Quench your thirst with a cold beer. Not just any old beer. Try a wheat brew from Germany, a pale ale from Britain, or a Trappist concoction from Belgium
By the time you read this, we may be in the grip of an icestorm, such are the vagaries of our weather. But, as I write, the temperature is bubbling up around the 22 to 24 degrees mark and everybody is wondering how to keep cool.
What did you drink over the weekend, I asked a wine-loving friend. "Cold beer," he said. "We haven't had a bottle of wine in ages." But it is not just the old reliable beers that Ireland is drinking these days. We have become quite cosmopolitan about our choice of beer. Where once Carlsberg was the height of sophistication, we now tinker with Trappist and abbey beers from Belgium and France; Pils and wheat beers from Germany and the Czech Republic; ales and bitters from Britain; stout and porter from Ireland and elsewhere; pale ales from the US; lime-aided thirstquenchers from Mexico; the list goes on.
In addition, there is the flourishing world of micro-breweries, represented in Ireland by the likes of The Porterhouse chain and the Carlow Brewing Company, which are encouraged by, and an encouragement to, groups such as the real ale movement in Britain.
Once you try beers that go beyond the predictable, it can be a very exciting journey, both culturally and tastewise. Every country boasts its own styles, sometimes slavishly copying some major brand, but more often reflecting local taste.
As we have travelled more in the past decade, we have seen and tasted more. For instance, since the World Cup finals four years ago, Japanese beer holds no terrors. On the other hand, Polish beer is now widely available, reflecting the number of Poles living here. It is a long way from "the pint of plain being your only man . . ." as Myles once wrote.
I'm sure the same man would have enjoyed the prospect of matching beer and food. At a lunch in Dublin recently to mark Heineken's launch of five international beers on the Irish market, Dr George Philliskirk, chief executive of the Beer Academy in the UK, matched a range of dishes with the various beers. It was a bit hit and miss, but when it hit, as when "Smokies", a creamy fish dish, was matched with the German wheat beer Paulaner, it was right on the money.
Philliskirk also says that the beer belly is a myth. Beer bellies, he says, are not caused by beer - which he says are lower in calories than wine - but by people eating badly when they've had a few beers.
So stick to the pints and forget the nuts, crisps, curries and the like and you'll be svelte, if a little unsteady on your feet. While Dr Philliskirk correctly pointed out that beer was lower in alcohol by volume than wine, we tend to drink a lot more of it at one sitting.
Cooking with beer
Matching food with beer, beyond the inevitable curry, spicy Indian or barbecued whatever, is something of a challenge, but a new book, The Food & Beer Cook Book by Richard Fox (Senate Books, £12.99) offers guidelines. A good Pilsner will meet its match in fish and chips or steak and béarnaise sauce; wheat beers "come into their own with lightly poached salmon"; ales can stand up to the Sunday roast; while Trappist beers, big and complex, go well with "rich chocolate dishes as well as steam puddings". As for porters and stouts, "contrast these dark, chocolatey, roasted brews with shellfish such as oysters or lobster, or serve in port glasses to match up with a rich, bitter chocolate dessert."
As for the recipes - some are fun and some are quite intricate, but generally it is simply a case of beer (well, maybe not a case . . .) with everything, including beer mash, cheesy beer fondue or brownies with cherry beer sauce.