If you’re feeling nostalgic for the good old days, pop into Donnybrook Fair this coming Friday (13th – shh) for a good old-fashioned free feed. I have to warn you, there won’t be any Findus pancakes. But there will be complimentary mince pies, smoked salmon, chocolates, cheeses and mulled wines to be enjoyed across stores on Baggot Street and Morehampton Road and in Stillorgan and Greystones.

They’ve even released their schedule so you know when to get your skulk on:

• Donnybrook Fair, Baggot Street, 11am–3pm, Friday 13th
• Donnybrook Fair, Morehampton Road, 11am–4pm, Saturday 14th
• Donnybrook Fair, Stillorgan,  11am–4pm, Saturday 14th 
• Donnybrook Fair, Greystones, 11am–4pm, Saturday 14th

And a happy minced pie to you too!

Last night, I was lucky enough to attend the fifth birthday party of Alexis Bar and Grill in Dun Laoghaire. The building it’s housed in on Patrick Street always comes to mind when I make, drink or even think of an Irish coffee, being where I mastered the art of making one*.

Back then, this long-standing dining room was called de Selby’s in honour of Flann O’Brien’s fictional character, and was owned by John and Eleanor McManus, local legends of Dublin southside dining in the 1980s & 1990s.

Today, the current incarnation is named after Alexis Benoît Soyer, a legendary French chef who, having made his name in London in the 1840s, came to Dublin in 1847 to open kitchens to feed famine victims. According to the Alexis website, Soyer’s conviction “was that one could eat very well for modest cost and this philosophy is part of what makes up the Alexis Bar and Grill ethos today”.

Today the restaurant is owned and run by Alan and Patrick O’Reilly. Alan is a chef who has been cooking fine food for longer than I’ve been making Irish coffees. He and his brother Patrick opened Alexis in 2007 and have been picking up awards for great value and critical acclaim for great cooking ever since.

Last night they pulled out all the stops, teaming up with Finnish chef Mickael Viljanen to offer an anniversary menu that proved brilliant value, even at €80 a pop.

Here are some of the things I learnt last night, back in my old stomping ground:

• Lesson 1: Duck hearts are blimming delicious. Tender little globes of rich, robust flesh, these were served with Jerusalem artichokes rendered various ways including shaved paper thin, served with scattered hazelnuts and sorrel, and paired with a ‘natural’ Domaine Richaud Cote du Rhone 2007 from Liberty Wines.
• Lesson 2: Celery has a place on a dessert plate, especially if paired with white chocolate and poached rhubarb, and flavoured with rose and dill.
• Lesson 3: Colin Harmon loves his coffee. Well I knew that already, he being an Irish Barista Champ and all, and heading up 3FE in Dublin’s Middle Abbey Street, which is only the best coffee joint in town. But last night, he was drafted in to serve us up two takes on the one coffee, in the form of an espresso and cappucino both made from naturally pulped beans from the biodynamic Balmaadi estate in India‘s Tamil Nadu state. It was a delicious exercise to compare the two side by side, and the resulting caffeine boost saw many of the 70 diners take the celebrations on into early Tuesday moring.
• Lesson 4: Alan and Patrick O’Reilly know how to host a party, and Mickael Viljanen knows how to cook**. The latter’s new restaurant on Dawson Street, due to open at the end of this month, will be well worth a visit. And the former duo’s eatery on Patrick Street is still alive and kicking, five years on.

I’m guessing that whenever I eat duck hearts for dinner or celery for dessert, or drink an espresso of such sophistication, I’ll think of Alexis’s fifth birthday party. I’m looking forward to the 10 year celebrations already.

*Made properly, an Irish coffee is a thing of beauty: the contrast of cool pale cream and hot black coffee, sweet sugar and fiery whiskey. Heat your glass with boiling water (pop a spoon in first if the glass is delicate). Half-fill with decent fresh coffee and stir in a teaspoon of sugar until dissolved completely. Top with a shot of whiskey, stir well and gently pour lightly whipped cream over the back of the warm spoon onto the swirling surface. Drink while hot. Consider making another.

(Just in case you didn’t know.)

**The menu also included ray wing with brown shrimp, smoked eel sabayon, brown butter, diced and cubed cucumber, and pickled shemji mushrooms paired with Raphael Palacios Loro do Bolo Godello from Spain’s Galicia via Le Caveau. And loin of Sika deer with intense beetroot, truffle, celeriac & brown milk solids, venison shoulder speared with liquorice root and bone marrow wobbling with deliciousness, paired with Claus Preisinger Blaufrankish from Austria’s Burgenland via 64 Wines. And mini meringues of mushroom and foie gras to start, with Bellavista Franciacorta Cuvee Brut. And chocolate pavé with salted caramel and coffee flavours to finish, served with a singing Romaneria 10 Year Old Tawny Port.

(Just in case you had to know.)

Taquitos (yep, mini tacos), pastor style, which features ancho-flavoured pork and grilled pineapple salsa.

Ceviche of yellow fin tuna in a habanero-pineapple dressing with avocado, onion and chilli.

Sea bream with chilli salsa, tortillas and escabeche Veracruz (think pickled vegetables a la Grecque, only Mexican).

Braised beef short ribs with smoked bacon, sweet potatoes and mole.

Just some of the highlights from tonight’s soft opening of Dublin’s hottest new restaurant, 777. For a soft opening, they hit the ground hard and ran with it. We got there for the second sitting of a busy first night, and were charmed from start to finish. That we only spotted the caged shelves of 100+ tequilas whilst manoeuvring towards the exit simply gave another hundred-odd reasons to hightail it back to South Great George’s Street asap. A talented crew delivering fresh flavours and fresh ideas, a cracking menu and a sharply dressed room featuring generous stools around a welcoming bar, and all of this behind the kind of frosted glass front that lends a speak-easy feel to the venture – these are some of the other reasons that 777 is an exciting arrival.

Dublin’s Lucky.

Last night, at the latest For Food’s Sake event in The Sugar Club* a couple of people wished me a happy Christmas as they bade farewell. I wanted to object that it’s only November, but the lights have been up for weeks and suddenly the diary is filling up and before you know it Christmas really will be upon us. The recent milder weather has lulled me into feeling that autumn was going to last forever – but I remember trudging through the snow this time last year on my way to host the masterclasses at the FOOD&WINE Magazine’s Christmas Show in the RDS.

It’s back again this weekend, and I’ll be back tomorrow to present the M&S Sparklers & Champagne masterclass tomorrow at 4.30pm. We’ll taste a prosecco and cava, and discuss the quite different methods used for each, and then we’ll taste three very different Champagnes from the one house, before wrapping up with an interesting little treat at the end. I’m looking forward to it.

There’s loads more interesting masterclasses (beer and wine tastings, foraging, spices and ice-cream making) over the weekend and, once you’ve paid the cover price of €20, they’re all free – as are the chef’s demos in the main hall from the all-Irish cast of celebrity chefs. There’s usually lots of interesting stalls in the Artisan Village should you be ready for some Christmas shopping.

Also vying for your foodie budget this weekend Taste of Christmas has set up camp across the river in the Convention Centre, where they have teamed up with Masterchef Ireland for a live show. This series’ winner Mary Carney (who I interviewed at For Food’s Sake last night) will be joined by co-contestants Brigin, Mike and Christine, and by presenters Dylan and Nick.

And if you can’t make either of those this weekend, the National Crafts & Design Fair rolls back into town next weekend, pitching its wares in the RDS from 30 Nov–4 Dec. Don’t miss the Food Hall which is always a great hunting ground for great new artisan food products. And don’t forget to bring that list – presuming you’ve gotten round to writing one by then that is!

Oh and in the meantime, Happy Christmas!

(*For Food’s Sake asks: Meat – Do We Eat Too Much? where we discussed our meat consumption and it’s implications – I’ll post a few interesting bits and bobs worth a read at a later date…)

WHEN? Thursday 7th July, 7pm–11pm

WHERE? The Sugar Club, Leeson Street, Dublin 2

WHY? If you’ve seen Big Night before, you’ll know why we wanna screen it. If you haven’t, you should check out the trailer or – even better – a couple of clips of the hilarious dialogue and sumptuous action. We love this movie about the desperately delicious efforts two Italian brothers go to to save their restaurant from sinking under the weight of local lack of appreciation – and we thought you’d enjoy a chance to watch it, and be fed some slick Italian risotto and salad for your dinner while you’re at it. And to ensure your full comfort throughout, there’ll be a full bar serving everything from vino to cocktails and good old pints, with table service for those who get there early enough to grab a table.

WHO? For Food’s Sake is a collective of food-loving folk including myself (Aoife Carrigy), Oisin Davis (manager of The Sugar Club, food blogger at rockcookbook.com and the genius behind The Ticket’s monthly ‘Booking the Cooks’ column, in which he rumages out recipes from the most unlikely muso sources); Aisling Rogerson and Luca Dalfonso (familiar faces to regulars at Dublin Food Co-op and Dublin Flea Market where they run the cafe, as well as at various summer festivals); and Gareth Granville (one of the chefs at the recent Wildside Banquet at Body & Soul as well as being involved with various farmers’ markets about the country).

HOW MUCH? €5 on the door for the movie, plus a bowl of risotto for €5 (without spaghetti) and/or bowl of salad for €5. We’ll even throw in some free timpano at the end of the night – but we promise not to kiss it first, if you promise not to threaten to f**king kill us. (It’ll be that good!)

CONTACT? See our Facebook page for more details!

WHEN? 1st–3rd July

WHERE? At various locations throughout the city – look out for the Unique to Dublin window sticker or search the website for what you’re looking for.

WHO? Organised by Dublin City Business Improvement District (BID), there are all sorts of businesses involved and offering deals of varying degrees. Moore Street’s boulangerie, Paris Bakery is offering soups and sarnie combos for €8.60 (on bread that’ll transport you to the Left Bank in a mouthful), Coppinger Row is giving away two course lunches for €10, and The Port House will throw in a glass of wine on the house when you spend more the €10 on tapas. Lolly & Cooks of Georges’ Street Arcade will offer up any hot drink and piece of scrummy cake for just €3 if you drop the words ‘Unique to Dublin’, while The Exchequer are running their oft-time offer of fish and chips and a pint for €15 (and we’re talking sustainably caught Irish fish in a Belfast Blonde beer batter).

WHY? Because the hard-working entrepreneurs who run these independent businesses deserve our support, but of course they need to remind us that they’re there, slogging away to give us some home-grown offerings: hence this clever promotional weekend. Good excuse to try out something new. And good to remember that when you spend you’re hard-won euros locally, in local businesses, that money recirculates locally to a far greater degree than if you spend it in a big international brand.

CONTACT? Check out www.uniquetodublin.ie/eat for full details of all the foodie businesses involved.

WHEN? Thursday 9 – Sunday 12 June 2011

WHY? Okay, let’s be honest: Taste of Dublin is as much a knee’s up as it is a chow down, and by the time everyone’s had a drink or five, it’s the burger stalls and barbecue grills that prove the talk of the town. As such, it’s not always the more delicate, sophisticated, skillful or ambitious dishes that reward the participating restaurants best – and the amount of deep-fat-fryers in the temporary kitchens is a testamount to their hard-won wisdom. Plus: with the kinds of lunch deals being offered in most of these establishments, there are cheaper, drier and more comfortable ways to sample their various offerings. And finally: if it’s inspiring artisan producers you’re looking for, last weekend’s Bloom had a far greater gathering of those on hand.

So, why don your wellies and ponchos and camp out in the Iveagh Gardens for a soggy afternoon or evening? Because as knee’s ups go, it’s a great one. There’s a fine cross-section of chefs, restaurateurs, wine suppliers, mixologists, craft brewers, tourism boards (Taste of Malaysia and Taste of Thailand), food purveyors (Superquinn are there to welcome you with jumbo strawberries from Pat Clarke) and hoteliers present to vie you with their ware. There are more and more free demos to sign up for: the new Edward Dillon Spirits Academy is offering free spirits tasting sessions every half hour, alternating between Bacardi and Hennessy, while the new Chef’s Table will see restaurant critic Katy McGuinness host intimate Q&A sessions with many of the big name chefs as well as with interesting folk such as Sarah Fleming from Grow It Yourself, and journalists Philip Boucher Hayes & Suzanne Campbell (the team behind RTE’s brilliant documentary, What’s Ireland Eating?). So a knee’s up if that’s what you’re after, yes, but with some interesting treats worth snuffling out.

WHO? Expect many of the regular restaurants who take a pitch here year on year: Jaipur turning out blood-warming curries (don’t miss their Bombay Railway Lamb Curry, a masala-spiced melange of melt-in-the-mouth slow-cooked Wicklow lamb served with moreish Malabar Parantha flatbread); Pichet doing their crispy hen’s egg thing (which they do very well, and serve with a black pudding boudin); Diep at Home spicing it up (their Som Tam green papaya salad is the stuff of Thai Street Food Dreams – and their new Chiang Mai sausage is well worth a spin too); ely with their juicy organic Burren beef burgers (always a winner).

Most are there all weekend, but some restaurants will only pitch up on certain days. Chapter One will appear on Saturday and Sunday, as will exciting newcomer, Mulberry Garden (head chef John Wyer was one of the lead tutors on Lynda Booth’s one-month cookery course at Dublin Cookery School which I blogged about last January – don’t miss his mussels, clams and langoustine velouté with garden peas and smoked bacon crumb).

New this year is a stall for Visiting Restuarants from beyond ‘the pale’. Last night, The Strawberry Tree rocked up from Wicklow with delights such as gutsy wild garlic pesto, delicate elderflower Turkish delight, and home-smoked wild venison with a chilli and rhubarb compote and Donegal Rapeseed Oil (wowsers!). Friday is the turn of the otherwise prohibitively exclusive Ashford Castle (where you need to book a room to book a table); Saturday that of Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt (whose newly revised menu is all about “real food, no froths”, according to the man himself at a recent relaunch); white Sunday sees Garrett Byrne of Campagne return from his native Kilkenny to the city where he once worked as Ross Lewis’s right hand man in Chapter One.

WHERE? Back for the fifth year running in the currently fecund Iveagh Gardens off Harcourt Street.

HOW MUCH? €28.50 entrance, plus however many florins you think you’ll spend. With each tasting dish  costing the equivalent of €5–€8, and a drink anywhere upwards from €5, it won’t be hard to part with your cash. Make sure to sign up to free sessions as early as possible.

CONTACT? www.tasteofdublin.ie

WHEN? Continuing every day until Monday 6 June, 10am–6pm

WHY? Apart from the inspiring show gardens and range of plants for sale (plus some great gardening courses from the likes of Jimi Blake in his magical Huntingbrook Gardens in north Wicklow), a major draw this year as ever is the variety of food and drink offerings, with the artisan beer tent and particularly the Cooley Distillery stall worth meandering by. This year’s layout of the newly extended Food Village is particularly attractive, and demos by the likes of Catherine Fulvio, Rozanne Stevens, Donal Skehan and Neven Maguire are sure to draw the crowds.

WHO? There’s a great representation of Irish artisans good and great. Don’t miss in particular Meadowsweet Apiary‘s mellow Irish honey and honeycomb; Ed Hick’s unique Bacon Jam (a thing of genius to spread on toast under your scrambled egg); four great goat’s cheeses – Knockdrinna Gold (mild and smoky), Cooleney‘s Gleann Oir (crumbly and tangy), Corleggy (hard and herbaceous) and Bluebell Fall’s Original (melting-soft and meadow-fresh); Burren Smokehouse’s range of smoked fish (especially the hot and cold smoked Irish salmon); Jane Russell’s handmade sausages; Lolly & Cooks’ myriad coloured cupcakes; Ponaire coffee beans; Irish apple juice either from The Apple Barrel, Carlow, or The Apple Farm, Tipperary. And if you’re still hungry after grazing that lot, you can grab yourself a steak sandwich fresh off the grill, or a pulled pork sandwich from the Crowe brothers farm.

WHERE? In the heart of Phoenix Park. There’s ample parking, or free shuttles from the Luas stop at Heuston, or do as we did and enjoy the excuse to stroll through one of the city’s most under-appreciated amenities, Phoenix Park itself.

HOW MUCH? €20 for a weekend ticket (or €15 concession). Children under 16 go free, with a maximum of three children per adult.

CONTACT? bloominthepark.com

Tonight, another event in The Sugar Club will take a closer look at the state of Irish restaurants. You can read all about the second installment of For Food’s Sake here to see if it sounds like your kind of thing, or just turn up and pay your fiver in for the chance of winning a six-course dinner and overnight stay for two people at Gregan’s Castle. I had been looking forward to being there to chair the chat and divvy out the snazzy prizes, but I’ve no doubt that the brilliant Stuart Clark of Hotpress fame will fill my shoes with great style (metaphorically speaking). Though better known as a music journalist, Stuart is one of the most enthusiastic lovers of good food I know, and I greatly enjoyed subbing his ‘Ethnic Ireland’ column in FOOD&WINE Magazine every month for several years.

I’m sorry to be missing this evening’s event in Dublin, which is shaping up to be a really great night. As someone who has been involved in the Irish restaurant industry for over 20 years I was looking forward to getting stuck into a good old barney about what we do well and what we could do better. Indeed there’s not much that would have kept me away from it.

But sadly the Irish restaurant industry – and in particular the Dublin restaurant scene – has lost one of its most charming front of house smiles this week. Anyone who has eaten regularly in Velure, 101 Talbot, l’Gueuleton, Locks Restaurant and Ely HQ over the last ten years may have been lucky enough to be served by the most memorable Michael Lydon. It wasn’t just that Michael was such a handsome devil, though that always helps eh? Nor that he hails from such a quick-witted family with whom he had honed his banter over his too-short 35 years. Winning looks and a way with words only go so far on the floor.

There’s other things you have to have too. Grace is up there – the physical grace to make a marathon of menial tasks look like a dance that wouldn’t break a sweat. And the good grace to know that madam is always right, even when she is being fowl (sic). And gracious enough to know that when madam or sir are being foul, all they really need is that little bit more effort to turn them round, even if that does sound like bloody hard work.

But then remarkably few waiters or restaurant managers I know have ever been afraid of hard work. You work hard, and you play hard, and if that sounds like a hard life, it’s not – at least not while you’re young enough to have the energy to throw into it. And if it sounds like an unfulfilling life, it’s not that either. Not if you love what you do. And though many Irish people feel uncomfortable about loving a service role, it’s actually something we are very good at. And it’s something that can be surprisingly rewarding.

People eat out not because they hunger for physical food, but because they want to see people and they want to see life. They want to be looked after, feel taken care of, have their whims predicted and their needs indulged. They want to be catered for and to be shown hospitality. And though, like our British neighbours, we Irish totally undervalue the work done out front-of-house, we have a natural affinity for it. We’re good at the craic, and we’re good at welcomes.

Like so many of the very good friends he collected in the various Dublin restaurants he worked so hard in, my beautiful friend Michael Lydon took great pleasure from doing what he did professionally, and from doing it well, and with pride. He had ambition, and he had skill. He had passion for the food he served, and respect for his industry, and plans for himself within it. He had curiosity to learn more, and the generosity to share what he knew. He had serious presence, and great style, and energy and grace. Such grace. He’d make you laugh, and make you feel warmly welcome.

I won’t be in Dublin tonight to chinwag about the state of Irish restaurants, because I’ll be in Galway, chinwagging with Michael’s family – those he was born to and those he’ll always belong to. We’ll be celebrating one of the souls who to me epitomised what is and can be so very great about Irish hospitality. We’ll be reminding him how very proud we are to have served with him, or to have been served by him. RIP Michael. You did yourself proud. You’ll always be remembered you as you always were: young, and alive.

What am I talking about? Gorse, of course.

And what if it was a food – what would gorse be?

Well, it might be a lollipop on a stick. Or a cool clean granita to cleanse a palate between courses. It could definitely be an ice-cream, maybe one made with coconut cream and textured with grated coconut flesh. And it would be the most perfect panna cotta, trembling fragrantly on a simple white plate with a garnish of some intense fruits – a blood orange and chilli syrup perhaps, or a little reduction of macerated peppered strawberries – and served at the end of an early summer’s meal or even a late Easter feast.

Though I’m plucking those garnishes out of my greedy imagination, I know that gorse makes the perfect panna cotta because I had the pleasure of making and devouring a gorse blossom panna cotta under the gentle guidance of the lovely Liz Moore up in Belle Isle Cookery School a couple of summers ago. I have of course long since mislaid the folderful of brilliantly usable recipes we left the blessed Co Fermanagh island armed with, but I’ve never forgotten the awe induced by the revelation that that most evocative smell of all my childhood summers could be encapsulated in one wobbly dessert – by simply infusing the bright blossom of gorse in some simmering cream which, once cooled and strained, can be magicked into a wobbly dream of a creamy sweet.

Now, I’ve been thinking about this panna cotta all week, having started blogging about my gorse and wild garlic scented ramblings on Howth Head last week (you can read Part I here and Part II here if you missed them). One reader mentioned that she had the pleasure of relishing some gorse ice-cream in Co Wexford’s Monart in recent weeks, and I know that the clever Jessica Murphy (ex-Bar Eight and Ard Bia, and recent FOOD&WINE Magazine Best Connaught Chef 2010) is planning on serving said gorse ice-cream on the menu at her soon-to-open Kai Cafe & Restaurant in Galway city.

But it was only when chatting to the inspiring not to mention thoroughly likeable couple behind Gleann Gabhra Farm in Tara, Co Meath that I thought of a goat’s yoghurt and gorse panna cotta. The goat’s yoghurt was their idea, the gorse addition was mine (by way of Belle Isle in Co Fermanagh). Now, because I’m still sort of making this all up out of my head, and because I don’t yet have a plastic bag full of wild gorse blossom to experiment on, this is mere supposition and conjecture at this point in time. But I’m thinking that the coming bank holiday and said late Easter feast might be just the time to experiment, so I’m gonna go forth and forage, and boil me some cream, and infuse it with the sunburst blossoms, and mix it with the tangy goat’s milk yoghurt waiting in my fridge, and then sweeten and cool and strain and set with gelatine. And I’m going to get back to you on the results.

If you get there before me, let me know how it works out for you?

In the meantime, for those of you who can’t bear to be left without a tangible recipe at your disposal, let me send you on your way with the following link to a delicious sounding gorse cordial that would make a lovely summer cooler mixed with iced mineral water (read the link here) and another one for gorse flower wine (read that link here). Now, the next challenge would be to dream up a high summer gorse-inspired cocktail. Having experienced the unlikely but considerable charms of Malibu and grapefruit on a hot summer’s day, there could be something in the combination of grapefruit, gorse syrup and white rum perhaps? But that’s another day’s thirsty work, as they say.

P.S. My sources (ie readers) have revealed the following hot spots for picking wild garlic:

1. MC says “The best wild garlic I found was in Powerscourt, go up to and beyond the house continue towards the back gate and the wooded area left and right is a pillow of wild herbs…”

2. Stef says “There is a TON of wild garlic outside the American ambassador’s residence in the Phoenix Park if you need to stock up.”

3. And my Ma says that the Mount Usher gardens are full of the stuff.

Go sniff it out!