The Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, headquartered in the impossibly gorgeous surrounds of Lismore Castle, Co Waterford, returns for an eight-day run (May 29 to June 5) and The Menu would be more than happy to feed the soul with beautiful music at 21 events running in 12 stunning venues in the hinterland and featuring top Irish and international artists.
It includes what promises to be a splendid new production of Verdi’s Macbeth, in the Castle, in collaboration with the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
It seems the belly will also be well-catered for throughout the festival, which has entered a hospitality sponsorship partnership with another Menu favourite, Waterford Whisky.
While picnickers are always welcome at the festival, with space for fold-out chairs and the like, it is at a premium so booking is necessary. There is also the option of pre-booking chilled wines and champagnes.
Those less inclined to lug the wicker basket might plump for The MacBeth Menu (€75, May 31, June 2-4), put together by the indomitable Eunice Power and served up in luxury stretch tents at Lismore Castle, while Gourmet Table Picnics by Eamo & Ró are also on offer (€55) over the same dates at Dromore Yard, Aglish, and include a vegan option.
Lunchtime Recital Packages (two-course menu plus recital ticket, €30) are available in The Saucy Hen, Villierstown (June 1), Barron’s Coffeehouse, Cappoquin (June 2), and Fuller’s Bistro, Lismore (June 3).
If you have any interest in gardening and, by extension, growing your own food then all roads lead to Dublin’s Phoenix Park next weekend for the behemoth that is Bord Bia Bloom, where, along with a dizzying display of growing, gardening, and horticulture, a sizeable food element includes the Quality Kitchen demo stage featuring Rory O’Connell and Neven Maguire, among others, while the Sustainable Living Stage is always worth checking out.
Cideries de la Brique, part of the Normandy Food Tour
One especial positive to emerge from Brexit is how it has served to strengthen and copperfasten Ireland’s already strong ties with Europe, and not least our nearest European neighbour, France, a country with which we have shared deep relationships for many centuries.
But though we flock there in our droves, one of the lesser hymned destinations is Normandy, perhaps too far north for the sun-seeing Gael, but that means, unfortunately, we miss out on the region’s very excellent food culture.
Normandy Tourism is building on shared Norman links and that Franco-Hiberno heritage to bring the inaugural French Food and Cultural Roadshow to visit Ireland this June bank holiday, fetching up where Norman heritage is especially embedded.
A fleet of Normandy food trucks will arrive en masse serving up a fine feast of sweet and savoury dishes including Normandy beef with creamy camembert and Neufchâtel cheese in a bun; traditional French crêpes; fresh brioche topped with Normandy delicacies, sweet treats, cakes, biscuits and a cheese board featuring Camembert, Neufchatel, and superb Isigny Mimolette.
You can wash all that down with traditional cider and calvados, along with authentic Normandy cocktails.
A demo stage features some top Normandy chefs and French indie popsters play live from the top of their solar-powered bus.
The tour hits St Patrick’s Park, in Dublin (June 3, 12pm-7pm), then Cathedral Square, Waterford, (June 4, 12pm-3pm) and Quayside, New Ross (June 5, 11am-6pm). Free to attend and family friendly.
The Pompeii Pizza truck at Wave Crest Caravan Park, Kerry
On foot of a fine recent evening in the courtyard of the ever-fabulous Franciscan Well brewpub on Cork’s North Mall, an experience crowned by downing some even more fabulous Pompeii Pizzas, it behoves The Menu to make a public service announcement for those travelling to Kerry in coming weeks, to keep a sharp eye open for the Pompeii Pizza trailer, at Wave Crest Caravan & Camping Park, Caherdaniel, open once again for the 2023 summer season (Wednesday-Sunday, 5pm to 9pm), a most splendid location to put away some of the finest pizzas to be found on this island.
Another couple of tasty courses courtesy of the Organic Centre, in Rossinver, Co Leitrim, with Wild About Herbs (June 3) giving the lowdown on nature’s culinary grace notes, those plants that elevate ordinary flavours into the epicurean pantheon and also offer numerous health benefits to boot.
The other course to tickle The Menu’s fancy is a Cob Oven Building course (June 10); it has long been a dream of The Menu’s to build such a contraption in his garden to hugely expand his cooking and baking repertoire, not least to serve up some truly splendid pizza.
The Menu returns once more with his annual seasonal salute to the first of the new potatoes, always an auspicious occasion Chez Menu.
On more than a few occasions over the years, he picked up his first batch in Menloe Stores, Blackrock, a fine little independent food store and deli that also moonlights as a class of temple of the tuber, for years, ever it went down the full blown deli route, specialising in sourcing and selling excellent local veg, especially potatoes from East Cork.
These first potatoes, earlys from the Richard Williams’ polytunnel in Castletownroche, are Home Guards which The Menu steamed and then add, as always, with nothing more than liberal blobs of butter, chopped parsley and a twist or two of black pepper, for one of the finest eating
experiences to be had anywhere on the planet.
Time to start haunting your local spud emporium to seek out similar or same!
