weeked bites

This week I’ll be eating… raspberries from the garden. For me, they are the true taste of summer and while yellow ones taste just as good, I stick with the red. The colour of the juice, mixing with some pouring cream, is a thing of beauty. I’ve learned to love them without the sugar that was essential in childhood and they taste even better without. With whipped cream and crushed meringue they make a very superior Eton Mess; they also make, in my experience, the most intense and refreshing sorbet. The wonderful urban farm and kitchen garden that is the Airfield Estate in Dundrum will be hosting a Festival of Food on the weekend of 8 and 9 of September, with free entry for all. Events will include those in the demo kitchen, yoga, an artisan food village, craft beers from The Porterhouse, a gardening zone, a homegrown chilli competition and much more. Further details at airfield.ie The annual Dalkey Lobster Festival will take place on 25 and 26 August and it promises to be the busiest to date. There will be cookery demonstrations, including ones by Derry Clarke of L’Ecrivain and Lords and Ladles fame, Arun Kapil of Green Saffron Spices and BBC TV’s Saturday Kitchen, a panel discussion on restaurant reviewing featuring the country’s leading restaurant reviewers. There may even be a cook-off between two well-known restaurant critics who will remain nameless for the present! A UK advertising agency, JWT, has published research that shows that 41% of people in Britain are unhappy with their restaurant experiences although 80% of them eat out once a week. This must surely explain some of the recent closures of chain restaurants, with Jamie Oliver shedding many of his and, last week, Gaucho folding with over 500 job losses. We’re less exposed to chains in Ireland but it would be interesting to see how Irish consumers view their eating out experiences.