weekend bites

This week I’ll be eating… insalata tricolore, now that Irish tomatoes are properly ripe (especially the ones from Grantstown in Ardkeen Stores, Waterford). I’ll simply slice them, lay on a plate that I’ve rubbed with a raw garlic clove, distribute torn pieces of buffalo mozzarella (ideally from West Cork) on top, drizzle with the best olive oil I can find, sprinkle with sea salt flakes and grind over some black pepper. This is the true taste of summer and, if you’re looking for the right wine, think Gavi or Soave.

I’m a regular at Avoca in Monkstown where the butchery department has some of my favourite free range pork from Andarl Farm in Co Mayo. Now I see they have some good summer meat offers include five free range chicken breasts for €8.95 and a kilo of chilli chicken wings for €7.95. My only problem is rationing myself to one of Avoca’s pasteis de nata, the seductive Portuguese custard tarts!

I was shocked and saddened to hear that the great Anthony Bourdain has left this world and I was reminded of a great chat I had with him over lunch in Dublin, all of 14 years ago. He was a kind and a warm man and a great supporter of #MeToo but he had some bugbears. ‘It’s not the vegetarians who really get to me,’ he said, ‘it’s the vegans. Those people who go on about having a clean colon. Colonic cleansing one day, ethnic cleansing the next is the way I see it.’

Whelehans Wines in what was The Silver Tassie has a stunning selection of wines, a cool wine bar and a large restaurant and it has now added a superb wine school upstairs. It was launched with a blind tasting of New World v Old World wines, presided over by Stephen Spurrier who convened the Judgement of Paris in 1976. Calfornia won then, France took the honours, by a short head, last week in the Judgement of Dublin! whelehanswines.ie