A round-up of today's news in brief
INDEX:
A taste of summer
My friend fancies the paella man at the Mespil Village Market. But I’m fairly sure that’s not the only reason his stand is so popular. Queues line up for helpings of his delicious chicken and chorizo paella cooked fresh on the spot every Thursday and Friday. Usually located on the banks of the Grand Canal opposite the Mespil Hotel, the market has temporarily moved to Percy Place/Northumberland Road to facilitate canal dredging, opening it up to a whole other audience. Between 11am and 2pm this crossing on the canal becomes an outdoor food festival. Wood fire cooked pizza, Mexican burritos, Chinese noodles, cup cakes and burgers are among the other delicious food stalls. Stands line either side of the water, office workers sit out on the grass and music streams out from the buzz courtesy of the market’s resident saxophone player. The sun-drenching of the past few weeks has made this market an unmissable end-of-the week treat. See irishvillagemarkets.ie.
Alice Ryan
Irish Times sherry tasting dinner at Ballymaloe House
Irish Times readers are invited to discover the hidden secrets of Jerez wines at a special dinner at Ballymaloe House in Shanagarry, Co Cork. Cesar Saldaña is the director of DO Jerez and Brandy of Jerez and, together with our wine critic John Wilson, he will host a delicious dinner with matching Jerez wines at Ballymaloe House in Shanagarry, Co Cork on Thursday, May 26th. Places are limited and offered on a first come, first served basis. Register your place at irishtimes.com/winetasting. Tickets cost €70, which covers a five-course tasting menu with accompanying sherries.
Do you want better fashion?
Next Wednesday to Sunday, Re-Dress, the Dublin-based ethical fashion company, will join forces with major names in the Irish fashion industry for a series of discussions and workshops asking: “Do you want better fashion?” Better Fashion Week will see people such as Constance Harris, fashion editor of the Irish Independent, discuss whether or not fashion is art with artists Úna Burke and Helen Steele, designer Simone Rocha and Off the Rails presenter Sonya Lennon. There will also be fashion-mentoring sessions, film nights, debates and a week-long pop-up shop.
According to Rosie O’Reilly, one of the event organisers: “The purpose of Better Fashion Week is to bring everyone with an interest in fashion in Ireland together to strengthen what resources we do have and give our creative talents in this area the recognition they deserve.” For tickets (from €5, depending on the event) and information, see betterfashionweek.com.
Rosemary McCabe
Index
What's hot
Fiachra GarveyThis seriously talented young pianist will perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and a string of American classics with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at the NCH on May 19th. Don't miss it
Saoirse RonanShowing signs of being immensely talented and grounded all at once – real Meryl Streep qualities
StrawberriesEarly this year, but tick all the boxes: fresh, local and delicious
Sufjan StevensGlad to see the inventive US singer/songwriter in town – next Tuesday and Wednesday at the Olympia
Green Tea cologneA recession-friendly-priced scent to welcome in the summer. From Roger Gallet at chemists nationwide
HawthornThe hedgerows are a-white with May flowers
What's not
Sartorial mayhem in the DáilWe're trying hard to admire the Independents' individuality, but not always succeeding. It's disconcerting, especially when smart Continentals roll into town. Is there a middle ground between staid suits and tennis shirts?
Bonfire of the currenciesRead Tom Hennigan's account of what happened when Argentina defaulted (see the foreign pages)
Sarkozy: the movieLa Conquête, about the French president's quest for power, should add a certain je ne sais quoi to the Cannes festival, as may Carla Bruni's cameo in the new Woody Allen film
Radio sputteringHow hard can it be to insist panellists turn off their mobiles before going into a studio?
Denim shorts over black tightsPlease let it end soon,
CynicsWe're going to cheer when Jedward merrily win
Mountain madness
Mountain bikers are calling it a milestone; and weekend adrenaline junkies now have a new place to get their fix. Coillte recently opened a network of purpose-built mountain-bike trails in Ticknock in the Dublin mountains, and have given the official seal of approval to what had previously been something of an adventure sports secret.
For years, bikers have been been scrambling around the hills on two wheels, but this could be the beginning of a lucrative mini-mountain biking industry in the south Dublin hills.
“We’ve always been up there as kids and you always felt like a little bit of a bandit,” says biker Niall Davis. “I think with the cycle-to-work scheme, mountain biking is booming because people are spending a bit on a good bike, commuting to work and then at the weekend they are hitting the hills.”
In 2008, Davis and his business partner Tarja Owens set up a company taking people on mountain-bike tours around Lake Garda in Italy, but now they have turned their attention closer to home, and their company, biking.ie, is offering bike hire, lessons, help and advice for those wanting to tackle the new trails at Ticknock and the existing network in Ballinastoe in Co Wicklow.
“We have the best location in the world for mountain biking but what we don’t have is the infrastructure, and services are lacking,” says Davis. “You want to be able to bring the family up, wash the bike, have a shower and a cup of coffee – hopefully this is the start of that.”
Davis insists that the Coillte trails in south Dublin, not to mention those further afield in Ballyhoura, Co Limerick and Derroura, Co Galway, compare very favourably with their European equivalents. As far as he is concerned, it’s only a matter of time before foreign bikers start coming here to tackle the Irish hills.
Laurence Mackin
Word on the street: Fomo
What it means: It's a wet Tuesday night, and you're staying in with a pizza and a Mad Men box set. You're curled up on the sofa and about to press play when a strange, niggling feeling comes over you. What are your friends up to right now, and why haven't they invited you? Fomo is fear of missing out, and if you're a regular user of social networks, chances are you've got a bad dose of it. You might get a tweet from Aoife saying what a great time she's having at the launch of a cool new café bar. Or there might be a photo on Facebook of all your mates having a knees-up at Krystle. You feel a mix of envy and anxiety as you realise that everyone else is having fun except you.
Where it comes from: Time was when we could stay in and be blissfully ignorant of what the rest of the world was doing. But with the rise of social networking, we know what all our friends are up to at any given moment, because they're busy tweeting us about it. Suddenly it seems as if there are a million great parties going on, and you're missing them all. Every time you look at your Facebook friend wall, you feel like a wallflower.
How to say it: Jake's got a bad case of Fomo – I tweeted from the supermarket that they were giving out free canapés, and five minutes later he was at the deli counter.
Dinner in the garden
Mulberry Garden, a 65-seat restaurant which opened last month in the former Poulot's/Ernie's location, behind the Bang and Olufsen shop in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, looks set to be the hot ticket for summer dining.
With Brian Lennon of eatery 120 in Ranelagh directing front-of-house, and John Wyer, formerly head chef at L'Écrivain, running the kitchen, Mulberry Garden is offering a choice of just two starters, two main courses and either dessert or cheese for a set price of €40 at dinner.
The menu is seasonally-driven and will change weekly, being finalised every Tuesday and posted on the website that evening. The restaurant will be open only on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, but it's far from a part-time operation. "Earlier in the week the chefs will have the opportunity to experiment with new ingredients and dishes. They can get out of the kitchen, meet their butchers and their cheesemakers and really get a sense of the provenance of the food," Lennon says.
"We have so many amazing farmers, fishermen, butchers and artisan producers in this country and now more than ever we should look to our own to provide us with inspiration. We are hoping to push creative boundaries to produce outstanding food using exclusively seasonal, local produce."
This month, heirloom tomatoes, peas, broadbeans, soft fruits, and asparagus – "paired with some of Mrs Sutton's famous duck eggs from Calary in Wicklow" – will be on the menu. Spring lamb, Skeaghanore duck, and fish from Annagassan will also feature. There is a weekly vegetarian menu, too.
The restaurant has a pretty garden that is used for pre- and post-dinner drinks, and which also supplies the kitchen with herbs and fruit. In keeping with the restaurant's buy-Irish ethos, Irish craft beers are served, there is an Irish cocktail list, and a selection of Irish whiskeys on the drinks menu. See Mulberrygarden.ie, tel: 01-2693300.
Marie-Claire Digby
Japanese art and culture
Take yourself off to Monkstown village in Co Dublin today for a Japanese fundraiser (10am-3pm), to help the earthquake-stricken Tohoku area of Japan. It is being organised by Together, a group of Japanese residents in Ireland. You can immerse yourself in a total cultural experience, with origami, furoshiki (Japanese wrapping cloth), music, calligraphy and t'ai chi. Shiatsu will be offered by professional masseuses. A bazaar and raffle will feature plenty of lovely Japanese things. The highlight of the event is a silent auction for several valuable items: kimonos (including an exquisite wedding kimono), obis, scroll paintings, and a large wall piece by textile artist Kakuko Okamura. Admission is free, as is the tea and coffee that will be offered. The venue is Knox Hall, Monkstown Village (beside Goggin's Pub), Co Dublin.
Jane Powers
