weekend bites

THIS week k I’ll be eating… something rather exotic, in the form of truffled eggs. I’m lucky enough to have a small winter truffle which I’ve put with some lovely local free range eggs in an airtight container for a couple of days. The eggs absorb the pungent truffle flavour through the shells. Then I scramble the eggs with butter, a little cream and grate in as much truffle as I dare before serving on crisp toast.

THIS is the season of press releases about St Valentine’s Day. The worst to date refers to a glass of ‘bubbly’ bu (that covers a multitude) and fails to mention a price for the ‘special’ menu. The best is from the Cliff Townhouse which is offering a glass of Prosecco, a seafood platter, a dessert platter and a horse-drawn carriage trip around town for €39 per person. The offers runs from February 11 to 17. For more, see theclifftownhouse.com.

BARBARA Lawson, of one of my favourite New Zealand wineries, Lawson’s Dry Hills, is hosting a tasting of her family’s wines at the Twelve Hotel in Galway this Monday, January 27. For €29 you can taste the Sauvignon, Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot and the price includes a two-course supper. See www.thetwelvehotel.ie for details. And there’s a special lunch at Longueville House, Mallow, Co. Cork on Sunday, February 2, followed by a tour of their apple brandy distillery, price €38.

IT’S only when you develop coeliac disease or the much more common sensitivity to wheat that you become aware of how hard it is to avoid gluten and wheat. Keogh’s, the makers of particularly delicious potato crisps, have launched a glutenfree Dubliner cheese and onion version at €2.49 for a ‘sharing’ bag and 99c for a personal one. You can n also trace your crisp back to its field with SpudNav. Check out www.keoghs.ie.