Showing posts with label Montenotte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montenotte. Show all posts

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Marina Walk, Cork February 2021

 Marina Walk, Cork February 2021

(and a few from Feb 2010 below)

5th Feb

Shandon Boat Club



Stadium, Herons nesting

Herons nesting

Stadium, Herons nesting, Atlantic Pond

Stadium, Atlantic Pond

Stadium, Herons nesting, Atlantic Pond

Stadium, Herons nesting, Atlantic Pond

Silversprings Hotel and flyover

Currachs at Shandon BC

Currachs at Shandon BC

Coffee ahead!


Silversprings hotel and flyover

Tivoli docks



Atlantic Pond and stadium

Shandon Boat Club, new city buildings in background

Shandon Boat Club

Shandon Boat Club

Shandon Boat Club

Shandon Boat Club

Looking across River Lee to Lower Glanmire Rd and, higher up, Montenotte

Looking across River Lee to Lower Glanmire Rd and, higher up, Montenotte

Feb 22nd 2021
Montenotte House (left) and, top, Care Choice Home



Herons nesting

Nest building

Heron





Cork Boat Club

Concrete seating at Blackrock Pier

Blackrock Castle

Blackrock (right), Tivoli (left)

Blackrock Castle, boats
Natural Foods Bakery, Blackrock

Scrap boats near pier

Pier Head

Atlantic Pond seat in water, after bad weather

Atlantic Pond, stadium

Tivoli Docks

Work in progress at docks

21st Feb 2010 (note the year!)
One I did earlier.

Blackrock Castle and boats

Farmers Market in progress

Farmers Market in progress




Tivoli docks




Sunday, November 19, 2017

Davidson's Craft Butchers. Standard Bearers in Montenotte

Davidson's Craft Butchers

Standard Bearers in Montenotte
Chris (left) and Luke

I asked our local butcher Chris Davidson about his plans for the run-in to Christmas. “We’ve already started”, he said. “It's the earliest we’ve ever started but people started asking so we started taking the orders. It is our fourth Christmas here and we have great confidence in our products at this stage.”

And top of the Christmas wish list are their free-range East Ferry Turkeys. Easy Ferry also supply them with eggs and chickens. “The most popular order is the boneless Turkey Crown, now selling all year round. Spiced beef too is incredibly popular. We use the eye of the round, a very lean cut, very good.”

“We have plenty of alternatives, including duck, beef fillet, crusted lamb, and pork steak Wellington. And we also have a special: Cranberry and sausage meat stuffing balls.”

Chris, from Cobh, is a 4th generation butcher. His great grand-father was a butcher in the harbour town, followed by Chris’s grand-uncle and then by an uncle. Chris himself started learning the steps, the ones well down the ladder, as a 14 year old at the well respected Jim Crowley butcher shop in Midleton.
Crusted lamb

He worked there during the holidays, even when he started going to UCC. “I was never bored, it was always interesting.” And the thing was that Chris himself was always interested and eventually decided that it was for him.

He started work in the Montenotte premises with the previous owner in 2009 and, just about three years ago, took it over. He found it hard to get used to the paperwork but “so far, so good” is his verdict now.”Every year has been better than the previous one. The three years have flown. Now we are more comfortable, more confident, particularly over the past six months.” 

The “we” is Chris and Luke, the two full-time employees. He also had two part-time workers.
You’ll see newly installed flower boxes on the building and also notice Craft Butcher displayed over the Davidson doors. I asked Chris about that. A lot of hard study over three years by the looks of it. 
Ready to cook

“To be qualified as craft, you have to do the 8-module course. It is very comprehensive. It covers every single aspect of modern butchery. When you finish, there is nothing left to learn. You've been trained also to present your produce, to engage with and sell to the customer. All about hygiene and food safety. The qualification is all about reliability. I see it as being a standard bearer.”

Chris has put the training to good use, especially in their speciality range. They are very strong here and have won many awards at craft competitions. Davidson’s have been national runners-up with their Pork Steak Wellington and with their Home-made Meat Loaf, national champion with their absolutely delicious (personal experience) Crusted Rack of Lamb. And they have gold for quite a few specials including Steak Stir Fry, Butterflied Leg of Lamb, Chicken Pizzaiola, and Chicken Supreme stuffed with broccoli and gruyere cheese.
Stir-fry

And, looking to the future, the plan is to keep up that standard, to keep innovating. “We’re always tipping away here, trying to improve the range. We plan to increase our presence on Social Media as well. And an upgrade of machinery is also on the cards.”

And you can, of course, get more than meat here. “Arbutus Bread is a fantastic product and we also have their pastries on Saturday mornings. We stock some kitchen essentials such as bread and milk. And newspapers of course. We have Green Saffron spices and the Gran Grans Chutneys are also available here.” Well worth a visit!


Davidson's Craft Butchers
7 St Christopher's Dr, Montenotte, Cork, T23 KV96
Hours: Open Monday-Friday· 8a.m.–6:30p.m.
Saturday: 8a.m. - 6.00p.m.