PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER MATTHEWS
DUBLIN
THE FOODIE’S TOUR
Macaroons, Milleens and a tipple of whiskey? Restaurant critic Aingeala Flannery joins a gourmet walkabout. If you think Irish cooking is all about bacon and cabbage, think again. This is the ethos behind Fabulous Food Trails, a company that runs tasting tours of the capital, taking eager foodies visiting Dublin off the beaten track to the places where gourmet natives love to shop and eat. The tours are so informative and entertaining that even locals have been known to tag along in the hope of finding hidden gems. As a Dubliner who has been writing about food for a decade, there was, I thought, nothing you could tell me that I didn’t already know. I took the tour regardless, and had to doff my critic’s cap to our guide, Eveleen Coyle, for her in-depth knowledge of the Irish foodscape, which was served with humour and seasoned with fascinating snippets of history that were news, even to me. The stops on the tour are carefully chosen to reflect how Irish eating habits have evolved thanks to the Slow Food Movement and an influx of immigrants in the late 1990s, who brought with them exotic dishes. One of the strengths of this tour 46 |
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is that Eveleen adapts it to the group and the weather, so it stays fresh, and because the groups are small (usually around ten people), they are sociable and relaxed. The group I joined included a mother and daughter who had travelled to Ireland to escape From left, a regular enjoys a cuppa at the August heat in Malta, an The Swan; foodie Australian couple doing a five-week Aingeala Flannery; tour of Europe, and three Canadian Kerryming Sun backpackers on a weekend bunny with a wheel of Coolea; macaroon hop from their year out in London. heaven at Our first stop was Sheridan’s Cocoa Atelier. Cheesemongers, where the staff briefed us on the nuts and bolts of Irish cheesemaking, again peppered us to Camden Street, with its with fascinating anecdotes. We outdoor fruit and flower markets, sampled two Irish farmhouse Middle Eastern grocers and cheeses. One of them trendy bars. Historically SOLO TOURS – Milleens – is an this was where many If you prefer to find your internationally celebrated Dubliners bought their own way about the city, check soft rind cheese, meat, though sadly only out Dublin Tourism’s I-walks, free created in Cork’s two butchers remain. podcast audio guides to everything Beara Peninsula by We popped into Veronica Steele, after Hogan’s on Wexford from castles and cathedrals to the hills her husband brought Street to check out of Howth; visitdublin.com. For other home a one-horned the black and white self-guided tours – hunting fossils in cow named Brisket. She pudding, while Eveleen Dublin’s streets, or the Botanic wasn’t much of a looker, thanked the owner for Gardens, for example – try but Brisket’s milk supply an oxtail he’d sold her ingeniousireland.ie. was so prodigious the family during the week. That is resorted to making cheese from part of the charm of this tour it. The rest is culinary history. – the genuine rapport between the A stroll past leafy St Stephen’s organisers and the traders. Green and a short cut through Further up the street, we some narrow side streets brought dropped by Listons – a must-