combination of the cheese and the melon, a combination that I haven't come across in recent weeks.

Our other starter was the soup of the day: Broccoli and Courgette (5.50). Much more than the two veg went into this very flavoursome warming bowl.

The café puts much of its success down to using “the best ingredients available from our local producers”. Their website lists Ardsallagh Cheese, Ballycotton Seafood, Riverview Eggs, and Clonakilty Black Pudding among those suppliers and I also noticed Woodside mentioned on the menu.

In addition to the café, they have a food store full of their own and other producers’ good things, a huge range of lovely stuff including cakes, take-out meals, soups and chowders and salads. And, they also do outside catering!

Bramley Lodge,

Tullagreine,

Carrigtwohill,

Co. Cork.

t: 021 4882499

• Opening Hours

• Monday - Thursday 8AM- 7PM Last orders 6PM.
• Friday - Saturday 8AM-9PM Last orders 9PM.
• Sunday 9PM - 8PM Last orders 7PM.

Chef Bryan up for Greene's Challenge

Chef Bryan up for Greene's Challenge

Wine and Waterfall

West Cork chef Bryan McCarthy is back in Cork and at the helm in Greene’s in McCurtain Street. And he is looking forward to the new challenge. You can expect to see foraged items on the menu but his aim is for “simple food from the best of ingredients, cooked in a contemporary Irish style”.

Bryan is something of a forager himself but he will rely also on Ballyhoura Mushrooms and on Michelle Walshe for sea foraging. Greene’s have long used top local suppliers such as Ummera Smokery and Ardsallagh Goat Cheese and they continue to feature on the menu. The newly installed head chef has added Jack McCarthy (pork, bacon, including the famous black pudding, of course) and is looking forward to using even more of the fantastic vegetables from Waterfall Farm.

Jack Mac certainly stood out in my starter during last weekend's visit. Here the Black Pudding and Pork Belly featured with scallops, all served with apple and cider in a flavoursome combination.

Our other starter was also top drawer, featuring the Ummera Smoked Salmon served three ways, with Lemon, Beetroot, Crème Fraiche, Cucumber and Organic Leaves enhancing the superb West Cork product.

Bryan McCarthy is almost synonymous with the slow cooked Feather Blade of Hereford Beef in these parts and, served with Onion, Shiitake Mushroom and Mashed Potato, this tender tasty treat was impossible to resist and was as good as ever.

Pork Belly, Scallop and Black Pudding.

A superb dish also was the Duo of Lamb, with Beluga Lentils, Chorizo, Ballyhoura Oyster Mushroom and Ardsallagh Goat Cheese. By the way, in case you are getting worried, the menu still features a selection of fine fish dishes (after all, Bryan is from Leap). Poultry too, including Skeaghanore Duck, and Pigeon was introduced last Sunday!

No shortage of choice here. And they have a great Early Bird deal going, €27.00 for four courses up to 7.00pm at the weekend and all night earlier in the week. Service here is friendly and quite informed about the food. Helpful also. Just a small example. When we ordered herbal tea, they brought a whole box over to the table so that we could choose at our leisure.

We got a nice table by the floodlit waterfall and indeed there were two groups that got even closer, choosing to dine outside as the night was so mild. Almost forgot to tell you about the Amuse Bouche, well detailed by our helpful server. It was a Spinach Mousse with Smoked Duck. A good start to an excellent meal.

Tapas in the Greenroom

The Greenroom at Sage

Called down to Midleton last Tuesday evening to sample the food at the Greenroom, the new all day late night cafe under the ample wing of the adjacent Sage Restaurant. Spotted the 12 Mile Tapas board and immediately saw familiar producers of quality including Woodside Farm, Ardsallagh and Tom Clancy. Five tapas on the board, so we ordered all five.

Next question was what to drink. Easily answered by looking at the next board. Lots of local beers here and also Stonewell cider. Could hardly drink all the beers so settled for the Barefoot Bohemian Pilsner from Eight Degrees and two new Cork beers, both pale ales, the Mountain Man Green Bullet and the Kinsale Pale Ale, each dangerously drinkable!

The tapas are top class, all the dishes perfectly executed and, at seven euro each, very good value. Take the humble Organic courgette and apple fritters with dehydrated goat yoghurt. Didn’t sound the most promising of the five but the tangy yoghurt made the fritters sing.

The Organic baby carrot and Ardsallagh goat cheese with organic leaves and pickled beetroot was another successful combination of taste, colour, flavour and texture. While the cooking here is creative, the food is allowed to speak for itself and this was perhaps best illustrated by the Woodside mini Pork Pie with peas and gravy. The pork flavour and texture were incredible.

The monkfish, coated in the most delicate batter and served with crispy bacon and organic roast garlic aioli, was lyrically light, crunchy and gorgeous and probably CL’s favourite.

For me, the outstanding bite was the first one into those Thomas Clancy free range chicken livers with sourdough and salsa. Honest food so well handled all the way to the table.

The dessert, Red Velvet Cappuccino cake with Bailey’s Ice Cream, was so smooth and seemed designed to put us into a good mood. But, after those brilliant tapas, we were happily already in that zone!

All in all then,  honest food, flawlessly cooked, just perfect. And obviously widely appreciated as the Greenroom was more or less full.

Sage itself was also full. It has gained some extra seating and a different entrance (via the courtyard) after the recent building works that gave us the Greenroom. And the local producers are lauded here in Sage and not just on the tables. On one of the walls there is an excellent photo display of the producers going about their daily work. Well done to Kevin and Réidín for their dedication to their local suppliers!

While it is full steam ahead for Sage, the recently opened Greenroom too has been finding itself quite busy in these early days. It opens at nine and, during the morning, you can pop in for a freshly ground coffee and a freshly baked treat. At lunch time, you’ll have great choices of Salads and Sandwiches and, in the evening, the tapas come into their own.

The new Greenroom, they call it Sage’s little sister, is also proving useful for a pre-meal drink for those booked into Sage or maybe waiting for a table. And, when the sun shines, the courtyard outside is abuzz.

Greenroom details

Opening hours: Tue - Sun: 9:00 am - 11:00 pm.

Address: 8 Main St, Midleton, Co. Cork.

Phone: (021) 463 9682

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.sagerestaurant.ie

Excellent Lunch in Pat Shortt’s Bar

Pat Shortt’s Bar
Lunch in Castlemartyr

 It was just about lunch-time when we arrived in Pat Shortt’s Bar in Castlemartyr last Saturday. The place was packed inside. Luckily, there were seats in the outside area by the local river, the Kiltha, and so, for the second time in eight days, we dined al fresco in Ireland!

And we got good stuff. The starters were terrific. I got an ample helping of Bill Casey’s Oak Smoked Organic Salmon served on a lovely brown bread (€7.50). Bill is just down the road; chef Mike Hanrahan told me he collected the fish that morning. It tasted gorgeous, really impressed.


The local theme is strong here and was again well illustrated in CL’s starter: Ardsallagh Goat’s Cheese, black pudding, and pear salad, served on a bed of leaves with roast peppers and Ballymaloe Relish (€6.50). A terrific well balanced combination of textures and tastes.

Had more than enough fries earlier in the week so had to give D’Unbelievable Burger a miss. Settled instead for the Chicken and Chorizo penne pasta in a tomato and herb sauce (€10.75). Quite a bit of chicken and it was first class, the real thing, and the sauce was brilliant and gave the dish a nice lift.


Polished it off in the sun and then crossed the road to the Village Greengrocer where Shortt’s get their veg. Just a few yards up is Clifford’s, his butcher. It was a busy afternoon but soon everything stopped as dozens and dozens of motorbikes came through the village. It was the members of the Gold Wing Treffen driving their bikes from Cobh to Youghal. Just another talking point on a terrific day in the East Cork area. 

CONGRATS TO ARDSALLAGH!

Well done to all at Ardsallagh Cheese on winning gold at the Irish Cheese Awards this week. Their Ardsallagh Cranberry Roulade came tops in the New Cheese Section.Two other Cork producers also struck gold and quite a few were honoured. Well done to all. To see the full list click here

CORKER OF A MEAL AT FENNS QUAY

CORK ON A FORK

Local food, local lingo

Enjoyed a classy Cork on a Fork meal at the ever reliable Fenns Quay this week. This good value menu, even better now since the VAT reduction, includes mostly local food, such as spiced beef, and the menu card itself is “spiced “ up with some local lingo.

You are encouraged to have a starter by “Give it a lash boy” and a dessert by “Era, go on so”.

The food too is served with a smile and certainly put a smile on my face. Enjoyed my starter of Spiced beef and shredded beetroot. On the other side of the table, her regular Warm Chicken Salad lived up to expectations.

Mains for me was one of the evening’s specials: Baked Hake with herbed basmati rice, sautéed French beans, courgette with fennel and salsa rossa. A terrific combination, light and satisfying.

The other mains was Braised Irish Lamb Shank with Green Saffron Spiced Potatoes. The lamb was cooked to perfection and the spiced potatoes really added to the dish. As they say around here: “Savage Cabbage.”

We agreed on dessert: Lemon pudding served with Baldwin’s Ice-cream and a tiny jug of chocolate sauce. Presentation was inviting and the combination – that ice cream is gorgeous – went down a treat.

Wines were Pazos de Ulloa DO Ribeiro 2009 and Domaine d’Angayrac Costieres de Nimes 2008, each at €5.50 a glass.

Cork on a Fork: 2 courses €22.50; 3 courses €27.50.

ARDSALLAGH GOATS CHEESE CRANBERRY ROULADE

GOATS CHEESE ROULADE 

Had been on the lookout for Ardsallagh’s Goats Cheese Cranberry Roulade and spotted it in On the Pigs Back on a run through the English Market on Friday. 


Picked up some